CHS does Poppy, notes 18 things

Yes, I'm about to review a fancy pants restaurant on a day when Wall Street is on its way to turning in yet another triple-digit loss. Here are a few of the things I saw, heard and tasted.

1. The space is wide open and has the requisite exposed brick wall and duct work. Orange and yellow curtains play Poppy's "not an Indian restaurant" game. Naan, thali, and curtains that look like saris? 
2. The reviewers that make IKEA comments are a little confused. Light oak is not trademarked by IKEA. It's not my favorite look either. Guessing the brains behind Poppy didn't want to go with something darker and more traditional.
3. The dinner rush was in full swing when we arrived around 8:30. By midway through our meal around 10, we were one of three goups.
4. Much appreciated, those sound dampers on the wall near the kitchen block.
5. The cocktail list is fun and pricey. Enjoyed the bourbon fizz while hanging out at the bar waiting for our dining companions.
6. Poppy's music soundtrack has been programmed by a hipster. Lee Hazelwood, 60s soul and KEXP hits intermixed.
7. We ended up with a window table. Interesting, that. Not sure I can recommend sitting by a window in a splurgey restaurant on a street like Broadway. And that's no slight on Broadway. It's a matter of whether you're comfortable having a splurge while everybody goes on with their regular lives outside your window. This isn't some swank shopping district, for sure. Good chance a few of the people that walked by had a similar splurge the night before, still. Have to think more about how this made me feel -- maybe it's healthy for Poppy to be connected to the reality outside.
8. The thali concept made ordering in a social setting much more efficient. Usually, we make waitstaff come back to a table three or four times because of all the chatter distracting us from task at hand -- figuring out our orders. Not a problem when your choice is the veggie route or the meat route.
9. BTW, you don't have to choose one path or the other -- you can mix. One diner at our table chose to sub in only one of the veggie items (the chanterelle croquette) for one of the meat (the halibut).
10. We had the eggplant fries as our only starter. Thinking stopping by for a beer and fries might be a nice snack one of these rainy nights.
11. Figuring out which cocktail to pair with dinner pretty much comes down to one choice -- the tequila and pepper-mixed Papi Delicious. It's a busy drink but a lot of fun to add to the great spices featured in the thali.
12. Oh, yeah. The food. You can see the menus in the images attached to this post. Favorites were the lamb, the pear salad and, even with all the other great items, the lowly chutney. Even the faro filler was delicious. Yum.
13. It's fun to hear the excitement at each table when the array of food arrives. It's the chatter you might hear when any yummy looking entre arrives, multiplied by the ten items on each diner's tray.
14. Count your thali. One of our party got shorted a bowl of chick peas. It was quickly remedied.
15. While the chick peas were recovered quickly, the dinner does take a little more time than you might expect to arrive. Given the limited menu, you'd think they'd have it mostly chopped and prepped. For us, not a problem. For some, we saw a few impatient tables.
16. We splurged for dessert and ended up splitting three items for four people -- the chocolate terrine, the peach shortcake and the cinnamon basil ice cream. They were as delicious as dinner. The terrine was battled over.
17. They have an oddly high-tech hand dryer in the bathroom. Picture 3 in the accompanying images on this post.
18. Poppy's secret -- one bold spice per item. Putting it all one table made for a fun and fascinating meal.