DoubleMan's Profile
Moksa - Tender, Spicy, Meaty
I'm in agreement with you and First. Really poor value.
I'm a bit surprised by all the love for the lamb dish. First and Slim both raved. Prav's description is what I encountered - good meat but just a ton of gummy, stuck-together noodles. The noodles ruined it, but they should be the core of the dish. I ate it and thought "really? really?" Maybe it's been much better on other trips. but I can't even imagine the dish we had ever being great if prepared better than we received.
My biggest complaints are the service and the space (at least that dark middle room with the spotlights), both of which are pretty terrible. Our waiter joked about how the kitchen staff was icing each other with Smirnoff Ice, so maybe that explains inconsistent and bad dishes.
Hair of the Dog?
That cocktail bar planned to open in the basement of Jae's in the South End probably isn't happening, right?
Does anyone know any further details? Their facebook page looks like it has been inactive for a while.
http://www.hairofthedogboston.com/
First Printer in Harvard Square
I don't want to ever eat in a place Nadeau gives 1 or fewer stars to.
He gave Floating Rock four.
LivingSocialGourmet - Barrio Pop-up
The food looks terrible, especially for the price. Who is this guy anyway? His website is out of control.
http://www.wheelerdeltorro.com/
First Printer in Harvard Square
Nadeau seemed to like it.
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/food/137263-first-printer/
Although, it is not at all clear from the text of the review how it deserves 4 stars. It reads more like a 2-star review to me.
Let’s make a list of obnoxiously loud restos
Second. I would love to go there more often, but it is just miserable. That single reason has made me cross it off the list forever, even though I would probably be a regular otherwise. I haven't noticed the same noise level at the Boston branch.
Mid-Priced unique spots in Boston + Cambridge + Allston??
Imagination in Boston? Good luck. I'd recommend Strip T's for food. It's not in the locations you mentioned, but is quite close to Cambridge and Brighton. Their beer list is not extensive but it's ok and has a few local gems.
BUENO Y SANO IS ALMOST HERE!!
Yeah, those kids are going to have to speed things up. I worry about the location - that lot is small and a disaster.
I wish they offered the salvadoran burrito that the amherst and west springfield branches do.
Curing Salt/Pink Salt in greater Boston area?
Yeah, they really could not care less. The freshness on many things is questionable, but they just have so much stuff you can't get anywhere else. It's a shame.
Curing Salt/Pink Salt in greater Boston area?
Definitely call them. I bought the last small bag (about two tablespoons) they had a week before St. Pat's. Who knows if they've got more in. You really can never count on that place to have things in stock.
alpaca meat in or near Boston?
Call Savenor's. They would have it every once in a while, and I am sure they could order it easily.
I wish that meat would takeoff here. Americans have a thing about eating that animal, but I think the meat is like a perfect hybrid of grass-fed beef and lamb - both in flavor and sizes of cuts.
ISO Great Boston Doughnuts
Doughnut Plant is an outlier for price, but I (and lots and lots of other people) don't think it is a bad value. Dough in Brooklyn also has very good doughnuts, and for only $2. I believe Kane's are $1.75. I'm confident that Boston could support at least one good doughnut shop charging in the $2.50-3 range.
Of course NY and LA are bigger, but that doesn't mean lots of people won't spend lots of money here on similar-type things. Sweet has four locations!
ISO Great Boston Doughnuts
I'm in. Make like 700 doughnuts a day, sell out by noon. Maybe 500 sq feet of space, 80% of which is the prep and frying area. 3 permanent flavors, 2 flavors per day on a rotating basis, and 1-2 one-off seasonal specials each day. Charge market price for a good, fair trade coffee and offer some local milk for drinks.
I guess a truck would be easier as you could have an offsite bakery in a cheaper area like Chelsea or Everett. After a while, save up enough to open an impossibly cute brick and mortar location in the south end.
ISO Great Boston Doughnuts
I think we're a pretty weak doughnut city, probably because DD killed all the competition. There are very few places in the city that do doughnuts (like Clear Flour), but not with a big selection, and a handful outside the city that do. My favorite is Kane's (for their yeast doughnuts) in Saugus, but that's too far, and even those aren't that amazing (unless you want diabetes).
I saw this list yesterday and was pretty amused to see two Boston places make the list. I've been to a couple NY places besides the superb Doughnut Plant that best anything I've had here by a wide margin.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/food-wine/best-doughnuts-in-america_b_1364748.html?ref=food
The artisan doughnut trend has hit elsewhere, notably NY and Chicago, and LA has always been a doughnut city (DD was slow to get cross country). I'm sure Boston will get a decent artisan shop in around 2016-17, as is typical for food trends hitting Boston.
I think that a small (and cute) doughnut shop using high-quality ingredients and giving a damn in the back bay or south end would sell out early every day and make a killing. I'm surprised no one has tried yet. It's a shame that all the people who want to open sweet bakeshops here just want to do cupcakes.
Phien's Kitchen Changeover
Yes, it is. That would be a nice development, but I am still worried.
Phien's Kitchen Changeover
That doesn't sound good. As long as the papaya salad, sausages, larb, and coconut dessert stay the same, I'll get over it.
Does Size and Time Matter?
I prefer edited menus, but I don't think any place here does a really superb job at that. Some are pretty good, like Craigie's, but that one is really small and it's easy to work your way through it and then be bored with the options until they change the menu in a month or two. Brick and Mortar is like that as well, but even more so because almost all the drinks are in a similar style. (Side note: Brick and Mortar needs more people at the bar because things take forever and the drinkmaking and service suffers in their consistently packed place.)
I think Drink and Hawthorne waste their talent and try to promise a bartender-customer interaction that rarely happens at those places because of their popularity. I wish both would offer kickass menus of unique drinks, along the lines of PDT in NY. Jackson and John don't seem too inclined to go that route, though. Maybe Hawthorne has changed their policy in the past month or two, but the last time few times I went, they had a daily menu of a handful of drinks, many of which are classics, and then the larger book of liquors with a handful more cocktails mixed in that list. I don't like it. I wish they'd bring it and offer new things. Their bartenders are constantly experimenting and sometimes they'll offer them up to customers, but for some reason those rarely end up on a menu. I don't get it.
For large menus, Eastern Standard's largeish menu is great because it has something for everyone, but ES is also one of the few large places (nationally) that can consistently deliver great drinks. The places with 101 (or whatever) "martinis" are generally garbage.
I'll wait a long time for a drink, if it's great. Waiting a long time for crap drinks, which is all too common, is such a bummer.
Moksa Opening Soon
Well, Floating Rock was like that except they never had any crowds. burnnn.
Moksa Opening Soon
I mean, I'm excited for a new place in Central but it's from the owners of Om (which I don't care for and don't consider a chowish destination in the slightest) and a chef whose reputation is a lot greater than the quality of her restaurants have seemed to warrant.
My prediction is that Moksa will be a place with some tasty and crowd-pleasing but rather unremarkable food, expensive, crappy drinks, a crowd that gets really douchey from Th-Sat after 8pm, and an overall questionable value. Kinda like Om. I really hope I am wrong. Central needs some new blood.
Moksa Opening Soon
I still don't know why this is a hotly anticipated opening (or even why Patricia Yeo is famous), but from the pics of the interior that have come out, Moksa seems to tend more toward a nightclub that serves food rather than a restaurant that has music and dancing.
http://boston.eater.com/archives/2012/03/08/moksa-opening-on-monday.php
I hope the designer wasn't paid too much.
Russo's vs. Whole Foods
Yeah, I'd give an edge to WF on consistent quality and organic selection. On prices and overal selection, Russo's blows it away.
Strip T's increasing funkiness
I hope the Upstairs people were taking notes; they could learn a few things from Maslow.
Where to get Sablefish (Black Cod)
That guy has seriously got to give it a rest. He's a clown for going with it again at the White House after the earlier press.
Floating Rock question
Agreed. It should have been all about the food, not DJs and other bullshit.
Floating Rock question
And it's done. Even though I didn't like the place, this is still very sad to see. It was just the wrong concept, approach, space, and rent levels. I hope that a tasty independent place can take over the space. F those landlords if they bring in a chain.
Via facebook:
The Floating Rock Restaurant
The Floating Rock will be closing its doors tonight for good. Come on down for your last chance to get the amazing home cookin you just can't get anywhere else!!
Boston FTL - Beard Awards Thread
I would too, but at least she has some sort of national profile that makes a nomination understandable. Her stuff is too boring for me, though, and not particularly difficult. More like good home-baking.
Boston FTL - Beard Awards Thread
The James Beard Award semifinalists just came out. Boston didn't fare so well.
http://eater.com/archives/2012/02/21/jbf-announces-2012-restaurant-and-chef-semifinalists.php
Boston restaurants were nominated for some awards they have no chance of being finalists for, let alone winning - like Oleana as outstanding restaurant, Trade as best new restaurant (it's not even best new restaurant in this city), and Jody Adams for outstanding chef. Our restaurants deserve some recognition for other things, though, like L'Espalier for service, Drink for bar program (despite no menu), and Chang and Kilpatrick for Pastry. Barbara Lynch being overlooked for Best Restaurateur seems like an error, especially when the Legal Seafood's d-bag gets attention.
I may be reading into this, but I think the news from the nominations is about how weak Boston is viewed as a food city nationally, something that I don't think is unfair.
Of the 20 semifinalists for Best Chef: Northeast, only 2 (Jamie Bissonnette for Coppa and Tim Cushman for O Ya) are from Boston, and 1 (Jason Bond for Bondir) is from Cambridge. I think that's pretty sad when it's just a New England and Upstate NY award and Boston is far and away the biggest city. I can't say I'm surprised, though. People can say that it's not fair to compare Boston to NYC, Chicago, or LA for food, which I understand, but what about Portland, ME?
Guchi's Midnight Ramen
Agreed. I hope this "food entrepreneur" they've partnered with is planning more than just pop-ups. I think the buzz has shown that Boston has a huge hole that people want filled and the people who can offer a good product in that genre will probably be very successful. If this is just a side project, maybe we can convince Ippudo to open a Boston branch - they would be unbelievably packed every night here.
