Barbara and I just got back from our first time at Gaslight Brasserie du Coin, and it won’t be our last. Mostly excellent food, excellent service, and free parking — in the South End! — what more could one ask for?
Cheaper prices, I suppose. Gaslight is definitely on the pricey side… but no more so than any other first-rate restaurant in Boston.
We arrived 35 minutes before our reservation time and were seated immediately. The restaurant has a very French ambiance. Though surprisingly large, it immediately feels welcoming. Our server, Lily, was both friendly and professional — just the right combination. It was (surprisingly) not too noisy, considering that a group of 14 arrived halfway through our dinner to sit at the next table. Many reviewers have reported that Gaslight is too loud, so maybe we were just lucky. Or maybe it was because we were there on a Tuesday.
Barbara started with a shaved beet salad, which she found a bit stronger than she likes, partly because the beets were raw and partly because the dressing contained a lot of horseradish. Not being that much of a beet fan, I can’t comment. But I started with a first-rate French onion soup, unquestionably the best I have had in years. It was rich and hearty, probably because it contained some shredded truffled short ribs.
For our entrees, Barbara ordered steak frites medium rare, and I ordered duck confit with roasted garlic potatoes and an interesting salad. The steak turned out to be rare, not medium rare; our server graciously agreed, whisked it away, and returned in a couple of minutes with the steak appropriately unrarefied. My duck was great, as were the accompaniments. We also ordered a side of haricots verts to share; they were excellent too. While portions were on the small side, we had more than enough to eat, unlike some of the Open Table reviewers.
I ordered the crème brulée for dessert. It was perfectly prepared, though the crust was cold and they were out of the promised fresh berries that were supposed to accompany it. The server compensated by providing a lovely disk of candied cherries, figs, and kumquats. My dessert was also accompanied by a well-made double espresso.
The whole thing came to $154 including wine, tax, and tip. As I say, not cheap — but not outrageous either. By the way, that free parking is in a supervised parking lot.
For April vacation we decided to visit Baltimore — partly because we wanted to see the city, partly because we knew a couple of people there, and partly because it was an excuse to ride on the high-speed Acela Express. We splurged on first class, which provided us a helpful attendant dedicated to our car, food and drink service at our seats, and (most important) wider seats with extra legroom. The food was merely adequate, and first class was occasionally bumpy (just like regular “business” class, surprise, surprise), and we didn’t really take advantage of the unlimited beverages (a glass or two of wine doesn’t compete with the four Bloody Marys consumed by each of the guys in front of us), but I suppose the more comfortable seating made it worth paying the extra fee. In any case, the Acela was mostly a very enjoyable experience — certainly much better than flying, and not just because I like trains. Avoiding all the security hassles at an airport is the #1 advantage, but there are many others; in general, going by train is just the civilized way to travel, and it’s a real pity that it’s dying out in North America. My only complaint is that the free WiFi service was pretty lame, being slow at the best of times and cutting out altogether at others.
Speaking of splurging, we decided to stay at the Hilton in the Inner Harbor neighborhood, mostly because we already have a relationship with them as we always stay at the Hilton Garden Inn when we go to Elmira. This particular Hilton provided several advantages but also many disadvantages. The biggest plus was the view from our 18th-floor room (of course they called it the 19th, since they skipped floor 13):
I suppose we would have appreciated this view even more if we had been sports fans. (The tourist info person at the city’s Visitor Center told us that Baltimoreans always appreciate visitors from Boston. “We like to take their money,” she explained, “since they always spend a lot when they come here to watch the Red Sox beat the Orioles.”) Anyway, the room was comfortable, the quality of the furniture matched the view, and the location couldn’t be beat.
Those are the advantages. The disadvantages all sound petty, but they added up when compared to the much less expensive Hilton Garden Inn: this regular (“full-price”) Hilton charges for WiFi, serves disappointing breakfasts, provides no fridge or microwave, has a sink that’s set back six inches and can be used easily only if you’re tall and skinny (neither of which we are), and features a shower head that’s too high for me to reach (and much too high for Barbara, who’s 4′9″). All of this for a single room that costs a lot more per night than our suite in Elmira. Now of course this is partly (largely?) because of the economic differences between Elmira and Baltimore, but it would be interesting to see what the Garden Inn costs in Baltimore (yes, there is one, in an almost-as-convenient location).
After walking around the Inner Harbor area, we stopped at the aforementioned Visitor Center, from which we took a 100-minute guided tour of the city on one of those fake trolleys. Despite the many errors made by our guide, a retired podiatrist, I’m really glad we took the tour and always recommend these things to newcomers to any city. They’re the best way to get an overview of the city and an orientation to what’s where. Then you know what to do for the rest of your visit.
I mentioned that our guide made many errors. Here are five of them:
- He claimed that the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is the oldest Unitarian church in the United States. It was established in 1817. Dorchester’s First Parish Church was established in 1630. Not much of a contest there.
- Speaking of churches, he identified one as a “Lithuanian mosque”… and then compounded his mistake by observing that it’s a “Lithuanian Catholic mosque.”
- Another religious one: when we passed the Holocaust memorial, the guide referred to the “one million Jews killed by Hitler.” It’s not that I want to play a numbers game here, but one million is far from six million.
- On a non-religious matter, he pointed out the house of Wallis Simpson, who married “King Henry VIII.” Edward, Schmedward, let’s call him Henry.
- Finally, when we passed the building where Homicide: Life on the Street was filmed (see picture below), the guide observed that this wonderful TV series was directed by John Waters. Not even close!
The guide was also rather clueless about the response of one tourist while driving through the nearby German and Polish neighborhoods. “The Polish immigrants were unwilling to live next to the Germans,” he remarked.
The woman in the back of the bus said, “Gee, I wonder why.”
“It’s because the Germans invaded Poland before World War II…” the guide started to explain.
“She was being sarcastic!” interrupted another tourist.
After the “trolley” tour, we mostly got around on foot, especially when exploring the fascinating Mt. Vernon and Fells Point neighborhoods. We had to try out the light rail at least once, and we often took advantage of the wonderful new Charm City Circulator, which provides free and frequent bus service in a loop throughout the downtown area. With two routes still to go, the first route has been open for only three months and is already a tremendous success. At one point we needed to take a regular city bus, as we were going to the Baltimore Museum of Art (see next paragraph), which is outside of the downtown area. Not being completely sure of where the nearest bus stop might be, I whipped out my iPhone and checked the Maps app, which not only located the nearest stop for the #3 bus but even told us that the next bus would be coming along in four minutes! (I know, I sound like an Apple ad, but it was incredibly convenient.)
We visited three museums during our brief visit, and can highly recommend all of them:
- The Walters Art Museum has an extraordinary eclectic collection. We focused on the Egyptian artifacts, the Islamic manuscripts, and the special exhibit of Japanese cloisonné.
- The B&O Railroad Museum is perhaps of more specialized interest, but it has a fine collection of vintage locomotives and railway cars that visitors can explore (many cars are restored to their original condition), as well as a couple of well-done model railroad layouts.
- The 600-pound gorilla is the astonishing Baltimore Museum of Art, which has to be one of the top art museums in the country. Most fascinating was their temporary exhibit about Cezanne and his influence on American modernism, which I found both enjoyable and informative. The Antioch mosaics, the European art in general, and especially the Cone Collection all deserved more time than we had. If you’re ever in Baltimore, don’t miss this museum!
Finally, we can’t go anywhere without mentioning restaurants. All in all, we were a little bit disappointed in the food we had in Baltimore, and I’m sure we could have done better. Although we were told that it was silly for us as Bostonians to go out for seafood, it seemed sillier not to. Why go somewhere and avoid their specialty? So we mostly — but not exclusively — ate seafood. One dinner we ate at Phillips Seafood, which started with two strikes against it because of being both touristy and a chain, but it turned out to be perfectly adequate. We also ate at the famous Bertha’s Mussels, still touristy but at least local; it was good, but definitely not gourmet. On the gourmet side we did have an excellent meal at the Marie Louise Bistro, but we concluded with an overpriced and unimpressive experience at the LDS restaurant our last night. We went there because it was raining and we were exhausted from all our walking, so we found the closest restaurant to our hotel. At first we thought that the sign meant that it was a Mormon restaurant, but it turned out to stand for “Luna del Sea.” This hybrid of English and fake Italian turned out to represent the cuisine all too well, and neither the service nor the ambiance made me comfortable. Don’t bother going there the next time you’re in Baltimore.
Oh — two more things. First, it’s worth noting that there are many instances of public art in the downtown area. Here are a couple of examples:
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| Finally, on the right we have what purports to be the narrowest house in Baltimore: the visitors’ info claims that it’s only nine feet wide, and it certainly looks to be no more than that. If you look carefully, you’ll see from the brick that there are different row houses almost immediately to the left and right of the doorway. |
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I am sure that we are going to return.
Julie and Julia has gotten so much publicity that I’m not sure I have much to add. It was a good movie to watch on New Year’s Eve — but watch it anyway if you haven’t seen it yet, New Year’s Eve or not. In this fictionalization of a true story, Meryl Streep is surprisingly successful at portraying the great Julia Child, Amy Adams does a great job as the irritating Julie Powell, the food looks delicious, the scenes in Paris are inviting, and Queens looks like…well…Queens. Paul Child and Eric Powell are played as unendingly supportive husbands, as they apparently were in real life. (Maybe that’s why some reviewers consider this a chick flick.) There are no surprises here — just a well-made, charming, and entertaining movie. Don’t listen to those who tell you it’s too long (at 123 minutes); it isn’t.
Our quest for new dining experiences in Dorchester continues with Harp & Bard, a follow-up to our recent visit to Ledge. Barbara and I — this time with our friends Al and Melanie — enjoyed our meal enough to be willing to return. Like Ledge, we have a renovated bar turned into a real restaurant that appeals too much to kids while still being too much of a bar, both features resulting in too much noise. (Is this some kind of trend?) But the food was more consistent, and all four of us were pleased with our dinners. The one real exception was the French onion soup, which I had to try in order to compare it with the same item at Ledge. Unfortunately someone had goofed massively in the kitchen, as I fished out six — count them, six — bay leaves in my one cup of soup! After performing the essential laurelectomy I was able to enjoy the soup without being overwhelmed by the scent and taste of bay leaves, which shouldn’t have been left in the soup in the first place even if there had been only one of them; six was a ridiculous quantity.
Oh well, enough of that rant. My companions report excellent corn-and-bacon chowder; we also were pleased with the Caesar salad, the high-quality sliders (an entree-sized appetizer), the perfectly prepared mussels, and the excellent prime rib, which was cooked exactly as ordered (very differently for Melanie and for me, an indication of success on their part). Wine was OK but disappointing. Finally, I have to say that I’m impressed with their new logo:
So, on the whole it’s a thumbs-up for the Harp & Bard, despite a few reservations. (No, not that kind of reservations. It’s not that sort of restaurant.)
Barbara and I, along with our friend Mary, were disappointed with Ledge, the newest restaurant in the up-and-coming Dorchester dining scene. It would probably be a fine place for lunch, but we were unimpressed with our dinner there. The most jarring thing was the atmosphere — oddly both too much like a bar and too full of young kids, neither being conducive to the quiet dining experience we had expected. Service was correspondingly erratic. The food — this is beginning to sound like a theme — was of inconsistent quality, featuring steak of mediocre quality, adequate onion soup, routine mac and cheese, and excellent vegetables. Probably one could put together a good meal here if one knew what to order, but there are too many other better dining options around to make it worth returning to Ledge.
I’ve written about dBar twice before: on January 17, 2006, and on February 15, 2008. It has maintained its high standards. Barbara had mussels, followed by steak tacos, and she reports that both were excellent. I started with a scrumptious duck confit with lentils — how could I resist? — followed by a perfectly prepared tuna ceviche.
As our appetizers were being served, the entire experience was enhanced by the entrance of two men, accompanied by the Wedding March: they were holding their wedding reception right there in dBar! (It’s all one big room, so there was no private space, although the bar area is marked off by a half-height wall.)
The southern half of Dorchester is becoming known for its new restaurants, especially if you extend the southern edge a bit into Milton. As you know from my brief review of Mrs. Jones, I’ve already written about one of these new restaurants. We still haven’t tried Ledge or Abby Park, but yesterday Barbara and I had a first-rate dinner at 88 Wharf, located unsurprisingly at 88 Wharf St. As you can see on the map, this restaurant is actually in Milton, but it’s only about 200 feet from the Dorchester border as the crow flies. Or, if you happen to have a car rather than a crow, you’ll have to venture a little further (about 500 feet) into Milton. But don’t worry; it’s not scary. Here’s the map:
Anyway, the atmosphere was slightly elegant but still welcoming and comfortable. Service was perfect: prompt, attentive, and appropriately chatty, but never rushed or overbearing. (Are you beginning to sense a theme here?) When we ordered a bottle of wine that they turned out to have run out of, the waiter offered us a choice of two somewhat comparable but higher-priced wines for the price of the one we had ordered. So we got a Zaca Mesa Syrah for the price of a Seghesio Zin. Both Barbara and I really liked the perfect Caesar salad, even though at first I didn’t taste the promised anchovies, which turned out to be a subtle ingredient of the dressing. Barbara then had an excellent short-ribs stroganoff, which was served over papardelle noodles, along with a side of properly cooked green beans. I had the lamb shank — why is it so hard to find lamb in restaurants these days? — which came with barley and kale. The flavors of all three merged wonderfully to produce a memorable dish.
I wasn’t intending to have dessert, but I couldn’t pass up the “traditional crème brulée,” balanced by a large cup of strong, black coffee. The crème brulée was indeed traditional; more to the point it was smooth and perfectly prepared. A fitting end to a fine meal. As General MacArthur and his wife said, “We shall return.”
After several enthusiastic recommendations from friends, Barbara and I decided to try the take-out from Mrs. Jones, a small restaurant at 2255 Dorchester Avenue in Lower Mills, Dorchester. We are pleased to report an enthusiastic thumbs-up. For an exceptionally reasonable price we got two dinners of fried chicken wings with assorted sides — cole slaw, candied yams, stuffing, mac & cheese, and cornbread — which provided not only Sunday dinners for the two of us but also another meal’s worth of leftovers for two. Almost everything was delicious (other than the overcooked macaroni), so we are recommending Mrs. Jones to all our friends. Aside from a tiny counter, with maybe four seats, it’s entirely take-out. For more details, check out the reviews in Hidden Boston and Yelp.
I’ve had lunch twice so far at Pasha, a new Turkish restaurant in Arlington Center. Although I don’t know anything yet about their dinners, I can highly recommend it on the basis of the two lunches. If you’ve never had Turkish cuisine, you have to try it! Unsurprisingly it resembles Greek cuisine quite a bit — it’s unsurprising since the majority of Greek foods were originally Turkish, presumably in part because of the geographical proximity of the two countries but more because of the Ottoman Empire. Anyway, the very extensive menu includes a wide variety of meat, seafood, and veggie dishes, with the expected emphasis on lamb and eggplant. At our recent lunch we shared a perfectly done babaghannouj as a cold appetizer (though oddly with an Americanized French bread instead of pita), an unusual mucver as a hot appetizer (that’s fried stuffed zucchini with garlic yogurt sauce, accompanied by a small salad), and the delicious Sultan’s Boat as an entree (described as “beef and lamb marinated with Turkish spices, roasted with mashed potatoes and mozzarella cheese, served with bulgar and house salad”). Despite the bread and the mozzarella cheese (and the presence of lasagna on the menu), Pasha seems very authentic, if I can remember correctly from my visit to Turkey all too long ago — I think it was in 1978. And they do serve wine and beer; even though Turkey is an ostensibly Muslim nation, it’s a thoroughly secularized one.
My only complaint is a linguistic one. Because they chose to use a font that doesn’t include such essential Turkish letters as the undotted i (ı) or the ş and ç with cedillas — all distinct from the dotted i, the plain s, and the plain c — many of the Turkish words were incorrect. Somehow I suspect that that won’t bother very many of the patrons, but it bothered me.
First of all, if you’re one of my students, you should not read this post, since you’re under 21 and know nothing about wine.
Yesterday afternoon we were introduced to “Dorchester’s best-kept secret,” the Boston Winery, at a fundraiser for the Dorchester Historical Society (DHS). You probably never knew that there’s a winery in Dorchester — in fact, you probably never knew that there was one anywhere in Boston. I, at any rate, never knew that. But in fact the Boston Winery has been around for a few years, and not only makes its own wines but also provides customers with the opportunity to make their own.
The fundraiser consisted of a tour of the winery and a tasting of several varietals, including Syrah, Cabernet, Zin, and Merlot. I was quite surprised at the high quality of the wines. That may be due to the fact that the grapes come from California (in contrast, say, to the undrinkable wines from upstate New York). The winery is owned by the family that owns the Venezia Restaurant next-door, and is located in a beautiful, renovated old factory. Check it out; it’s located on Ericsson Street, which you’ve probably never heard of — but that’s appropriate, since you’ve never heard of the Boston Winery either. It’s right on the waterfront, in the Port Norfolk section of Dorchester.
This evening’s Taste of Dorchester event was a great success. When I moved to Dorchester in 1985, I never would have guessed that there would soon be a couple of dozen good restaurants in this part of Boston — and with such a wonderful diversity. Among the places providing all-you-can-eat (actually, more-than-you-can-eat) food at the IBEW Hall were Chau Chow (Chinese), Saigon Seafood (Vietnamese), Shanti (Indian/Bangladeshi), Ashmont Grill (local gourmet), Tavolo (Italian), Blarney Stone (eclectic, no longer Irish as the name suggests), Greenhills (I guess they’re still Irish), Cesaria (Cape Verdean), Irie (Jamaican), Belle Cuisine (Haitian), Big Moe’s (ribs) — I could go on, but you get the idea! Come to Dorchester and try them out. As we like to say, it’s no farther from Arlington to Dorchester than it is from Dorchester to Arlington.
What do you do if you’re at a restaurant and there’s a celebrity at the next table? I’m told that Europeans ignore celebrities and let them enjoy their privacy, but Americans all too often have to say hello, get an autograph, and so forth. I’ve written several times before about the Ashmont Grill — see my posts of 12/31/06, 7/19/08, and 12/23/08, for instance — and that’s where Barbara and I saw Governor Deval Patrick and his wife sitting at the next table yesterday along with two other couples. Fortunately, the other patrons in the restaurant were all polite and paid no attention. No one came over for an autograph, no one came over to complain about taxes or the Mass Pike, and I even resisted taking advantage of this opportunity to lobby for Metco.
Incidentally, even before spotting the governor, I realized something unusual about the clientele at the Ashmont Grill these days. Although Dorchester is racially very diverse, that has not usually been the case with its restaurants. Typically customers at any given restaurant are either 95–100% white or 95–100% black. It’s not exactly segregation, but it’s painfully close to that. But the Ashmont Grill is cheerfully mixed. I didn’t do a headcount, but it was very clear that the black/white ratio was somewhere between 1:4 and 1:2, a much healthier balance than I usually see.
Speaking of which, go to A Taste of Dorchester on April 30! The mixture of restaurants at that event will certainly guarantee a diverse crowd.
Chalk up another plus or two for Dorchester.
Over the past few weeks, a number of my sophomores have been trying to figure out my birthday. All they knew was that it was somewhere in February. Even though I had told them that one of my students (now a senior) had figured it out two years ago in five minutes through clever Internet research, and even though several of them read this blog, they were getting nowhere. It all turned into a game: they would come in every day and ask, “Is today your birthday?” And every day I would say, “No.”
They made sure that I promised that my birthday was not on a weekend, nor in school vacation week. Finally, after several hints about research techniques (especially from a colleague, who pointed out that this is a searchable blog), Irene, Seena, and Tricia figured out my birthday with two days to spare.
So, today really was my birthday. Barbara and I just got back from dinner at Sel de la Terre, our favorite birthday spot. Earlier I reviewed this restaurant for Barbara’s birthday last year and for my birthday three years ago. Sel de la Terre continues its excellent and nearly perfect tradition. We were worried that they might be spreading themselves too thin, since they now have a third location, but our worries turned out to be unfounded. Barbara started with mussels with ceci (which I call chick peas and Barbara insists on calling garbanzo beans); these came in a delicious tomato-y broth but with too much fennel for her taste. I started with a competent French onion soup; it was very hot and rich in flavor, though the cheese could have been more melted. For her entree, Barbara had tiny crab cakes with rosemary whipped potatoes. Both the crab cakes and the potatoes were first-rate. I chose rack of lamb with lima beans, scallions, and whipped potatoes. The lamb was luscious and flavorful, cooked rare than the medium-rare that I had ordered, but that was fine with me: I love rare lamb. We had a nice bottle of a big red wine, Les Arbousiers from Domaine La Remejeanne, a reasonably priced but high-quality 2005 Cotes de Rhone. For dessert we shared a yummy chocolate espresso molten cake with espresso ice ream and cocoa cream; I think they took the calories out before assembling it, at least I hope so. After presenting us with the check, which was somewhat lower than last year’s, they gave us a freshly baked scone and corn muffin to take home.
I particularly want to commend the waitress for being consistently careful to ensure that neither the breads nor anything I ordered contained tree nuts, after ona single mention of my nut allergy. And they put a birthday candle on the cake, without needing any reminder: my birthday must be in their database, since they send me a certificate every February for 20% off.
Business was surprisingly slow for a Friday night. It must be the economy, since neither the food nor the service can explain it. Maybe that’s no surprise after all: apparently the high-end restaurants are all hurting, even if the cheaper ones are still doing all right.
While I suppose this probably isn’t news to anyone else, it was to me. Yesterday Barbara picked up a granola bar labeled Kellogg’s® Special K Bliss™. Note that Special K comes with “a variety of delicious options to kick-start a healthier new you!”
Lose 1 inch from your waist in 2 weeks with The Special K Challenge™. Turning wight [sic] loss goals into success stories has never been easier with the wide selection of delicious Special K® products.
On the assumption that what they’re really promoting is weight loss, I turned to the ingredient list. As we know, “food manufacturers are required to list all ingredients in the food on the label. On a product label, the ingredients are listed in order of predominance, with the ingredients used in the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts.” So let’s check out this healthful product that wants to promote weight loss. I’ll excerpt the intimidatingly long list of ingredients with highlights, but I am not changing the order: “multigrain cereal (rice flour, wheat flour, whole oat flour, sugar, salt), sugar, corn syrup, bran flakes (wheat, sugar, …), rice cereal (rice, sugar, salt, high fructose corn syrup,…), …, glucose syrup, sugar, …” What’s wrong with this picture?
No, not two dogs. No, not two students whose last name is Chow. I’m referring to two Chinese restaurants: Chau Chow in Dorchester (discussed previously in this blog on 7/23/2008, 9/1/2006, and 5/9/2006) and Great Chow in the Wollaston section of Quincy (discussed only once in this blog, on 2/4/2006). Anyway, I just wanted to report that Barbara and I had a first-rate dinner at Great Chow the other night; we ordered far too much food, as all six of the special entrees were irresistible. Well, we had to resist, so we limited ourselves to three — which of course was still too much food. So we had leftovers to take home; nothing wrong with that. I highly recommend all three of the specials that we tried: lightly fried shrimp with garlic green beans, lobster with ginger and scallions, and roast duck with green beans.
Go to Chau Chow for dim sum, but Great Chow is definitely the better choice for dinner.
The waitress at the Legal Seafoods branch in Harvard Square was nervous and very apologetic. “This is my first time opening a bottle of wine in front of a customer,” she confessed. Of course she wasn’t allowed to rest the bottle on the table, and everything was supposed to be perfect.
We assured her that it was OK to put the bottle on the table, and we coached her through the process. The cork came out smoothly. The waitress was just so grateful: “Most people would be upset with me for not knowing how to do this.”
I replied by saying that I’m a teacher and that I believe in being patient while people learn. Doesn’t sound so unusual to me…but then again, I’m a teacher. We left a good tip.
We had lunch today at Beijing Garden, a reasonably good Chinese restaurant in Elmira. Why were we the only customers using chopsticks? Why was everybody covertly looking at us?
And why wasn’t this restaurant open yesterday (Christmas Day)? I guess there isn’t much of a Jewish population in Elmira anymore.
I’ve written a couple of previous posts about the Ashmont Grill — two years ago and five months ago. Since the latter post, Barbara and I have visited several times, mostly for the Monday Night wine club, which I highly recommend (though not, of course, for my under-21 readers). Each evening features a four-course dinner (admittedly of four small plates), with wines paired with each course, for an amazing $30 per person. The food is almost uniformly excellent, though occasionally the restaurant takes this opportunity to try out new dishes which of course aren’t necessarily successful. (Presumably the reason that they can achieve the $30 price point is that the wines are donated by a winery or retail outlet each time.) Here are four recent examples to whet your appetite:
From September 8
From October 27
From November 3
From December 22
I’m looking forward to Tuscany! (Who wouldn’t?)
A related event was a wine tasting benefit on August 4 at the Ashmont Grill for the St. Marks Area Civic Association, featuring wines from Albert Winestein, a retail wine-and-cheese store in Hyde Park.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Wine Club is not the wine nor even the food, but the fact that guests are arranged family style at tables that seat four to eight. As a couple, Barbara and I are always seated with strangers, something that would usually have a high probability of making me uncomfortable. I’m not particularly extraverted, and I tend not to be very sociable with people I don’t know yet. But the fact is that we’ve met lots of interesting people with a surprising number of things in common with us — not just providing the obvious conversation topics such as food, wine, and Dorchester. We’ve met a manager at a local independent bookstore (one of the few that remain), a physics professor, an architect from a neighboring town, and a woman who knew one of the very few Weston families to be distinctly countercultural.
So, if you live anywhere near Dorchester, try it out! Reservations are advised; you can call the restaurant (617-825-4300) to make inquiries and to be put on their email list. They usually don’t know the menus until a few days in advance, so don’t expect a lot of notice.
As locals know, the current incarnation of the Ashmont Grill is the creation of Chris Douglass, a neighborhood resident who is best known for his South End restaurant, Icarus. Barbara and I usually go to Icarus only once a year (for our anniversary), since it’s extremely expensive. The Ashmont Grill is still a bit overpriced, and not in the same league as Icarus in terms of cuisine and service, but at least it’s the sort of place that one could go to once a month, even without the exceptional value of the Wine Club. Read my July 19 review for more of my point of view, or check out the many reviews on Yelp for a variety of opinions, some reasonable and some wrong-headed. (I’m reminded of Tom Lehrer’s remark that the trouble with folk music is that it’s written by the people, and my friend Brian’s observation that you have to be wary of the general public’s opinions of restaurants, since McDonald’s is the most popular restaurant in the world.)
Before we leave the subject of the Ashmont Grill, I need to write a bit about Tavolo, Chris Douglass’s latest restaurant, catty-corner from the Ashmont Grill and right at the Ashmont Station on the Red Line. The theory was that this would be a third price point, with Icarus at the very high end, Ashmont Grill in the Middle, and Tavolo at the low end. As a pizza-and-pasta joint, Tavolo should be informal and inexpensive, while still serving high-quality food. Barbara and I have been there a couple of times, and we’re not impressed, though we really, really want to like it. The food is perfectly OK (nothing to write home about, but then again that’s not what you would expect), though there were a few flaws. For instance, while Barbara’s salad came with the dressing on the side, as she had requested, it was so heavily pre-salted that she couldn’t eat it. (Why pre-salt a salad at all?) And the carbonara was a bit too eggy, at least for our taste. We really liked the mushroom pizza. Service was fine, including cheerfully willing replacement of the salted salad. But our big problem was the wine prices. For a purportedly inexpensive restaurant with a $40 ceiling on wine, why does the lowest-price red go for $32? (My friends who are beer drinkers don’t have similar complaints.) For instance, a nice Sicilian Nero d’Avola that can be purchased retail for ten dollars is priced at $36 at Tavolo! I know that there are lots of reason for significant mark-ups, but if the otherwise pricey Birch Street Bistro in Roslindale can charge $24 for similar wines, why can’t Tavolo?
The Savin Hill neighborhood in Dorchester is conventionally divided into two parts, at least by real estate agents. The “better” half, according to some, is “Savin Hill over the Bridge,” namely the portion to the east of the bridge that crosses the Southeast Expressway. Dorchester is changing so rapidly that this decades-only terminology may now be out of date; read what people have to say on Yelp if you want some local opinions on the subject.
Anyway, immediately to the west of the bridge — practically on the bridge itself, but not quite “over the bridge” — is C.F. Donovan’s Restaurant, one of our favorites in Dorchester. Simple, unpretentious, not trying to be upscale or too gourmet, Donovan’s is where Barbara and I go when we’re driving home and it’s too late to start cooking dinner. Always reliable, Donovan’s has a large menu, prices are good, the food is always of high quality, the service is friendly and accurate, the portions are large, and the wine list is both decent and reasonably priced. What more could one ask for?
Try the Savin Hill scallops (“Jumbo Sea Scallops sautéed with sage butter, served over baby spinach and garlic mashed potatoes”), the French onion soup, the prime rib, the onion rings, the chicken bella boca, the grilled asparagus, and the burgers. In our experience, you can’t go wrong.
Following up on yesterday’s footnote, I need to mention another linguistic annoyance: the misuse of the word “Spanish.” Yes, it correctly describes the language that is spoken not only in Spain but also in much of Central and South America, but it’s not the right word for the culture, the food, or the people — unless, of course, you’re talking about Spain itself. For the Western Hemisphere we have the perfectly good words “Hispanic” and “Latino.” Anyway, my local neighborhood convenience store changed owners recently, and now it advertises “Spanish & American Foods,” as you can see in this picture. (I couldn’t find an angle that would avoid the intrusive stop sign, but you can still read it pretty well.)
Needless to say, I found lot of Latin American items inside the store but very little food from Spain. They do, however, primarily carry the Goya Foods brand, and it’s of interest that Goya was indeed founded by a couple from Spain. Goya, however, clearly uses the words “Spanish,” “Hispanic,” and “Latino” correctly on their website.
Two years ago I promised a review of the dim sum at the then-new branch of Chau Chow in Dorchester, but I don’t think I ever wrote one. So here, at long last, is that review.
Barbara and I ate dim sum there this morning (for what must be at least the sixth time — so you can see that we like it). Chau Chow serves traditional dim sum, where the servers roll carts around the restaurant and you order small quantities (Chinese tapas?) by pointing, not from a menu. There are, of course, both advantages and disadvantages to this system: aside from being authentic and just generally cool, the rolling-cart method has the advantage that you can see what you’re getting; it has the disadvantages that the food can sometimes come in very rapid succession, and you don’t always know what you’re getting, especially when the server speaks little English or very heavily accented English. At Chau Chow there are several servers in this category, but they’re all friendly and willing to try. The food is quite delicious, at least to these moderately educated Western palates. I don’t know what customers at the extremes would think — either the extreme of wanting totally Americanized food or the extreme of wanting nothing familiar. Perhaps both of those groups would be disappointed.
There are several dishes about which Barbara and I can agree: we’re both very fond of them. This morning we had scrumptious pork-and-shrimp shumai, unctuous eggplant that’s probably bad for us, yummy ground pork dumplings, the always delicious fried taro cakes (with a bit of shrimp in them), two different kinds of lovely shrimp-and-scallion dumplings, some not-to-be-missed lobster dumplings (yum!) — all of those were items we both loved. Do you begin to detect any themes there? In addition, we had scallion dumplings (which Barbara liked more than I did, since I’m put off by the flavor that steaming imparts to scallions) and stuffed mushrooms (which I love, but which have a texture that doesn’t appeal to Barbara). Needless to say, this was too much food, so we took quite a bit home to reheat for breakfast and/or lunch tomorrow. The entire bill came to $42.00 including tax and tip, which sounds like a lot for breakfast or brunch but was actually quite reasonable when you consider all the leftovers it provided.
So go to Chau Chow, especially if you have a group of more than two people, so you can sample more choices. Maybe you’ll try the chicken feet.
It was too hot to cook today, so Barbara and I went to the Ashmont Grill, along with our friend Cheri. This was our third dinner visit there in the past six months or so (in addition to a couple of brunches). I didn’t post anything about the previous two dinners, since I was waiting for a tie-breaker, and now we have one.
First of all, what happened two visits ago? We had been disappointed at that time, because earlier experiences at the Ashmont Grill had all been wonderful; but that time everything was mediocre. Vegetables were somewhat overcooked, meat was a bit dry and not hot enough, and service was haphazard. Next time would be better, we hoped. And indeed it was. So which was the real Ashmont Grill? I am pleased to report that the one disappointing experience was an anomaly, and all seems to be well. The three of us sampled a variety of items on the menu, and there wasn’t a false step among them: crisp, light calamari, whisked to us from the fryer without spending time under a heat lamp; plump, fresh, garlicky mussels in a red pepper sauce; a top-quality hamburger cooked exactly to order; fall-off-the-bone short ribs in not too much sauce; excellent home-made cole slaw; hot, thick, sinfully rich home-made onion rings; hot, fresh, cornbread; and a nice bottle of Côtes du Rousillon.
The prices, of course, are significantly lower than those at Chris Douglass’s other restaurant, his flagship Icarus, which is one of the very best restaurants in Boston. But it still seems a bit expensive for an informal, low-key, neighborhood-type place. Oh, it’s still definitely worth it, but don’t expect cheap. The food and service are great; now if only the prices were a little lower…
Which is a better place to buy soft-shell crabs, the Legal Seafoods fish market at Chestnut Hill or the Roche Bros. supermarket in West Roxbury? The obvious answer is Legal, of course. Everyone knows that fish markets are better than supermarkets, and Legal is well-known for selling impeccably fresh fish (not to mention fresh ads). But the Conventional Wisdom is apparently wrong. I’ve bought soft-shell crabs three times in the past month — once at Legal and twice at Roche Bros. — and the verdict is clear. The Roche Bros. product (at three dollars per crab) was tastier, fresher-tasting, and plumper than the Legal product (at six dollars per crab, though for slightly larger ones, I must admit).
On a slightly different matter, it’s unfortunate that the Shaw’s and Stop & Shop markets in Dorchester can’t provide food and service of the quality provided by the West Roxbury Roche Bros., where the food is always good and the employees are both well-trained and friendly.
Barbara and I went to Sel de la Terre to celebrate her birthday yesterday. As always, the food and service were excellent, though I found the entire experience a bit pricey: $200 in total, including wine (one of the least expensive bottles on the wine list!), tax, and tip. And then there was the parking, an astonishing $34 for anything over 80 minutes at the garage (which is shared by the Aquarium, an Emack & Bolio’s, and a Legal Seafoods restaurant). We hadn’t realized that valet parking would have been a bit cheaper, although the expected tip would eat up most of the difference. Maybe this won’t be an issue once Sel de la Terre moves to the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel. But anyway…back to the food…
For our first course, Barbara had giant white prawns, which came with spinach, creamy polenta, bacon, and greens. She reports that it was all delicious, as long as she could ignore the fact that the prawns came with their heads on. I had flatbread pizza with caramelized onions, spinach, lamb bacon (!), Comté cheese, fried capers, and créme fraiche. It sounds overly elaborate, but all the flavors melted seamlessly together to create an excellent dish.
Barbara then had steak frites with asparagus, cooked perfectly and very French. My main dish was described as follows on the menu:
Braised lamb shank with spring bean cassoulet, merguez, caramelized rhubarb and sweet onion compote.
I’m not sure how much merguez there was, but everything else was there in perfect balance — a great combination.
The service was wonderful. Perfect, you might say. The waitress was friendly without being intrusive, knowledgeable but never pretentious, and attentive without hovering.
Not surprisingly, we had no room for dessert and both of us even had leftovers to take home. I suppose it was worth the $200 for a once-a-year (or perhaps twice-a-year) experience.
Barbara and I spent a few hours yesterday evening in Jamaica Plain. First we walked to the Axiom Gallery, which is hosting an intriguing Math and Art exhibit through April 27 right next to the Green Street T station (confusingly on the Orange Line, not the Green Line). Most of the art is worth seeing for its own sake, but the special appeal for me was the large number of connections with some of the topics that my precalculus class has been studying this year. The sculptures of Bathsheba Grossman are particularly striking. For example:
The works of Kevin van Aelst were also vividly related to what we’ve been studying, as his Dragon Curve, Sierpinski Arrowhead (made of Triscuits!), and Cantor Set made out of a fractal egg all show:
  
I was also intrigued by the works of Keith Peters, which could readily be modeled in NetLogo or StarLogo, even though he apparently used neither, and also by the works of J. Michael James, whose fractal condor was especially beautiful as it swooped around on a large screen.
All in all, definitely a worthwhile experience. I just wish the exhibit had been more extensive, so that I could have justified recommending it to my Weston students. Barbara and I spent 45 minutes there, but I think most of my students would feel done with it after 20 — hardly worth the trip from Weston. But it would be worth the trip from Dorchester, even if we hadn’t already been in JP (where Barbara works).
Anyway, after visiting the gallery, we walked to Cafe D, where we had a pleasant and delicious dinner. Crispy calamari followed by a fish taco and salad for Barbara; arancini followed by duck confit with a cassoulet of braised white beans, portabella mushrooms, and pancetta for me. With wine, tax, and tip, it all came to just under a hundred dollars, which seems to be par for the course these days. It might or might not be worth the trip from Dorchester (on the edge, in my judgment), but, as I said, we were there anyway.
Last night Barbara and I ate at JP Seafood, one of our favorite restaurants for times when she works late in Jamaica Plain. (You’ll note that I’ve included the Dorchester label for this post, even though Jamaica Plain is not exactly Dorchester. But it’s a close enough jaunt so that Dot people should consider it.) My theory is that the name of this restaurant is a clever pun, since JP not only stands for Jamaica Plain but is also the country code for Japan in URLs. The lack of periods after the J and the P supports my theory, though the website has neglected to provide any evidence that I’m right.
Anyway, you’re wondering what this restaurant is like, and why Barbara and I keep returning to it. You’ve probably figured out from my theory that the place must serve Japanese seafood, and that is indeed its focus. There’s also some Korean food (as is typical in many Japanese restaurants) and some non-seafood-based Japanese food. And, oddly enough, there’s fish-and-chips as well. The sushi is great, as is the ok-dol bibimbop, so I usually tend to order a sushi appetizer followed by beef ok-dol bibimbop. Side salads of beansprouts and seaweed are both terrific. But last night I went for a delicious special of sauteed striped bass (actually “stripped bass” on the menu), which came with miso soup, spinach salad, beansprout salad, mushrooms, and rice. I also had to steal one of the yummy don shumai that Barbara had ordered, as well as a piece of her scallion pancake with squid and surimi.
Service is always excellent, and prices are amazingly reasonable. Even if you don’t happen to live or work in JP, it’s worth going to JP Seafood — especially if you’re tired of the six good restaurants in Dorchester.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, before seeing My Fair Lady we had dinner at Ivy, a nouveau-Italian restaurant in the Ladder District. Before I give my comments, let’s take a look at a couple of published reviews. If Barbara and I had read them ahead of time, perhaps we would have gone elsewhere, although the weather encouraged us to pick a place with as short a walk to the Opera House as possible. Anyway, here’s what the Boston Globe had to say:
Ivy positions itself as a good spot for today’s diner with moderately priced wine and lots of small plates. The fare by chef Joshua Breen can be inconsistent at times, but when he’s on, Italian comfort food fits the niche with aplomb.
Fair enough — a bit vague, but not incorrect.
And then we have Robert Nadeau’s review in the Boston Phoenix. Here are some excerpts:
Small plates could serve as appetizers or a snack, or two could be a meal for many people. Pasta plates were the size you get in Italy. Gnocchi Sorrentina ($11) were dense pasta nuts with a spicy tomato sauce. Tiger-shrimp linguine ($12) was not as al dente as it would have been in Italy, but it was nicely flavored, with just-wilted arugula and very tender shrimp.
On the protein tip, duck confit ($12) was a small, nicely cured leg (though not with spices), and a side salad of arugula. Mussels ($9) were a fine little heap, reasonably plump for the season, with a good dipping sauce with plenty of garlic and pepper. Tuna ($12) was sushi-quality slices, seared on one side and crusted with black and white sesame seeds. The dip was the kind of pink-mayonnaise hot sauce you get in the hotter sushi places. There was also a tiny side salad of shredded cucumber and a bit of dill. Scallops ($12) were three tasty sea scallops with a lot of pancetta (which now seems to include smoked bacon on Italian menus) and a wisp of sauce.
There are also side dishes, such as herbed frites ($5), which weren’t herbed or crisp, but did have a lot of potato flavor, served in a paper bag on a fancy plate. Grilled asparagus ($5) were nicely done, but with the sub-pencil-thin asparagus available in August: kind of chewy. This is the time of year when you should put in something like grilled zucchini instead.
There are only four real entrées, and at least three are excellent…
The wine policy at Ivy is to maintain a long list, mostly Italian, but with others from around the world to fill in, all at the same price: $26 per bottle, $10 for a six-ounce glass, $18 for a 12-ounce “Quartino.” The stemware is large, so the wines will show well…
Ivy does not have desserts. This is a reasonable policy for a restaurant whose dinner business may prove to be mostly pre-theater, and which wants lounge and small-plate customers for most of the evening…
Service at Ivy was quite good. We asked for our dishes as they came from the kitchen, and our server didn’t seem to mind the extra trips involved. The atmosphere is still somewhat in limbo, as one feels odd eating a full-course meal in a lounge, even when seated at a table with a tablecloth (or one marble-topped larger table in back). The music is some kind of background electronica — a sample CD was sent as part of the promotion for the opening of the restaurant. The crowd looks young and bar-friendly, but not crowded or trendy. The division into small rooms keeps down some of the noise.
The décor is rather darker than Limbo’s was, with an interesting new motif of black-iron fences on the walls — the kind of fences that surrounded Victorian homes. There is still some bare brick, red lights, fun and mismatched lamps and chandeliers, and a variety of seating situations.
Now this review is a year and a half old (and maybe the Globe review is of a similar vintage); some things have changed since then. There are a couple of ways in which the review is significantly out-of-date: in particular, there is now only one real entrée, so the only plausible way to assemble a dinner is to have a combination of small plates, either individually or shared; there is also a dessert now. The “large stemware” may show the wines well, but Barbara is quite unhappy with this new trend. Both Ivy and dBar told us that the huge, unwieldy glasses (each of which could hold almost a full bottle of wine) were the only ones they had. Apparently ridiculously large glasses are the new black; Barbara blames Ming Tsai.
Anyway, the black-iron fences on the walls are totally cool, the music is too loud, and it is indeed true that “the crowd looks young and bar-friendly, but not crowded or trendy. The division into small rooms keeps down some of the noise.” Although Ivy clearly appeals mostly to 30-somethings, we certainly weren’t the only older diners and didn’t feel out of place.
Oh — what about the food, you ask? Barbara and I ordered four small plates: adequate arancini to share (we asked for the variety with prosciutto, but the waitress seems to have brought us the version with truffles instead); steak frites for Barbara (cooked to medium rare as requested, with excellent frites, which the chef made reasonably crispy unlike Nadeau’s experience); excellent medium-rare pork loin with figs, cherries, and apples for me; and grilled asparagus for us to share. Since this is February rather than August, I can’t compare our asparagus with his — but ours were wonderful. For dessert I ate half of a portion of ricotta pie, which came from some bakery in the North End whose name I forget; it was too large and too sweet, but otherwise it was delicious, including a yummy dark chocolate center.
So, what was the bottom line? It all came to a hundred dollars less than dBar, even with the tax, tip, a couple of after-dinner drinks, and the famous fixed-price bottle of wine (a very good Two Brothers Big Tattoo Red in our case). Perfectly reasonable, even though we had been looking for something even less expensive to balance out the pricey theatre tickets.
Ivy wouldn’t be near the top of our list, but we would definitely return when we’re in the neighborhood.
Barbara and I had a first-rate Valentine’s Day dinner at dBar last night. I had reviewed it two years ago right after it opened, we’ve been there once in the interim, and I am pleased to report that it continues on its upward trajectory in terms of quality and service.
There was, of course, a special menu for Valentine’s Day; it featured a four-course prix-fixe dinner. The first course was a delicious amuse-bouche misleadingly labeled “beet ravioli”; it turned out that no pasta was harmed involved in the making of this dish, which consisted of three thin pairs of heart-shaped pieces cut from beets, with goat cheese and herbs in the middle of each pair. The second course offered a choice of several appetizers; Barbara had a huge sea scallop with various greens, and I had carpaccio with accompaniments. The third course offered half a dozen entrées; Barbara had sea bass, and I had “duck, duck, goose,” which consisted of a duck breast cooked medium rare, a duck leg cooked until falling off the bone, and a tiny piece of goose pate. The fourth course offered a choice of two desserts; we each had a flourless chocolate cake accompanied by a strawberry dipped in chocolate and whipped cream.
Service was excellent, being attentive without excessive hovering. They were particularly good at responding to my tree-nut allergy: the “beet ravioli” were made with walnuts mixed into the goat cheese, but the chef had prepared one nut-free set for me ahead of time because our reservation had mentioned my allergy. Likewise, the duck was supposed to include pistachios in the sauce, and I’m sure that they would have remember to omit them from my order even if I hadn’t reminded the waiter.
What with a double espresso and a fairly reasonable bottle of wine, it all came to about $230 after tax and tip. Ouch! But worth it.
Some time ago, Barbara and I decided that we would celebrate New Year’s Eve this year by going out to eat at Brasserie Jo. Verdict: definitely OK, but not worth the price.
First of all, as the name tells you, Brasserie Jo is a brasserie, not a classy French restaurant like L’Espalier (which offers “sophisticated and modern New England-French cuisine”). Brasserie Jo offers exactly what the name promises: a huge menu of French classics, primarily peasant dishes. We were initially served a crusty, thin loaf of French bread (in a paper bag, as from a French bakery) and a plate of carrot sticks (overly seasoned with horseradish and some unidentified herb). Barbara had crab cakes (small but tasty); short ribs (cooked just right and also tasty), served with assorted root vegetables; and haricot verts (nicely seasoned and sufficiently cooked). I had lobster bisque (adequate, but with no lobster meat and almost completely devoid of lobster taste); an interesting salad of bibb lettuce, goat cheese, and roasted pear (fresh and delicious, though both the cheese and the pear were too mild, even the roasting not giving much flavor to the pear); and duck confit with braised lentils (both flavorful, though both slighly overcooked).
So, overall it was fine (“definitely OK,” as I said above), but nothing special. It certainly didn’t reach the near-perfection of Icarus or Sel de la Terre. That wouldn’t matter if the price had been more reasonable. But, for the two of us, a bill of $180.00 (including tax, a “moderately priced” bottle of wine, and tip) places Brasserie Jo in the “not worth it” category. For that price, I’d much rather go to Sel de la Terre. For slightly more, I’d much rather go to Icarus.
I wasn’t completely convinced that I wanted to watch Ratatouille, but it seemed like a good choice for light entertainment over winter vacation. And indeed it was. Don’t let the fact that it’s a Disney animation make you think that it’s only for children; there’s plenty in it for adults. Indeed, it’s hard to see how younger children are going to understand much of what’s going on. But of course that’s often the case in works that are aimed simultaneously at kids and adults. By now you know the premise behind Ratatouille, so I won’t repeat it. Suffice it to say that Pixar has outdone itself in the quality of the animation, reveling in the hundreds of individually distinct rats that move with convincing verisimilitude. The actors provide convincing voices, making the rats sympathetic without sappy anthropomorphism.
The attitudes toward French cuisine are also convincing. We have the snooty food critic who desperately wants to write a negative review but in the end is too honest to do so. (The French may be corrupt in other regards, but not about food.) We have the recently deceased chef who demeaned his profession by placing his name on popularized frozen foods (sound familiar?) and by writing a book (in English, of course) called Anyone Can Cook. OK, that seems to contradict my claim about French attitudes toward cooking, except that it explains why Gousteau (hmmm…) is dead and why his book is in English. And, of course, we have our hero, the rat Rémy, who knows the importance of every herb and of correct presentation. He can even turn a humble peasant dish (ratatouille, of course) into a gourmet success.
So go out and rent the DVD. It’s not just for kids.
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