Shortly before the pandemic (in that era now affectionately known as “the good old days”), on one of our many trips to Northampton, MA, we decided to duck over and check out nearby Easthampton, MA (which, despite the nominally cardinal names, is not east of Northampton, but southwest…), finding a nice little restaurant called Coco that also had an outstanding cocktail bar called The Cellar Bar. I actually quite enjoyed Coco, particularly for their fried chicken dinner, and their creative cocktails (that’s one of the few places I’ve ever encountered Mastika in a cocktail). But that was 2019, and like many, many restaurants, Coco struggled mightily with staffing and finances through 2020 and 2021, eventually announcing abruptly in August 2021 that they were closing permanently. But the underlying demand in Easthampton was strong enough that a handful of employees got together with some other local restaurant owners, and after six months of closure, the restaurant re-opened as Calico.
I never did a formal review or took a lot of pictures of Coco, but Calico appears to have only done a light refurbishment and redecoration of the former space, keeping the same basic layout of a dining room upstairs and a bar downstairs. We were looking for a lighter dinner this day on our way to New Hampshire, so opted for the downstairs bar seating, which has the same menu as upstairs with a less formal setting, and as a bonus I got to watch their talented bartenders work their trade. As far as the menu, they’ve kept a few customer favorites from the Coco menu (like the buttermilk chicken, that was apparently liked by a lot of their customers), and the rest of the menu is designed to feature local ingredients used in far-reaching cuisines, including Asian and Latin American (myself, with the menu on our visit, you could definitely see the Latin-American and Mexican influences in the ingredients lists).
Like its predecessor Coco, Calico maintains a very high quality cocktail list, as well as a good staff of bartenders that know their mixology. I started out with their Very Verde Gimlet, which was a gimlet variation focusing on green chile notes using [i]two[/i] sources of chile pepper: a green chile-infushed vodka and an ancho verde liqueur. Rounding it out with a bit of lime, this was a bold, spicy, but refreshing start to my meal.
Carol started with a house Old-Fashioned, with Calico’s version using small-batch bourbon, orange gomme syrup, and bitters. Like the earlier drinks we had at Calico, gomme (gum arabic, a similar but more mellow cousin to the sharped mastic) added a very nice smoky and cedar note to the overall cocktail, and was particularly refreshing.
For our second drink, we both opted for the same cocktail, the Jungle Bird Milk Punch. Various clarified milks and milk- or fat-washed spirits are all the rage right now, and this was n interesting variation on the classic Jungle Bird, with coconut milk washed blackstrap rum, Campari, pineapple, lime, demerara, and nutmeg. This got the same basic flavor profile as a Jungle Bird, but with some nicely-rounded coconut and coconut-milk notes from the washed rum giving it a slightly more creamy mouthfeel. I’d call this a successful riff on the theme.
For our shared appetizer, we ended up going for a fairly simple choice: the blistered shishitos. Served over a tahini yogurt, which was an interesting choice. I usually like the classic presentation of serving these with some sort of crema, but the tangy and creamy notes of the tahini served this same basic function, blending nicely with the hot pepper notes.
As I mentioned above, the Buttermilk Fried Chicken was a favorite of both the clientele and us particularly on our previous visit to Coco, and Carol decided to order it this time to see how it stacked up (that, and really good fried chicken is still a bit of a rarity around here). This is a relatively simple presentation of a large chicken breast over garlic mashed potatoes with some jalapeno slaw and a light gravy. This is still a fried chicken to be proud of. I’m generally more of a fan of thighs instead of breasts when it comes to fried chicken, the meat itself has a nice rich flavor and texture, and it’s a lot more tolerant to overcooking; chicken breasts, especially thicker ones, are particularly sensitive to cooking temperature without becoming dried out or tough, but Calico pulled it off. Add in a nice lighter, slightly-spiced breading that bonded well to the chicken, and this is one of the better examples of good fried chicken around the great region. The rest of the dish was good, too: a proper light and airy garlic potato mash, and the jalapeno slaw itself is a holdover from Coco; it was quite good, with a nice contribution to both flavor and texture from the shredded jalapeno.
Myself, I went for the red chile braised pork. Served over polenta with pickled Walla-Walla onions, lime crema, and some sautéed kale, like my earlier Very Verde Gimlet, this was a really good example of classic Mexican flavors done really well: a rich and tender pork, just starting to fall apart like a good cohinita pibil. A good, still slightly toothsome polenta, with the nice rich chile sauce just starting to soak into it to give it some extra flavor. The pickled onions added some good tang and crunch, and the kale added a nice green leafy note. This is exactly the sort of dish I’d enjoy at one of the better authentic Mexican places in Arizona, so I was quite happy with this overall.
When the dessert menu came around… well, you only have to go back a few reviews to see that I’ve got a general weakness for crème brûlée. so I ordered their chocolate rendition of it. I almost didn’t; chocolate crème brûlée is always a bit of a textural challenge, since adding enough chocolate to the cream changes the texture a bit, and texture is one of the most important things of a good crème brûlée. While this suffered a bit from that, it aw decent overall, and they got a nice balance between texture and overall level of chocolate. I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn’t get it again, opting for something else.
Overall, we really liked Calico. From a standpoint of replacing Coco? Mission basically accomplished. It’s definitely not the same restaurant, but it’s got the general vibe of “same restaurant with new executive chef” while still keeping the basic concepts that made the original successful. And it’s definitely one of the better places we’ve found in the Pioneer Valley. We’ll definitely be back.
