Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

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ThatGuy
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Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by ThatGuy »

Thinking about heading to the Zin Room before the Okkervil River show tonight. Has anybody been there yet?
Ben
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Post by Ben »

Yeah, I was there last week for a happy hour.  Trendy styling, decent drink prices.  They had some guy playing electric guitar as background music, a nice touch for a weekday, after work.  We didn't eat though.  The food seemed typical hotel from looking at the menu- nothing spectacular, and a little pricey.

The actual bar area isn't huge.  We had 30-40 people in there and it was sorta tight.
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Linkin5
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Post by Linkin5 »

Tried this place out, food was majorly dissappointing.
ItsAllAboutMe
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Re: Zin Room

Post by ItsAllAboutMe »

I Believe the Zin Room is now closed!
NEDodger
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Re: Zin Room

Post by NEDodger »

ItsAllAboutMe wrote:I Believe the Zin Room is now closed!
It's temporary while they remodel
Ben
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Re: Zin Room

Post by Ben »

Remodel with a new concept, and new partners.....

Word has it several familiar faces from around the downtown dining scene have a hand in this now. From the names I've heard, expect a nice upgrade in food quality.
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Re: Zin Room

Post by Ben »

Cat's out of the bag, as they've had a facebook page for a couple of weeks now. I guess I can spill the beans on what I know.

This restaurant will reopen as "Heritage Food and Wine"

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Partners include Charlie Yin from Hiro and Paul Kulik of Boiler Room and Le Bullion.

Scheduled opening is roughly the 1st of the year.
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Coyote
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Coyote »

Nice! Any idea what kind of menu they are drawing up?
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nativeomahan
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by nativeomahan »

Quite a strong pedigree. But I don't care for the name.
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Coyote
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Coyote »

I don't think this has been posted here yet:

Image
Ben
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Ben »

Soft opening scheduled for this weekend.
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Coyote
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Coyote »

Ben wrote:Soft opening scheduled for this weekend.
40% off food items... Reservations recommended...
Ben
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Ben »

Coyote wrote:
Ben wrote:Soft opening scheduled for this weekend.
40% off food items... Reservations recommended...
I think they're pretty well booked up already for the entire soft opening. Limited seatings to not overstress the staff/kitchen during this trial run. My wife was able to score us a Thursday evening reservation, I'll let everyone know how it is...
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Coyote
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Coyote »

Ben wrote:
Coyote wrote:
Ben wrote:Soft opening scheduled for this weekend.
40% off food items... Reservations recommended...
I think they're pretty well booked up already for the entire soft opening.  Limited seatings to not overstress the staff/kitchen during this trial run.  My wife was able to score us a Thursday evening reservation, I'll let everyone know how it is...
Congrats! They only were taking bookings for tables of 2 or 3. They are not yet releasing the menu, so you better share :yes:
Ben
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Ben »

First off, sorry, should have taken a picture of the menu.

Overall: A modern, classy place with food to match. The place will be popular with the pre/post show crowd (Orpheum, but likely also Holland), as well as a destination restaurant for foodies. I wasn't blown away by anything I ate, but it was all top notch, and lived up to the pedigree that they've heralded with the many big names involved in the project.

Food: They called it "family style", I'll liken it more to American tapas. Smaller plates, meant for sharing, expect to eat ~2/person. They range in price from $5-40, with the vast majority being $10-18. Because of this format, the restaurant is best experienced in larger groups, so that you can taste a wide variety of dishes. Everything was good. We had (there were 7 of us): meat cheese plate, broiled carrots/turnips, brussel sprouts, smoked salmon/gravlax, fried chicken, lamb leg, strip steak, sauerkraut with sausage, freshly pickled veggies, fresh ricotta with roasted garlic and honey, and sweet potatoes. The fried chicken will be a top seller, as its one of their largest plates for the money, and was good (some sort of cumin infused breading). The sweet potatoes were also great, with a home made white chocolate marshmallow topping. We also tried all 3 deserts - baked Alaska, a cream puff, and fried apples. These weren't outstanding (and were overshadowed by the main courses), but the cream puff and fried apples were both pretty good

Service - Very good for a first night opening. Staff was very attentive (almost to a fault), and knowledgeable about the food. Sommelier has an amazing command of his wine list. As the food is served tapas style, its not really coursed out, just comes from the kitchen as its ready. Food comes relatively quickly, and didn't stop for the entire hour and a half that we were there...

Drinks - An amazing wine selection - 4000 bottles or so. Ranged from $30 to several hundred. A mix of American and international. The cocktail list was also fairly extensive.

The bill - $250 for the 7 of us (pre-tip), without the opening night discount. I thought that was very reasonable, given the caliber of restaurant they're competing against, and that the entire table had some sort of drink (either wine, or a cocktail). We'll be back.
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nativeomahan
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by nativeomahan »

A fried chicken restaurant with a 4,000 bottle wine cellar. I will go out on a limb and say this is an all time first for the United States. And for a reason.
Ben
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Ben »

The speakeasy that was rumored to be associated with this project (and hadn't materialized yet) is finally moving forward. Apparently they ran into a couple of snafus with permitting.

What, a hidden bar needs to have clearly marked exit signs?
swgiust
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by swgiust »

My wife and I ate here a couple of weeks ago. Although the inside is very nice and the service was good. The food was hit and miss. The share or small plate concept doesn't work in my opinion. We ended up with a variety of items that really didn't go together. Individually each item was good, but overall the dinner experience was not. I believe the talent is there, they just need to put together a better, more complete menu.
ItsAllAboutMe
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by ItsAllAboutMe »

CLOSED!!! Note on door said they will reopen with a new concept.
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Coyote
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Coyote »

Not even 18 months. Someone didn't have a good business plan...
daveoma
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by daveoma »

Geez Louise :-(
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nativeomahan
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by nativeomahan »

nativeomahan wrote:A fried chicken restaurant with a 4,000 bottle wine cellar. I will go out on a limb and say this is an all time first for the United States. And for a reason.
Every once in a while I make an accurate prediction.
Nick808402
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Nick808402 »

Heritage was great under Jake Newton. Menu concept was pretty odd, but food was great and people loved it. Getting a steady stream of diners was always tough for them even at their "peak" though. It's all been downhill since Jake Newton left, and Heritage has been struggling to stay afloat even with the Yin family backing it.

Hope their extensive wine cellar goes on a fire sale, though I wouldn't be surprised if it gets repurposed to Hiro.
Ben
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Ben »

Nick808402 wrote:and Heritage has been struggling to stay afloat even with the Yin family backing it.
I'm Friends with the Yin's, so I'd like to clarify something here. They weren't actually behind Heritage, Charlie and team were hired to consult and provide managerial support to open the place. Their affiliation with the place ended about the time menu changes began...

The Heritage folks thought they could do it on their own, for less money, and apparently this backfired on them.
Nick808402
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Nick808402 »

I found out from a friend this afternoon who is also very familiar with the Yin family and Heritage that I was mistaken about my previous post, sorry.
ItsAllAboutMe
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by ItsAllAboutMe »

It appears that renovation of this space has begun or is about to.
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nativeomahan
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by nativeomahan »

ItsAllAboutMe wrote:It appears that renovation of this space has begun or is about to.
How many renovations does this make? Three? Four? Five?
Ben
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Ben »

Hotel Deco has remodeled this space as an events room for weddings / meetings, etc. Picture on their FB page.
Nick808402
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Re: Heritage Food & Wine (formerly Zin Room)

Post by Nick808402 »

Damn I wonder what they did with their awesome wine cellar/room and their wine collection. I know a few people who worked there and I told them to keep me posted if they auction off their wine inventory, but never heard anything back.
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