ABATTOIR

A slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (from the French verb abattre, "to strike down"), or freezing works (New Zealand English), is a facility where animals are killed and processed into meat foods. The animals most commonly slaughtered for food are cattle (for beef and veal), sheep (for lamb and mutton), pigs (for pork), horses (for horsemeat), goats (for chevon), and fowl, largely chickens, turkeys, and ducks, for poultry meat.

Would you eat in a restaurant named Abattoir that was in fact located in a building that was in fact once an Abattoir. I would and did last night. Even if their personalities proceed them you can't argue the fact that everything the Bacchanalia Restaurant people touch turns to gold. And so it goes with Abattoir. I know it has not been open very long, but these people never fail. They know what the people want and how they want it. That is why, when they open a restaurant that is focused on meat and animal innards and is located in a slaughter house that has been decorated like an upscale slaughter house, it works. It more then works, it was really good.
This is what we ate.
3 terrines a pork, a pig foot and a rabbit.
Pickled Apalachicola Shrimp, they were served in a jar with a screw top.
Pole Beans with rabbit bacon, tomato's and watermelon.
Lamb liver fritters with a tomato relish
Glazed duck meat balls with cabbage and parsnips
Sheeps milk cheese from the Netherlands
A gorgonzola fron Italy
Ginger and winter squash cookie sandwich and a glass of malted milk.

Ok, I could tell you about each dish and try to describe it, but most of these dishes tasted just like they read. The Terrines were great, the rabbit was best. Pole beans were pole beans and tasted like pole beans. The pickled shrimp were divine, tasted just like shrimp. The fennel and vinegar did not over power or replace what this dish was supposed to taste like. Shrimp. I'm gonna learn how to pickle shrimp. The larger plates like the Duck meatballs and the Lamb liver fritter were a bit much. Both a little heavy, the Lamb having a strong mineraly taste. But, I liked them both. I didn't try the Squash cookie and malted milk, but Stacey said it was wonderful, she liked it a lot. She said it tasted like a ginger snap with squash puree and a thick glass of ice cold milk. Just like the menu read.

I once had a meal like this in Spain. A few miles outside of Barcelona. A local fellow and a friend took us to a mountain top restaurant where everything we ate or drank came from one of the farms on the mountain. Everything. True farm to table. Last night was a lot like that.