Culinary director Jared Chianciola has spent time at Eastern Standard, Rialto, Om, and 28 Degrees. Chef de cuisine Rene Caceres comes from San Francisco’s Coi, among others, and sous chef Daniel Lotti has worked at New York’s Eleven Madison Park. Forum is a two-level space, and the team runs it like two different restaurants, with a casual menu on the ground floor and a more ambitious version on the second.
Downstairs, the space is dominated by a large bar that loops like a racetrack around side-by-side flat-screens, seemingly enough for one per customer. Several tables look out onto the street. When there’s a sizable post-work crowd, the ’80s music can be pounding. It doesn’t drown out the courtesy of the managers, who ask diners whether the volume needs to be adjusted.
To match the social mood, this menu offers several social dishes. Fish tacos are made for sharing, three flour tortillas folded around cod and red cabbage slaw, chipotle aioli and salsa lending heat. A dish misleadingly named “chicken waffles’’ omits the “and’’ on purpose. These are essentially chicken fingers in a rice flour waffle batter, served with jalapeño maple syrup. Disappointingly, the chilies fail to make their presence known.
In addition to finger food, the menu offers sandwiches and bistro fare. (The lineup is changing soon.) Lobster chowder is short on both lobster and chowder. It’s so thick it might be better termed stew, a bowl of clams, mussels, and a bite or two of lobster, all bound together with a few tablespoons of thick, fennel-scented broth. The dish is topped with a fried oyster, a nice touch.
For an appetizer of beef crepinettes, short rib braised for 72 hours is shredded and formed into a patty, cooked in caul fat for extra richness. It’s wonderfully tender, served with hen of the woods mushrooms, fried parsnips, and Madeira reduction.
