By Charly SHELTON

This week continues our series spotlighting hometown favorite restaurants adapting to the new normal of COVID-19 life. We head east to La Cañada to Hill Street Café & Bar, a staple in the Crescenta Valley since 1991. Hill Street Café moved off of Hill Street, just a block west, many years ago and into the larger location it currently occupies. After a remodel in 2016, the café barely resembles what it once was. The one constant amidst these changes is that diners can always count on Hill Street Café for a good meal.

Hill Street Café & Bar brought us out for dinner last week to show how they’re staying safe operating under the new reopening guidelines during a pandemic. The location at 1004 Foothill Blvd. has plenty of space outside to accommodate the outdoor-dining-only mandate. The patio is tight on spacing, but Plexiglass dividers between tables keep parties separate and safe. Out in the parking lot area, the former exit lane has been transformed into an al fresco dining space beneath a large white tent and running string lights. Either of these locations makes for pleasant dining in a safe and clean space.

The food has always been, and continues to be, the real draw at Hill Street Café. From simple-yet-satisfying salads to exciting dishes from all corners of the globe, Hill Street’s extensive menu has something for everyone. And, like most hometown favorite restaurants, many diners have their favorite go-to dishes that they order time and time again. Manager Cesar Valencia says that around 80% of the traffic to the restaurant is regulars and they mostly order their favorites, though he encourages everyone to try something new because the offerings are quite diverse. Case in point, the tequila chicken.

I have been coming to this restaurant since the early 1990s and I have had maybe 10 dishes across the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus during that time. What can I say? I have my regulars. I am learning though through this series of hometown favorite spotlights that I am missing out big time on disparate corners of the menu I don’t venture to. One of those oft-overlooked dinners is the tequila chicken, a dish I would not intentionally order from Hill Street Café. But when Valencia recommended it, I tried it. Boy, am I glad he brought this out.

Thin charbroiled chicken breast is plated in a chipotle chile and mushroom cream sauce that has just the right amount of spice. Despite having such a varied menu each dish is prepared to highlight its best features, as though the entire kitchen is focused on just this plate. And the tequila chicken pairs perfectly with the tamarind margarita, a seasonal cocktail for the summer that has been so popular that it will stick around on the menu for a while. The sweet tamarind meets the spicy Tajin-rimmed glass with just the right amount of heat, the same as the hearty mushroom meets the spicy chipotle chile in the tequila chicken.

Post-COVID conditions have not impacted Hill Street Café to the point of changing what the restaurant has always been – good food, good service and good atmosphere. This is a real down-home restaurant that the town loves and whether it’s inside the restaurant or out in the tent in the parking lot, it’s always comforting to head back to Hill Street Café.

  Charly Shelton