Restaurant Review: The Independent

While I've rubbed up against hipsters many a time on the pub side of The Independent, Friday night marked my first foray into the restaurant area. Seven of us sat at a large high-top table, conveniently located by the front window, which was open to the lovely end-of-summer air and the Union Square showing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971) in smell-o-vision. Our waitress was also bartending, so we had to do some fighting for her attentions.

A few of us split the Korean-style calamari, which was fried ever-so lightly and came accompanied by a tiny silver pot of delicious dipping sauce. The calamari was tender and stopped my friend from gnawing off my arm in hunger (she threatened several times to do so), but I could have done with fewer scallions. While the scallions were cut prettily -- extra fine and on a deep bias -- they got tangled up in the calamari and it was impossible to avoid them in bites. The same scallions returned on my croque monsieur and I was throuroughly over the slender green onions by that point.

The ham of the croque monsieur was delicious, but I lost a lot of the flavor in the slather of bechamel and pilings of gruyere. The sandwich was served in two open-faced halfs, which was probably wise in terms of construction, but resulted in toasty bread on only the bottom of each bite; this was not enough to cut the richness of the bechamel/gruyere combo. The croque monseiur is one sandwich that does not come with a side of fries and a pickle, so it was just RICH AND CREAMY ALL THE TIME. Conceptually, rich and creamy all the time appeals to me, but in reality, this sandwich quickly became too much to handle.

I had a Six Point Apollo Wheat with my meal, that was quite nice: light and citrusy. I will come back to try a more robust entree, rather than a sammy, but at the moment my only recommendation of the croque monsieur at The Indo is that it's cheap ($7.00).

The Independent
75 Union Square
Somerville, MA