SPOT
FOR OENOPHILES:
Bin 26 Enoteca
For decades, the Beacon Hill neighborhood
spot “where everybody knows your name” has
referred to the Bull and Finch Pub, the
inspiration for the bar in the beloved
sitcom “Cheers.” But in late summer of 2006,
Azita and Babak Bina, the owners of another
fixture in this suave and cozy
neighborhood—venerable Persian eatery Lala
Rokh—made their bid to create a new casual,
yet refined, spot where locals could enjoy
small bites and fantastic wine. Modeled on
similar-type establishments in Italy,
Bin 26 Enoteca (26
Charles St., 617-723-5939) has caught on as
the kind of comfy spot where friends gather
after work to share a cheese plate or
charcuterie, or couples visit in search of a
romantic, creative dinner, with the unifying
factor being Bin 26’s expansive, amazing
wine list—dozens of pages long, it reads
like a well-researched college term paper,
beginning, as it should, with wine staples
from our younger years such as Boones Farm
and Thunderbird and culminating in rare
vintages we all hope to one day afford.
CHEF:
Guy Martin
Generally, it’s something of a
crapshoot to get too excited about a
chef before he’s even cooked his first
meal in Boston. After all, with taste
being so subjective, a chef can come
with a breathlessly expansive bio but
the proof of his or her abilities is,
literally, in the pudding.
Still, when word got out that the currently under-construction Regent Boston Hotel would, upon opening in the fourth quarter of 2007, become home to the first North American restaurant from French chef Guy Martin, it was obviously time to sit up and take notice. Martin is one of only nine 3-star Michelin chefs in his native Paris (and the first chef with that designation ever to open a restaurant in Boston), and has racked up a long list of awards and commendations from some of the world’s most prestigious culinary institutions and publications.
What will Martin’s as-yet-unnamed restaurant be like? So far, nobody knows but the master chef himself, and he’s keeping details vague for the time being.
BUZZ-KILL:
The Proposed
Trans-fat Ban
Okay, time out for a mini-rant. If
Starbucks wants to stop using trans-fats
(the latest demon of choice for the
food-o-phobes out there that are
determined to wage war on everything and
anything that people derive pleasure
from eating) that’s a corporation making
a decision about the products they sell.
But when a segment of diet-Nazis look to
make it illegal to use trans-fats in the
products that people buy everyday, it’s
time to draw the line. Very simply,
people should be able to choose what
they want to eat. To put it another way:
if cigarettes are legal to buy in this
state, donuts should be too.
SPOTS
FOR PARENTS’ WEEKEND:
Zocalo, SoulFire
and The Deep Ellum
The chances aren’t great that mom
and dad will get a kick out of eating at
the same bar their college-aged kid was
thrown out of the previous night. Such
is the typical plight of Boston
University and Boston College students
living in the Allston-Brighton
neighborhood in years past—too many
pubs, and not enough fine dining for the
’rents. Luckily, the last year has seen
some newer, more diverse eateries
springing up in A-B—such as upscale,
authentic Mexican restaurant
Zocalo (1414
Commonwealth Ave., Brighton,
617-277-5700), the delicious down-home
barbecue of SoulFire
(182 Harvard Ave., Allston,
617-787-3003) and the distinctive craft
beer and cocktail restaurant The
Deep Ellum (477
Cambridge St., Allston, 617-787-BEER).
NORTH
END NEWCOMER:
Tresca
Boston hockey legend Ray Bourque never
won a Stanley Cup with the Bruins, but
now, just down the road from where he
used to ply his trade for the Bs,
Bourque’s latest endeavor is going
gangbusters. Bourque is one of the
owners of Tresca (233 Hanover St.,
617-742-8240), the hottest new addition
to an already phenomenal neighborhood
for restaurants—the North End. Like most
of its neighbors, Tresca offers Italian
cuisine, but largely eschews “red sauce”
pasta dishes for a more Tuscan,
wood-grilled meat vibe, featuring
everything from pork and veal chops to
ostrich, which has helped this new
arrival score plenty of raves.
NEIGHBORHOOD:
Fort Point/
Waterfront District
The first new art museum in 100
years—the new Institute for Contemporary
Art—was built here. New hotels to house
the folks attending events at the new
convention center down here are popping
up daily. Heck, Mayor Menino even wants
to move City Hall here. It’s
official—the Fort Point/South Boston
Waterfront District is Boston’s
fastest-growing new neighborhood, and
now that all these people are filling
the area, someone’s got to feed them.
That’s the thinking that’s led baker
Joanne Chang to open a new location of
her popular Flour Bakery
& Café (12 Farnsworth St.,
617-464-2500), that caused restaurant
titans Legal Sea Food to debut their new
restaurant concept LTK
(225 Northern Ave., 617-330-7430) and
which is leading acclaimed chef Barbara
Lynch to open her next restaurant
venture on Congress Street sometime in
2007. Add to this list the ICA’s
Water Café
(featuring food by Wolfgang Puck
Catering), hotel restaurants like
Sauciety (425
Summer St., 617-532-4670), where diners
can accent their food with any of more
than a dozen specialty sauces, and
Miel (510 Atlantic
Ave., 617-747-1000), a French-style
brasserie that scores points for being
the only place in Boston one’s likely to
find a post-midnight raw bar, and it’s
clear that by the sea is the place to be
for restaurants.
FACELIFTS:
Rendang, Rialto
and Cask ’n Flagon
Change, they say, is good—especially in
the restaurant game, where you need to
keep with the times or get left behind.
That’s no doubt why so many established
area eateries found themselves
expanding, changing menus and adding new
dimensions to their culinary experience.
Acclaimed chef Jody Adams’ Italian
eatery Rialto (One
Bennett St., Cambridge, 617-661-5050) is
set to re-open February 8, after being
closed for more than a month, with a new
menu and new décor. The venerable Red
Sox hangout the Cask ’n
Flagon (62 Brookline Ave.,
617-536-4840) updated its look from
neighborhood sports bar to
family-friendly pre-game restaurant,
while adding a nightclub, Oliver’s, in
the rear for post-game fun. And
Rendang (57 JFK
St., Cambridge, 617-576-2804), a popular
Malaysian eatery in Harvard Square has
undergone the biggest changes—changing
its name from Penang, acquiring a new
beer and wine license, and planning
additions such as new menu items, a
specially-designed range of “wine
cocktails” by mixologist Clif Travers of
OM Restaurant fame and a new café
section that will allow people to drop
in throughout the day for coffee, to
chat with friends and have “an
alternative to Starbucks,” in the words
of co-owner Bik Yonjan.
NEW
VENUE: The
Beehive
That buzz you’re hearing on the streets
of Boston isn’t a swarm of killer
bees—rather, it’s the excitement
generating about the arrival of a new
killer establishment. After much delay,
February is expected to see the arrival
of The Beehive—a
300-seat restaurant, bar and music venue
opening in the Boston Center for the
Arts complex in the South End. Culture
vultures throughout the city are
envisioning an eclectic bistro/supper
club/artsy-fartsy hangout unlike
anyplace in Boston, complete with a 2
a.m. license (something of a rarity in
Boston). Boston being Boston—and
renovating a building from the 1800s
being the task it is—there’s still a
chance we’ll be waiting longer for The
Beehive, but nightflys seem to agree
that when it gets here, it’s going to be
the bee’s knees.
PRE-THEATERE
DINING:
Rustic Kitchen and Avila
Nothing throws actors off worse
than being interrupted by the rumbling
stomach of an audience member who didn’t
eat before the show. There’s no reason
to be that guy—especially when the
Theatre District added a couple of top
new dining options in recent months.
Avila (One Charles
St. South, 617-267-4810) boasts
Mediterranean-influenced fare from
nations like Portugal, Spain, Italy,
Greece and France, with a special
emphasis on tapas-like small plates
perfect for sharing and for avoiding the
kind of gorging that will have you
dozing off by Act II. Additionally, the
Italian eatery Rustic
Kitchen (210 Stuart St.,
617-423-5700) closed two of its
locations in 2006, in order to open a
new massive Park Square restaurant that
features a garden lounge, a private wine
cellar lounge, and 200-seat bistro and
bar—meaning you should never have
problems getting a table in time to
feast on fantastic pizza, pastas,
seafood and more.
BAR
FOOD:
Vintage Lounge, Alchemist Lounge and The
Lower Depths
Once upon a time, bar food meant
pretzels, beer nuts and those pickled
eggs in a jar that look like they’ve
been there since the Truman
administration. Today, with the line
between upscale restaurants and cool
lounge/bars continuing to blur, a night
out centered around a few drinks can
easily turn into a delicious culinary
experience. Recent standout additions to
the scene here in the Hub are
Vintage Lounge (72
Broad St., 617-482-1900), a Financial
District hotspot that marries tapas,
Mediterranean and Moroccan-infleunced
dishes with an extensive cocktail menu;
Alchemist Lounge
(435 S. Huntington Ave., Jamaica Plain,
617-477-5741), an upscale pub boasting a
menu of American comfort foods with a
twist and a variety of flatbreads
covered in everything from BBQ pork and
cheddar to roasted chicken, gravy and
cranberry relish; and The
Lower Depths (476 Commonwealth
Ave., 617-266-6662), a new beer bar and
Kenmore Square hangout boasting local
brews on tap and Fenway Franks for just
$1 each.
New
Spot on Newbury Street:
Bouchée
With the arrival of urban brasserie
Bouchée (159
Newbury Street, 617-450-4343), Newbury
Street feels only an Eiffel Tower shy of
true Parisian flair. Providing
everything one would expect from a top
brasserie, including an extensive wine
list, raw bar, outdoor seating and
impressive, bow-tie clad wait staff,
Bouchée is perfect for either a mid-day
croque monsieur or long, sinfully rich
meal of chef Tim Partridge’s divine
cuisine.
Seafood
Trend:
Upscale Sushi
The exquisite sushi at
Oishii (1166
Washington St., 617-482-8868) was once
available only to those who braved
scoring a seat at its tiny Chestnut Hill
locale. Fortunately for the Hub’s
growing mass of sushi obsessives, the
top-ranked Zagat eatery opened a
significantly larger South End
restaurant in 2006, offering everyone
the chance to sample its perfectly
prepared fish. Better yet, last year saw
Douzo (131
Dartmouth St., 617-859-8885) debut in
the Back Bay, another high-end Japanese
eatery knocking diners socks off. Could
it be the Bay State is finally emerging
from a haze of battered and fried cod?
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