Abattoir
Bill Addison
After an initial hullabaloo when it opened in 2009, Abattoir doesn’t generate much chatter anymore, which is a shame. Although the name—French for “slaughterhouse”—may scare people away, it now refers mainly to the space, a former meatpacking plant. Potentially disquieting ingredients like lamb sweetbreads and tripe, once prominent, have been relegated to a tiny portion of the menu. In many ways the restaurant now feels like the Westside version of owners Anne Quatrano and Cliff Harrison’s Floataway Cafe—and that’s meant entirely as praise. A late spring dinner began with a salad version of a BLT with ramp vinaigrette, segued into lamb loin with sweet summer squash and a squash blossom stuffed with housemade ricotta, and concluded with strawberry jam doughnuts. Nothing unnerving in any of that, right? The restaurant decided last month to open seven days a week, a major boon for Sunday dinner options.