the gallows (boston)

There's a restaurant called The Gallows in the South End where Sage used to be. We stumbled in around 8:45 pm last Tuesday and waited for about 10-15 minutes at the bar for a table. The place was packed, which is great for a weeknight. It was nice to be able to look around and take in the scenery, especially since they totally redecorated the place. I really like the hanging light fixtures and the lights along the wood walls.



We enjoyed some wine while waiting to be seated. Tony had a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Lyeth winery in Sonoma. (I tell you, he's lovin' California wines - cab sauvs in particular - more and more these days.) I had a great glass of Pinot Gris from the Montinore estate winery in Oregon.

We shared the smoked fish pate appetizer which was made with smoke blue fish (I think?*), cream cheese, and green onions. It was very tasty and had a nice smoky flavor to it.

[* Quick note: I have this habit of relying on a restaurant's online menu to help me remember what it is we ordered when it comes time to blogging about a dining experience. In this case - which rarely happens actually - the restaurant doesn't have their menu posted online so I unfortunately don't have very many details to share. My apologies in advance!]

Tony had a delicious beef brisket dish for dinner which was served with some eggplant and tomatoes on the side, and a dollop of cool yogurt on top. (I apologize for the dark photo but I hate using a flash in a restaurant and the lighting was pretty dim.)

I enjoyed a steak salad cooked very medium rare on top of a bed of greens that I can't remember the name of. They were described to me as tubular and crunchy, which was quite accurate. (I wish I could remember the name of them! Our waiter described them as essentially being a type of weed ... I guess at the time it didn't seem as unappetizing as recalling the description now ... LOL) It was a nice change from ordinary, flat lettuce and the dressing was delicious.

We shared a blueberry dessert that of course, I can't remember the name of (see above comment about lack of menu for reference). I don't want to call it a cobbler but it also wasn't a tart. It was served hot in a cute little cast iron pan and served with delicious whipped cream on top.

Overall we had a fun time even though it was quite loud at some times. Our waiter, Jim, was very friendly and made conversation with us throughout the night. The atmosphere is pretty laid back and casual, but it's also a nice place for a date or small group outing.



The Gallows
1395 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02118
617.425.0200
www.thegallowsboston.com

gaslight brasserie du coin (boston)

My friends Antoinette, Renee, and I attended the patio party at Gaslight restaurant last night. I saw a blurb about it on the Boston Chefs website and we managed to get our names on the guest list for the party which was celebrating the opening of their patio space for the summer. It's funny because they kept emphasizing how it was limited to 50 people, but there were nearly 200 people there after the first hour and so there was a shortage of passed apps going around.


We enjoyed complimentary drinks from Svedka Vodka and Harpoon Brewery, and freshly shucked oysters from Island Creek Oysters. It was a nice way to spend a summer evening and I can see the patio area becoming a popular destination this summer.

Renee and I stayed at the restaurant for dinner and had quite a feast. She had their halibut special which was served with a corn succotash and said it was quite good. It was a pretty large piece of fish and she asked for some of it to be wrapped up to take home. Unfortunately, we didn't realize until right before we left (and after dessert) that the waiter never brought it back to our table. :(

I had the duck confit ($17.50) which was served with an orange gastrique, citrus chard salade, and roasted garlic potatoes. It was absolutely delicious! It has been a while since I've had duck and man, it was finger licking good. Of course, we couldn't let any of the freshly baked (still warm) French bread go to waste, so I sopped up everything on my plate. No shame, no shame at all. It paired really well with my glass of Gamay Beaujolais wine too ($10).

We shared the molten chocolate cake dessert ($6.95) which was served with creme Chantilly (think sweetened whipped cream). It tasted wonderful but I have to say that the presentation was kind of a flop. Literally. I mean, look at this picture. Right??

Overall, it was a nice dining experience at the restaurant and the patio party was a lot of fun. I will say though, it is quite loud inside the restaurant and it was difficult to hear our conversation even though it was just two of us and we leaned across the table toward each other. I think they could turn the music down a notch and it would be a little better. A great restaurant for a romantic date (if you can deal with the loudness), and certainly good for a group outing if you don't mind spending more on an entree. Would not recommend it for a family with small children though. Great wine selection, nice bar, and a party atmosphere.

Gaslight Brasserie du Coin
560 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
617.422.0224
http://gaslight560.com

south end buttery

Sometimes, my husband and I can be the most indecisive people. Seriously. One example: a wonderfully sunny Sunday afternoon and we're both hungry. Starving. Where should we go have some lunch? It'll be a late lunch. Where can we go where we can sit outside and enjoy a nice glass of white wine? Hmmmm. Put our thinking caps on. Thinking caps don't work all that well when you're hungry starving.

I remembered how a couple of my friends said that Rocca has a nice patio area in the summertime, plus I remembered how they have a parking lot, and that I wanted to take Tony there sometime after dining there during restaurant week. So I convinced him to drive to over there, but by the time we got there the sun had moved just enough so that there wasn't any shining in their patio area. Argh. Then we decided to try to find a parking spot on Tremont Street in the South End, and after about ten minutes, our parking angel found us one. But then we walked up and down the street in search of an outdoor table to no avail: it seemed like everyone else shared our idea of enjoying a cold libation outside under the beautiful sun too. Bummer.

So we got back in the car and drove back to Rocca, only to find out that by now (it was 4:30 pm) the kitchen was taking a break until 5:00 pm. (Did I mention that we were starving at this point?!) We decided to get drinks anyway and wait it out, so Tony had a nice tall glass of Peroni (he wasn't in a wine mood anymore ... hunger ...) and I had a glass of Prosecco. The bartender that helped us the last time I was there for restaurant week recognized me (insert husband's comment about being famous here). But it was like a club scene in there with super loud disco-tech music playing, so we opted to find another place for dinner.

And the point to my long story is that we finally ended up at the South End Buttery after finding a parking spot on Washington Street. We parked near the park and it was packed with people and dogs in the dog park, people playing basketball and tennis, and little kids running around everywhere. The cafe is located on the corner of Shawmut Avenue and Union Park Street, just a short walk down Bradford Street from the park.

We [obviously] didn't have a reservation so they seated us downstairs which, since by this point the sun was setting a little more, was dark but nice and cozy.

Tony ordered the meatloaf dish ($16) which was served with sour cream mashed potatoes, haricot verts, a piece of bacon on top, and a pearl onion gravy. It was delicious and surprisingly not tomato sauce based. The portion was quite large so we ended up taking some of it home.

I had the Chatham Silver Hake ($19) which was served with lobster mac and cheese, parsley-lemon bread crumbs, and braised leeks. It was also delicious but the lobster mac and cheese kind of overpowered the flavor of the Hake (fish). I think either components on their own would be great. There were some nice large chunks of lobster meat in the mac and cheese, and the Hake would've been great on something like a bed of arugula or mashed potatoes.


Alas, I wasn't that critical at the time because I ended up eating everything on the plate. (Remember, I was starving!) But with so much food, there was absolutely no room for dessert.

Oh and we both had a glass of wine with our food. Tony had the 2006 Silver Palm Cabernet Sauvignon ($10) which he said was quite nice, and I had the 2008 Pine Ridge Viognier Blend ($8) which was excellent (note to self: must find a bottle for home sometime).

In the end, it was a nice dining experience but it's not a place I would go out of my way to go back to anytime very soon. I had been wanting to try it out for about a year now, and if anything, I'd like to go back and experience their pastries and coffee one morning or even their brunch menu. I'm glad that we finally got to try it out though; I'm sure if we ever won the lottery and bought property in that section of the South End then we'd probably be there frequently.


South End Buttery
314 Shawmut Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
617.482.1015
http://www.southendbuttery.com

stir boston

My friend Laura and I took the "Passion for Pasta" cooking class at Barbara Lynch's Stir in the South End last night. I have to say that it was truly one of the most amazing culinary experiences I've ever had! Not only did we get to learn the art of making pasta, we each received an autographed copy of Chef Lynch's cookbook, Stir, to take home. And the bonus? Chef Lynch was there that night to cook for us!


On the menu that night were four dishes: Lemon Corzetti with clams and oregano; Tomato Gnocchetini with mussels and saffron; Strozzapretti with rabbit and olives; and Orecchiette with cauliflower and anchovies.




These photos cannot even do justice for each dish - the aroma of all the freshly prepared ingredients, the delicate texture of each pasta, and the intricate little details of each plate were awesome. It was so much fun watching Chef demonstrate how to make pasta from scratch, listening to her tips and suggestions on cooking, and laughing with her and the executive sous chef, Molly Loveday.

The kitchen was warm and cozy, and the maximum number of students is ten so it's nice because you don't get lost in a big crowd. The wines that they paired with each dish were phenomenal and they were quite generous throughout the entire session. A group of women were there celebrating their friend's birthday, and there were two couples in attendance in addition to me and Laura. A gift certificate to Stir would be such a great idea for anyone you know that loves to cook, or for someone who simply appreciates a top notch dining experience. I certainly hope to be able to attend more sessions in the near future!

Stir
102 Waltham Street
Boston, MA 02118
617.423.STIR
www.stirboston.com

To see more photos, click here.

restaurant week boston 2010: sibling rivalry

I had dinner at Sibling Rivalry with three of my friends last night (another Restaurant Week jaunt!) and it was awesome. I've been there a few times in the past and have never been disappointed, even if we've just stopped in for drinks at the bar. The restaurant itself boasts a warm feeling, and the food is quite delicious. I think the only thing I would hope they could improve on is their selection of wines by the glass, but the choices they give now are still nice.

Here's a run down of the dishes we ordered:

This was the warm parmesan garlic flan appetizer dish with wild mushroom, garlic confit in lemon brown butter (sorry, the lighting was rather dim so this photo doesn't do it any justice) which was to die for. I mean, I could see myself eating this every day, it was that good.

The steamed Prince Edward Island mussels in a spicy Thai ginger-coconut milk curry with cilantro and lime.

Local steamers served with a celery-lemon and herb broth with grilled bread and melted butter

Roasted baby rack of lamb with rosemary and roast pearl onions in a garlic confit-syrah sauce with Anna potatoes - these were cooked perfectly medium rare and as you can see below, were thoroughly devoured.

Seared jumbo Cape scallops with Anaheim chili relleno, black beans, tomatillo relish and salsa fresca

This was the carrot cake dessert ...

... and this was the profiterole dessert (nuts omitted due to my food allergies).

So in digging up the info for each of these dishes I've realized that the dessert options listed on the Restaurant Week website were not the ones we were able to pick from, just an FYI in case you head over there (believe me, I would've totally gone for the chocolate bombe option if I could've!). Everything we had was excellent and I think I can safely say that on behalf of my friends seeing that we all returned empty plates. I would highly recommend Sibling Rivalry for a romantic outing, an outing with a small group of friends, and definitely for Restaurant Week because they offer a lot of different things to choose from (i.e. some places only give you two or three things to pick from under each category). And if you're lucky, maybe Chef Bob will come out and say hello to your table, too! (P.S. He's so cute!)

Sibling Rivalry

525 Tremont Street

Boston, MA 02116

617.338.5338

www.siblingrivalryboston.com

the beehive

After a disastrous attempt to attend a taping of the NESN Comedy All-Stars, we went out to the Beehive in the hopes of catching some sort of musical entertainment. There is such a cool atmosphere in the Beehive. The Jazz Criminals were playing and they were quite entertaining. We shared a carafe of wine and the Beehive frites with sage and sea salt. It was a great way to get out of the cold and enjoy some funky jazz.

icarus

For Tony's birthday this year, I had originally made plans to take him out to The Beehive for dinner. But alas, we ended up going there with Mike and Erin one night (read about it here) so I had to come up with plan B. I ended up picking Icarus, which is also in the South End (a.k.a. our new favorite hangout for some reason) and so we had a nice dinner there on Sunday night.

Unfortunately -- and I'll explain why in a second -- the restaurant was celebrating Restaurant Week. Normally I like to go and try out new places during Restaurant Week but my hubby does not, so that was one downer. Secondly, I had looked at their non-Restaurant Week menu ahead of time and found something I could eat, but they decided they weren't going to offer their regular menu items that night. Rats. (Note to folks who might get a sense that I'm sounding really snobby and picky here: most of the time, restaurants let you order from their regular menus despite the Restaurant Week shindig thingie so it wasn't like I was a martian with three heads when I asked our waiter for the regular menu.)

So the way it works with Restaurant Week is that there's a fixed price for a three course meal ($33.08) and you get to pick one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert from their special menu. We decided to also do the half glass wine pairing which was a little extra. It was a neat way to try different kinds of wines, too.

We both ordered the Farm Field Salad with Orange and Sherry Vinaigrette which was paired with a really delicious Pinot Grigio called "Altanuta" from Italy. We were both surprised at how large the salad was because, let's be honest here folks, most portions during Restaurant Week tend to be on the smaller side. It was a good salad but we both found it to be a little too salty for some reason. I think we enjoyed the wine the most. :)

Tony had the Roasted Chili Glazed Pork Loin with Corn Pudding and Watermelon. It was served with a Shiraz called "Yalumba" from Australia. He thought it was ... interesting. As he said, "It's like it doesn't all necessary go together but it works somehow. I like it, it's just different."

I ordered the Grilled Bluefish and Smoked Shrimp Butter with Roasted Poblano Pepper, Corn, and Quinoa Pilaf but of course, I had to do without the pepper and corn part for obvious reasons. Instead, I got three little roasted potatoes as a substitute. My dish was served with a Cannonau called "Santa Maria La Palma" from Sardinia that was quite good. The dish was really good, too, but again a little on the salty side.

The best part, of course, was the dessert! We both had the Decadent Chocolate Cake. Yum! The whipped cream on it wasn't the typically overly sweet kind so it made it even more delicious. We had a little glass of Banyuls called "M. Choupetier" from Languedoc, France that was a perfect compliment to it.

Afterwards, we went for drinks at Sibling Rivalry and had a fun time people watching.

Happy Birthday, Tony!!

the beehive

My husband works really hard at his job. Sometimes he works longer than he's supposed to. So occassionally he gets rewarded with a comp day. But has he taken any of those comp days? Nope. Recently his boss reminded him that he has them so he decided to take Monday off. We had lunch together and afterwards he hung out with his friend, Mike.

Rewind to the day before yesterday: Sunday. We played tennis and ended up stopping due to my sore baby toes. (More details about our tennis excursion here.) Mind you, when I say "sore" I mean they hurt so bad on Monday while I was at work that I couldn't wear my "work" shoes and hoped that nobody would notice my flip-flops. Sore as in a much darker shade of red than they should be. I could post a photo here but that would just be disgustingly gross. Okay, so on top of sore baby toes due to tight sneakers, my thighs and calves are a-c-h-i-n-g!!! I must be so out of shape ya'll.

Put all these things together: hubby with day off and the CAR + sore baby toes + aching legs = a ride home instead of a painful walk!

I guess they had not concluded their boys'-day-out so Mike was in the car when he came to pick me up. We managed to get in touch with Mike's girlfriend, Erin, before she hopped onto the train home so we decided to go out for dinner and drinks. We couldn't decide on a place in Harvard Square so we opted to head over to the South End (seems to be our favorite destination these days) to scope it out.

Funnily enough (I think I made up that term), Tony and I had driven around the South End on Saturday night in search of The Beehive to no avail. Of course, we easily stumbled upon it last night when we weren't even looking for it. It's next to Hamersley's Bistro on Tremont Street, near Sibling Rivalry.

It was a beautiful summer night -- not too chilly, not too hot -- so we sat outside for drinks. Apparently there is some sort of law for restaurants where customers have to eat something in order to be able to drink alcohol outside. So they have a smaller, snack-like menu for the outside sidewalk area that consisted of funny things like roasted peanuts ($2), olives ($4), a cheeseball and triscuits (yes, I said triscuits ... forgot how much that was ... $5?) and more. While Erin sipped on her dirty Ketel One vodka martini, the three of us shared a carafe of Pinot Grigio. We ordered some pate ($9) and olives to eat with the complimentary baguette (we ended up eating three altogether - such pigs!). It rained really lightly and then luckily stopped after a couple of minutes. We spotted this pretty rainbow, too.


We decided to have dinner inside the restaurant. Wow, what a cool place! We sat downstairs which is where the stage is located. They have lots of exposed brick, old chandeliers, and burlesque decor. The bathroom was kind of dark but also pretty cool with old, antique mirrors over the sink. The seating at our table was a little awkward because it was like a bench and the table had kind of weird angles, but we made it work.

Tony and Erin had the roasted cod, Mike had the blackened tuna, and I had the tuna tartare and ordered a side of the "Beehive Frites" for the table. The frites were like thicker potato chips and were really tasty. We all really enjoyed our dishes and pretty much handed back clean plates. Of course, we ate so much pate and bread earlier so none of us had room for dessert.


I think overall we had a nice experience at The Beehive. The food was delicious and so was our wine, but it was a tiny bit pricy. My main complaint was that the pate had nuts and raisins in it but there was no warning on the menu, etc. I think the restaurant really should consider warning customers about the nuts in them because of food allergy issues. Also because the pate comes nicely wrapped in saran wrap and then in a pretty paper that is a map of France with different regions outlined by the type of cheese they make. It would be such a waste for someone with a nut allergy to get it, open it up, and then have to send it back. Oh and we couldn't tell if it was nuts inside until the guys tried some for me. So. You know. I think restaurants need to label those types of things clearer.

Lastly (sorry for this really long review!), we had a good laugh when we got the credit card slips to sign because there was a line asking for our telephone number which is something none of us have ever seen before. Tony and Mike would like to think it was the waitress asking, but we had to burst their bubbles. LOL Sorry guys!

coda

Tony was craving a burger last night. After going through the list of the usual places where we know we could get a good burger (Tavern, Christopher's, R.F. O'Sullivan), we decided to get in the car and drive over to the South End to see if we could find a new place to try. While driving around Tremont and Washington Street, we tried to find a new place called The Beehive that we read about recently. Alas, no luck.

Then I remembered this bar we happened upon a while ago called Coda. Luckily, we found a parking space not too far away and walked into a packed restaurant around 8:30 pm. I think we managed to get the last table at the moment. It has such a cozy atmosphere and our waiter was super friendly. He, Josh, was very patient (and comical) about my food allergy issues (thanks, Josh!). I was craving beef for some reason so I had the steak frites medium rare. Boy oh boy, was it medium rare! (That's a good thing by the way!) Tony had a cheeseburger and we both had a ton of yummy, thin, crispy fries. De-lish! We'll definitely go back there again. :)

sage + daedalus

We've decided that we're not going to do Valentine's dinner at restaurants anymore. For one, they usually have a prix fixe menu which means you can't really try their usual dishes. Plus, they tend to charge you more than usual. So this year I got to pick the place (we alternate each year) and we went to Sage in the South End. We had been to their old location in the North End so I wanted to see what this new location was like, plus we know the chef/owner's sister, Rita.

Right away when we walked in, both Tony and I thought that we recognized the restaurant. Sure enough, it used to be Caffe Umbra. It has a nice atmosphere and seems like they did something to it to make it larger and roomier. Fun photos on one of the walls.


We enjoyed a half carafe of Bordeaux wine with warm bread and butter before our Kobe carpaccio with arugula, shaved parmesan, and truffle vinaigrette came out. It was absolutely delicious.

Tony had the rice smoked duck breast with sautéed spinach and squash puree. It was really good - probably the best duck he has ever had. It was that good.

I had the striped bass with grilled arugula, mashed potatoes, and a beet puree. Yum yum yum!

Sadly, the desserts disappointed us ... again, almost all of them had nuts in them. So we decided to skip out and drove over to Daedalus in Harvard Square. We had the Chocolate Explosion dessert - warm flourless chocolate cake with creme anglaise, chocolate sauce and then we substituted the vanilla bean ice cream for coconut ice cream. Wow. It totally hit the spot.