Except in some diners and French restaurants, liver and onions has gone the way of Salisbury steak or chili mac. But in this era of retro, you know some smart-ass is going to come up with Salisbury squab steak or habanera chili mac ziti. Hector's gives us chicken-fried chicken livers and caramelized cipolline onions. This trio of crispy chicken livers with onions is not grand because it merges exotic flavors from Taipei with seasonal heirloom beetle nits from Crandall. It's grand because it combines an old dish with an old frying technique in a new dress that still reeks of Southern charm (they throw blackstrap molasses in there, too). Three coated and fried livers rest near a pool of thick molasses vinaigrette, where droopy onions swim, hemming and hawing their sweetness right at the base of the liver crust. Snare a few sprouts with your forkful of organ and onion to broaden the dimension with a slight aromatic pungency. Where can you go from here? Well, there's always the gizzards.


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