the independent in union square

After a day of moping around the apartment because I've been sick, plus forcing myself to sit down and work on new card designs, Tony took me out to the Independent in Union Square for dinner. I know, I have a wonderful husband. :) (Although, you wouldn't have known that we were married if you were strangers there that night. He's been without his wedding band for almost two weeks now so whenever we go out I tease him that people probably think he's going out with a married woman. LOL)

Anyway, I was totally craving red meat that night (when do I not, seriously?!) so I ordered their half rack of lamb special. Of course, I didn't tell the waiter about my food allergies so Tony flagged him down and made me tell him about the cracked red pepper. Sure enough, he goes back to the kitchen, comes back with a menu and says that they use it in the marinade. Of course, I wouldn't think that they used it in the dish (because it wasn't in the menu) so it's a good thing we said something! That avoided a trip to the ER on a holiday weekend, thank gawd!

So I decided to get the steak frites. Yeah, I know, I'm so predictable! But hey, I love me some steak frites any time!


The funny thing is that I thought I had them here at the Independent before, but I don't remember it being served like this, as one big piece of steak. So perhaps this was my first time getting steak frites here. Anywho, it was absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly medium rare (maybe a tiny bit undercooked, but still very yummy).

Tony got the seafood fra diablo special (yes, we know it's really fra diavolo but that's how they printed it on the menu) which had shrimp, mussels, and calamari.

And since there wasn't anything left on either of our plates, I'd say it was pretty yummy. :)
But to top it off (as if we hadn't already eaten enough!), we had the profiteroles for dessert.

I think it's safe to say that we love the Independent. :) (And our bellies do, too!)

the independent

One reason that we would find it really difficult to move away from this area ("Camberville") is the culture within each neighborhood that I don't think you'd be able to find in suburbia. For instance, Union Square. It's a short walk from where we live now and it has so much cool stuff going on. Obviously, our favorite these days is Bloc 11 Cafe, but there are also places like the Independent, Great Thai Chef restaurant (proclaimed by Tony to have the best tom yum goong soup), Grand the store, Capone Foods and so much more.

This particular post is about the Independent. They have consistently good food there and a nice, cozy atmosphere. We tried their deviled eggs appetizer and they were so tasty! I don't think I've ever seen deviled eggs on a menu before, but I have to say that if I ever own a restaurant, that's something I'd like to include on the menu. They're so simple but so yummy.

Tony had the french dip sandwich and I had the steak and gruyere cheese sandwich appetizer with a side order of french fries. The food was delicious and the portions are generous. With a beer and a glass of wine (and before the tip), our bill only came out to $40. Not bad for a Thursday night outing.

yoki sushi + the independent

We met Mike and Erin at our favorite sushi restaurant, Yoki, in Medford last night. First of all, I am just so happy that we have another "couple" friends that like sushi as much as we do. Second, Yoki is definitely our favorite place for sushi. We have never had a bad experience there -- the sushi is consistently delicious and the wait staff is super nice. Mike and Erin liked their sushi so I think we made a pretty good recommendation (i.e. there wasn't a speck left on anyone's plates).

Mike had the Spider Maki (soft shelled crab tempura with tobiko, cucumber, avocado, spicy mayo and sweet soy sauce) which was one of my favorite rolls before I discovered my avocado allergy [insert sad, pouty face here]. He also had the Rock 'n Roll Maki (jumbo roll of yellow tail, salmon, white fish, avocado, and scallions with sweet soy sauce). A nice surprise is that this roll is fried in tempura batter, too, so it gives it a crunchy texture.

Erin also had the Spider Maki and a California Maki (crabstick, cucumber, and avocado).

Tony had the Rock 'n Roll Maki and the Good Time Maki (cream cheese and cucumber topped with smoked salmon). He thought that the cream cheese taste was a little too powerful but Erin and I thought it was really good.

I had a Negihama Maki (yellow tail and scallions roll), Sake (salmon), Ikura (salmon roe), and O-Toro (fatty tuna) Nigiri sushi and it was all so yummy. The O-Toro was something that they had as a special, seasonal item that night and it was super fatty. Super fatty = super yummy!

Afterwards, Tony and I went to the Independent in Union Square in search of dessert. We saw my new coworker, Elissa, there with her boyfriend which was a nice surprise. Unfortunately, we couldn't sit at the bar with them because the place was packed, so we went over to the other side of the restaurant and managed to find two seats there.

We shared the profiteroles dessert and it was so good! We both ordered a glass of the Riesling wine but Tony didn't care for it as much as I did because it was more of a sparkling wine and he thought the bartender gave us Prosecco in error. He didn't hate it because his glass was empty by the time we left. ;) Anyway, a fabulous dessert and we were so glad to see that the Independent was full of people.

bloc 11 cafe in union square

This morning, Tony took me to this new little cafe in Union Square called Bloc 11 Cafe. Well, at least, we thought it was new but they actually have been open since October. And come to find out that it is owned by the same people that own Diesel Cafe in Davis Square.

Anyway, it is a pretty cool place. It used to be a bank (Somerville National Bank) so there are two huge vaults inside that you can actually sit in to sip your coffee. They have pastries, sandwiches, and all sorts of espresso drinks. We thought it was pretty cool how they had another separate espresso bar towards the back that was built on top of old safety deposit boxes.

And of course, I snapped a few photos. :)

Said by a picky coffee drinker: "I prefer white for breakfast, and black for dinner."





Hope nobody left anything valuable in those things ...

We were talking about how it would be nice to live in the Union Square area if/once they clean it up a bit more. They are planning on extending the green line T out to here so it'll be interesting to see a) how long that will really take, and b) the impact it will have in the neighborhood in terms of traffic and business.

In the meantime, I could see us returning to enjoy coffee on the weekends. It's across the street from Capone Foods where we picked up some gnocchi and pasta sauce. Mmmm, can't wait to try the sweet potato gnocchis!