Stuff@night dining awards 2007

Best-kept secret: Michael Scelfo

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:51:00 GMT

From the erstwhile Tea Tray in the Sky and Dedo to North Street Grille, chef Michael Scelfo has been wandering through local kitchens for years now, cooking up a storm in the form of funky but not wacky, beefy but not bulky, Med-mottled American comforts - and receiving precious little attention for it. So let us issue the alert: said storm has descended upon the Good Life (28 Kingston Street, Boston, 617.451.2622). You'd do well to chase it.

[Photo by Joel Veak]

Lightest Touch: Tom Fosnot

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:49:00 GMT

As most Americans know it, cucina italiana is pretty hearty stuff - meat-laden, sauce-doused, and piled high. But that ain't necessarily so in Italy itself - especially in resource-blessed regions like Liguria, where seafood and fresh herbs traditionally dominate. Tom Fosnot of Rocca (500 Harrison Avenue, Boston, 617.451.5151) is not only relying on the under-recognized repertoire of this slice of the Italian Riviera, he's really representing it in all its sparkling simplicity. Take the veal-stuffed zucchini with tomato sauce; what a heavier hand might smother here just oozes with juiciness. Hot-and-sweet scampi bursts with citrus and herbs. And classic trofie with pesto proves as remarkably light in texture as it is robust in flavor.

MVP, large parties division: Rendezvous in Central Square

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:48:00 GMT

A New American menu focused on local ingredients that doesn't pander to middlebrow tastes; adept bartending at a bar designed for dining; an airy space not too swanky for the neighborhood; a well-considered, affordable wine list; the irresistible hospitality of Steve Johnson and his well-trained crew: we love Rendezvous in Central Square (502 Mass Ave, Cambridge, 617.576.1900) for many reasons. But it's especially valuable when you're hosting a large crowd and have to please both the adventurous and the timid, vegetarians and carnivores, without killing your credit line. In this challenging scenario, Rendezvous will make you look like a hero.

Most underrated local seafood savants: The Portuguese, Azorean, and Brazilian restaurants of East Cambridge

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:46:00 GMT

You already know that Chinatown's live-tank Hong Kong joints offer the freshest seafood in town (one minute swimming, the next on your plate), but our Portuguese-speaking chefs do equally stunning work with fish, crustaceans, and bivalves. Bring your out-of-town visitors to O Cantinho (1128 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, 617.354.3443), MuQueCa (1093 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, 617.354.3296), Casa Portugal (1200 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, 617.491.8880), or Portugalia (723 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, 617.491.5373) when you want to show them more delicious versions of our local briny bounty than American seafood chain outlets could ever muster.

Tastiest oddball cocktail: The Metamorphosis at Eastern Standard

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:45:00 GMT

As any cocktail cognoscento can tell you, Eastern Standard (528 Comm Ave, Boston, 617.532.9100) has, along with No. 9 Park, one of the two most gifted, scholarly teams of mixologists in Boston. Besides evangelizing Golden Age cocktails invented a century before the current tragic mania for insipid flavored-vodka cocktails, the people at Eastern Standard also create originals like the Metamorphosis. Building on a typically new-to-you foundation - Becherovka, a sweetly-spiced potable bitters from the Czech Republic - fresh lemon juice, honey syrup, clover, and Kelvin-scale chilling produce a bracing, not-too-sweet, and possibly healthful potion. (After all, bitters are practically herbal medicine.) Na zdrave!

Best wine lists: Troquet; Bin 26 Enoteca; Coda Kitchen & Bar

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:42:00 GMT

Kudos to Troquet (140 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.695.9463), for continuing to thrill serious wine lovers with unusual, high-quality wines conveniently matched to its fine French menu, and not marking up its pours to five times retail. Praise to Bin 26 Enoteca (26 Charles Street, Boston, 617.723.5939), for its adventurous, globetrotting list for wine lovers of every budget, and the accompanying simple, tasty snacks that don't distract from wine as the main event. And thanks to Coda Kitchen & Bar (329 Columbus Avenue, Boston, 617.536.2632), for hiring tapas queen Deborah de Haro to design a list of serious but inexpensive wines well-suited to its slightly elevated American comfort food, encouraging budding but cash-strapped oenophiles to expand their range beyond familiar California pop wines.

Best fusion cuisine: “Desi Chinese” menu at Grain and Salt

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:41:00 GMT

The British-born chef at Grain and Salt (431 Cambridge Street, Allston, 617.254.3373) creates Punjabi and Pakistani specialties that boast unusually subtle spicing. But the real surprise for Westerners is the Indian Chinese menu, catering to homesick ex-pats who crave their homeland's version of Chinese food. As elsewhere, Chinese cooks in India adapt their creations to local tastes and available ingredients. Dishes like "chicken Schezuan" here look like typical Mary Chung entrées but draw from India's incredibly complex, varied spice palette. The results are stunning, wondrous, a rare example of fusion cuisine that multiplies rather than divides.

Best bread: Matt Murphy’s; Union Bar and Grille

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:37:00 GMT

While Lifetime Achievement Awards are undoubtedly due to Sel de la Terre and Harvest for their rainbow assortments, the breads we can't currently get out of our heads - or into our bellies fast enough - come courtesy of Matt Murphy's (14 Harvard Street, Brookline, 617.232.0188) and Union Bar and Grille (1357 Washington Street, Boston, 617.423.0555). The former makes its brown bread from scratch, with pride in the fact that no two loaves turn out exactly the same; that said, every hunk we've ever ripped off has proved equally, delightfully dense and nutty. Meanwhile, Union's warm, moist skillet cornbread nearly constitutes a meal in itself.

[Photo by Joel Veak]

Most unexpected place to get a well-made old-school cocktail: Deep Ellum

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:34:00 GMT

It takes cheek to build a deadly-serious beer bar - with two dozen craft-brew taps, a hundred bottled options, and a cask-conditioned ale - and still offer top-notch shaker cocktails. Max Toste, co-owner of casual hipster hangout Deep Ellum (477 Cambridge Street, Allston, 617.787.2337), loves discussing the many permutations of the Manhattan (canonical rye, or more modern, less authentic, but arguably tasty bourbon?) and the history of 19th-century classics like the Sazerac. Then he'll mix one up for you with 1920s-Ritz-level precision and the right bitters. Ignore that incredulous beer snob on your right: to each his own connoisseurship.

[Photo by Joel Veak]

Coolest new watering hole: Vinoteca di Monica

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:03:00 GMT

Pardon the oxymoron, but the ostentatiously touristy North End isn't exactly known for the secrets it keeps. So it's a rare treat for residents when a nifty newcomer flies in under the radar - equipped with a full bar, no less. The recent makeover of Vinoteca di Monica (143 Richmond Street, Boston, 617.227.0311) amounts to exactly that. Wedged between the dining room's larger, longer-standing main entrance and Mare's peek-a-boo kitchen, the narrow "vinoteca" is refreshingly easy to overlook - meaning that the congenial crush within consists mostly of locals, all downing Amores (delish cocktails starring Belle de Brillet, pear nectar, and prosecco) and nibbling antipasti, from happy hour onward.

Savviest reinvention: Rialto

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:01:00 GMT

Thanks to Jody Adams's exuberant brand of cookery - a Mediterranean-influenced merger of the homey and the exotic - Rialto (Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.661.5050) has long been Cambridge's premier go-to. And yet, truth be told, we rarely made it past the bar, its plush comforts so inviting compared with the crisply businesslike demeanor of the dining room. But in its new incarnation, Rialto has finally become for us no mere go-to but a linger-in, through and through. Lighter, breezier, filled with harvest-toned, curvilinear nooks, the entire interior evokes the sunlit hills of Italy, smack in the middle of Harvard Square. Of course, it also speaks to Adams's revised, more streamlined repertoire, whose fresh, healthy emphasis on produce and seafood now makes Rialto not only a go-to and linger-in, but a frequent return-for as well.

[Photo by Joel Veak]

Hopeful sign amid a tired trend: Locally-owned steakhouses

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:00:00 GMT

As frequent business-dinner hosts, we dread the deathly bore that is the luxury steakhouse, especially national chains. So we're grateful that three independents - Boston Public (234 Berkeley Street, Boston, 617.266.4680), Mooo .... (XV Beacon Hotel, 15 Beacon Street, Boston, 617.670.2515), and KO Prime (Nine Zero Hotel, 90 Tremont Street, Boston, 617.772.0202) - have emerged to bring some local flair to this creatively bankrupt category. We're hoping this trio of upstarts can inspire Bostonians to demand more than just another oversized ribeye and quart of creamed spinach. Might they do well enough to send some of our dullest high-end steakhouse outlets packing? One can dream.

Funkiest Dessert: My Friend David’s Cheesecake Lollipop Tree at Flat Iron Tapas Bar & Lounge

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:59:00 GMT

Except for explaining who David is and why he'd be willing to share his goodies with us, the name says it all. Whimsical enough to stand on the banks of Willy Wonka's chocolate stream, the signature dessert at Flat Iron Tapas Bar & Lounge (Bulfinch Hotel, 107 Merrimac Street, Boston, 617.778.2900) is a metal tower - that part's not edible - stuck through with 10 lollipop sticks (neither are those), ending in balls of cheesecake that aren't merely edible but utterly scrumptious. Some are cherry-flavored; others crunch with Heath-bar pieces; still others contrast dark chocolate with white. All leave us praising ol' Dave's largesse.

[Photo by Joel Veak]

Nicest surprise: Garden at the Cellar

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:58:00 GMT

A man walks into a bar. Orders . . . a glass of Shiraz and a braised short rib with carrot purée? Okay, it's no punch line, but Garden at the Cellar (991 Mass Ave, Cambridge, 617.230.5880), a civilized little hideaway adjoining an old Harvard Square watering hole, does indeed deliver the unexpected. A profusion of fresh herbs is chef Will Gilson's trademark, one he acquired on his family's Groton farm, the Herb Lyceum. Even if the menu didn't read like the lyrics to "Scarborough Fair," the dishes themselves sing lustily of their debt to sprigs and leaves. We're especially fond of the small plates and side dishes - from warm olives and spiced almonds to frîtes and puréed parsnips - that, in their judicious redolence, blot out all thought of your average overprocessed bar snack.

Most overlooked foodie destination: East Boston

Ruth Tobias — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:57:00 GMT

Allston and Chinatown have their adherents as go-to neighborhoods for inexpensive, high-quality restaurants of every stripe. But in East Boston, adventurous chowhounds have uncovered a treasure trove of excellent, dirt-cheap Central American, South American, and Italian-American restaurants, not to mention a Styrofoam box full of fine blue-collar shore food. Want to learn where Boston's high-end chefs are getting their ideas for their next great $30 entrées? Hop on the Blue Line, friend, where you can experience the real deal, usually for under $10.