The Bar
Visited 7/2/2021 @ 8:30pm.
The Drink
Sammie's martini. Hayman's gin, Noilly Prat dry vermouth, citrus oil, Maldon sea salt tincture, olive, orange peel. $16.
For such a simple drink, martinis present an unusually large number of options for drinkers to have strong opinions about: gin vs vodka, dry vs sweet vermouth, olive vs no olive, martini glass vs something less stupidly inconvenient to drink out of, etc. Sammie's made it easy for me by picking correctly on every option (with the exception of the martini glass, but oh well), using top-shelf ingredients and the level of care you would expect for $16. I hadn't had
Hayman's gin before, but it had excellent botanicals, and likewise
Noilly Prat was a great dry vermouth that backed up the gin well. I wasn't familiar with Maldon salt before - evidently it's a
particularly sought-after brand of sea salt used by highfalutin chefs everywhere - but Sammie's makes a tincture out of it in order to make the martini just the right amount of salty. Three of these would put you on the floor, like a
Dean Martin tribute act.
The Crew
Notes
It would be unfair to spend too much time in this review lamenting an institution as beloved as Hut's Hamburgers, which used to occupy this space, so I will try to be as fair as possible. Its replacement Sammie's is another outpost of the now-ubiquitous
MML empire that brings an upscale version of the classic neighborhood Italian restaurant you find in the northeast to Austin, which is not exactly known for the quantity or quality of its Italian food. Those who were used to the old interior will be in for a shock - completely gone are the wall-to-wall pennants, flags, helmets, and other sports paraphernalia. Instead it looks almost exactly like Home Slice North, with a classed-up spread of linen tablecloths and tasteful decorations, along with the expected amount of Frank Sinatra-type music and faded photographs of old Italian-ish people adorning the walls in order to trick your brain into thinking it's an "authentic" Italian joint. In an unsubtle visual metaphor that might have some people muttering unhappily about "old Austin", the clientele was similarly more dressed-up on this Friday night than the sweatpants-and-sports-apparel-clad crowds at the old joint were.
However, the food at Sammie's was spectacular, from the focaccia bread and Italian salad to the chicken parmigiana, which was one of the best I've ever had, and the lemon cannoli was an excellent dessert. It reminded me of old-school Italian joints like
Chef's in Buffalo, NY, though of course being an MML property it is a different kind of restaurant than neighborhood institutions like that, or its predecessor. But on its own terms it fits comfortably into the nice date night tier, and you have to admit that Sixth Street doesn't have nearly as many of those as it does, say, shot bars. Replacing a legend is always difficult, and you could do far worse than Sammie's Italian has done in terms of delivering a solid meal, though I will of course miss two-for-one burger Wednesdays. Sammie's could easily bribe its way into my heart with two-for-one tiramisu Tuesdays.
Ceniamo!
