Calico — Restaurant in Easthampton

Hey kids! It's time for another episode of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! Well, kind of. You see the 5 stars up there, can't be that bad... I think we're calling this the Great, the Good, and the slightly less than perfect but only because Mike is a picky jerk about certain things.

Let's start with the GREAT. The food is awesome. The fried chicken has carried over from Coco's, and it's every bit as good as it ever was. The pork belly was out of this world. The mocktails were excellent. Violet Beauregard and the Ginger soda were both phenomenal. Ambiance is perfect. Be aware, the upstairs is not yet open (as of Oct 2022) so they're currently seating in the cellar bar. Which is fine. It's cool, and hip, with candles, lots of wood and stone. The music is chill and well curated. I've always loved it down there, and it's still great.

OK, the Good: They're working through the bureaucracy of getting their liquor license, so that will improve the drinks even more. I expect the upstairs will be opening reasonably soon as well. The service was good, everyone was friendly, and they took good care of us. The chocolate torte was deep and rich.

And finally: the "slightly less than perfect but only because Mike is a picky jerk about certain things". The patatas bravas are nearly perfect. Like, if you've eaten them in Spain (and I have, SO many times. I gained 10 lbs in Madrid,) this will take you back. They're beautifully crunchy, hot, the aioli is perfect.... But the bravas sauce just isn't very spicy. Like, it had great flavor, but it just needed like 10% more hot paprika. Seriously, though. That's just me being a snooty jerk. If you've never eaten patatas bravas, you'll think you're eating the food of the gods and you won't know how spicy it should be. These are likely the best bravas anywhere North of Barcelona in West Hartford.

All in all, I give Calico a SOLID 5 Stars. Keep up the great...

This place was a hidden gem among all the places that came up when I searched "best restaurants in Easthampton" on Google. For a 4.9 star place, I scrolled a long way before coming across this!

My server was really nice and the atmosphere of the downstairs area was very laid back and moody (I love dark lighting personally). I sat at the bar because they had a bunch of reservations incoming but I was by myself so that was alright. I got the cucumber lemonade off the mocktail menu which tasted exactly as advertised and very refreshing. The star of the evening for me was the summer corn soup. I almost licked the bowl it was SO GOOD. I am still thinking about it 3 days later. It was like a beautiful liquid corn muffin. The buttermilk fried chicken was great too, the mashed potatoes could've had some more salt and there weren't any salt shakers at the bar but that's a personal preference. I liked that I could eat the chicken with a fork and knife because there was only one little bone and the rest seemed to be breast. That did make the breading come off a bit but the breading stayed crispy and tasty. I'm not much of a slaw person but I am cilantro person. If you like cilantro as much as I do, you will love the slaw. Last I had the peach and polenta upside down cake which was my least favorite. The polenta gave the cake a gritty texture that I wasn't a fan of but I got through it. The creme fraiche whipped cream was not as refreshing and sweet as I thought it would be. I was expecting a peaches and cream taste but it ended up leaning towards peaches and sour cream. (Not pictured because I took it home and ate it outside in the dark.)

All in all still giving 5 stars because everything was made with such attention and high quality....

I brought my husband here for a birthday dinner (and our first time at Calico) and we discovered our definitive local special occasion spot. The cocktails were exceptional and inventive (especially the Bitter Mistress). Not only were the fried chicken, collards, jalapeno coleslaw, and blackened cobia outstanding, but my husband (a southerner) had come to Calico expecting Southern food poorly reinterpreted in New England and was instead totally impressed! I know Calico’s menu changes seasonally, but the sweet potato and chickpea pakoras were actually the best vegetarian dish we’ve ever had and we hope to enjoy them again in the future! We enjoyed ourselves so well that we stayed for dessert. My only quibble is that the “Mango Sticky Rice Sundae” with “horchata ice cream, glazed mango, coconut sesame granola” did not clearly indicate on the menu that the “sticky rice” was represented by the horchata [rice milk] ice cream, as our server explained after I’d eaten half of it—being a literal reader, I expected sweet sticky rice in my dessert and was disappointed to miss it. But that won’t stop us from coming back, because this was still one of the top 5 meals of our lifetimes. Highly...