Dining: Battalion

Restaurateur Andrew Goodman and Chef Josh Davis

By Janis Turk

Photography by: TX Troublemaker

It took two years to renovate Southtown’s historic Firehouse No. 7 into a space for a new restaurant in 2017, but it only took me about two seconds to decide Battalion was a place I might really like.

Named for the brave battalions of firefighters that once manned the building, Battalion is a “modern American restaurant doing our own play on Italian food,” says executive chef Josh Davis. 

Launched by restauranteur Andrew Goodman and former business partner chef Stefan Bowers and named one of the “100 Best Restaurants in America” in 2018, Battalion is a smokin’ hot Southtown spot.

Standing regally at the “Gateway to Southtown,” this handsome firehouse set my heart aflame. Perhaps it’s the enormous arched windows with gleaming night vistas of the downtown skyline and the Tower of Americas that takes my breath. Maybe it’s the second-floor open kitchen with flames shooting to the ceiling that lights my fire. Or perhaps it’s Goodman’s signature chic décor, curated with bold flashes of red light and whimsy, like pop-art pieces (for starters, a giant-sized lollypop set on the kitchen counter) that vaunts a youthful ambiance. It’s even got a sleek glass elevator and authentic fire pole. Cement floors could make things noisy, but this Thursday night, it wasn’t loud.

The building has great bones, but the menu is the real winner, as I adore all things Italian.

Sure, I’m a pushover for pasta. I’ve eaten my way through Italy more than once, and I’ve rarely met a plate of carbonara I didn’t like. However, I am discriminating about what constitutes authentic Italian cuisine. Italians eat simple, peasant fare: vegetables in season, wild rabbits and fat chickens, fresh eggs, and other foods foraged from nearby farms. Pasta should never be found floating face-down in Alfredo sauce or drowning in marinara. It should be hand-made and cooked al dente. Of course, Chef Davis knows all this, and with Goodman and him leading the Battalion, only locally-sourced, properly prepared dishes would do. I also knew enough about both of these guys not to expect they’d offer a typical Italian restaurant. Like so many other eateries and bars Goodman and Bowers have launched over the years (Feast, Haunt, Rebelle, to name a few), Battalion would be different. So when Bowers left the partnership to focus on his downtown pizza kitchen, Playland, just over a year ago, Goodman had the good sense to name Josh Davis executive chef.

Since then, Davis has created an extensive menu of fresh pastas, grilled meats, inventive sides, and vegetarian dishes, as well as Italian staples done in unexpected ways. A wide-ranging wine list and a sassy cocktail program complement his simple yet somewhat eclectic menu. Davis would have it no other way.

Inspired by his mom, who encouraged his broad palate at an early age, and his dad, an avid hunter who taught him to “respect his proteins” and the land, Davis cooked at a barbecue joint in the Hill Country at 16, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio, and stayed in SA. “It’s such a great city,” he says. He then cooked for Andrew Weissman at Il Sogno and Sandbar and went to cook with Mark Bliss before Battalion. Here he worked his way from line cook, to sous chef, to executive chef. 

At Il Sogno, Davis sought to master pasta-making. “It is an art, not a science. So many factors go into making it perfect,” he explains.

On this, my second visit to Battalion, our meal didn’t start with pasta, though. First, we broke locally-made bread served with a dollop of herbed parmesan butter and a bowl of garlic-infused olive oil. We nibbled on spicy olives marinated in garlic, citrus, Sambuca (anise-flavored Italian liqueur), and a Chile de Arbol sauce. 

Battalion is the kind of place friends come together to order lots of small plates, sip cocktails, and nosh all night long. You’ll want to share: there’s so much to try.

Take the steak tartare, served with house-made pickles, parmesan, and whole-grain mustard. My husband, who never would order steak tartare on his own, kept scooping it on his bread as if it were pâté. “We make ours using the best trim from steak and tenderloin tips,” says Davis.

Next, we sampled Chef’s three cheese, beef and pork meatballs in house-made marinara and topped with cheese. Divine. People nearby recommended the spinach dumplings, so we ordered those, too. Cubes of baked spinach and parmesan, these vegetarian treats had an almost gnocchi texture when served in sauce—they weren’t dumplings, per se. Alone, they might have just been OK, but Chef Davis brilliantly elevated this unusual dish by tossing the cubes in truffle cream sauce topped with chopped walnuts and prosciutto.

For the pasta course, we chose mushroom casareccia in a light cream/white wine sauce. This simple dish was my favorite: hand-made short split pasta tubes tossed in a light white sauce with tiny Nameko mushrooms.

Next time we’ll try lasagna in pork ragu, spaghetti al pesto, or whipped mortadella ravioli, but we’d already eaten an embarrassing amount of food before ending our meal with the parmesan-crusted lamb chops uncommonly and deliciously adorned with a fontina, parmesan custard, besciamella, Pomodoro, basil dusting. Vying for best bet on the menu was the thick-cut eggplant parmesan: a must-order. The caramelized carrot side dish and the grilled beets in Dijon and dill vinaigrette are unexpected treasures, too, I’m told. I’ll try them next time.

Starting with a splashy “FH7” cocktail (Tito’s vodka, peach liqueur, lemon, and rosemary) and sips of Cabernet between bites, I left happy and full (with a designated driver).

A few blocks away, Fiesta was reaching a feverish frenzy, but on this Thursday night in Southtown, Chef Davis was happily firing up the grill for the next battalion of hungry guests.