My husband and I went to Boston for Labor Day weekend. Have I mentioned how much we detest sitting on a beach doing nothing? We like cities and all that goes with them.
It turned out that Pop, restaurant highly recommended was closed for a private party Friday night, when we, sans reservation planned to go and was disappointing but since the menu sounds so good we'll go another time. We took our concierge's suggestion and ate in a terrific place tucked into an alley behind the hotel, Nine Zero. All black and white, it calls itself a French bistro but the food seems a combination of French and modern English. The bar tender is of the "modern mixology" school which was exciting and delicious; service was knowledgeable but friendly and casual. Some dishes were better than others-the Welsh Rarebit (fun to see on a menu!) was a little oily and the mac and cheese was a bit too al dente but my husband's roast chicken, he reports was wonderful-juicy and flavorful, and my salade Nicoise was amazing-presented in an ultra modern stylish way (long narrow plate, rectangles of raw tuna in a line down the plate with the various accouterments in perfect tiny forms on top) and delicious as well. Dessert was easy- 1 scoop each of handmade ice cream (a somewhat strange crumbly texture but not terrible) and the Ethiopian French press coffee we chose was terrific. Marliave was just fab.
Saturday night we went to O-YA which is always my favorite as I've mention before. We had some of usual dishes and some that were new for us but loved them all. I had my favorite salmon tataki, I ordered the tomago but they were out of it so they gave me the chive flower omelet (so delicious), I had warm just made tofu, and a scallops/truffles plate that was just lovely-summery, refreshing but a real surf and turf feeling of the sea and earth playing together. They were out of my husband's favorite, short ribs so he had the soy braised strip loin (a stew, actually) instead (wonderful) he had the smoked wagyu sashimi and the chopped tea brined chicken thighs-all incredible.
Sunday we planned to go to the John and Abigail Adams home but I have comet o understand that my husband doesn't really want to do that so he refused to get out of bed, we made new plans to go to the SOWA flea and farmer's market, which we've done before and loved but when we got there, to our great chagrin it was closed for the holiday weekend. We were a bit dejected but walked to our lunch reservation at Market in the new W Hotel because it's new, Jean-Georges, and we always go to Market for brunch in Paris and love it!!! They added a few New England touches to the menu over the Paris menu, which I thought was charming. We liked the Paris restaurant better-it is subtler. I ordered a bloody Mary as I love the play of tomato juice and horseradish-what I got was a glass so full of pepper my throat was on fire. The gazpacho, however, was glorious. A bowl of tiny chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, almonds, and chilis over which the waiter poured the iced tomato soup.
Sunday night we went to Mooo which we liked a lot. Boston is where Parker House rolls were created and as soon as you order a steaming hot cast iron pan of 4 puffed heavy Parker House rolls are put in front of you. I had a wonderful and classically correct Caesar Salad which is so rare to find these days, and why I never order it. Crisp chopped Romaine lettuce hearts (not limp outer leaves) a dressing actually made from garlic, raw egg, and shredded Parmesean cheese, and anchovies that were real fish!! Then a beef carpaccio which was good with dried cherries and mild wasabi over it (the fruit was not my favorite, I wished it was more classic but the meat was good). My husband who likes to eat high quality excellent food but rarely seeks it out or is rarely this interested in food (!) wanted to taste the mac and cheese (mac & cheese seems to be very trendy in Boston and on every menu) AND the potato skins (which we didn't love-the cheese overpowered the potato). His filet mignon looked gorgeous and he mentioned it's flavor but he ordered it because it was one of only two steaks under 12 ounces, the only other one was a 6 oz kobe beef chopped sirloin and was $120. All the other meats were between 12 and 24 oz and just too much meat, I wish they had other, smaller options becasue ordering a dish for it's portion size is unfortunate, though don't get me worng, he likes filet mignon. The dessert, a chocolate stout cake was incredible but the hugest piece of cake I have ever seen. Deeply chocolatey and dense with chocolate buttercream in between 3 layers and on top-nothing was overly sweet or chemically tasting and like the rolls dense and heavy (which I love, I hate fluffy food).
Monday for lunch, again at the suggestion of our most fabulous concierge's suggestion, we went to the Back Bay Social Club which was really nice-lovely service, good food but again the bloody Mary was so full of pepper it was impossible and it was brownish not red, which I don't get at all. My husband had the chicken and waffles which was fun to order and good, I'm so proud of him for pulling the skin off the fried chicken!! I had the watermelon salad which I liked a lot but will sound strange to you because I don't like watermelon, balsamic vinegar, or even blue cheese that much but together there is something very powerful and quite delicious about them. Then I had the crab salad over avocado. Very pretty, set in a ring, but in desperate need of salt. The desserts weren't chocolate so we skipped it and went to Ben and Jerry's-YUM.
It's 18th Century history is all around you and very clear but there is nothing that compares to the elegance of Beacon Hill which is so well preserved that my hero Abigail Adams would easily recognize it. My mom called while I was wandering through and asked where I was, my reply, was, "I'm in the 18th Century" which is of course ironic given that she called me on my very 21st century BlackBerry.
My husband and I have been going for weekends away in Boston for a few years now and always enjoy it, it's a smaller city than Manhattan so feels different but still gives us everything we enjoy about cities but Boston has become quite cosmopolitan-more so with each trip. To think that a W has opened and that Jean Georges is the chef at its restaurant is a pretty important step. Boston has always had it's own important chef's but a world class international chef opening a restaurant in Boston is impressive.
Overall, we had an absolutely marvelous time and look forward to going again. Possibly November because there are two exhibits I'd like to go see-one in the MFA (Arnold Scaasi: an American Couturier) and one in a gallery, Richard Avedon: Fashion Photography.
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