The Hammond Kitchen & Craft Bar — Restaurant in Camas

I Implore you to please not give your patronage to this Pretentious, Discriminatory establishment and here's why.. My wife and I used to enjoy Happy Hour or Dinner here on the Friday evening regular, usually preferring to sit at the bar top. The usual.. walk in, pass the host/hostess station and announce we are headed for the bar. Find open seats, sit and proceed to enjoy an Old Fashioned and some food. Always got friendly service from the bartenders and enjoyed conversation with who we knew to be the owner's nephew (occasional bartender). We were happy enough to return week after week, that is until tonight.. We walk in per usual and tell the woman at the host/hostess station we are headed for the bar. She's quick to announce "the bar is pretty full tonight". Now, I can't say for all certainty but my guess is my attire had a little something to do with this statement. I had a very rough afternoon with my 85 y/o Dad at the Doctor's office. I won't bore you with details but it took much longer than anticipated and didn't end particularly well. By the time I got home I was starving and just wanted to go get some food. I didn't bother to change into anything fancier than the hoodie and Seahawks hat I wore through the afternoon. Ok, with that said, right after said woman at the host/hostess station (who turned out to be the owner) said this to us, a nice lady sitting on the bench next to the door waiting for someone who was in the bathroom told us they were just leaving and had vacated two seats at the end of the bar. Sweet! We make our way and sure enough, said seats were open. This had worked out perfect. Well, just as we were about to sit down, the woman (owner) from the hostess station comes up and informs us "somebody had called ahead for these seats" Excuse me? Called ahead? For seats at a Bar Top? Really? I'm 46 years old and in all my adult life I've never experienced this. I was stunned to say the least! Have any of you reading this ever in your life seen a Bar Top that is not open seating? EVER? Table Tops in a bar MAYBE if they think that highly of themselves but never a Bar Top. Given the day I had and knowing we frequent this joint, I protested. Wouldn't you? I asked how is a Bar Top not open seating? Since when can you call in and reserve seats at the Bar Top? Where is this information on any listing and/or sineage , web or otherwise for your establishment that informs your customers of this? Heck, had it been listed, I would have been calling in EVERY Friday for my favorite seats in front of the TV's at the Bar. My protest also included informing this woman that we are regular customers because you would think that would count for something, right? I knew the bartenders could vouch for it. I also asked the pressing question if the "people" who called in to reserve these seats that were just vacated were somehow more important than me? Are they somehow VIP and I'm not? I would of thought some much needed customer service was in oder here. Nope! I was told we could leave. I must of been disturbing the VIP vibe people of a better class than I was enjoying. When I was even more taken aback by this statement, I naturally asked to speak with the manager. This woman then announces to me she is not only the manager but she is the owner and reiterates we can leave. Wow!!! Left with no other avenue to aire my dispute or gain resolution, we went ahead and left, abeit with a few choice words from me for the "owner" on the way out the door. What can I say? I'm human and never been so appalled by this clear act of discrimination and utter lack of anything that resembles customer service from a dining establishment in my life, especially one I used to frequent. SHAME ON YOU HAMMOND OWNERSHIP!! A word of warning to others who still want to give their patronage to this place, don't show up looking poorer...

Honestly, It was mediocre food for a relatively unreasonable price. 19$ for two crab cakes was a bit silly, especially when they weren't good. Not really something you could share with a group let alone a couple. They served the crab cakes with two-thirds of the plate being a weird coleslaw-eqsue salad. The pairing of crab cakes and coleslaw is weird, It's not bad, just weird. Honestly, that dish is probably meant to be a meal for someone on a diet rather than an appetizer. Also, a bit weird for an appetizer to be priced more than the entrees.

Really, you could serve just the crab cakes, get rid of the weird salad, and lower the price to be sub $12 to be reasonable, or sub $17 to not be taken as a joke. For two crab cakes to be worth more than some of your entree's, that's a good laugh. Garnish the crab cakes with some sauce, and call it good.

Also, please don't put tartar sauce under the crab cakes. It's not really a presentable meal that way, and some people don't like tartar sauce. Preferably put that on the side.

I ordered the $19 margherita pizza, and it wasn't the worst margherita pizza I had, yet they did not have fresh full mozz, nor did they put enough sauce. I was eating bread with a sliver of sauce on top. I would definitely not call it margherita pizza, let alone pizza, it was more flat bread naan then anything. I am ashamed to say I've had worse from other establishments that claim to have 'margherita pizza'.

Queen Margherita would not be impressed, let alone any self respecting Italian.

The Home Style Devilled eggs were average, nothing out of this world. Felt it odd that they garnished them with a leaf on top, I thought it was basil or something, regardless it was odd. Also, they weren't spiced, I mean the 'deviled' part of the deviled eggs is meant to hint at the spiciness, which there were none.

Overall, this place feels like they are trying to go for an 'upscale bougie' look but end up falling short on a mediocre taste. The prices were a little more than expected, yet the delivery and execution of the food was far below the expectation for the prices rendered. Maybe I just got a bad visit, maybe, idk. I could be entirely wrong, but I am speaking from my subjective truth, so take it with a grain of salt.

I think some people have really 'subjective' tastebuds, which is great for them I guess. They can enjoy things I couldn't. Judging by the other reviews, This is more for your Pumpkin Spice...

Amazing new food at a modern, upscale facility. We started off with the forest mushroom toast and the Caesar salad. They were absolutely incredible. Couldn't have possibly had a better start to our dinner. Next we sampled some beers, which were all great in their own right. And to boot there were plenty of choices! In addition, they seem to have a large wine selection! I settled on the flower and vine cocktail, which was a great easy drinker with an interesting citrus flavor profile, I could have had three more! Thankfully, I didn't as it did pack a punch. For dinner, I had the salmon with a side of Mac and cheese, and my dining partner had the prime rib dip with a side of kale and spinach. Both were amazing, but the salmon was by far the highlight. Every detail of the dish was perfection. The Brussel sprouts were perfectly seasoned and roasted. The mashed potatoes - creamy and delicious! The salmon was glazed with a slight char, and cooked perfectly. I couldn't stop coming back for more and in no time it was gone! :( Afterwards we were fortunate enough to sample three of the desserts. The apple tart, bread pudding, and chocolate au pots were incredible. We licked them all clean.😛

But what really set it all apart from your average restaurant was the immaculate service. Right from the start the door was opened for us to be greeted by the friendly hosts, who escorted us to our reserved table. Within minutes our server, Paige, came out and was super friendly, asking if we could get started with any drinks. They came out in no time. What I really enjoyed seeing is how friendly and helpful the staff were both to each other and customers alike. On top of that, both the manager and the chef made their way to our table and every table around us to ask about how everything came out! They were both very nice, and really seemed to care about their customers and their food/service.

They did accidentally throw away some leftovers due to some miscommunication on our end, and when we asked they were quick to make us an entire new meal to take home. We tried to tell them it was no big deal, but they insisted. Though the prices were more than I'd usually spend, I was more than happy with the quality I recieved in every aspect.

All in all: excellent food and service in a interesting and upbeat atmosphere. We will definitely be back! Sorry, no pictures! Too hungry to remember 😂. Next...