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Wednesday, January 21: Super Hunger Chef Fundraiser

Erin Souza — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:22:00 GMT

New Year, new you. No, we don’t mean a slimmed-down, super-chic, ultra-organized version of your old self (though that wouldn’t be so bad). We’re referring to the do-gooder, do-unto-others type who’s resolved to volunteer some time at a food pantry, or at least donate some gently-worn clothes to Goodwill. Use the Greater Boston Food Bank’s fundraiser, Super Hunger Chef at the Four Seasons (200 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.338.4400), as a very worthy excuse to give your life a little charity-driven purpose. At this year’s installment of the annual epicurean battle, see chefs Anthony Susi (Sage), Gabriel Frasca (Straight Wharf), and Will Gilson (Garden at the Cellar) duke it out and whip up dishes using only ingredients stocked by the Food Bank. Tickets ($200) include cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a multi-course meal and are available at www.gbfb.org/shm; all proceeds benefit the GBFB.

Green Room: 11.18.08

Stuff Boston — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:00:00 GMT

If the idea of vegan food brings to mind frozen cardboard-flavored dinners from the earthy-crunchy section of Star Market, it might be time to expand your horizons with a visit to the Soiree Room at UpStairs on the Square (91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, 617.864.1933). The whimsical Harvard Square restaurant continues its vegan dinner series on November 25 at 6:30 p.m. with a menu featuring locally sourced veggies, including sunchokes from Eva Sommaripa in South Dartmouth and butternut squash from Sudbury’s Siena Farms. The four-course dinner ($45; $65 with wine pairings) combines good-for-you food with necessary indulgences (wine and dessert among them). For reservations, call 617.864.1933.

Fresh City

Stuff Boston — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:46:00 GMT

Cooking with locally farmed meats and the freshest organic produce in New England isn’t just a trend for chef Peter Davis of Henrietta’s Table (Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.661.5005), a restaurant known for its unpretentious comfort food and a vibe to match — it’s an ideology he’s subscribed to for years. Now he’s put it in writing. Fresh and Honest: Food from the Farms of New England and the Kitchen of Henrietta’s Table is Davis’s first cookbook, and like his menu of chicken potpie, light and fluffy mashed potatoes, and chocolate bread pudding with cognac-caramelized bananas, the project is entirely native to the region. Framingham-based photographer Heath Robbins shot the pictures that look good enough to eat;local writer/editor Alexandra Hall interviewed farmers from around New England for informative sidebars throughout the book; and Three Beans Press in Jamaica Plain published it. Reserve your copy ($35) at www.charleshotel.com/giftcert.htm or 617.864.1200; books officially go on sale the week of November 10 and will be available at Henrietta’s Table.

Irish Twins

Stuff Boston — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:27:00 GMT

The South Boston waterfront just got a new Irish immigrant, and something tells us it’s going to fit in just fine. M.J. O’Connor’s at the Westin Boston Waterfront (425 Summer Street, Boston, 617.443.0800) is the pub’s second Hub location and joins fellow Briar Group venture City Bar as the latest addition to the Westin’s new ground-level retail space. The touches of the original M.J.’s at Park Square — dark mahogany wood, stone hearths, and hand-painted murals— are present here, but with an airier aesthetic. Guinness tops the impressive beer list, and beer-battered fish and chips is one of executive chef Ben Hennemuth’s menu staples. Irish eyes, you now have another reason to smile.

It Takes Two

Stuff Boston — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:08:00 GMT

Downtown Crossing is stepping up its epicurean game. Sibling team Azita Bina-Seibel and Babak Bina, of Lala Rokh and Bin 26 Enoteca acclaim, now bring Bina Osteria (581 Washington Street, Boston, 617.956.0888) and Bina Alimentari— a contemporary Italian restaurant and adjacent gourmet food shop, respectively — to the ’hood. At Bina Osteria, executive chef Brian Konefal and his wife and pastry chef Paola Fioravanti create homemade charcuterie and sweets. The restaurant boasts columns, an umbrellalike vaulted ceiling, and large windows with handmade curtains — not to mention a weekend brunch served until 3 p.m. Combine all that with the take-home specialty breads, pastas, and gelatos at Bina Alimentari next door, and you just might be wondering where these two spots have Bina all your life.

Green Room

Stuff Boston — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:37:00 GMT

They say you are what you eat. If that’s true, then at Via Matta (79 park plaza, Boston, 617.422.0008) you can be green, organic, and entirely local. On October 15 at 7 p.m., Eero Ruuttila, manager of Nesenkeag Farm in Litchfield, New Hampshire, joins diners for a five-course, all-locally-grown meal, plus a discussion about New England’s farm industry. Ruuttila certainly has the know-how: Nesenkeag provides local produce to some of Boston’s most notable restaurants — Via Matta, excelsior, and harvest among them — and serves as a model for sustainable agriculture. Via Matta executive Chef Mike Pagliarini will create a totally spontaneous menu using only the week’s harvest from Nesenkeag. Share in the harvest by calling 617.422.0008 for reservations; the cost is $100 per person.

Triple Threat

Stuff Boston — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:33:00 GMT

Supposedly, the third time’s the charm. In the case of the South End’s go-to Franklin Café (278 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, 617.350.0010), we think chef/owner David Dubois hit the mark the first time. Now he’s using that success to propel a third Franklin (the second one’s in Gloucester) into the Allele condo complex in South Boston. The new restaurant, slated for a mid-November opening, will be called Franklin-Southie (152 Dorchester Avenue, South Boston) and will feature a small outdoor seating area, weekend brunch, and late-night plates served until 1:30 a.m. Chef Brian Reyelt is on board, but don’t fret: he’ll continue in the South End kitchen, too. And while the menu is still in the works, Dubois assures us that we’ll see some old favorites from the original Franklin list.

Palm Sunday (and Monday and Tuesday and...)

Stuff Boston — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:06:00 GMT

Some of us are very lucky. Short of showing up in our pajamas, we get to wear pretty much anything we want to work; no suits, ties, or stockings here. But mostly we’re just lucky we have a job to go to each morning, particularly in this economy. The Palm Restaurant (Westin Copley Place, 200 Dartmouth Street, Boston, 617.867.9292) and Dress for Success Worldwide share our sentiment, so they’ve partnered to help women around the globe get the professional clothes (read: suits, dresses, shoes) and career development skills that will help propel them into the workforce. Want to help your fellow working woman? Through the end of October, order your next lunch or dinner from the Palm’s Fall for Success menu — including Nova Scotia lobster nachos ($18), Ahi tuna burger ($16), and molten chocolate cake ($10) — and the restaurant will donate 10 percent of the proceeds to Dress for Success. The Palm Restaurant Group is holding this fundraiser at more than 25 restaurants nationwide in hopes of topping the $60,000 they rounded up last year. That’s a whole lot of pencil skirts.

Around And Around We Go

Stuff Boston — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:55:00 GMT

The corner of Columbus Avenue that used to be home to Bob’s Southern Bistro has gone from haven of downhome dining to a restaurant/lounge with a French twist. Circle (604 Columbus Avenue, Boston, 617.247.2537), the brainchild of Cleveland native Malcolm Aalders, has been nearly nine months in the making. But if the exposed brick, ultrachic red-bulb lighting, and 70-bottle wine list are any indication, it’s been worth the wait. Aalders brought in food guru Adam Gendreau, who worked under Rialto’s Jody Adams, to create the contemporary French menu, which includes white-asparagus-crusted salmon and butter-poached lobster. “We wanted to match that South End feeling,” says Aalders of the restaurant’s hip yet unpretentious vibe and upscale yet approachable menu. And with a mosaic-tiled corner bar, a carefully crafted cocktail list (including the lethal-sounding “Absintheminded” for $12), and 10 beers on tap, this new addition just might bring the South End’s list of dining options full circle.

Crash Courses: A writer returns to Boston to brush up on the latest in local dining and drinking

Ruth Tobias — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:00:00 GMT

Okay, here’s a math problem for all you clever so-and-sos crawling one of the world’s most educated cities: if a food writer travels 1900 miles from her new hometown of Denver to her old one of Boston to catch up on the current dining scene, how many days does it take her to hit 10 restaurants, down 30 drinks, sample 25 dishes, and gain five pounds?

If you guessed two and a half, you get a gold star. But so do I. I took a crash course in multicourses and passed with top honors. For that matter, so did the chefs, bartenders, and servers I tested in turn, dishing up as they did the creamiest of this summer’s crop. Now it’s time for you just-returned vacationers and brand-new arrivals to brush up on the latest in local dining. So here are the Cliffs Notes — and here’s hoping my crash diet goes half so swimmingly.

On the screeching, shuddering T of life, Neptune Oyster (63 Salem Street, Boston, 617.742.3474) will always be my first stop. That gleaming little showcase of all the fruits of the sea was my home away from home when I lived in the North End, so it was the natural starting point for a whirlwind reunion tour (joined by the Coloradan who had better continue to prove worth the relocation effort — we’ll call him Rocky). As our sweet young thing of a waiter, Daniel Tebo, and I dished like groupies about former chef David Nevins’s current whereabouts (Osetra in Norwalk, Connecticut — next time, road trip!), he filled us in on new chef Nate Nagy and his even newer menu — replete with such picnic-on-the-dock-of-the-lake-worthy stuff as cornmeal-crusted, panfried rainbow trout ($23) dabbed with intense parsnip purée, drizzled with blueberry brown butter, and crowned with crabfilled hush puppies. We ate accordingly, lingering over flutes of prosecco and brachetto d’acqui as though we were barefoot and carefree and had nowhere else to be.

But we did: as we drained our last drop, it was nearly happy hour, and time to go spelunking in the supersleek cave that is banQ (1375 Washington Street, Boston, 617.451.0077). Beneath the stalactites lining the sculptural ceiling of the bar, there was no need for any flashlight-mounted headgear — we ourselves got plenty lit, equipped as we were with the elaborate contraption they call the Hot Mess ($11). A sexy dirty thing indeed — flecked with shaved ginger, toasted coconut, and bits of sambal paste — it blends Finlandia grapefruit vodka with white cranberry juice and almond extract; the smart result is no sweeter and rather spicier than it has to be. Speaking of spice, banQ’s recently launched Spice Menu amounts to the Happy Meal of the East-West fusion world. When you savor a dish like the exquisite squash blossoms ($10 when available) — fried and stuffed with scallop mousse, they remain delicate inside and out, a neat feat only emphasized by sundried tomato–miso pesto and dollops of sambal — you get the gourmet toy, a takehome packet of spices, in the bargain.

Not that home was next on our itinerary. Toro (1704 Washington Street, Boston, 617.536.4300) was — fittingly enough, since we stumbled all the way there as if stampeding bulls were at our backs, only to get knocked flat by yet more fire-breathing cocktails. Don’t let the hibiscus-infused, ginger-and-lime-spiked, poetically named Verdad y Amor ($10) fool you: this is no seabreezy love potion but a saltrimmed shock of tequila plus. More gently refreshing is the Taza ($9), a twist on England’s beloved Pimm’s Cup. Two twists, really: while lemon-ginger tea replaces lemon-lime soda, muddled kumquats make you forget all about more traditional sliced apples and oranges (granted, the gin-based liqueur from which the original gets its name hastens the mind-erasing process).

Our whistles no longer whetted so much as increasingly drool-soaked, we lurched on to Kingston Station (25 Kingston Street, Boston, 617.482.6282) for yet more funishment. With a name like Guaracyara Pimenta, the chef, we figured, had to rock the peppers, so we split the Kobe dog ($12). Strewn all over the charred half-footer was a so-called relish you might more accurately label slaw — not chopped but loopy and chunky, and neon-bright with vinegar peppers galore as well as onions, celery, and herbs. On the more traditional side was a crock of baked beans festooned with diced bacon and positively smacking of molasses and brown sugar. Meanwhile, jocular bar manager Eric Pierce kept us crocked too (in case you’re wondering whether I ever get sick of drinking puns — nah) with a preview of his contribution to the teetotaling trend: the now-available ginger-green-tea martini ($12) features Pravda vodka, green tea, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, and a slice of what looks like dried pear but turns out to be pure, bite-you-back ginger.

Needless to say, we missed breakfast. Day two didn’t really get underway until mumble o’clock, with the first spoonful of spiked granita that launched a late lunch at Dante (Royal Sonesta, 40 Edwin Land Boulevard, Cambridge, 617.497.4200). Though you can get any flavor separately ($6), the combo ($16) of Campari and grapefruit, limoncello, and bourbon puts the triple treat in triple threat — as sour as they are sweet, each boasts bits of citrus pulp and zest, too, for a lovely touch of bitterness. More fluid but no less solid were the libations with which Ray Guerin, our seeming gentleman but secret enabler of a bartender, slyly kept plying us. Especially memorable despite their lethean-makings were the Zagara ($12), whose blend of orange-blossom vodka, pomegranate, and orange bitters went down like the Moroccan sun at dusk; the gin-based Smania ($12), likewise sultry and musky with housemade orange-cardamom liqueur, brightened by fresh lemon sour; and the Vitalita ($12), in which eversharp Campari snuck up on mellow vanilla-and-ginger-infused rum. Somehow, between all those nips, we got a few nibbles in edgewise. And they got us — particularly the gnocchi ($12/appetizer; $24/entrée), which remarkably didn’t drown in their pool of concentrated roasted-peach juice but just softly soaked it all up, along with rich dollops of pistachio pesto and gorgonzola dolce (though they’ve since been replaced by gorgonzola-and-mascarpone-filled cappellacci).

By midafternoon, there was no going back — only onward through the wonderfully gaudy, raucous fog of the Monday Club Bar at UpStairs on the Square (91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, 617.864.1933), guided (or misguided, as the case may be) by the comic duo of director of operations Matt Lishansky and bartender Chris O’Neill, whose gregariousness led me to suggest somebody make a movie about him. “They already did,” said Lishanksy. “It’s called Porky’s.” This prompted O’Neill to attempt a kick in the ass so forceful that he ended up on his own instead. But he saved more than enough, er, face by pouring us off-menu cocktails ($10–$14) whose names you need only drop. Take the Citrus Stone Fruit Smash — a/k/a the Ruth, according to a laughing O’Neill when I asked for the appellation of the heady two-tone gem, combining vodka, orange juice, Grand Marnier, peach liqueur, apricot nectar, and housemade cherry juice. Or the Aperation, as he dubbed his subtly pretty departure from an Aviation: Hendrick’s gin, elderflower liqueur St. Germain, and lime juice with a sinker of the bitter-orange Italian aperitivo Aperol. And so on, and so on; suffice it to say the ensuing swirl of wackiness was so thick that co-owner Mary Catherine Deibel finally suggested we all go skinny-dipping in Walden Pond — even as Lishansky recommended Hungry Mother (233 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue, Cambridge, 617.499.0090): “The food is so smart. It’s such a balance between what you want to do and what you can execute the way your mother would have done it.” We went with the latter (you know what they say about swimming drunk on a full stomach).

No offense, Mom, but Lishansky was wrong: Hungry Mother’s Alon Munzer, Rachel Miller-Munzer, Barry Maiden, and John Kessen kind of have you whipped, execution-wise. First of all, they poured me the balmiest of concoctions: the #28 ($8.50), blending white wine, orange bitters, a splash of soda, and the cognac-based French herbal liqueur known as Benedictine. Second, for all of $4, they served me a tea sandwich that, according to Kessen, will continue to appear as a sometime special — special being the operative word. It starts with house-baked, toasted pain de mie (fancy talk for “sliced bread”), which is spread with a rich and tangy, parsley-sprinkled relish of house-smoked ham hock, housemade chow chow, cream cheese, mayo, and dijon. All that house-making sure makes a house a home — which is, of course, just what Hungry Mother feels like. No less a mess o’ comfort is the evolving menu staple that is shrimp and grits ($9): a maque choux of local corn, tomatoes, and red peppers bathes the late-summer version, fortified by shrimp stock and Tabasco.

And boy, did we need fortifying in preparation for our next journey — epic indeed: we were off to see the wizard, a/k/a Jamie Bissonnette, to get ourselves some brains and bone marrow and thymus glands, oh my. Of course, we’d need liquid courage first and foremost — hardly a tall order at KO Prime (Nine Zero Hotel, 90 Tremont Street, Boston, 617.772.0202). Heck, had the Cowardly Lion ever gotten his paws on a Shiso Smash ($14) — Bissonnette’s own zesty invention, combining Hangar One Kaffir Lime, sparkling rosé, St. Germain, and muddled red shiso leaves — he could have skipped Oz altogether. As for us, a round or two gave us just the boozy boost we needed to plow through not only all that offal but also the more recent additions to the menu fetched by our awesome server Asher Karnes, who works the lounge like he’s hosting a fabulous soirée (which he kind of is). As vibrantly layered as a Rothko painting in red and yellow and green, the heirloom tomato salad ($14) is superb, each precisely ripe bite slicked with one of two vinaigrettes (grapeseed oil and lime juice or olive oil and cabernet vinegar), smeared with avocado, and topped with crottin, a gooey French-style goat cheese from Vermont. The heirloom varieties will change throughout the season; likewise, the chef’s selection of cured hams ($15) rotates regularly to remain a novelty. May your timing be as good as ours: alongside neatly arranged slices of jamón ibérico garnished with truffled aioli and slivers of pickled lily stem, we got some Cape Fear country ham that Bissonnette had discovered just two weeks before on his (apparently working) honeymoon, as well as some Bayonne ham he had just begun to offer — having cured and stored it himself for eight months.

Rocky will tell you that at this point we called it a night. Like his cinematic namesake, Rocky, I fear, was totally punchdrunk — hit so hard during round after round of alcohol that he apparently suffered a technical knockout (no wonder they call it KO Prime). In the reality he doesn’t recall, we literally bellied up to the bar at No. 9 Park (9 Park Street, Boston, 617.742.9991) for a nightcap, namely the Capetown Collins ($11) — a greenly aromatic, Oh-so-aristocratic blend of rooibos tea, rosemary-infused simple syrup, and Bombay gin. And come morning, with just enough time for a hangover lunch before bidding the city adieu, we hustled to Scampo (Liberty Hotel, 215 Charles Street, Boston, 617.536.2100) to ask frighteningly sexy mixologist Christina what was new under the sun, or at least behind the bar. By way of an answer, she poured Rocky the aptly named Burn Care ($12) — essentially a mojito gone soothing with pulpy aloe juice — and me the Safire ($12), a real eye-opener with its fresh lemon tang and smoked-lavender salt rim. And then we were off, swearing never to drink that much again.

If you’re guessing we broke that vow within hours, you get the whole damn box of gold stars.

Hot duo: Beer pairings

webteam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:49:00 GMT

We’re used to seeing restaurant menus with suggested wine pairings to complement the flavors of each entrée, but beer choices are typically left to the drinker. But lately local restaurants have been changing that by offering beer pairings and special beer dinners. Want to get in on the action? Cambridge Common (1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge, 617.547.1228) hosts $39 four-course beer dinners at least once a month to highlight the more than 30 brews they offer. Next up is a Sam Adams dinner on August 12.

Hot meat: Off-cuts of lamb

webteam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:46:00 GMT

We spend so much time in the summer trying to hide belly fat, and now restaurants are putting it right in the middle of our plates. Local chefs are going against the epicurean grain by sending typical lamb chops and racks to the backseat and moving more adventurous (and usually less expensive) off-cuts, like lamb belly, toward the meat mainstream. If belly isn’t your thing, try the Vermontorganic lamb three ways — roasted loin, crispy confit, and spicy merguez sausage — at Craigie Street Bistrot (5 Craigie Circle, Cambridge, 617.497.5511). Or order Ana Sortun’s bread-wrapped and pomegranate-molasses-glazed lamb, braised in beer and cumin, at Oleana (134 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, 617.661.0505), or the baked rigatoni with lamb sausage at Eastern Standard (528 Comm Ave, Boston, 617.532.9100). We’re pretty sure Mary never had lamb like this.

Hot carbs: Breadbasket at Scampo

webteam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:17:00 GMT

Call us starch fiends, but we’ve never seen a gathering of carbohydrates quite like the “Handmade Breads” portion of the menu at Scampo (Liberty Hotel, 215 Charles Street, Boston, 617.224.4004.) Once you’ve settled into a table in the gorgeous, copper-flecked dining room, we suggest beginning your meal with at least one or two of these doughy wonders. Indulge in warm, bready delights like the fourcheese ciccio ($9) or the focaccia with rosemary, sea salt, and warm robiola ($8); both are drizzled with truffle oil. The cracker-like Indonesian roti, available with or without curried chicken ($8/$4), provides a bit of crunch, while a grilled garlic bread ($5) satisfies the purists. Of course, if your night-out jeans are still fitting comfortably, there’s always the naan ($4), served with anchovy butter, or the decadent Elephant Ear Walking ($8), topped with fried and fresh basil as well as tomato sauce, herb oil, and cheese. And dare we mention the kitchen’s housemade skinny breadsticks and fava purée, which appear on every table, gratis? After all that carbo loading, it’s veggies only for the next six weeks

Don’t be a hermit

webteam — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:49:00 GMT

City-dwellers looking to beat the heat are seeing a familiar face on the beach. Boston’s famed lobster pot, the Barking Crab, has clawed its way to Newport (151 Swinburne Row, Newport, Rhode Island, 401.846.CRAB). The 6600-square-foot space, the former home of Seafare’s American Café, includes a 200-seat dining room and outdoor seating. Executive chef Allen Bohnert’s menu features Atlantic Rim cuisine, with lots of seafood specialties and some vegetarian options. And to wash it all down? There’s a full bar, to boot.

They take a licking

Liza Weisstuch — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:03:00 GMT

A truly outstanding meal will open your eyes (before the food coma sets in, of course). It’s nothing short of revelatory when a chef takes all things edible and combines them in ways you never considered. Think about the first time you had a cocktail that smoked, jalapeño and tomato sorbet, or anything deconstructed and reconstructed as if it were a Lego set. We didn’t think candy could have such a mindblowing effect — after all, we got over the whole Everlasting Gobstopper thing in second grade. But we recently discovered Lollyphile lollipops ($10/four; $24/12; $52/36), products from the Willy Wonka–like mind of San Francisco hobbyist-turned-entrepreneur Jason Lewis. His unassuminglooking lollies, available at www.lollyphile.com, pack a mighty punch, with bowl-you-over flavors such as absinthe or maple-bacon. (Yes, they’re flavored with real absinthe, Vermont maple syrup, and sustainable cured bacon.) Lewis says he’s recently been fooling around in the lab with wasabi and “interesting floral arrangements.” We’ll lick to that.