Boston
Precious -- Monday, November 18, 2002 -- 05:42:26 PMAll things Boston (and area).
This thread is tagged: vacation, locale, chat, massachusetts,boston(All users will see what tags exist for a thread. Please tag carefully!)
I'm here. Well, not really. I'm in RI, close enough.
Chevy's is bad Mexican, isn't it? Legal is many steps above. Very good seafood and wonderful chowder.
Legal's is pretty expensive, and they refuse to take reservations which is maddening, but I've never heard anything against their cooking. The fish chowder is possibly even better than the clam chowder.
Or does that fact that I really like their clam chowder proof that I have no taste?
No, their chowder is quite good, if New England style chowder is your thing.
Their seafood is very fresh and good; I mean the fish itself, not necessarily the presentation; years ago when I was jobhunting I saw an ad for a microbiologist there; they actually test all of their fish for contamination.
When Jasper White took charge of their menu, I noticed that the prices went way up.
However, I love, love, looove the raw bar there.
When did that happen? Has anyone been to his lobster place by Alewife Station, where the old Joyce Chen's used to be?
I really miss good cheap bluefish. It's hard to find at all on the West Coast, and I always try to have some when I'm visiting parents.
I am from Western Mass ("west-a-Wistah"), went to Wellesley, and now live in Dallas. Have many friends (and my sister) still in the Boston area. Miss it.
I have always preferred Durgin Park clam chowder to Legal's. But Legal makes a mean lobster roll in the summer for lunch. Mmmmmm.
Ooh, I haven't been to Durgin Pahk in ages. Do the waitresses still yell at you if you don't clean your plate?
I'm from the suburbs and my parents live on the Cape now, but I visit as often as possible and still think of it as home.
I grew up in Wellesley, although I now live in the NYC suburbs. When I lived in Wellesley, I thought of Legal as definitely yummy, but expensive for what it was. And the lines on a Saturday night in Chestnut Hill! Now that I live near NYC, where it's harder to find really delicious lobsters and NE clam chowder and general New England style seafood, I'm much more willing to shell out (so to speak) for Legal and think it worth every penny.
Cal, when you say you love their clam chowder, I home you're getting it in one of their restaurants. They (used to?) sell it frozen in some supermarkets (at least around here) and it's nowhere near as good.
Pearl is terrific. We've been a couple of times. But it would be nice to (a) find a place in Westchester and/or (b) find a place in the city that didn't leave you with the choice of either showing up half an hour before they open to stand around, so that you can get a table when they open or standing in line for even longer later.
And, BTW, Pearl is definitely better than Mary's Fish Camp. And if I keep this up, I'm going to be sent to the NYC thread, so I'm done now.
To atone for my part in the thread drift sin, I'm reprinting my list of Best Ice Cream Parlors in Massachusetts from the PW Ice Cream Road Trip thread:
In Harvard Square, Cambridge MA:
Harvard Square Ice Cream Parlors
Of these my favorites are:
Toscanini's, which has a great rotating flavor selection and is always fresh and creamy; and
Herrells, which in addition to being a Cambridge institution (founded by the guy who founded Steve's and in so doing created the "smush-in" where you pick your ice cream and then pick stuff for the ice cream server to smush in [this was pre-Ben & Jerry's, when the most goodies you could get in a flavor was Rocky Road]), is housed in a former bank, and you can eat in the safe which is painted to look like you're under water in a coral reef.
In Belmont, MA:
Rancatore's is possibly my favorite ice cream ever. A small, unpretentious shop. The owner is frequently there. Excellent flavor choices that are more elegant than most places; bittersweet chocolate, ginger snap, and oh...the toppings....
In Carlisle, MA:
Kimball Farm, a farm stand with a little petting zoo across the lane (from the look of the website they've expanded to other towns and gone a bit wild, but the Carlisle one is still good fresh ice cream and some cute animals for the kids to pet). Their raspberry topping was a huge treat in my childhood. Peach season at Kimball's is to Bostonians as Cherry Blossom season is to the Japanese: sacred, worth a drive to get to, and all-too fleeting.
In Templeton, MA:
on the Common, the Templeton Ice Cream Barn. A big ol' barn with lots of fabulous flavors. Anyone in there buying a cone for him/herself and another for an enormous drooling bullmastiff is probably coming from my aunt & uncle's house.
And in Boston, on Newbury Street, Emack & Bolio's (can't find a link for them, which is strange).
Has anyone been to his lobster place by Alewife Station, where the old Joyce Chen's used to be?
Actually, it's where Aku-Aku used to be and there's a daycare where Joyce Chen's was.
It's good, but expensive. Great with a crowd and/or with kids. Legal's is better if you sit at the bar and have several appetizers, like tapas.
People go to Chevy's for something other than the margaritas?!
The owner of Rancatore's is the brother of the owner of Toscannini's, which was named after the composer.
I thought I remembered knowing that but wasn't sure -- did they have some kind of hideous falling out or something?
Oh, thanks for reminding me! I hadn't been there when I made my list. When I'm there for Thanksgiving I'll go. Inman Square, right?
Last I heard it was still around, but after Bertucci's bought them out they discontinued the fabulous chocolates, and, no doubt, the cream cheese and olive sandwiches. Does anyone have an update?
Sorry, not a Bostonian, but have been visiting a friend there lately, so does that count? He always takes me to this fabulous Irish place, Doyle's, and I've fallen in love with it. Wonderful food, great drinks, and not expensive, either. Anybody been there?
I think Bailey's bit the dust. My mother, sister and I still reminisce about weekend lunches in their uber-Ice-Cream-Shoppe Harvard Square branch: tuna on white toast with lettuce, then sundaes with the hot fudge or butterscotch overflowing onto the saucer. The black and white marble tiles, the chocolate easter bunnies bigger than we were, the twisted iron chairs. My sister and I were even photographed for some Harvard-related publication in front of the window decorations there one year, one of our few claims to fame.
I think Doyle's is in an area called Jamaica, maybe? (I keep thinking "Jamaica Plains," but I think that's New York.) Looked like a very working-class kinda neighborhood, salt-o'-the-earth folks, etc. All the waitresses called us "DEEE-ah," and the bartenders were appropriately gruff in a congenial sort of way.
I remember having the CHOW-dah in a big, scooped-out bread bowl the size of a human head. Unfortunately, given the vast amount of beer we consumed overall, I am unable to remember what else I've eaten there. Flounder, maybe? But I remember it was really, really good.