Any Nashville-style hot chicken round these parts?

I agree, I'm in the 'hood and I'm a regular patron. It more than fits the bill, I've loved the service over the years and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this place pre-Symphony or pre-Berklee.

Neptune may have subway tiles on the walls, but the only times I've found it uncomfortably loud are when it isn't packed with sound-absorbing patrons, and those times are rare.

Here's my strategy for a Neptune visit: get there around 11:15 a.m. on a Saturday. That means the line hasn't formed enough by then to be daunting. By the time the awnings are lifted around 11:30, you'll be in prime position to snag a place at the bar. Once there, enjoy some perfect bivalves, a glass or two of muscadet, and some lovely Boston cioppino (add the lobster). It's the best our town has to offer.

I would love to try Kate's buttermilk here in Boston, and I hope that Whole $$ carries it someday here. Being a Southerner, I consider true buttermilk essential to true cornbread, not to mention essential to the Southern ploughboy's lunch (cornbread crumbled in a glass and doused with buttermilk). At times my crave for real buttermilk has been so strong, "Ah cain't hardly staind hit!" Hep a country boi Kate's!

I love, love, love the steak tartare at Brasserie Jo: it's been my favorite and standard here in Boston, and I'm due a date with it soon. The steak tartare at Eastern Standard was good the times I've had it, but not finely minced enough and the consistency has been too loose for my preference. Let me know if it's changed there.

Can't say I've had beef cheeks recently, but the braised beef cheeks I had a year ago at Erbaluce were transcendent, rich and utterly satisfying. Check there for specials.

If one is looking for coffee syrup for any purpose, one must look to Rhode Island first. Coffee milk, made with coffee syrup, is the official state drink. I've enjoyed many a coffee cabinet (coffee milkshake or frappe elsewhere) in Little Rhody, and will again. The best coffee syrup in RI is made by Dave's Coffee in Westerly and is available regionally at Whole Foods: just concentrated coffee and cane sugar, the sweetness is balanced and it's got good flavor. I like the way it plays with a darker Barbados rum like Mount Gay Black.

Amen to the Vergano Americano, the most delicious chinato I've ever had. And thanks to that cherrylike character I find it lovely with the bourbon in the negroni's darker relative, the boulevardier.

Yep, I'd say that the Antoine is mighty tasty but not, strictly speaking, a martini. And I'm bored with brackets too, but anything that gets folks talking about the concept of a proper martini is a good thing IMHO.
Excuse me while I fix up another Antoine! Cheers.

It's true Fred, you gotta love that funk to use it for an infusion, and I'm glad I developed a taste for it. Thanks to this thread I've got some pineapple macerating in Wray & Nephew right now. And thanks to what you've shared over the years in your excellent blog, I've had fun with potables I never would have tried otherwise - thank you sir!

Totally with you about making sure that the chorizo is the best you can get - the sausage carries so much flavor throughout the paella so it's crucial. I use a medium grain rice in mine and it turns out fine. Not stirring it much after the rice goes in will help with the crusties.
Are you using a good fish stock for the liquid part? If you can't get good fish stock (and like me too lazy to make it fresh), look for a good brand of clam juice to use in chicken stock or water.
Plenty of saffron is a plus, good pimentón is too. Any access to fresh squid for your paella? If not, my sympathies.

Thank you OP for your Tomolive love! For a vegetal gin martini I prefer them for a garnish over oily olives. My fave martini is 3 parts Beefeater to 1 part fresh Noilly Prat (lovin' the new style) with a dash of celery bitters and that lovely, tasty Tomolive. To me one of this martini stirred to an utter chill is an ideal preprandial.

My thoughts on infusions, which I fully intend to do more of this year: higher proof in your base will carry more flavor out of whatever you infuse. I have my eye on using overproof rum like Wray & Nephew from Jamaica, which comes in at 126 proof and seems to be more available than ever here in Boston. I'm not sure what might be available in Mexico like that, but keeping the proof up will give you a better result.
I haven't started yet this year because I want to infuse fruit that's local and seasonal, but that's my plan!

Really, the best way to get a real country ham here is online. Mention has been made of Benton and Newsom in this thread, ordering online from Loveless Cafe or Early's Honey Stand would do in a pinch, but to me as a native Tennessean the holy grail is Rice's country ham out of Mt Juliet, TN (http://www.ricescountryhams.com/). Better than Benton IMHO.

I love old cookbooks, not necessarily for the techniques illustrated there (which, by and large, are quite antiquated and passés) but for the windows on taste and custom that they give me from their time. That being said, I love Escoffier's "Ma Cuisine" written for French housewives - it's quite the encyclopedia of cuisine bourgeoise, yet considered quite basic! It's the French "Joy".

I shall keep an eye out for l'oeuvre de la Comtesse Maipie.

Lots of talk here about brining or not brining. Count me in among the briners. Living in southern New England we have the Azorean brine/marinade called vinha d'alhos and I use it often: 2 cups water, 1 cup red wine vinegar, 2 tsp salt, 2 or 3 crushed cloves of garlic, some grinds of fresh black pepper, a crushed bay leaf. The longer your thick cut pork chop (bone in or not) bathes in this, the better it gets, though by day 2 it starts to pickle instead of brine.

Remove chop from brine and wipe dry. Set in a non-reactive skillet (due to the acid in the brine), insert probe thermometer, and put in 200 degree oven until internal temp rises to 155 degrees. Move skillet (use your oven mitts for this, please) from oven onto burner on high, quickly color each side, then remove to plate, cover and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. And there ya go!

Latest news per posted notice on site: opening for the Hunt Ave 5 Guys is scheduled for March 25.

I miss Dini's, I had my first (and best) baked finnan haddie there and the baked schrod was remarkably good. Old school fish restaurants need a shout out!

A Ginger Exchange is indeed under construction in the old (and failed Chino Cubano) Betty's space across from Symphony Hall. (BTW, remember Betty's predesessor, Anna's Diner? say no more.) And on the same side of the Hall, Five Guys threatens to open but it's not there yet. Hoping here that the former Symphony 8 space on Westland behind the Hall turns into a better venue than it was, I'd frankly be good with a return to Malaysian if it was done right.

But still the best pre-Symphony option in the nabe (if you count near the Pru as being in the nabe) is Brasserie Jo. It's been the best around here for years. You can park there too, if you're coming in by car.

Coppa and Toro (on Sunday) have excellent lunches, but are a pricey cab ride from your location. Instead, have an excellent Cannes-style bistro lunch at La Voile on Newbury St. All the waitstaff are from Provence, the food is solid bistro and you will love it...at least I do!

BTW Slim, my hack for gutless pad thai is usually to order some fish sauce on the side to drizzle over ad lib. That extra punch sure helps.

I agree, great suggestions all. My major interest is in Saturday lunch (not brunch), my weekly splurge, but this thread is helpful in that respect too.

Yes, Sami was a charming guy and a trailblazer for Middle Eastern chow in this city. He should be missed, and remembered.

Having been a hotel resto host and manager myself way back in the day, I respect the job hosts do and appreciate the pressures increased now from back then to 'work the crowd'. That being said, Tom at ICOB works the crowd well and I like him greatly, but he is the manager there at ICOB, not a host.
To my mind the best resto host there ever was in Boston (especially circa 1980) was the indomitable Mme Martel at first the Hungry Pilgrim, then Café Rouge, at the Boston Park Plaza. I worshipped that woman.

I tried the George Dickel rye recently for a manhattan, and I think it would do nicely in an old fashioned. It has a softer rye spice character, no doubt due to the charcoal mellowing that TN whiskey gets (tho this rye is distilled in Indiana, later processed in Tennessee). It's a very pleasant rye that I can commend to you.

This is golden! Thanks ScotchandSirloin!

Shame on those Emerson students, and so far afield from the hot Theatre District bar scene hah! At least I have heard no reports of sex workers slaving away in the Tip Tap's basement (unlike its predecessor).

Slim, I would blame those underage Suffolk students rather than them from Emerson...they have the lovely peaceful Theatre District clubs to go to instead =\

To me, bouncers at a resto are a bad harbinger of its vibe.

Hi, I searched on "scotch Boston" in this forum and didn't find a thread on retailers in Boston who specialize in fine scotch whisky, so I'm starting one. Any recs for a packie with a good scotch selection in the city of Boston? Two limiting factors: it has to be T-accessible (preferably subway/trolley) and it needs to feature a good selection of lowland scotch, particularly Auchentoshan (this is for a particular friend). Thanks all!

Seems a shame, but I was experiencing service issues there a few months ago that made me disinclined to return for a while. It will be interesting to see what goes in the space.