A toast to our favorite things
For starters, an economical and tasty lunch and a spice with pizzazz
By Globe Staff | December 31, 2008
Like many other people passionate about food, we glom onto certain things and pull them out of the pantry week after week. Our friends are probably sick of hearing about these items and certainly they're tired of eating them. But we aren't. The rotation changes each year, pushing something like Hungarian paprika farther back on the spice rack in favor of pimenton de la Vera (smoky Spanish paprika). Speaking of Spain, it began exporting its highly prized jamon iberico this year, which became a favorite thing. Restaurant critic Devra First, film critic Wesley Morris, Web guru Michael Saunders, and Food editor Sheryl Julian all weighed in with their lists. They include pizza strewn with tandoori chicken, Poppa B's soul food, the new spot Drink, a president who eats vegetables, Sofra's tiny aromatic doughnuts, and more.
P.F. Chang's
Contrary to what you think, P.F. Chang's China Bistro is not the Applebee's of Chinese food. It's the Bertucci's of Chinese food: solid, inexpensive, generically faithful renditions of the real thing. From the people who brought you Chinese food comes . . . Velvet glove service is not the company's strong suit, particularly at the Copley location, which is often mobbed and where the downstairs bar is criminally understaffed. And the signature sauce-mixing routine is wasteful shtick. But the kitchen never fails to match the expectations of a starving man who's run out of more imaginative options. For P.F. Chang locations, go to www.pfchangs.com.
WESLEY MORRIS
Vietnamese market bag
Made from an old grain sack, this laminated market bag, with long straps, will hold your groceries in style. The bottom is 6-inches wide, a pocket large enough so things won’t get crushed, and tall enough (12-inches) so the bunches of leafy greens you promised yourself you would eat starting in January won’t fall out of the top. If you’ve decided to treat taking your own bags to the supermarket as a competitive sport, you’ll edge out all others with this in tow. About $29 at www.vivaterra.com.
SHERYL JULIAN
Sigg bottle
This 100-year-old Swiss brand has done a great job of marketing its wares in this country. You might think $18 (and up) is a lot to pay for a reusable water bottle, but consider this: you’re doing your bit to help save the planet and Sigg is donating 1 percent of their proceeds to environmental causes. As for the many Sigg knock-offs, the water you sip from them tastes like gun metal. Available at www.mysigg.com, www.rei.com.
S.J.
A president who embraces vegetables
Ronald Reagan proposed classifying ketchup as a vegetable. George H.W. Bush inveighed against broccoli. What a relief to have a president who reportedly likes not only broccoli but spinach, worries about the price of arugula, and says he will work to encourage local and organic agriculture. Not since Thomas Jefferson - who ate mostly vegetables and often accompanied his French chef to the markets - have we had a leader who gave a fig about produce. Some have argued against Barack Obama's nomination of Tom Vilsack as secretary of agriculture (he's supported ethanol and genetically modified food), and the president-elect dislikes beets. But overall Obama displays a sensible pro-veggie policy. Vegetables are good and good for you, and I for one am ready for a leader who doesn't trash-talk them.
DEVRA FIRST
Shiki’s lunch sets
We may be watching our pennies, but it doesn’t mean we can’t eat well. Lunch at Shiki, a Japanese restaurant in Coolidge Corner, is a case in point. The meal might include some combination of salad, soup, chawanmushi (a seafood-laden custard), tempura, sashimi, and other small bites. These lunch sets are $12-$18, an astounding amount of beautiful food for the price. 9 Babcock St., Brookline, 617-738-0200; www.shikibrookline.com.
D.F.
The Macallan Cask Strength
My winter survival strategy involves a roaring fire, the dog curled at my feet, and three fingers of The Macallan Cask Strength swirling in a glass. It vaulted up the list of my favorite scotches this year. It's a surprisingly well-balanced whisky despite being bottled at a formidable, tongue-numbing 58 percent alcohol (most scotch is 40 percent). The deep amber color foretells concentrated fruit and spice notes amid a wash of heat like a jet exhaust. Fine-tune the taste with a generous splash of water. About $60. Available at most well-stocked liquor stores. MICHAEL SAUNDERS
Merken chili spice
This Chilean blend of dried and smoked red chilis, toasted coriander seeds, cumin, and salt is like a rescue paramedic shocking the blandness out of food. It adds a subtle, smoky heat that tastes great on almost everything. This was probably the biggest surprise addition to the pantry this year, and will probably always have a place at our table. About $6 for a 50-gram bottle. Available at Whole Foods markets, Williams-Sonoma stores, www.tuchileaqui.com, and www.ifancyfood.com.
M.S.
Jamon iberico de bellota
The prized Spanish ham, from acorn-fed, black-hoofed Iberian pigs, became available in the US for the first time this year. It was worth the wait. The dark red slices taste like prosciutto in Technicolor — meaty, nuanced, nearly fruity. Retailing for around $100 a pound, it may not be for everyday consumption. But it does make a worthy splurge. Spanish grocery Las Ventas is your best bet for a local source. 700 Harrison Ave., Boston, 617-266-0905; www.lasventasspain.com.
D.F.
Drink
For cocktail geeks, this new basement bar from Barbara Lynch is one of the best places in town to imbibe. With an A-team of bartenders, no cocktail list, and a panoply of obscure spirits and herbs, Drink may provide you with the best-ever version of your go-to order, or something invented for you on the spot. Bartenders offer interesting tidbits of cocktail history and lessons on liqueurs as they craft your beverage. 348 Congress St., Boston, 617-695-1806; www.drinkfortpoint.com.
D.F.
Aritsugu knives
On a trip to Japan, I visited Aritsugu, a family business in Kyoto that's been making knives for more than 400 years. Even the inexpensive one I picked up there shows why Aritsugu is so well respected. It's super-sharp and incredibly light, and it makes chopping fun. The Aritsugu knives sold online seem to be top of the line with prices to match, but you can find similar Japanese-style knives for reasonable sums at www.korin.com.
D.F.
Tandoori chicken pizza
No, this definitely is not the banal version from a well-known mall pizza kitchen. My wife and I first had this in a small cafe in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, and she hounded the chef for his recipe, then replaced the mild sauce with a Parsi tomato-based curry called a "patia." Unless you're coming for dinner, you'll need to make your own.
M.S.
Victory V-Twelve ale
A real winner from Pennsylvania microbrewer Victory Brewing Co., a Belgian-style ale that's big and bold, yet eminently drinkable. I first had this several years ago at the Extreme Beer Fest in Boston, and fell in love. Spotty availibility made this a rare treat. Over the past year, local distribution to Boston stores has improved, so you're more likely to find this gem. About $12. Available at fine beer purveyors.
M.S.
Jancis Robinson
I hadn't really paid attention to Jancis Robinson until my boyfriend began terrorizing me with her this year. The Financial Times gave itself a makeover that included a vampy three-quarter-length photo of its high priestess of wine criticism (Jancis, are those pants leather?) Like most Robinson-lovers, my man appreciates her knowledge and authority. Unlike them, he at least finds her flamboyant snobbery ridiculous. Nonetheless I had to find a way to repay her for the flights and road trips I've spent listening to her reviews read aloud. So when this year's Robinson-accursed Beaujolais Nouveaux were announced, I raised a couple of vengeful glasses to her. I really hope she felt it.
W.M.
Poppa B's
This is a miserable town for soul food - authentic, "so-and-so put her foot in these greens" soul food. There are several passable excuses that people stand by. But Poppa B's, on Blue Hill Ave., with its excellent staff and hardworking chefs, is the only one whose yams made me want to slap somebody's momma, the only one that served liver-and-onions almost better than my own momma's, the only one worth the two unreliable buses I've had to ride to get there. When a piece of heaven's in Dorchester, you have to pay the fare. Poppa B's, 1100 Blue Hill Ave., Dorchester, 617-825-0700, www.poppab.com.
W.M.
Persian doughnuts
At the new Sofra Bakery and Cafe, the food is Turkish, Lebanese, and Greek. Owned by Oleana's Ana Sortun with Oleana pastry chef Maura Kilpatrick and business partner Gary Griffin, Sofra is a tiny jewel box that serves unusual food, all beautiful and well prepared. Among the confections are crisp Persian doughnuts, round little balls ($2.50 each) flavored with rose petals and coated in spices and granular sugar. Sweets don't get better than this. Sofra Bakery and Cafe, 1 Belmont St., Cambridge, 617-661-3161, www.sofrabakery.com.
S.J.
Kimball Farms pistachio ice cream
This was one of the few indulgences to kick this year’s calorie counting to the curb. Why is this worth skipping a meal for? This pistachio is a lovely version of a classic that’s dense with nuts in a rich vanilla base, but doesn’t have the cloying, medicinal flavor and scary green color of most commercial brands. Available in summer and early fall at Kimball Farms locations in Westford, Carlisle and Jaffrey, N.H.
M.S.
Mr. Christie's Maple Leaf cookies
2008 was the year I hate to break up with every store-bought cookie I loved. They were all made with scary high fructose corn syrup instead of, or in addition to, sugar. Then in Toronto last September I found Mr. Christie’s Maple Leaf cookies and down the street from my house I found Madame Gougousse’s Coconut Cookies from Costa Rica — both tasty, HFCS-free, and sold in cool packaging. ‘‘Gougousse’’ is a slightly inane name (‘‘Madame Tasty Taste?’’), but maybe she could leave Monsieur Gougousse and marry Mr. Christie. They’d have the cutest snacks together. Coconut Cookies available at Casa Cuong, 629 Tremont St., Boston and many Caribbean grocers.
W.M.
Chaka Khan
At Poppa B’s and in about four other restaurants I’ve been to this year, there was Chaka Khan on the soundtrack. ‘‘Sweet Thing’’ should play wherever three-tiered apple pies are served. ‘‘I Feel for You’’ should be on whenever the wait is out the door. ‘‘This Is My Night’’ ought to follow having no wait at all. ‘‘Tell Me Something Good’’ needs to accompany the recitation of all specials. ‘‘Though the Fire’’ should — well, let’s hope there’s never any need for that song, musically or culinarily. Still, to the restaurants still playing Gypsy Kings — still: Chaka Khan is every woman and, in 2009, may she be everywhere.
W.M.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Asana review
DINING OUT
A happy meeting
Asia, France come together at Asana
By Devra First, Globe Staff | December 31, 2008
If nothing else, it is a sign of yoga's mainstream ascent that heading into 2009 a restaurant named Asana is not a collectively run vegan cafe doling out dulse and brown rice, but rather a luxury hotel-operated expanse of exotic wood and hand-carved limestone, offering stylish French/Asian food, a Mahabharata-length cocktail list, and selections from a glass cheese cave, with equanimity-challenging prices at the high end.
An asana is a yoga pose - say, downward-facing dog, in which the practitioner's body forms an inverted V, hands and feet on the ground, heinie in the air. Asana the restaurant, in the sparkly new Mandarin Oriental hotel, inspires a few poses of its own.
There's the crane neck pose, wherein the head swivels back and forth as the eyes scan the room, cleansing breaths emanating from the nostrils at regular, exasperated intervals. The food here takes its time in arriving.
There's the designated driver salute, a combined move of apologetic head shaking while bending the right hand upward in the manner of a crossing guard stopping traffic. Alcohol is offered to guests frequently, by multiple staff members, while the food is taking its time.
But most of all, there is plateward-facing hog, in which the practitioner tastes a dish and attains enlightenment, then tastes it again just to be sure.
Asana is imperfect, a restaurant working on becoming its best self. But when the food is at its best, it is wonderful. The Mandarin Oriental, strong on service of the "Welcome back, Mr. So-and-So, will you be having a dry martini again this evening?" variety, will probably get the wrinkles steamed out quickly. There's incentive - L'Espalier, with its own cheese cave, dark wood, and emphasis on service, is right next door, as is Sel de la Terre; business travel is down due to the economy, and people are getting cagier with their dining dollars. On weeknights there are plenty of empty tables at Asana. (The hotel's M Bar & Lounge has become a hopping scene, however.)
Chef Nicolas Boutin, who came from the Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental, cooked before that in Michelin-starred hotel kitchens around France. If one could breed food the way one can horses or dogs, crossing the cooking of Hong Kong and France might just create the ubercuisine, a superior specimen.
At Asana you'll find light, tender-skinned dumplings, steamed and served with three sauces, one sweet chili, one vinegar, and one soy. Dashi with tofu, scallions, and shiitake is served with soba, a warm bowl of Japanese flavors (though on one occasion the dashi was more like lukewarm). Thin-sliced, rare beef is draped on a vibrant salad of greens, cilantro, mint, and chilies. And sweet, tender roasted duck is folded into springy pancakes with hoisin sauce.
But that's just one side of the restaurant's personality.
The menu also proffers a consomme of oxtail and caramelized onion with a little grilled cheese finger sandwich on the side. Maine lobster salad is a beautifully plated minaret of claw and tail meat, thinnest-sliced beets, and baby vegetables, crowned with a few delicate potato chips. It's food porn - looking at it elevates the experience of eating what is, ultimately, some lobster and a nice salad. There's scallops meuniere, steak frites with bearnaise, and fish and chips.
It can leave the orderer confused, particularly when the orderer has been consuming tomato caipiroskas and glasses of cabernet franc that keep arriving. Which continent to choose? Asian appetizers, French main courses? Foie gras followed by nasi goreng? Or go with an Indian outlier? (If it's the slow-cooked lamb shank with bright yellow saffron rice and a raita-esque condiment, yes - it's delicious.)
To complicate things further, there is the cheese. An excellent manchego comes with a corn arepa, arugula, and a red chili gelee that adds nothing to the flavors. Great Hill blue is made into creamy fondue, served in a little crock with bread and mod fondue forks. It transcends fondue; it's a cheese potion. And in a season of macaroni and cheese ubiquity - people are poor, thus people need carbs, fat, and comfort, the reasoning seems to go - Asana's MO'C & cheese thumbs its nose at the others. The noodles al dente, the blend of Emmental and creme fraiche nutty and tangy, this side dish is a star.
Would that everything lived up to it. Foie gras terrine one night is nearly tasteless, as is a vegetable risotto. Short rib is a bit tough, though the caramelized endive it's served with is magical, tasting like maple syrup and vanilla. The nasi goreng - an Indonesian rice dish - lacks balance. The grains are mixed with shrimp and chicken, then topped with a runny egg, but the dish mostly tastes like sweet chili paste. Oven-baked red snapper is overcooked but full of good flavors, cilantro, ginger, and scallions.
For dessert, panna cotta has a lovely, light licorice taste but far too much gelatin; it barely even wobbles. Fig clafoutis is excellent, a custardy cake with fruit and basil and lemon sorbet. Best of all is the floating island, a huge cube of meringue filled with banana and passion fruit milkshake. So much for oeufs a la neige; this is more like "TV set in the snow." To drink with dessert, lovely French press coffee - for $9. Stop the presses! (Regular coffee is a mere $6.)
The wine list is the kind that makes you want to drink wine, with interesting bottles from all over. Though some have price tags that read more like vintage years, you'll also find the likes of Domaine Caillot "Les Herbeux" ($55), a declassified Meursault from auspicious 2005, and Mt. Difficult "Roaring Meg" pinot noir from New Zealand's Central Otago ($45). For the other side of the menu, there are five kinds of sake.
Service veers between pampering perfection and benign neglect, sometimes both in the same visit; our waiters were either calling us by name and bringing us complimentary champagne, or forgetting to see if we wanted anything to eat, then forgetting to put in part of our order. You can follow your bliss at Asana. Sometimes you find it.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
A happy meeting
Asia, France come together at Asana
By Devra First, Globe Staff | December 31, 2008
If nothing else, it is a sign of yoga's mainstream ascent that heading into 2009 a restaurant named Asana is not a collectively run vegan cafe doling out dulse and brown rice, but rather a luxury hotel-operated expanse of exotic wood and hand-carved limestone, offering stylish French/Asian food, a Mahabharata-length cocktail list, and selections from a glass cheese cave, with equanimity-challenging prices at the high end.
An asana is a yoga pose - say, downward-facing dog, in which the practitioner's body forms an inverted V, hands and feet on the ground, heinie in the air. Asana the restaurant, in the sparkly new Mandarin Oriental hotel, inspires a few poses of its own.
There's the crane neck pose, wherein the head swivels back and forth as the eyes scan the room, cleansing breaths emanating from the nostrils at regular, exasperated intervals. The food here takes its time in arriving.
There's the designated driver salute, a combined move of apologetic head shaking while bending the right hand upward in the manner of a crossing guard stopping traffic. Alcohol is offered to guests frequently, by multiple staff members, while the food is taking its time.
But most of all, there is plateward-facing hog, in which the practitioner tastes a dish and attains enlightenment, then tastes it again just to be sure.
Asana is imperfect, a restaurant working on becoming its best self. But when the food is at its best, it is wonderful. The Mandarin Oriental, strong on service of the "Welcome back, Mr. So-and-So, will you be having a dry martini again this evening?" variety, will probably get the wrinkles steamed out quickly. There's incentive - L'Espalier, with its own cheese cave, dark wood, and emphasis on service, is right next door, as is Sel de la Terre; business travel is down due to the economy, and people are getting cagier with their dining dollars. On weeknights there are plenty of empty tables at Asana. (The hotel's M Bar & Lounge has become a hopping scene, however.)
Chef Nicolas Boutin, who came from the Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental, cooked before that in Michelin-starred hotel kitchens around France. If one could breed food the way one can horses or dogs, crossing the cooking of Hong Kong and France might just create the ubercuisine, a superior specimen.
At Asana you'll find light, tender-skinned dumplings, steamed and served with three sauces, one sweet chili, one vinegar, and one soy. Dashi with tofu, scallions, and shiitake is served with soba, a warm bowl of Japanese flavors (though on one occasion the dashi was more like lukewarm). Thin-sliced, rare beef is draped on a vibrant salad of greens, cilantro, mint, and chilies. And sweet, tender roasted duck is folded into springy pancakes with hoisin sauce.
But that's just one side of the restaurant's personality.
The menu also proffers a consomme of oxtail and caramelized onion with a little grilled cheese finger sandwich on the side. Maine lobster salad is a beautifully plated minaret of claw and tail meat, thinnest-sliced beets, and baby vegetables, crowned with a few delicate potato chips. It's food porn - looking at it elevates the experience of eating what is, ultimately, some lobster and a nice salad. There's scallops meuniere, steak frites with bearnaise, and fish and chips.
It can leave the orderer confused, particularly when the orderer has been consuming tomato caipiroskas and glasses of cabernet franc that keep arriving. Which continent to choose? Asian appetizers, French main courses? Foie gras followed by nasi goreng? Or go with an Indian outlier? (If it's the slow-cooked lamb shank with bright yellow saffron rice and a raita-esque condiment, yes - it's delicious.)
To complicate things further, there is the cheese. An excellent manchego comes with a corn arepa, arugula, and a red chili gelee that adds nothing to the flavors. Great Hill blue is made into creamy fondue, served in a little crock with bread and mod fondue forks. It transcends fondue; it's a cheese potion. And in a season of macaroni and cheese ubiquity - people are poor, thus people need carbs, fat, and comfort, the reasoning seems to go - Asana's MO'C & cheese thumbs its nose at the others. The noodles al dente, the blend of Emmental and creme fraiche nutty and tangy, this side dish is a star.
Would that everything lived up to it. Foie gras terrine one night is nearly tasteless, as is a vegetable risotto. Short rib is a bit tough, though the caramelized endive it's served with is magical, tasting like maple syrup and vanilla. The nasi goreng - an Indonesian rice dish - lacks balance. The grains are mixed with shrimp and chicken, then topped with a runny egg, but the dish mostly tastes like sweet chili paste. Oven-baked red snapper is overcooked but full of good flavors, cilantro, ginger, and scallions.
For dessert, panna cotta has a lovely, light licorice taste but far too much gelatin; it barely even wobbles. Fig clafoutis is excellent, a custardy cake with fruit and basil and lemon sorbet. Best of all is the floating island, a huge cube of meringue filled with banana and passion fruit milkshake. So much for oeufs a la neige; this is more like "TV set in the snow." To drink with dessert, lovely French press coffee - for $9. Stop the presses! (Regular coffee is a mere $6.)
The wine list is the kind that makes you want to drink wine, with interesting bottles from all over. Though some have price tags that read more like vintage years, you'll also find the likes of Domaine Caillot "Les Herbeux" ($55), a declassified Meursault from auspicious 2005, and Mt. Difficult "Roaring Meg" pinot noir from New Zealand's Central Otago ($45). For the other side of the menu, there are five kinds of sake.
Service veers between pampering perfection and benign neglect, sometimes both in the same visit; our waiters were either calling us by name and bringing us complimentary champagne, or forgetting to see if we wanted anything to eat, then forgetting to put in part of our order. You can follow your bliss at Asana. Sometimes you find it.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Atlantic Beer Garden review
CHEAP EATS
Garden of sports delights
By Denise Taylor, Globe Correspondent | December 31, 2008
When we walk into Atlantic Beer Garden, for a moment it seems like we've wandered into a sports fan's fantasy: The scene inside looks like a Super Bowl party in the TV department at Best Buy.
So many flatscreens plaster the walls at this new harbor side sports bar that we half expect our waiter not to ask which beer we'd like but rather what size TV we plan to buy. Meanwhile, the young crowd around us is cheering on the Patriots and munching on game grub like nachos, wings, and Philly cheese steak spring rolls served with beer ketchup (and no one is pinkies up while dunking).
In other words, sports fans - and those who aim to tempt fate by eating the likes of the Pacific burger stacked with cheese, a fried egg, bacon, and onion strings ($9.99) - your bar is here. Then again, minus the waterfront outdoor seating and planned roof deck, it's also in Brighton. Atlantic Beer Garden, which opened up next to the World Trade Center in October, is a clone of the 9-month-old Brighton Beer Garden owned by Cronin Development Corp. - which also lays claim to downtown's Sanctuary and Southie's Boston Beer Garden and Playwright.
Both locations sport the same sleek dark wood and leather decor, both are subdued by caramel-tone walls, and both cram in flatscreens like they were posters slapped on the walls of a dorm room. The 63 beer choices and nouveau pub grub menus are also nearly identical.
We try respectable basics like juicy burgers ($8.99 to $9.99) and tasty cooked-to-order steak tips ($13.99). The kitchen also seems comfortable with sandwiches like the pressed chicken and pear panini ($8.99) and traditional pub food like the intensely cheesy spinach and artichoke dip ($8.99) or juicy fried mushrooms ($8.99).
But the trendier choices are less reliable. Dishes like lettuce wraps with Thai sauce ($8.99) or grilled salmon with mango salsa ($14.99) sound interesting, but are overly sweet and bland. Other more upscale entrees, like chicken a la Milanese ($14.99) in a sundried-tomato cream sauce that has separated, simply fumbles. An appetizer of mojito grilled shrimp ($8.99) lives up to its promise with a pleasing char and a summery hint of mint and rum.
We hope the cooks find steadier feet, but for now, the water and game views are enough of a draw. Because when you can catch a touchdown on, oh, 24 HD TVs and two giant projection screens, even an over-the-top fried Snickers bar a la mode ($5.50) tastes good enough.
TLANTIC BEER GARDEN 146 Seaport Blvd., Boston. 617-357-8000. All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible.
Prices Soups, salads, and appetizers $3.50-$9.99. Sandwiches and entrees $7.99-$15.99. Desserts $4.99-$5.50.
Hours 11:30-2 a.m. daily.
Liquor Full bar.
May we suggest Mojito grilled shrimp, fried mushrooms, house salad, burgers, chicken and pear panini, steak tips (above), fried Snickers.
Garden of sports delights
By Denise Taylor, Globe Correspondent | December 31, 2008
When we walk into Atlantic Beer Garden, for a moment it seems like we've wandered into a sports fan's fantasy: The scene inside looks like a Super Bowl party in the TV department at Best Buy.
So many flatscreens plaster the walls at this new harbor side sports bar that we half expect our waiter not to ask which beer we'd like but rather what size TV we plan to buy. Meanwhile, the young crowd around us is cheering on the Patriots and munching on game grub like nachos, wings, and Philly cheese steak spring rolls served with beer ketchup (and no one is pinkies up while dunking).
In other words, sports fans - and those who aim to tempt fate by eating the likes of the Pacific burger stacked with cheese, a fried egg, bacon, and onion strings ($9.99) - your bar is here. Then again, minus the waterfront outdoor seating and planned roof deck, it's also in Brighton. Atlantic Beer Garden, which opened up next to the World Trade Center in October, is a clone of the 9-month-old Brighton Beer Garden owned by Cronin Development Corp. - which also lays claim to downtown's Sanctuary and Southie's Boston Beer Garden and Playwright.
Both locations sport the same sleek dark wood and leather decor, both are subdued by caramel-tone walls, and both cram in flatscreens like they were posters slapped on the walls of a dorm room. The 63 beer choices and nouveau pub grub menus are also nearly identical.
We try respectable basics like juicy burgers ($8.99 to $9.99) and tasty cooked-to-order steak tips ($13.99). The kitchen also seems comfortable with sandwiches like the pressed chicken and pear panini ($8.99) and traditional pub food like the intensely cheesy spinach and artichoke dip ($8.99) or juicy fried mushrooms ($8.99).
But the trendier choices are less reliable. Dishes like lettuce wraps with Thai sauce ($8.99) or grilled salmon with mango salsa ($14.99) sound interesting, but are overly sweet and bland. Other more upscale entrees, like chicken a la Milanese ($14.99) in a sundried-tomato cream sauce that has separated, simply fumbles. An appetizer of mojito grilled shrimp ($8.99) lives up to its promise with a pleasing char and a summery hint of mint and rum.
We hope the cooks find steadier feet, but for now, the water and game views are enough of a draw. Because when you can catch a touchdown on, oh, 24 HD TVs and two giant projection screens, even an over-the-top fried Snickers bar a la mode ($5.50) tastes good enough.
TLANTIC BEER GARDEN 146 Seaport Blvd., Boston. 617-357-8000. All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible.
Prices Soups, salads, and appetizers $3.50-$9.99. Sandwiches and entrees $7.99-$15.99. Desserts $4.99-$5.50.
Hours 11:30-2 a.m. daily.
Liquor Full bar.
May we suggest Mojito grilled shrimp, fried mushrooms, house salad, burgers, chicken and pear panini, steak tips (above), fried Snickers.
Cape Cod Proposed Tax on Vacation Rentals
Cape towns seek to extend room levy to private homes
By Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | December 31, 2008
A summer rental could cost vacationers hundreds of dollars more in taxes next year if some Cape Cod towns get their way. State legislators are being asked to approve a request to impose room taxes on rentals of private homes and condos, popular havens for visiting families hoping to save on their seaside getaway.
In the next legislative session, state lawmakers will consider requests from Provincetown and Brewster seeking to expand the current 9.7 percent tax on hotel, motel, and inn room charges to include short-term rentals of three months or less. Under the proposal, approved by voters in those towns in November, homeowners would be taxed about $97 for every $1,000 charged for a rental - a cost likely to be passed on to vacationers. Seasonal workers and others who rent short-term housing on the Cape for job reasons would be exempt from the tax.
Under current law, proceeds from the room tax are split, with the state getting 5.7 percent and the remaining 4 percent going to municipalities.
According to Brewster Selectman Ed Lewis, Nantucket and about two-thirds of the 15 Cape towns that make up Barnstable County have expressed support for the expanded tax. Lewis, who has been pushing for four years to tax vacation rentals of private homes and condos, credits the economic downturn with the idea's sudden and growing popularity.
"There's an increasing need to find a way to get money for the state and for everybody involved," Lewis said. "The [bad] economy - if it wasn't for that, this would probably still be languishing."
But some worry that the expanded tax will keep vacationers away from an increasingly expensive Cape vacation, hurting an area that counts tourism as its most significant source of income.
"You come to the Cape for a week. You cook in, you go to the beach, and you know what you're paying up front for the rent," said Sandra Brierley, owner of Hopper Real Estate in Eastham and broker for 180 rentals in Eastham and Wellfleet.
"Now that you are putting this tax on, it puts them [visitors] in a shorter vacation. So now we're renting for three days instead of a week to a family," Brierley said. "It's not a good time to be doing it after a year of recession."
But some towns estimate that extending the tax to cover private residences and condos could double the amount they already get from the room tax.
Last year, room tax receipts totaled more than $22 million, according to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce. Although the organization does not collect statistics on how many private homes and residences are rented out to vacationers, chief executive Wendy Northcross said the chamber believes many of the 50,000 "second homes" on the Cape are used for such purposes. Between the hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts, Northcross said, there are 19,000 taxable bedrooms on the Cape.
"There are more single-family homes rented on the Cape than there are hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts," Northcross said. "From a competitive standpoint, when we work to fill hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts, some of our biggest competition is those single-family homes."
Although the chamber has no official position on the proposal, Northcross said opponents and proponents of the expanded tax need to question how it could affect tourism.
"Will it affect business? Hard to say. Pricing is king," she said.
Meanwhile, state Representative Cleon H. Turner, a Democrat from Dennis, said he also plans to file a bill during the next legislative session seeking to include private residences and condos in the room tax. He filed a similar bill during the last legislative session, but it got held up in committee.
Now, he said, the proposal is gaining support, mainly because "this is a bill that would provide direct aid to the local economy." Details need to be ironed out on how the proposal would be enforced, but enforcement would be up to the state's Revenue Department.
In Brewster, Town Administrator Charles Sumner supports the tax expansion.
"Let's face it, it's about the money," Sumner said. The additional tax revenue would help buffer the town's finances at a time when most municipalities are facing tightened budgets and less state aid as a result of the down economy.
Howard Hayes, owner of oldCape Sotheby's International Realty, which represents over 100 property owners, said he worries that the expanded tax could hurt already cash-strapped homeowners and potential tenants.
Local governments, he added, might want to take another look at controlling their internal expenses before imposing such a burden.
"I would hope that, given the state of the economy, we don't need any new taxes [to pay]," Hayes said.
But Nick Brown, owner of Thomas D. Brown Real Estate Associates, which has offices in Truro and Provincetown, said it's only fair that those who make money renting out their homes for vacations be taxed the same as any other hotel or inn. They provide the same service, he said, and their tenants use the same town amenities as the people who stay in a hotel or bed-and-breakfast.
"Come on guys, let's all take a dose of reality here and do what should be done," he said.
Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
By Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | December 31, 2008
A summer rental could cost vacationers hundreds of dollars more in taxes next year if some Cape Cod towns get their way. State legislators are being asked to approve a request to impose room taxes on rentals of private homes and condos, popular havens for visiting families hoping to save on their seaside getaway.
In the next legislative session, state lawmakers will consider requests from Provincetown and Brewster seeking to expand the current 9.7 percent tax on hotel, motel, and inn room charges to include short-term rentals of three months or less. Under the proposal, approved by voters in those towns in November, homeowners would be taxed about $97 for every $1,000 charged for a rental - a cost likely to be passed on to vacationers. Seasonal workers and others who rent short-term housing on the Cape for job reasons would be exempt from the tax.
Under current law, proceeds from the room tax are split, with the state getting 5.7 percent and the remaining 4 percent going to municipalities.
According to Brewster Selectman Ed Lewis, Nantucket and about two-thirds of the 15 Cape towns that make up Barnstable County have expressed support for the expanded tax. Lewis, who has been pushing for four years to tax vacation rentals of private homes and condos, credits the economic downturn with the idea's sudden and growing popularity.
"There's an increasing need to find a way to get money for the state and for everybody involved," Lewis said. "The [bad] economy - if it wasn't for that, this would probably still be languishing."
But some worry that the expanded tax will keep vacationers away from an increasingly expensive Cape vacation, hurting an area that counts tourism as its most significant source of income.
"You come to the Cape for a week. You cook in, you go to the beach, and you know what you're paying up front for the rent," said Sandra Brierley, owner of Hopper Real Estate in Eastham and broker for 180 rentals in Eastham and Wellfleet.
"Now that you are putting this tax on, it puts them [visitors] in a shorter vacation. So now we're renting for three days instead of a week to a family," Brierley said. "It's not a good time to be doing it after a year of recession."
But some towns estimate that extending the tax to cover private residences and condos could double the amount they already get from the room tax.
Last year, room tax receipts totaled more than $22 million, according to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce. Although the organization does not collect statistics on how many private homes and residences are rented out to vacationers, chief executive Wendy Northcross said the chamber believes many of the 50,000 "second homes" on the Cape are used for such purposes. Between the hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts, Northcross said, there are 19,000 taxable bedrooms on the Cape.
"There are more single-family homes rented on the Cape than there are hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts," Northcross said. "From a competitive standpoint, when we work to fill hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts, some of our biggest competition is those single-family homes."
Although the chamber has no official position on the proposal, Northcross said opponents and proponents of the expanded tax need to question how it could affect tourism.
"Will it affect business? Hard to say. Pricing is king," she said.
Meanwhile, state Representative Cleon H. Turner, a Democrat from Dennis, said he also plans to file a bill during the next legislative session seeking to include private residences and condos in the room tax. He filed a similar bill during the last legislative session, but it got held up in committee.
Now, he said, the proposal is gaining support, mainly because "this is a bill that would provide direct aid to the local economy." Details need to be ironed out on how the proposal would be enforced, but enforcement would be up to the state's Revenue Department.
In Brewster, Town Administrator Charles Sumner supports the tax expansion.
"Let's face it, it's about the money," Sumner said. The additional tax revenue would help buffer the town's finances at a time when most municipalities are facing tightened budgets and less state aid as a result of the down economy.
Howard Hayes, owner of oldCape Sotheby's International Realty, which represents over 100 property owners, said he worries that the expanded tax could hurt already cash-strapped homeowners and potential tenants.
Local governments, he added, might want to take another look at controlling their internal expenses before imposing such a burden.
"I would hope that, given the state of the economy, we don't need any new taxes [to pay]," Hayes said.
But Nick Brown, owner of Thomas D. Brown Real Estate Associates, which has offices in Truro and Provincetown, said it's only fair that those who make money renting out their homes for vacations be taxed the same as any other hotel or inn. They provide the same service, he said, and their tenants use the same town amenities as the people who stay in a hotel or bed-and-breakfast.
"Come on guys, let's all take a dose of reality here and do what should be done," he said.
Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Trans Fat Ban in Boston
Boston restaurants have succeeded in eliminating trans fats
Doughnuts are next on the target list
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | December 31, 2008
In the first three months since Boston banned trans fat, more than 99 percent of restaurants visited by city inspectors had eliminated the artery-clogging ingredient from French fries, chicken fingers, and other dishes.
Authorities have scoured kitchens for evidence of trans fat as part of routine reviews at 1,625 restaurants since the artificial substance became illegal Sept. 13. Margarine, muffin mix, and other trans fat-laden products were discovered in eight establishments, which received warnings and were later absolved after they dumped the offending items.
One restaurant, a South Boston breakfast and lunch spot, has been fined, and even then, according to the remorseful owner, it was a case of good intentions gone awry.
Boston's experience - which mirrors the track record in New York City, where the ingredient was banished from restaurant kitchens in July 2007 - will probably bolster calls for a statewide prohibition of trans fat.
The champion of the statewide ban, state Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, predicted that Boston's success in implementing the regulation could sway legislators reluctant to meddle in the domain of restaurant chefs.
"I have made the case for a long time that this would not present a burden to business," said Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat and cochairman of the Joint Committee on Public Health. "There's nothing good about trans fat."
Trans fat has been linked to heart disease in humans and to diabetes and obesity in animal studies. The move to ban it has roots in earlier campaigns to prohibit smoking from restaurants and taverns, a major public health intervention that faced stiff opposition from business owners. But the prohibition of trans fat - once a staple of commercially produced cakes, cookies, and pies, as well as frying oils - confronted considerably less opposition.
In many respects, the high rate of compliance with the Boston ban reflects the triumph of market demand, according to the leader of the state's largest confederation of restaurant owners.
Trans fat-free cooking oil was once hard to find and expensive, said Peter Christie, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. But that has changed. "Sure enough," Christie said, "all of the trade journals began having ads saying their frying oils were trans fat-free. The consumer demand had changed so much; this is what consumers want."
New York was the first major US city to prohibit trans fat, followed in rapid succession by the Northeast's two other large metropolises, Boston and Philadelphia. Smaller cities and towns, including Brookline and Cambridge, adopted bans and then, in July, came the boldest move so far, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California signed a statewide prohibition.
New York's law went into effect in two phases, with the first part covering margarine and frying oil and the second affecting doughnuts and other baked goods, which were presumed to present more of a challenge to chefs because trans fat was used to extend shelf life and give some bakery items a flaky texture. But after enforcement of the second phase started in July of this year, New York inspectors found that 95 percent of restaurants and bakeries were abiding by the restrictions.
Diners, a New York health official said, have scarcely noticed the difference.
"You can still get cannolis, you can still knishes - everything you could eat in New York five years ago, you can still eat in New York today," said Dr. Lynn Silver, an assistant commissioner in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, responsible for disease prevention. "This is something we've always said: Trans fat is replaceable, it's bad for you, and once it's gone, you won't miss it."
Boston's ban is modeled on New York's and, thus, is being enforced in two phases. Right now, restaurants must eliminate margarine, frying oil, and packaged ingredients such as muffin mixes. The ban on artificial trans fat in doughnuts and cakes begins March 12.
Roger Swartz, the Boston Public Health Commission official responsible for overseeing the regulation, said the handful of restaurants found to be harboring trans fat have willingly changed their ways.
"I do feel that there is some broad level of social support because it feels like regulations aren't always so easy to enforce," Swartz said.
An owner of the sole business to face a $100 fine, Terrie's Place in South Boston, said she attempted to comply when an inspector told her she had trans fat-containing muffin mix and margarine. Terrie McManus said she immediately got rid of those products and, on an invoice sent to her margarine supplier, indicated she should not receive any products with trans fat.
But the company sent margarine with trans fat anyway, McManus said, and she failed to notice the error. "It was an honest mistake," she said, acknowledging that she should have doublechecked the new cache of margarine.
"It stinks," McManus said of the fine, adding that this has been the most financially challenging year of her restaurant's 13-year run. "I feel like there should be a grace period rather than punishing restaurants that are in dire straits right now."
Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.
Doughnuts are next on the target list
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | December 31, 2008
In the first three months since Boston banned trans fat, more than 99 percent of restaurants visited by city inspectors had eliminated the artery-clogging ingredient from French fries, chicken fingers, and other dishes.
Authorities have scoured kitchens for evidence of trans fat as part of routine reviews at 1,625 restaurants since the artificial substance became illegal Sept. 13. Margarine, muffin mix, and other trans fat-laden products were discovered in eight establishments, which received warnings and were later absolved after they dumped the offending items.
One restaurant, a South Boston breakfast and lunch spot, has been fined, and even then, according to the remorseful owner, it was a case of good intentions gone awry.
Boston's experience - which mirrors the track record in New York City, where the ingredient was banished from restaurant kitchens in July 2007 - will probably bolster calls for a statewide prohibition of trans fat.
The champion of the statewide ban, state Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, predicted that Boston's success in implementing the regulation could sway legislators reluctant to meddle in the domain of restaurant chefs.
"I have made the case for a long time that this would not present a burden to business," said Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat and cochairman of the Joint Committee on Public Health. "There's nothing good about trans fat."
Trans fat has been linked to heart disease in humans and to diabetes and obesity in animal studies. The move to ban it has roots in earlier campaigns to prohibit smoking from restaurants and taverns, a major public health intervention that faced stiff opposition from business owners. But the prohibition of trans fat - once a staple of commercially produced cakes, cookies, and pies, as well as frying oils - confronted considerably less opposition.
In many respects, the high rate of compliance with the Boston ban reflects the triumph of market demand, according to the leader of the state's largest confederation of restaurant owners.
Trans fat-free cooking oil was once hard to find and expensive, said Peter Christie, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. But that has changed. "Sure enough," Christie said, "all of the trade journals began having ads saying their frying oils were trans fat-free. The consumer demand had changed so much; this is what consumers want."
New York was the first major US city to prohibit trans fat, followed in rapid succession by the Northeast's two other large metropolises, Boston and Philadelphia. Smaller cities and towns, including Brookline and Cambridge, adopted bans and then, in July, came the boldest move so far, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California signed a statewide prohibition.
New York's law went into effect in two phases, with the first part covering margarine and frying oil and the second affecting doughnuts and other baked goods, which were presumed to present more of a challenge to chefs because trans fat was used to extend shelf life and give some bakery items a flaky texture. But after enforcement of the second phase started in July of this year, New York inspectors found that 95 percent of restaurants and bakeries were abiding by the restrictions.
Diners, a New York health official said, have scarcely noticed the difference.
"You can still get cannolis, you can still knishes - everything you could eat in New York five years ago, you can still eat in New York today," said Dr. Lynn Silver, an assistant commissioner in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, responsible for disease prevention. "This is something we've always said: Trans fat is replaceable, it's bad for you, and once it's gone, you won't miss it."
Boston's ban is modeled on New York's and, thus, is being enforced in two phases. Right now, restaurants must eliminate margarine, frying oil, and packaged ingredients such as muffin mixes. The ban on artificial trans fat in doughnuts and cakes begins March 12.
Roger Swartz, the Boston Public Health Commission official responsible for overseeing the regulation, said the handful of restaurants found to be harboring trans fat have willingly changed their ways.
"I do feel that there is some broad level of social support because it feels like regulations aren't always so easy to enforce," Swartz said.
An owner of the sole business to face a $100 fine, Terrie's Place in South Boston, said she attempted to comply when an inspector told her she had trans fat-containing muffin mix and margarine. Terrie McManus said she immediately got rid of those products and, on an invoice sent to her margarine supplier, indicated she should not receive any products with trans fat.
But the company sent margarine with trans fat anyway, McManus said, and she failed to notice the error. "It was an honest mistake," she said, acknowledging that she should have doublechecked the new cache of margarine.
"It stinks," McManus said of the fine, adding that this has been the most financially challenging year of her restaurant's 13-year run. "I feel like there should be a grace period rather than punishing restaurants that are in dire straits right now."
Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Live Nation taking over its ticket sales
Concert promoter Live Nation is taking over its ticket sales
By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff | December 30, 2008
Come Friday, the entertainment powerhouse Live Nation will become even more powerful. The live music promoter has ended its longstanding relationship with Ticketmaster and is launching its own in-house ticketing service, which means concertgoers will be surfing a new website, dialing a different phone number, and visiting Blockbuster stores to buy tickets to many shows.
Locally, tickets for events at the Orpheum and the Paradise, Live Nation-owned and -operated venues, will be sold at www.livenation.com and 877-598-8689 beginning Jan. 2. Seats for Comcast Center shows will also be sold through Live Nation when that venue's concert season begins next summer.
For Live Nation, taking ticketing in-house means gaining control over a coveted revenue stream in a struggling industry; while CD sales continue to plunge, the global concert business grew by 13 percent this year. It also gives Live Nation a more direct connection with fans as the company expands from concert promoter to full-service entertainment force, with superstars like Madonna, Jay-Z, and Shakira signed to 360 degree deals that involve CD sales, merchandising, and concert tickets.
What's in it for fans? Now that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are becoming rivals, some have floated the possibility that competition will drive ticket prices and extraneous service charges down. Live Nation has no firm plans to lower either, according to Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Live Nation Ticketing, but consumers can expect greater transparency and convenience.
"Let's get over this false notion that the fan pays $75 for a ticket and then $25 in fees," says Hubbard. "The fan looks at it as a $100 transaction, so let's present it that way. We're moving to a single fee upfront, and if the experience is worth that price the fan will decide."
In other words, service charges will appear as one lump sum rather than as a series of variable fees. And in a long-overdue reversal of what many consider the most egregious extra, Live Nation ticket buyers won't be charged to print their tickets at home.
Blockbuster will be the exclusive retail outlet for Live Nation Ticketing, with 500 stores nationwide and 10 in Massachusetts selling concert tickets, including locations in Boston, Quincy, Natick, Worcester, and Chicopee. Special blocks of seats will be available at stores during the first four hours of sales, leveling the purchasing field for retail customers who are often squeezed out by online customers. While physical sales make up only 10 percent of overall ticket sales - and even less in Boston, where more consumers than average shop online - Hubbard says that partnering with Blockbuster makes sense on a number of levels.
"First and foremost, the fan who buys their tickets [in stores] overlaps with consumers who rent DVDs offline. The stores are located where people live. And there are opportunities to creatively promote our artists and their products to people who come through those turnstiles."
There may be more changes down the line, as Live Nation considers the prospect of instituting a sliding scale for service charges, with the priciest seats commanding higher fees, and building a broader ticket distribution network, possibly to include social networking sites and mobile devices.
Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff | December 30, 2008
Come Friday, the entertainment powerhouse Live Nation will become even more powerful. The live music promoter has ended its longstanding relationship with Ticketmaster and is launching its own in-house ticketing service, which means concertgoers will be surfing a new website, dialing a different phone number, and visiting Blockbuster stores to buy tickets to many shows.
Locally, tickets for events at the Orpheum and the Paradise, Live Nation-owned and -operated venues, will be sold at www.livenation.com and 877-598-8689 beginning Jan. 2. Seats for Comcast Center shows will also be sold through Live Nation when that venue's concert season begins next summer.
For Live Nation, taking ticketing in-house means gaining control over a coveted revenue stream in a struggling industry; while CD sales continue to plunge, the global concert business grew by 13 percent this year. It also gives Live Nation a more direct connection with fans as the company expands from concert promoter to full-service entertainment force, with superstars like Madonna, Jay-Z, and Shakira signed to 360 degree deals that involve CD sales, merchandising, and concert tickets.
What's in it for fans? Now that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are becoming rivals, some have floated the possibility that competition will drive ticket prices and extraneous service charges down. Live Nation has no firm plans to lower either, according to Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Live Nation Ticketing, but consumers can expect greater transparency and convenience.
"Let's get over this false notion that the fan pays $75 for a ticket and then $25 in fees," says Hubbard. "The fan looks at it as a $100 transaction, so let's present it that way. We're moving to a single fee upfront, and if the experience is worth that price the fan will decide."
In other words, service charges will appear as one lump sum rather than as a series of variable fees. And in a long-overdue reversal of what many consider the most egregious extra, Live Nation ticket buyers won't be charged to print their tickets at home.
Blockbuster will be the exclusive retail outlet for Live Nation Ticketing, with 500 stores nationwide and 10 in Massachusetts selling concert tickets, including locations in Boston, Quincy, Natick, Worcester, and Chicopee. Special blocks of seats will be available at stores during the first four hours of sales, leveling the purchasing field for retail customers who are often squeezed out by online customers. While physical sales make up only 10 percent of overall ticket sales - and even less in Boston, where more consumers than average shop online - Hubbard says that partnering with Blockbuster makes sense on a number of levels.
"First and foremost, the fan who buys their tickets [in stores] overlaps with consumers who rent DVDs offline. The stores are located where people live. And there are opportunities to creatively promote our artists and their products to people who come through those turnstiles."
There may be more changes down the line, as Live Nation considers the prospect of instituting a sliding scale for service charges, with the priciest seats commanding higher fees, and building a broader ticket distribution network, possibly to include social networking sites and mobile devices.
Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
NYC expects less tourists in 2009
NYC expects lull despite 47m tourists
December 30, 2008
NEW YORK - A record number of people visited New York City this year, but the once-rapid growth in tourism has slowed amid a worldwide economic downturn and officials are bracing for more bad news next year.
An estimated 47 million people visited the city in 2008, beating last year by 1 million visitors, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday. Those tourists generated $30 billion in spending, setting another record over last year's $28.9 billion.
But the 2 percent increase is smaller than the jumps seen in previous years. Last year, the total visitor number was 46 million, up nearly 5 percent from 44 million in 2006.
"We all recognize that trees don't grow to the sky forever and that 2009 is going to be a tougher year in every sector in this city," said Robert Lieber, deputy mayor for economic development.
One in 9 workers in New York City are employed in the hospitality industry, which is one of the city's chief economic engines.
Bloomberg predicted the city's tourism numbers would start to suffer more significantly after the holidays.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 30, 2008
NEW YORK - A record number of people visited New York City this year, but the once-rapid growth in tourism has slowed amid a worldwide economic downturn and officials are bracing for more bad news next year.
An estimated 47 million people visited the city in 2008, beating last year by 1 million visitors, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday. Those tourists generated $30 billion in spending, setting another record over last year's $28.9 billion.
But the 2 percent increase is smaller than the jumps seen in previous years. Last year, the total visitor number was 46 million, up nearly 5 percent from 44 million in 2006.
"We all recognize that trees don't grow to the sky forever and that 2009 is going to be a tougher year in every sector in this city," said Robert Lieber, deputy mayor for economic development.
One in 9 workers in New York City are employed in the hospitality industry, which is one of the city's chief economic engines.
Bloomberg predicted the city's tourism numbers would start to suffer more significantly after the holidays.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
North Shore Music Theatre may close
New funds or curtains for North Shore Music Theatre
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff | December 30, 2008
North Shore Music Theatre, one of the region's oldest and most popular theater companies, said yesterday that unless it raises $4 million by the spring, it will close its doors after 53 years.
The nonprofit Beverly theater said that amid the current sharp economic downturn, lower-than-expected donations and reduced ticket sales this season had left it unable to cover its operating costs.
Contributing to the budget woes was a 2005 fire that ruined the company's stage, orchestra pit, lighting, and seats, forcing the theater to invest millions in its facilities and leaving it roughly $5 million in debt last year.
Yesterday, the company notified 57 employees of layoffs that will be effective Jan. 11, at the end of its performance season, leaving a skeleton crew to search for solutions.
"We are doing everything we can," said Barry Ivan, North Shore Music Theatre's artistic director and executive producer, who remains optimistic.
Anita Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, called the company's financial situation "terrible," but noted that North Shore Music Theatre is not alone in facing serious economic challenges. In fact, said Walker, whose agency funds about 400 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the state, there is reason to worry about other midsize arts institutions going out of business.
"The small, live-on-love type of organizations can make things happen with their creativity, and large organizations have endowments and strong donor bases," Walker said. "But it's the midsize ones, quite frankly, that are fragile."
Operating since 1955, North Shore Music Theatre has evolved from a summer stock house into the largest nonprofit theater in New England, with 350,000 patrons annually. The theater has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal as the second-largest performing arts organization in the state based on audience size (after the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops combined). It has received multiple Elliot Norton Awards and this season presented seven musicals, five children's shows, and several celebrity musical and comedy concerts, in addition to hosting a large educational program. This year, the company's annual budget was $13 million.
In a last-ditch attempt to raise funds, North Shore Music Theatre is urging the public to purchase tickets to its 13 remaining performances of "Disney High School Musical 2" or make donations via the theater's website, www.nsmt.org. If every seat is sold, the theater would have an additional $400,000 in revenue, enough to continue operations in the short term.
"We entered the year with a balanced budget and we had no intention of borrowing any money," David Fellows, North Shore's chairman of the board, said yesterday. "The total aid we need is $4 million, and by the end of January we need to raise something like $400,000. If we get there we'd still lay off the production staff, but we'd keep the artistic staff planning and securing rights for next season."
The theater's board called an emergency meeting last week after realizing that its ticket sales were critically short. Last year's production of "Disney High School Musical" was tremendously successful, with 52,000 tickets sold, but sales for the sequel are about 13,000 - far lower than expected.
In recent months, the theater's leadership has explored various strategies to stay afloat, including the development of a new business model for the performance season, a possible sale of land, and philanthropic outreach, all without success.
Still, Walker held out hope yesterday that a creative solution could be found.
"North Shore Music Theatre has a steep hill to climb, but there's a lot of different ways to slice and dice a situation like this," Walker said. "Maybe they'll decide not to do the same scope of season or just scale back."
John Beck, director of operations at ArtsBoston, said he was stunned to hear of the theater's possible demise. "This is the first we've heard about the problems, and it's a shock to us."
Jeff Poulus, executive director of StageSource, the Greater Boston Theater Alliance, said he hoped residents and businesses in the community would show their support because the company has been an important institution providing jobs and art.
"I think about all the stories of big for-profit companies asking for bailouts this year from the federal government, while nonprofits traditionally keep their doors open the old-fashioned way," he said. "We can't very well only support banks and car companies. Who wants to live in a city or town with no culture?"
Mark Shanahan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff | December 30, 2008
North Shore Music Theatre, one of the region's oldest and most popular theater companies, said yesterday that unless it raises $4 million by the spring, it will close its doors after 53 years.
The nonprofit Beverly theater said that amid the current sharp economic downturn, lower-than-expected donations and reduced ticket sales this season had left it unable to cover its operating costs.
Contributing to the budget woes was a 2005 fire that ruined the company's stage, orchestra pit, lighting, and seats, forcing the theater to invest millions in its facilities and leaving it roughly $5 million in debt last year.
Yesterday, the company notified 57 employees of layoffs that will be effective Jan. 11, at the end of its performance season, leaving a skeleton crew to search for solutions.
"We are doing everything we can," said Barry Ivan, North Shore Music Theatre's artistic director and executive producer, who remains optimistic.
Anita Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, called the company's financial situation "terrible," but noted that North Shore Music Theatre is not alone in facing serious economic challenges. In fact, said Walker, whose agency funds about 400 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the state, there is reason to worry about other midsize arts institutions going out of business.
"The small, live-on-love type of organizations can make things happen with their creativity, and large organizations have endowments and strong donor bases," Walker said. "But it's the midsize ones, quite frankly, that are fragile."
Operating since 1955, North Shore Music Theatre has evolved from a summer stock house into the largest nonprofit theater in New England, with 350,000 patrons annually. The theater has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal as the second-largest performing arts organization in the state based on audience size (after the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops combined). It has received multiple Elliot Norton Awards and this season presented seven musicals, five children's shows, and several celebrity musical and comedy concerts, in addition to hosting a large educational program. This year, the company's annual budget was $13 million.
In a last-ditch attempt to raise funds, North Shore Music Theatre is urging the public to purchase tickets to its 13 remaining performances of "Disney High School Musical 2" or make donations via the theater's website, www.nsmt.org. If every seat is sold, the theater would have an additional $400,000 in revenue, enough to continue operations in the short term.
"We entered the year with a balanced budget and we had no intention of borrowing any money," David Fellows, North Shore's chairman of the board, said yesterday. "The total aid we need is $4 million, and by the end of January we need to raise something like $400,000. If we get there we'd still lay off the production staff, but we'd keep the artistic staff planning and securing rights for next season."
The theater's board called an emergency meeting last week after realizing that its ticket sales were critically short. Last year's production of "Disney High School Musical" was tremendously successful, with 52,000 tickets sold, but sales for the sequel are about 13,000 - far lower than expected.
In recent months, the theater's leadership has explored various strategies to stay afloat, including the development of a new business model for the performance season, a possible sale of land, and philanthropic outreach, all without success.
Still, Walker held out hope yesterday that a creative solution could be found.
"North Shore Music Theatre has a steep hill to climb, but there's a lot of different ways to slice and dice a situation like this," Walker said. "Maybe they'll decide not to do the same scope of season or just scale back."
John Beck, director of operations at ArtsBoston, said he was stunned to hear of the theater's possible demise. "This is the first we've heard about the problems, and it's a shock to us."
Jeff Poulus, executive director of StageSource, the Greater Boston Theater Alliance, said he hoped residents and businesses in the community would show their support because the company has been an important institution providing jobs and art.
"I think about all the stories of big for-profit companies asking for bailouts this year from the federal government, while nonprofits traditionally keep their doors open the old-fashioned way," he said. "We can't very well only support banks and car companies. Who wants to live in a city or town with no culture?"
Mark Shanahan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Monday, December 29, 2008
MBTA's Financial Problems compared to New York City Transit System
STARTS & STOPS
Think T has problems? Look to NYC
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | December 28, 2008
Be careful if you get a reading tip from Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA. He's spreading some very scary news for commuters.
"I've sent many people to read the New York newspapers, to travel forward six or seven months in time," Grabauskas said last week.
In New York, they've proposed cutting entire subway lines and bus routes. They're looking at fare hikes well above 25 percent, including, according to one newspaper report, single subway rides costing as much as $3, up from $2. Drivers won't catch a break either, as the same authority controls nine bridges and tunnels and is looking to charge as much as $7 at some tolls.
"You don't have to look into the crystal ball to look at what we may face here, not on the same scale, but in Boston," Grabauskas said.
The scale is different, but the problem is proportionately the same - roughly 10 percent.
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying to plug a $1.2 billion deficit in an $11.2 billion operating budget. Grabauskas now says the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is looking at a $160 million budget gap next year, from an operating budget of about $1.6 billion.
That deficit projection, which Grabauskas calls a moving target, is even higher than a $142 million estimate reported earlier this month in the Globe.
New York papers say riders are very worried there. The MTA board is now holding hearings on the proposals.
"It's obviously very tough and we've said on numerous occasions that we don't want to have to implement these measures," said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for New York's MTA. "This level of increase is a burden and will discourage people from using transit."
The MTA imposed a small increase in March. Just a few months ago, the system was looking at an unwanted 8 percent increase. But finances have grown worse since then - a combination of low tax revenues, high costs, and big debt - fairly similar to the T's problems.
The MTA had to pass a balanced budget by January, so the board has included the fare hikes and service cuts to plug the budget gap.
But a recent state commission, appointed by New York Governor David A. Paterson, recommended ideas that include putting tolls on more bridges and dedicating a payroll tax to public transit. MTA managers are hoping the Legislature in Albany helps fix the problem before the hikes actually go into effect.
Grabauskas said the MBTA has one advantage over New York: "They're in crisis mode because their current fiscal year is already a mess. We're in dire circumstances, but we've got time."
He said lawmakers in Massachusetts have been receptive to his pleas to help the T as they look to reorganize the state's messy transportation agencies, including the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
Hackers help with security
Remember the MIT student hackers who exposed how the MBTA's electronic fare tickets could give free rides? They're back, working free for the MBTA to improve the Charlie Ticket system whose flaws they exposed.
"The best way to fix these problems is to approach them head-on," R.J. Ryan, one of the students, said in a statement released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented the hackers in their legal fight with the MBTA.
A judge denied an injunction against the students that was filed by the MBTA in August, in which the agency contended their findings could cause "significant damage to the transit system" if released publicly.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology students had maintained all along that they were willing to work with the T to improve security. After losing the decision in August, the T's lawyer, Ieuan Mahony, said agency managers wanted to work with the students.
The T later dismissed its suit against the students after they agreed to work with the agency, Mahony said. The T's case against MIT is pending, according to Mahony. Under the agreement, the students will not release sensitive findings until the end of June, he said.
"They're smart guys so we're just talking to them about some of the other things we're doing and bounced some ideas around," Grabauskas said last week.
Think T has problems? Look to NYC
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | December 28, 2008
Be careful if you get a reading tip from Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA. He's spreading some very scary news for commuters.
"I've sent many people to read the New York newspapers, to travel forward six or seven months in time," Grabauskas said last week.
In New York, they've proposed cutting entire subway lines and bus routes. They're looking at fare hikes well above 25 percent, including, according to one newspaper report, single subway rides costing as much as $3, up from $2. Drivers won't catch a break either, as the same authority controls nine bridges and tunnels and is looking to charge as much as $7 at some tolls.
"You don't have to look into the crystal ball to look at what we may face here, not on the same scale, but in Boston," Grabauskas said.
The scale is different, but the problem is proportionately the same - roughly 10 percent.
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying to plug a $1.2 billion deficit in an $11.2 billion operating budget. Grabauskas now says the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is looking at a $160 million budget gap next year, from an operating budget of about $1.6 billion.
That deficit projection, which Grabauskas calls a moving target, is even higher than a $142 million estimate reported earlier this month in the Globe.
New York papers say riders are very worried there. The MTA board is now holding hearings on the proposals.
"It's obviously very tough and we've said on numerous occasions that we don't want to have to implement these measures," said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for New York's MTA. "This level of increase is a burden and will discourage people from using transit."
The MTA imposed a small increase in March. Just a few months ago, the system was looking at an unwanted 8 percent increase. But finances have grown worse since then - a combination of low tax revenues, high costs, and big debt - fairly similar to the T's problems.
The MTA had to pass a balanced budget by January, so the board has included the fare hikes and service cuts to plug the budget gap.
But a recent state commission, appointed by New York Governor David A. Paterson, recommended ideas that include putting tolls on more bridges and dedicating a payroll tax to public transit. MTA managers are hoping the Legislature in Albany helps fix the problem before the hikes actually go into effect.
Grabauskas said the MBTA has one advantage over New York: "They're in crisis mode because their current fiscal year is already a mess. We're in dire circumstances, but we've got time."
He said lawmakers in Massachusetts have been receptive to his pleas to help the T as they look to reorganize the state's messy transportation agencies, including the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
Hackers help with security
Remember the MIT student hackers who exposed how the MBTA's electronic fare tickets could give free rides? They're back, working free for the MBTA to improve the Charlie Ticket system whose flaws they exposed.
"The best way to fix these problems is to approach them head-on," R.J. Ryan, one of the students, said in a statement released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented the hackers in their legal fight with the MBTA.
A judge denied an injunction against the students that was filed by the MBTA in August, in which the agency contended their findings could cause "significant damage to the transit system" if released publicly.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology students had maintained all along that they were willing to work with the T to improve security. After losing the decision in August, the T's lawyer, Ieuan Mahony, said agency managers wanted to work with the students.
The T later dismissed its suit against the students after they agreed to work with the agency, Mahony said. The T's case against MIT is pending, according to Mahony. Under the agreement, the students will not release sensitive findings until the end of June, he said.
"They're smart guys so we're just talking to them about some of the other things we're doing and bounced some ideas around," Grabauskas said last week.
Redefining New England's Brand Image
INNOVATION ECONOMY
Let's redefine New England's brand image
By Scott Kirsner | December 28, 2008
Here's a quick city-association game for you. When I say Hollywood, what industry comes to mind? If I say Silicon Valley, could you name a couple of companies based there?
So here's an experiment to try the next time you meet someone at a party in Manhattan, or sit next to a non-New Englander on a flight from O'Hare. Ask them what their associations are when you say "New England" or "Massachusetts."
I think you'll be surprised how often you get responses like "the Boston Tea Party," "covered bridges," "Ben & Jerry's," or "the Red Sox." (I know - I've been trying this for the past year or so.) When Jamie Tedford, CEO of Boston-based Brand Networks Inc., played the association game with a friend from the West Coast, the answer he got was "Cheers," the sitcom that has been off the air for 15 years.
This leads me to the unfortunate conclusion that what we have here is a failure to communicate. While denizens of the six New England states may be aware how much goes on here - from developing new drugs to deploying advanced robots to designing video games - the rest of the planet is pretty clueless.
Our great opportunity for 2009, as the world figures out how to emerge from its fiscal funk, is to come up with a strategy for telling our story. This is a hotbed of innovation, and we need the smartest people everywhere to know that.
The smartest students already come here to earn degrees, but we need to make a better case to persuade them to stick around afterward. We also need the smartest entrepreneurs to come here to set up shop; the smartest investors to set up branch offices; and the smartest big-company execs to establish manufacturing, R&D, or sales and marketing presences.
Massachusetts used to be known for "Route 128 - America's Technology Highway," the ring road that was home to many pioneering computer companies. But "I don't think Route 128 means anything anymore," says Tedford, a digital marketing consultant, observing that companies such as Digital Equipment Corp., Wang, and Data General have all vanished. "I think you need to start fresh."
This is not a project for government. It doesn't have the money, and we don't have the time to wait for the New England states to figure out how to coordinate a joint economic development initiative. (The end result, anyhow, would probably just be a press release.)
This is also probably not a project that our trade associations or chambers of commerce can lead; each have their own priorities, and limited staffs and budgets. (But we can urge them to get on board once we've got a plan.)
Instead, this is a project for people who work in the innovation industries around New England. I think we need to stop thinking about how to pitch Portsmouth, Portland, Burlington, North Adams, Cambridge, or Providence as globally relevant business hubs, and instead come up with a strategy for positioning the region as a beacon of innovation and entrepreneurship. This ought to be a distributed effort, coordinated digitally.
"Revolutionary ideas since 1776" might be a nice slogan. Halley Suitt, a blogger and consultant from Arlington, suggests "Innovation Outta Left Field," a tagline that could play off the fame of Fenway Park's Green Monster.
But more than a single slogan, I think we need a raft of ideas (most of which would be free or cheap to execute) about better branding of New England and explaining what we do here.
A few I'd toss out, just to get your creative juices flowing:
# A series of YouTube videos profiling New England entrepreneurs, live webcasts with pioneering academic researchers, or iTunes podcast interviews with angel investors and venture capitalists.
# A small logo that New England businesses would add to their websites, linked to a page offering information about the innovation economy here, and the particular sector they're part of.
# A Google map showcasing all of the robotics companies here . . . medical device companies . . . clean tech start-ups . . . venture capital firms.
# A page of talking points for executives and entrepreneurs, offering high-level info about all the different innovation industries in the region, and a few salient stats about company creation, venture capital activity, patents issued per capita, etc.
# A Flickr photoset of company headquarters, labs, academic institutions, and the like.
# A Facebook group or Google calendar to keep people apprised of major conferences, seminars, trade shows, and industry events in the region.
# A collaborative Wiki that would list New England's venture capital firms, their area of focus, and recent investments they've made.
2009 is going to be a rebuilding year for every state, every industry, the global economy as a whole. Everyone is going to be trying to figure out where new growth can come from.
I think that creates an incredible chance for those of us in New England to talk about what we do, make our case, brand our region, and as a result, attract people, partnerships, and business from far and wide.
"If we dived down as a group and tried to explore and explain what great innovations we're about, what great research is happening here, and what we're doing to improve people's lives, I think we could build an image of a New England economy, with Boston as its center, that is really a leader," says Larry Weber, chairman of W2 Group, a Waltham marketing firm.
(Weber was one of the prime movers behind a 2000 initiative that tried to brand Massachusetts as "The Dot-commonwealth." The motivation was solid, but the timing wasn't ideal, and the initiative mostly consisted of a series of road shows that highlighted Internet activity around the state.)
This column is only intended to get us thinking together about the opportunity: spreading the message globally about what our region is about. If I were forced to encapsulate it, I'd say, "New England is where scientific breakthroughs and big ideas turn into start-ups, big companies, and entirely new industries."
But I know you'll come up with even better ways to express the essence of this new New England . . . and great strategies for communicating it.
Post your thoughts at www.innoeco.com/ne.html, or read the 20-plus ideas and responses that have already been posted.
Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Let's redefine New England's brand image
By Scott Kirsner | December 28, 2008
Here's a quick city-association game for you. When I say Hollywood, what industry comes to mind? If I say Silicon Valley, could you name a couple of companies based there?
So here's an experiment to try the next time you meet someone at a party in Manhattan, or sit next to a non-New Englander on a flight from O'Hare. Ask them what their associations are when you say "New England" or "Massachusetts."
I think you'll be surprised how often you get responses like "the Boston Tea Party," "covered bridges," "Ben & Jerry's," or "the Red Sox." (I know - I've been trying this for the past year or so.) When Jamie Tedford, CEO of Boston-based Brand Networks Inc., played the association game with a friend from the West Coast, the answer he got was "Cheers," the sitcom that has been off the air for 15 years.
This leads me to the unfortunate conclusion that what we have here is a failure to communicate. While denizens of the six New England states may be aware how much goes on here - from developing new drugs to deploying advanced robots to designing video games - the rest of the planet is pretty clueless.
Our great opportunity for 2009, as the world figures out how to emerge from its fiscal funk, is to come up with a strategy for telling our story. This is a hotbed of innovation, and we need the smartest people everywhere to know that.
The smartest students already come here to earn degrees, but we need to make a better case to persuade them to stick around afterward. We also need the smartest entrepreneurs to come here to set up shop; the smartest investors to set up branch offices; and the smartest big-company execs to establish manufacturing, R&D, or sales and marketing presences.
Massachusetts used to be known for "Route 128 - America's Technology Highway," the ring road that was home to many pioneering computer companies. But "I don't think Route 128 means anything anymore," says Tedford, a digital marketing consultant, observing that companies such as Digital Equipment Corp., Wang, and Data General have all vanished. "I think you need to start fresh."
This is not a project for government. It doesn't have the money, and we don't have the time to wait for the New England states to figure out how to coordinate a joint economic development initiative. (The end result, anyhow, would probably just be a press release.)
This is also probably not a project that our trade associations or chambers of commerce can lead; each have their own priorities, and limited staffs and budgets. (But we can urge them to get on board once we've got a plan.)
Instead, this is a project for people who work in the innovation industries around New England. I think we need to stop thinking about how to pitch Portsmouth, Portland, Burlington, North Adams, Cambridge, or Providence as globally relevant business hubs, and instead come up with a strategy for positioning the region as a beacon of innovation and entrepreneurship. This ought to be a distributed effort, coordinated digitally.
"Revolutionary ideas since 1776" might be a nice slogan. Halley Suitt, a blogger and consultant from Arlington, suggests "Innovation Outta Left Field," a tagline that could play off the fame of Fenway Park's Green Monster.
But more than a single slogan, I think we need a raft of ideas (most of which would be free or cheap to execute) about better branding of New England and explaining what we do here.
A few I'd toss out, just to get your creative juices flowing:
# A series of YouTube videos profiling New England entrepreneurs, live webcasts with pioneering academic researchers, or iTunes podcast interviews with angel investors and venture capitalists.
# A small logo that New England businesses would add to their websites, linked to a page offering information about the innovation economy here, and the particular sector they're part of.
# A Google map showcasing all of the robotics companies here . . . medical device companies . . . clean tech start-ups . . . venture capital firms.
# A page of talking points for executives and entrepreneurs, offering high-level info about all the different innovation industries in the region, and a few salient stats about company creation, venture capital activity, patents issued per capita, etc.
# A Flickr photoset of company headquarters, labs, academic institutions, and the like.
# A Facebook group or Google calendar to keep people apprised of major conferences, seminars, trade shows, and industry events in the region.
# A collaborative Wiki that would list New England's venture capital firms, their area of focus, and recent investments they've made.
2009 is going to be a rebuilding year for every state, every industry, the global economy as a whole. Everyone is going to be trying to figure out where new growth can come from.
I think that creates an incredible chance for those of us in New England to talk about what we do, make our case, brand our region, and as a result, attract people, partnerships, and business from far and wide.
"If we dived down as a group and tried to explore and explain what great innovations we're about, what great research is happening here, and what we're doing to improve people's lives, I think we could build an image of a New England economy, with Boston as its center, that is really a leader," says Larry Weber, chairman of W2 Group, a Waltham marketing firm.
(Weber was one of the prime movers behind a 2000 initiative that tried to brand Massachusetts as "The Dot-commonwealth." The motivation was solid, but the timing wasn't ideal, and the initiative mostly consisted of a series of road shows that highlighted Internet activity around the state.)
This column is only intended to get us thinking together about the opportunity: spreading the message globally about what our region is about. If I were forced to encapsulate it, I'd say, "New England is where scientific breakthroughs and big ideas turn into start-ups, big companies, and entirely new industries."
But I know you'll come up with even better ways to express the essence of this new New England . . . and great strategies for communicating it.
Post your thoughts at www.innoeco.com/ne.html, or read the 20-plus ideas and responses that have already been posted.
Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
New Irish Restaurant in Brighton
Brighton’s Battery puts charge into Irish chips
By Tenley Woodman | Monday, December 29, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining News
If you can name it, chances are the Battery in Brighton Center fries it.
The new takeout restaurant specializes in an Irish and British culinary tradition - fish and chips - and anything else that can be battered and fried, such as Irish sausages, mushrooms and candy bars.
“It’s the one thing missing in Boston,” said owner Mary Kiely, originally from Cork, Ireland.
“Chippers” such as the Battery are to Ireland and Britain what pizzerias are to America.
“Usually every Irish family has a chipper night,” said Kiely, 30.
The most expensive dish on the Battery menu is $11, and includes homemade chips (french fries).
The Battery draws Brighton’s Irish community, as well as Australians and New Zealanders, looking for a taste of home.
“They (Aussies and New Zealanders) have English foods too,” said Kiely. “So it’s the connection.”
The draw for American customers is a bit different.
“They are very puzzled,” said Kiely. “They have a lot of questions.”
Who wouldn’t, with such unusual dishes as cheese and onion pie - a ball of mashed potatoes, onions and cheese battered and fried - battered burgers or the soon-to-be-featured Scottish snack, the notorious fried Mars Bar?
“One of the things is people from Cork love potato pies, but they are not popular in other parts of Ireland,” Kiely said. “I’m trying to learn new recipes.”
“For such a small island, there are just so many variations,” she said.
A frequently requested dish yet to be added to the menu is Chicken Maryland, which consists of battered and fried chicken, bananas and pineapple.
“I do like battered banana,” said Kiely.
The Battery, 379 Washington St., Brighton. 617-987-0884.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/general/view.bg?articleid=1141713
By Tenley Woodman | Monday, December 29, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining News
If you can name it, chances are the Battery in Brighton Center fries it.
The new takeout restaurant specializes in an Irish and British culinary tradition - fish and chips - and anything else that can be battered and fried, such as Irish sausages, mushrooms and candy bars.
“It’s the one thing missing in Boston,” said owner Mary Kiely, originally from Cork, Ireland.
“Chippers” such as the Battery are to Ireland and Britain what pizzerias are to America.
“Usually every Irish family has a chipper night,” said Kiely, 30.
The most expensive dish on the Battery menu is $11, and includes homemade chips (french fries).
The Battery draws Brighton’s Irish community, as well as Australians and New Zealanders, looking for a taste of home.
“They (Aussies and New Zealanders) have English foods too,” said Kiely. “So it’s the connection.”
The draw for American customers is a bit different.
“They are very puzzled,” said Kiely. “They have a lot of questions.”
Who wouldn’t, with such unusual dishes as cheese and onion pie - a ball of mashed potatoes, onions and cheese battered and fried - battered burgers or the soon-to-be-featured Scottish snack, the notorious fried Mars Bar?
“One of the things is people from Cork love potato pies, but they are not popular in other parts of Ireland,” Kiely said. “I’m trying to learn new recipes.”
“For such a small island, there are just so many variations,” she said.
A frequently requested dish yet to be added to the menu is Chicken Maryland, which consists of battered and fried chicken, bananas and pineapple.
“I do like battered banana,” said Kiely.
The Battery, 379 Washington St., Brighton. 617-987-0884.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/general/view.bg?articleid=1141713
Downtown Crossing Violence
Violence rises in Hub shopping area
Crossing into gangland
By Jessica Van Sack / The Beat | Monday, December 29, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
As Mayor Thomas M. Menino eyes ambitious plans to revitalize Downtown Crossing, cops on the ground say they’re seeing more gangbangers gravitate toward the hapless tourist and shopping haven, where a brazen daylight shooting sent tourists and shoppers ducking for cover Friday afternoon.
“We’re seeing more and more gang kids here,” one law enforcement source said. “For them, this area is like an oasis.”
In front of Macy’s on Friday, crowds of bargain-hunters instead got bloodshed as a hail of gunfire rang out and a 19-year-old male took a bullet to the leg. The frightening scene featured MBTA Transit cops with their guns furiously chasing after two suspects who bolted from the swarm.
“Downtown Crossing has done very well this holiday shopping season,” said Dot Joyce, Menino’s spokeswoman. “We hope this one incident doesn’t deter them from shopping there in the future.”
Yet this wasn’t an isolated incident. Gangbangers who traverse the area also turned violent Oct. 3, when a man opened fire on a crowd of rivals near Bromfield Street. No one was hit, but amid the wild melee, two men were stabbed. Cops at the time were looking for six teens.
Like Friday’s shooting, the violence broke out on a weekday shortly before rush hour. Days later, Boston Police Superintendent Daniel Linskey called together a full-court press of transit cops, school police and youth workers to brainstorm ways to tackle youth violence in Downtown Crossing.
Rosemarie Sansone, a former city councilor who now heads the Downtown Crossing Partnership, said her organization is meeting with cops this week to discuss the recent violence.
“Public safety is our number one concern,” she said.
Linskey disagreed yesterday that the area is falling prey to gang violence. He did acknowledge deploying more specialized units to the area. Their presence was on full display yesterday as bicycle cops patrolled bustling Washington Street.
Downtown Crossing has long been the grittiest downtown enclave, but local merchants say the blight resulting from the closure of Filene’s seems to have coincided with the area’s increased attractiveness to gangbangers, truants and drug dealers alike.
“There’s more drug dealers on the street,” said 18-year sausage vendor Gabriele Ruiz. “At the same time, there’s more police.”
Al Rackard, a security guard at the Corner Mall, calls the cops every day, he said, mostly on youth who loiter, fight or shoplift.
“I guess it’s now the place to hang,” he said. “This is the crossroads for everyone who’s trying to get away from somebody.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1141762
Crossing into gangland
By Jessica Van Sack / The Beat | Monday, December 29, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
As Mayor Thomas M. Menino eyes ambitious plans to revitalize Downtown Crossing, cops on the ground say they’re seeing more gangbangers gravitate toward the hapless tourist and shopping haven, where a brazen daylight shooting sent tourists and shoppers ducking for cover Friday afternoon.
“We’re seeing more and more gang kids here,” one law enforcement source said. “For them, this area is like an oasis.”
In front of Macy’s on Friday, crowds of bargain-hunters instead got bloodshed as a hail of gunfire rang out and a 19-year-old male took a bullet to the leg. The frightening scene featured MBTA Transit cops with their guns furiously chasing after two suspects who bolted from the swarm.
“Downtown Crossing has done very well this holiday shopping season,” said Dot Joyce, Menino’s spokeswoman. “We hope this one incident doesn’t deter them from shopping there in the future.”
Yet this wasn’t an isolated incident. Gangbangers who traverse the area also turned violent Oct. 3, when a man opened fire on a crowd of rivals near Bromfield Street. No one was hit, but amid the wild melee, two men were stabbed. Cops at the time were looking for six teens.
Like Friday’s shooting, the violence broke out on a weekday shortly before rush hour. Days later, Boston Police Superintendent Daniel Linskey called together a full-court press of transit cops, school police and youth workers to brainstorm ways to tackle youth violence in Downtown Crossing.
Rosemarie Sansone, a former city councilor who now heads the Downtown Crossing Partnership, said her organization is meeting with cops this week to discuss the recent violence.
“Public safety is our number one concern,” she said.
Linskey disagreed yesterday that the area is falling prey to gang violence. He did acknowledge deploying more specialized units to the area. Their presence was on full display yesterday as bicycle cops patrolled bustling Washington Street.
Downtown Crossing has long been the grittiest downtown enclave, but local merchants say the blight resulting from the closure of Filene’s seems to have coincided with the area’s increased attractiveness to gangbangers, truants and drug dealers alike.
“There’s more drug dealers on the street,” said 18-year sausage vendor Gabriele Ruiz. “At the same time, there’s more police.”
Al Rackard, a security guard at the Corner Mall, calls the cops every day, he said, mostly on youth who loiter, fight or shoplift.
“I guess it’s now the place to hang,” he said. “This is the crossroads for everyone who’s trying to get away from somebody.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1141762
Saturday, December 27, 2008
G Franco Romagnoli Appreciation
Romagnoli set table for Italian fare
By Mat Schaffer / Appreciation | Wednesday, December 24, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Food & Recipes
The Boston culinary community is mourning the loss of G. Franco Romagnoli. The legendary Italian cooking teacher, author and television personality died last week at age 82.
Romagnoli and first wife Margaret were hosts of the 1974-’76 landmark Public Television series “The Romagnolis’ Table,” the first authentic Italian cooking show on American television. Romagnoli, a Rome-born cinematographer worked at WGBH at the time.
“Julia Child was responsible,” Romagnoli recalled in a Herald interview earlier this year. “Her show was so successful that the creative people at ’GBH decided to branch out into other ethnic cuisines. My late wife and I suggested Italian - it’s the mother of all Western cuisines - and that was it, they did it.”
The series spawned several cookbooks and a popular Faneuil Hall restaurant.
Romagnoli devoted the rest of his life to teaching, traveling and writing. His most recent book “Italy, the Romagnoli Way” (The Lyons Press, $24.95), co-written with second wife Gwen, is a culinary tour of Italy that highlights off-the-beaten-track destinations.
A natural raconteur who told great stories, Romagnoli was a gentle, genial man who was passionate about friends, family and food.
And he wrote terrific, easy-to-follow, fail-proof recipes. When I told him that I’d made the Pasta with Tomato-Tuna Sauce from his book “Cucina di Magro” many times (including lugging all the ingredients to the Cayman Islands to cook a pre-wedding dinner for two dozen), he looked pleased - but unsurprised.
PASTA WITH TOMATO-TUNA SAUCE
1 garlic clove
1 onion
3 salted anchovies, filleted, or 6 canned fillets, drained
4 T. olive oil
1 1/2 c. peeled plum tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 6-oz. can Italian tuna
1/2 t. oregano
Freshly ground pepper
Salt to taste
4 T. grated romano cheese
1 lb. pasta (ziti or rigatoni), cooked according to package directions
Put the garlic on a cutting board and mash it with the flat side of a big knife.
Coarsely chop the onion and then mince it together thoroughly with the garlic and anchovies.
Saute the garlic-onion-anchovy mixture in the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the onion bits are translucent and the anchovies have disintegrated.
Cool the pan for a minute or two (to avoid spattering) and add the tomatoes, crushing them with a wooden spoon as they go in. Bring the pan to a boil, cover, lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes. Add the tuna, oregano and pepper. Stir again to break up the tuna a bit. Taste add salt if necessary. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes or so, or until the sauce has condensed a bit and the color darkened.
Add the cooked pasta to the simmering sauce. Add the cheese, raise the heat, mix well and serve immediately.
Serves 6.
(From “Cucina di Magro,” Steerforth Press)
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/food/view.bg?articleid=1141070
By Mat Schaffer / Appreciation | Wednesday, December 24, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Food & Recipes
The Boston culinary community is mourning the loss of G. Franco Romagnoli. The legendary Italian cooking teacher, author and television personality died last week at age 82.
Romagnoli and first wife Margaret were hosts of the 1974-’76 landmark Public Television series “The Romagnolis’ Table,” the first authentic Italian cooking show on American television. Romagnoli, a Rome-born cinematographer worked at WGBH at the time.
“Julia Child was responsible,” Romagnoli recalled in a Herald interview earlier this year. “Her show was so successful that the creative people at ’GBH decided to branch out into other ethnic cuisines. My late wife and I suggested Italian - it’s the mother of all Western cuisines - and that was it, they did it.”
The series spawned several cookbooks and a popular Faneuil Hall restaurant.
Romagnoli devoted the rest of his life to teaching, traveling and writing. His most recent book “Italy, the Romagnoli Way” (The Lyons Press, $24.95), co-written with second wife Gwen, is a culinary tour of Italy that highlights off-the-beaten-track destinations.
A natural raconteur who told great stories, Romagnoli was a gentle, genial man who was passionate about friends, family and food.
And he wrote terrific, easy-to-follow, fail-proof recipes. When I told him that I’d made the Pasta with Tomato-Tuna Sauce from his book “Cucina di Magro” many times (including lugging all the ingredients to the Cayman Islands to cook a pre-wedding dinner for two dozen), he looked pleased - but unsurprised.
PASTA WITH TOMATO-TUNA SAUCE
1 garlic clove
1 onion
3 salted anchovies, filleted, or 6 canned fillets, drained
4 T. olive oil
1 1/2 c. peeled plum tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 6-oz. can Italian tuna
1/2 t. oregano
Freshly ground pepper
Salt to taste
4 T. grated romano cheese
1 lb. pasta (ziti or rigatoni), cooked according to package directions
Put the garlic on a cutting board and mash it with the flat side of a big knife.
Coarsely chop the onion and then mince it together thoroughly with the garlic and anchovies.
Saute the garlic-onion-anchovy mixture in the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the onion bits are translucent and the anchovies have disintegrated.
Cool the pan for a minute or two (to avoid spattering) and add the tomatoes, crushing them with a wooden spoon as they go in. Bring the pan to a boil, cover, lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes. Add the tuna, oregano and pepper. Stir again to break up the tuna a bit. Taste add salt if necessary. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes or so, or until the sauce has condensed a bit and the color darkened.
Add the cooked pasta to the simmering sauce. Add the cheese, raise the heat, mix well and serve immediately.
Serves 6.
(From “Cucina di Magro,” Steerforth Press)
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/food/view.bg?articleid=1141070
Best Restaurants of 2008 according to Mat Schaffer of the Boston Herald
Serving up the best eateries of ’08
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, December 26, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews
The fettuccine Bolognese at Benatti and the XO sauce daikon cake at Gitlo’s Dim Sum Bakery. The “elephant ear walking” grilled dough at Scampo and the soft-shell crab Louis at Vee Vee.
I’ve eaten many memorable dishes in the past year. Looking back on all the new restaurants where I dined over the past 12 months, the following stand out - for their originality and deliciousness:
Benatti:
1128 Cambridge St, Cambridge; 617-492-6300;benattispecialties.com.
The outskirts of Inman Square are an unlikely setting for some of the Hub’s most authentic Italian food. Chef Andrea Benatti (from Emilia-Romagna by way of Key West, Fla.) embraces the simplicity that is at the heart of the best, ingredient-driven Italian cuisine. His homemade pastas are sublime - and worth the ($$$) price tags. And the osso buco di vitello is divine.
Erbaluce:
69 Church St. 617-210-7979; erbaluce-boston.com.
Chef Charles Draghi (Marcuccio’s) returns to the kitchen after a five-year hiatus with a Bay Village ristorante that celebrates rustic Italian cooking, seasonal, regional ingredients and his uncle’s chicken gizzard risotto. Look for a full review in January.
Estragon:
700 Harrison Ave.; 617-266-0443; estragontapas.com.
The only area tapas bar owned by Spaniards promotes itself as a destination for cachondeo (having fun). With tapas made from frogs’ legs, cuttlefish, octopus and every part of the pig - including glazed, whole suckling pig head. After a pitcher of sangria, you’ll want to stop into the adjoining Spanish market to purchase what you’ll need to re-create some of these treats at home.
Gitlo’s Dim Sum Bakery:
164 Brighton Ave., Allston; 617-782-2253.
It’s all dim sum, all the time at this Allston hole-in-the-wall where Hong Kong-trained pastry chef Deng J. Laing makes some of the most beautiful - and tastiest - dumplings you can imagine. The menu, which changes frequently, is posted on a blackboard. Make sure you order the char shao bao steamed pork buns and rainbow clear noodles. Initial problems of running out of food have been resolved.
Hungry Mother:
233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave., Cambridge; 617-499-0090; hungrymothercam bridge.com.
At this Kendall Square hot spot, Southern culinary classics combine with French cooking techniques and local produce to the delight of Hub foodies looking for something different. Chef Barry Maiden, a veteran of L’Espalier, Sel de la Terre and Lumiere, reinterprets the specialties of his native Virginia - pan-fried catfish, fried green tomatoes, bourbon pecan sticky buns - with delectable results.
Jo Jo Taipei:
103 Brighton Ave., Allston; 617-254-8889.
Experience the breadth of Taiwanese cuisine - from night-market-like snacks to mainland Chinese regional favorites and local island dishes, influenced by 50 years of Japanese occupation. The lengthy menu can be daunting. Make sure to try braised pork with steamed bun sandwiches, stir-fried beef with cilantro and three cups chicken, made with a cup of soy, a cup of rice wine and a cup of water.
Persephone:
283 Summer St.; 617-695-2257; achilles-project.com.
You walk through a hip, high-priced clothing boutique to enter this Fort Point Channel fave - under the supervision of Lumiere chef Michael Leviton. The seasonal menu is defiantly regional, and the restaurant takes eco-consciousness seriously. Waste products are recycled and/or composted. Paper goods are made from recycled paper. And a “green” company hauls off the kitchen grease.
Scampo:
215 Charles St. (Liberty Hotel); 857-241-1150; scampoboston.com.
Lydia Shire’s new “Italian” restaurant is as wonderfully over-the-top as its talented chef-owner. With a homemade mozzarella bar, the most exciting fresh-baked breads in town and big-flavored dishes such as roti with curried chicken, spaghetti with cracklings and hot pepper and “cherry charred” duck, Scampo exemplifies Shire’s exuberance and imagination. Her lobster ravioli in Southeast Asian kaffir lime sauce is decadent.
Vee Vee:
763 Centre St., Jamaica Plain; 617-522-0145; veeveejp.com.
This vegetarian-friendly “new American” bistro features a menu of a dozen inventive fish, vegetable and grain dishes that seldom top $20. Chef Seth Morrison (Perdix, La Morra, the Biltmore) is building a well-deserved reputation for creative, casual comfort fare: shrimp and scallop cakes, butternut squash enchiladas and parsnip-carrot curry.
Now, if he’d only bring back his spaghetti and tuna meatballs.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/reviews/view.bg?articleid=1141275
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, December 26, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews
The fettuccine Bolognese at Benatti and the XO sauce daikon cake at Gitlo’s Dim Sum Bakery. The “elephant ear walking” grilled dough at Scampo and the soft-shell crab Louis at Vee Vee.
I’ve eaten many memorable dishes in the past year. Looking back on all the new restaurants where I dined over the past 12 months, the following stand out - for their originality and deliciousness:
Benatti:
1128 Cambridge St, Cambridge; 617-492-6300;benattispecialties.com.
The outskirts of Inman Square are an unlikely setting for some of the Hub’s most authentic Italian food. Chef Andrea Benatti (from Emilia-Romagna by way of Key West, Fla.) embraces the simplicity that is at the heart of the best, ingredient-driven Italian cuisine. His homemade pastas are sublime - and worth the ($$$) price tags. And the osso buco di vitello is divine.
Erbaluce:
69 Church St. 617-210-7979; erbaluce-boston.com.
Chef Charles Draghi (Marcuccio’s) returns to the kitchen after a five-year hiatus with a Bay Village ristorante that celebrates rustic Italian cooking, seasonal, regional ingredients and his uncle’s chicken gizzard risotto. Look for a full review in January.
Estragon:
700 Harrison Ave.; 617-266-0443; estragontapas.com.
The only area tapas bar owned by Spaniards promotes itself as a destination for cachondeo (having fun). With tapas made from frogs’ legs, cuttlefish, octopus and every part of the pig - including glazed, whole suckling pig head. After a pitcher of sangria, you’ll want to stop into the adjoining Spanish market to purchase what you’ll need to re-create some of these treats at home.
Gitlo’s Dim Sum Bakery:
164 Brighton Ave., Allston; 617-782-2253.
It’s all dim sum, all the time at this Allston hole-in-the-wall where Hong Kong-trained pastry chef Deng J. Laing makes some of the most beautiful - and tastiest - dumplings you can imagine. The menu, which changes frequently, is posted on a blackboard. Make sure you order the char shao bao steamed pork buns and rainbow clear noodles. Initial problems of running out of food have been resolved.
Hungry Mother:
233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave., Cambridge; 617-499-0090; hungrymothercam bridge.com.
At this Kendall Square hot spot, Southern culinary classics combine with French cooking techniques and local produce to the delight of Hub foodies looking for something different. Chef Barry Maiden, a veteran of L’Espalier, Sel de la Terre and Lumiere, reinterprets the specialties of his native Virginia - pan-fried catfish, fried green tomatoes, bourbon pecan sticky buns - with delectable results.
Jo Jo Taipei:
103 Brighton Ave., Allston; 617-254-8889.
Experience the breadth of Taiwanese cuisine - from night-market-like snacks to mainland Chinese regional favorites and local island dishes, influenced by 50 years of Japanese occupation. The lengthy menu can be daunting. Make sure to try braised pork with steamed bun sandwiches, stir-fried beef with cilantro and three cups chicken, made with a cup of soy, a cup of rice wine and a cup of water.
Persephone:
283 Summer St.; 617-695-2257; achilles-project.com.
You walk through a hip, high-priced clothing boutique to enter this Fort Point Channel fave - under the supervision of Lumiere chef Michael Leviton. The seasonal menu is defiantly regional, and the restaurant takes eco-consciousness seriously. Waste products are recycled and/or composted. Paper goods are made from recycled paper. And a “green” company hauls off the kitchen grease.
Scampo:
215 Charles St. (Liberty Hotel); 857-241-1150; scampoboston.com.
Lydia Shire’s new “Italian” restaurant is as wonderfully over-the-top as its talented chef-owner. With a homemade mozzarella bar, the most exciting fresh-baked breads in town and big-flavored dishes such as roti with curried chicken, spaghetti with cracklings and hot pepper and “cherry charred” duck, Scampo exemplifies Shire’s exuberance and imagination. Her lobster ravioli in Southeast Asian kaffir lime sauce is decadent.
Vee Vee:
763 Centre St., Jamaica Plain; 617-522-0145; veeveejp.com.
This vegetarian-friendly “new American” bistro features a menu of a dozen inventive fish, vegetable and grain dishes that seldom top $20. Chef Seth Morrison (Perdix, La Morra, the Biltmore) is building a well-deserved reputation for creative, casual comfort fare: shrimp and scallop cakes, butternut squash enchiladas and parsnip-carrot curry.
Now, if he’d only bring back his spaghetti and tuna meatballs.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/reviews/view.bg?articleid=1141275
Boston Museum could be built on Greenway parcel
Greenway lot up for grabs
Museum proposal could be contender for park parcel
By Thomas Grillo | Friday, December 26, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
One of the last parcels overlooking the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is expected to be available for development early next year.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority is nearing completion on design guidelines for Parcel 9, which includes the Market District and extends from the Haymarket MBTA Station to North, Blackstone and Cross streets. Request for Proposals on the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority land will be issued in February.
Among the proposed uses for the site include a ground-floor market, housing, hotel, office or cultural center.
But despite a half-dozen meetings on creating the guidelines, a consensus has not emerged for the best use of the location.
Frank Keefe, chief executive of the Boston Museum, whose mission is to tell the story of the region’s 400-year history, is hoping to get approval for a 100,000-square-foot museum and marketplace on the land with a pedestrian bridge to the Greenway. The four-story facility would cost $100 million. So far, the nonprofit group has raised $7 million.
“We haven’t had a new, exciting visitor magnet in the heart of Boston for a long time, so this is a real legacy opportunity here for the region,” he said. “If we can create a stunning building at that site in the heart of Boston on the Greenway, it will be a great achievement.”
Nancy Caruso, chairwoman of the North End Central Artery Advisory Committee, is not convinced that the museum is the best choice.
“We haven’t seen any proposals, so there’s no way to know that the museum idea is best,” she said. “But people are wondering how a museum would work given that it will be surrounded with lots of activity, making it difficult for tour buses and tourists to get there.”
Still, Caruso said a museum could win community support. “They might be the strongest contender because it could be the lesser of the evils,” she added.
David Kubiak, a member of the North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association, said the concerns are in the details.
“There’s no widespread community support for the museum,” he said. “But I’d say there is no major opposition either. The possible concerns are traffic related.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1141301
Museum proposal could be contender for park parcel
By Thomas Grillo | Friday, December 26, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
One of the last parcels overlooking the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is expected to be available for development early next year.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority is nearing completion on design guidelines for Parcel 9, which includes the Market District and extends from the Haymarket MBTA Station to North, Blackstone and Cross streets. Request for Proposals on the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority land will be issued in February.
Among the proposed uses for the site include a ground-floor market, housing, hotel, office or cultural center.
But despite a half-dozen meetings on creating the guidelines, a consensus has not emerged for the best use of the location.
Frank Keefe, chief executive of the Boston Museum, whose mission is to tell the story of the region’s 400-year history, is hoping to get approval for a 100,000-square-foot museum and marketplace on the land with a pedestrian bridge to the Greenway. The four-story facility would cost $100 million. So far, the nonprofit group has raised $7 million.
“We haven’t had a new, exciting visitor magnet in the heart of Boston for a long time, so this is a real legacy opportunity here for the region,” he said. “If we can create a stunning building at that site in the heart of Boston on the Greenway, it will be a great achievement.”
Nancy Caruso, chairwoman of the North End Central Artery Advisory Committee, is not convinced that the museum is the best choice.
“We haven’t seen any proposals, so there’s no way to know that the museum idea is best,” she said. “But people are wondering how a museum would work given that it will be surrounded with lots of activity, making it difficult for tour buses and tourists to get there.”
Still, Caruso said a museum could win community support. “They might be the strongest contender because it could be the lesser of the evils,” she added.
David Kubiak, a member of the North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association, said the concerns are in the details.
“There’s no widespread community support for the museum,” he said. “But I’d say there is no major opposition either. The possible concerns are traffic related.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1141301
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Circle in South End is now closed
SOUTH END
Newly open, Circle is now closed
Restaurant owner cites poor economy
By Richard Thompson, Globe Correspondent | December 21, 2008
Malcolm Aalders had been planning to open a restaurant and bar for several years before settling in the South End, drawn in part to the neighborhood's history and thriving dining scene.
But after six weeks in business, his Circle Plates and Lounge, which opened in October at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Northampton Street that used to be home to Bob's Southern Bistro, is already part of the past.
"It was just not the right concept in comparison with the economy," Aalders said last week about the 88-seat contemporary French restaurant.
Circle, which closed its doors with little notice on Nov. 24, putting about two dozen people out of work, was extensively renovated since Darryl Settles, Bob's owner, sold the jazz-oriented restaurant last year after 17 years.
The 2,200-square-foot space now includes a private dining area where Bob's had its takeout service, and the restaurant's interior features more exposed brick, as well as red microsuede banquettes along the walls and round mosaic tiles lining the front of the 11-seat bar.
Aalders, a Cleveland native who moved to Boston last year from the Netherlands, invested "close to $1 million" in the restaurant, which sits on the cusp of the South End and Lower Roxbury and in the shadow of Northeastern University, according to Atlantic Restaurant Group principal Daniel Newcomb.
"I think it was just a little bit off the beaten path for that location," said Newcomb, whose company specializes in selling and leasing restaurants. He said the asking price for Circle is $795,000, which includes a full liquor license with a 2 a.m. closing time, valued at around $225,000.
"The first concept that he was considering was a casual lounge, and it morphed into a French bistro," Newcomb said.
The shift in Aalders' plans gradually happened in the months after diners packed Bob's in November 2007 for a Sunday morning "jazz funeral" to observe the passing of the South End institution, which had become a landmark for the city's black community since opening as a lunch counter in 1957.
Aalders at that time said he intended to rename the restaurant Night Town and offer a menu consisting of small plates of American cuisine, along the concept of tapas, and host live musical performances, ranging from rock and funk to jazz. Instead, as the project slowly moved through the permitting process, his focus shifted from burgers to butter-poached lobster.
"We definitely switched gears a little early on, which in hindsight is never a really good idea," executive chef Adam Gendreau said. "But I don't regret actually changing the concept, because I'm not super-familiar with small plates, which can be a little tricky, and I'm much more comfortable doing fine dining."
Both Aalders and Gendreau say business became more steady as time went on.
Gendreau, who spent five years working with Jody Adams at her Rialto restaurant in Cambridge, said he considered Circle "a measurable success," while Aalders contended that the growing economic downtown would have prevented him from covering costs and turning a profit within his six-month financial blueprint.
While many people in the South End said they were surprised to learn that the restaurant had opened, let alone closed, Ryan Buck was disappointed by the news.
Buck, 28, who recently moved to Dorchester, had met a friend for drinks at Circle the week before it closed, and said he took advantage of a slow night to chew the fat with Aalders about the Midwest, where they both grew up.
"I had intended to go back with my roommates," Buck said, recalling that he was one of only two patrons in the restaurant at the time.
"Obviously, that's not going to happen."
Richard Thompson can be reached at thompjourn@gmail.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Newly open, Circle is now closed
Restaurant owner cites poor economy
By Richard Thompson, Globe Correspondent | December 21, 2008
Malcolm Aalders had been planning to open a restaurant and bar for several years before settling in the South End, drawn in part to the neighborhood's history and thriving dining scene.
But after six weeks in business, his Circle Plates and Lounge, which opened in October at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Northampton Street that used to be home to Bob's Southern Bistro, is already part of the past.
"It was just not the right concept in comparison with the economy," Aalders said last week about the 88-seat contemporary French restaurant.
Circle, which closed its doors with little notice on Nov. 24, putting about two dozen people out of work, was extensively renovated since Darryl Settles, Bob's owner, sold the jazz-oriented restaurant last year after 17 years.
The 2,200-square-foot space now includes a private dining area where Bob's had its takeout service, and the restaurant's interior features more exposed brick, as well as red microsuede banquettes along the walls and round mosaic tiles lining the front of the 11-seat bar.
Aalders, a Cleveland native who moved to Boston last year from the Netherlands, invested "close to $1 million" in the restaurant, which sits on the cusp of the South End and Lower Roxbury and in the shadow of Northeastern University, according to Atlantic Restaurant Group principal Daniel Newcomb.
"I think it was just a little bit off the beaten path for that location," said Newcomb, whose company specializes in selling and leasing restaurants. He said the asking price for Circle is $795,000, which includes a full liquor license with a 2 a.m. closing time, valued at around $225,000.
"The first concept that he was considering was a casual lounge, and it morphed into a French bistro," Newcomb said.
The shift in Aalders' plans gradually happened in the months after diners packed Bob's in November 2007 for a Sunday morning "jazz funeral" to observe the passing of the South End institution, which had become a landmark for the city's black community since opening as a lunch counter in 1957.
Aalders at that time said he intended to rename the restaurant Night Town and offer a menu consisting of small plates of American cuisine, along the concept of tapas, and host live musical performances, ranging from rock and funk to jazz. Instead, as the project slowly moved through the permitting process, his focus shifted from burgers to butter-poached lobster.
"We definitely switched gears a little early on, which in hindsight is never a really good idea," executive chef Adam Gendreau said. "But I don't regret actually changing the concept, because I'm not super-familiar with small plates, which can be a little tricky, and I'm much more comfortable doing fine dining."
Both Aalders and Gendreau say business became more steady as time went on.
Gendreau, who spent five years working with Jody Adams at her Rialto restaurant in Cambridge, said he considered Circle "a measurable success," while Aalders contended that the growing economic downtown would have prevented him from covering costs and turning a profit within his six-month financial blueprint.
While many people in the South End said they were surprised to learn that the restaurant had opened, let alone closed, Ryan Buck was disappointed by the news.
Buck, 28, who recently moved to Dorchester, had met a friend for drinks at Circle the week before it closed, and said he took advantage of a slow night to chew the fat with Aalders about the Midwest, where they both grew up.
"I had intended to go back with my roommates," Buck said, recalling that he was one of only two patrons in the restaurant at the time.
"Obviously, that's not going to happen."
Richard Thompson can be reached at thompjourn@gmail.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Sacco and Vanzetti Monument
CITYWIDE
Toward a more visible monument
Group seeks tribute for Sacco and Vanzetti
By Andrew Clark, Globe Correspondent | December 21, 2008
More than 80 years ago Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed for murder. Today a Boston-area group is working to preserve their memory. In bronze.
"Boston is a city that prides itself in history," said Bob D'Attilio, 70, a local historian and member of the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society. "But there is no formal acknowledgement of the case by the city. Right now we are seeking a permanent display."
The society is hoping to get a plaster cast by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, created in bronze. In 1997, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and former governor Paul Cellucci accepted the plaster cast, which has since found a home on the third floor at the Boston Public Library. But in the past decade, the city has made little headway toward creating a monument.
To the commemoration society, raising awareness and paying proper tribute to the case is essential, especially given its local roots.
"Most of the world, from Europe to Latin America, knows about [Sacco and Vanzetti's] case," said Jake Carman, 22, one of the founding members of the society. "But not many people in Massachusetts remember, and that's the state it happened in. It's something that gets about two sentences in a history book. And it is one of the most important cases in the world."
Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested in 1920 and charged with the robbery and murder of two men in Braintree. After standing trial in Dedham, they were found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by electrocution on Aug. 23, 1927.
Whether or not they were guilty of the crimes, some evidence suggests the two men received an unfair trial, from gangster Celestino Madeiros's confession to Sacco in prison that he and his gang committed the crime, to Judge Webster Thayer's proclamation, "Did you see what I did to those anarchist bastards the other day?"
Currently, the society is attempting to raise money for the 7-foot-long bronze monument, estimated to cost $50,000, and to find an appropriate location for it.
In 1999, it was reported that part of a small park on Hull Street in the North End would house the memorial, but D'Attilio says the society is hoping for a more visible location, like the new Rose Kennedy Greenway.
The saga of the Borglum cast that would be used to create the memorial can be traced back 70 years. Beginning in 1937, the cast was offered by a commemorative committee three different times to the governor and the mayor of Boston. Each time it was rejected, according to D'Attilio.
"There is a lot of bureaucracy involved in getting a monument installed in Boston, as you can imagine," said Carman. "One of the bigger challenges will be convincing the government to let us erect a statue to two men whose life goal was to replace government with nonhierarchical organization: democracy without government."
The society was formed in August 2006 to organize a parade from Stony Brook Park in Jamaica Plain to Forest Hills Cemetery, where Sacco and Vanzetti were cremated. The march has become an annual event to commemorate the pair's execution.
"There are usually 50 to 70 people of all sorts of different ages and backgrounds marching," said Clara Hendricks, 21, who has attended the society's marches in past years. "There are lots of drums and instruments and chanting. . . . The main goal of the march is to get information out. You have people passing out fliers to those who don't know anything about the case."
Last year, the group held a three-day event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of their execution, including a march and film display.
The society meets twice a month and has six core members and roughly 20 additional people involved in the group.
Last month, the society hosted an event at the Dante Alighieri Society in Cambridge, where noted historian Howard Zinn delivered a lecture on the case.
The Zinn lecture attracted an audience of about 250 people , and the society hopes it will also help draw attention to its cause.
According to Zinn, the case has a landmark importance in today's world.
"The importance of the case is not whether they were guilty of the robbery and murder," said Zinn, in an interview.
"The importance is what the case tells us about the justice system. Radicals who are on trial do not stand the same chance as nonradicals. Immigrants on trial are in danger of victimization."
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Toward a more visible monument
Group seeks tribute for Sacco and Vanzetti
By Andrew Clark, Globe Correspondent | December 21, 2008
More than 80 years ago Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed for murder. Today a Boston-area group is working to preserve their memory. In bronze.
"Boston is a city that prides itself in history," said Bob D'Attilio, 70, a local historian and member of the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society. "But there is no formal acknowledgement of the case by the city. Right now we are seeking a permanent display."
The society is hoping to get a plaster cast by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, created in bronze. In 1997, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and former governor Paul Cellucci accepted the plaster cast, which has since found a home on the third floor at the Boston Public Library. But in the past decade, the city has made little headway toward creating a monument.
To the commemoration society, raising awareness and paying proper tribute to the case is essential, especially given its local roots.
"Most of the world, from Europe to Latin America, knows about [Sacco and Vanzetti's] case," said Jake Carman, 22, one of the founding members of the society. "But not many people in Massachusetts remember, and that's the state it happened in. It's something that gets about two sentences in a history book. And it is one of the most important cases in the world."
Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested in 1920 and charged with the robbery and murder of two men in Braintree. After standing trial in Dedham, they were found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by electrocution on Aug. 23, 1927.
Whether or not they were guilty of the crimes, some evidence suggests the two men received an unfair trial, from gangster Celestino Madeiros's confession to Sacco in prison that he and his gang committed the crime, to Judge Webster Thayer's proclamation, "Did you see what I did to those anarchist bastards the other day?"
Currently, the society is attempting to raise money for the 7-foot-long bronze monument, estimated to cost $50,000, and to find an appropriate location for it.
In 1999, it was reported that part of a small park on Hull Street in the North End would house the memorial, but D'Attilio says the society is hoping for a more visible location, like the new Rose Kennedy Greenway.
The saga of the Borglum cast that would be used to create the memorial can be traced back 70 years. Beginning in 1937, the cast was offered by a commemorative committee three different times to the governor and the mayor of Boston. Each time it was rejected, according to D'Attilio.
"There is a lot of bureaucracy involved in getting a monument installed in Boston, as you can imagine," said Carman. "One of the bigger challenges will be convincing the government to let us erect a statue to two men whose life goal was to replace government with nonhierarchical organization: democracy without government."
The society was formed in August 2006 to organize a parade from Stony Brook Park in Jamaica Plain to Forest Hills Cemetery, where Sacco and Vanzetti were cremated. The march has become an annual event to commemorate the pair's execution.
"There are usually 50 to 70 people of all sorts of different ages and backgrounds marching," said Clara Hendricks, 21, who has attended the society's marches in past years. "There are lots of drums and instruments and chanting. . . . The main goal of the march is to get information out. You have people passing out fliers to those who don't know anything about the case."
Last year, the group held a three-day event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of their execution, including a march and film display.
The society meets twice a month and has six core members and roughly 20 additional people involved in the group.
Last month, the society hosted an event at the Dante Alighieri Society in Cambridge, where noted historian Howard Zinn delivered a lecture on the case.
The Zinn lecture attracted an audience of about 250 people , and the society hopes it will also help draw attention to its cause.
According to Zinn, the case has a landmark importance in today's world.
"The importance of the case is not whether they were guilty of the robbery and murder," said Zinn, in an interview.
"The importance is what the case tells us about the justice system. Radicals who are on trial do not stand the same chance as nonradicals. Immigrants on trial are in danger of victimization."
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Boston Common Editorial
Common makeover
By Boston Herald editorial staff | Monday, December 22, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Editorials
Boston Common is America’s oldest public park and sadly, it shows. Now a special City Council committee, led by Councilor Michael Ross, has made some solid recommendations for improving the shabby conditions on the Common and maximizing its use.
Taxpayer resources, of course, are scarce and the committee’s to-do list exceptionally long. But the report should at least serve as a blueprint for improving this vital city resource.
Since the committee began its work attention has been focused largely on its recommendation to allow a commercial restaurant - and with good reason.
As the report points out, the more people who use the Common the more crime rates drop. A full-service, year-round restaurant could also help generate income for park upkeep and maintenance and the other infrastructure improvements the committee recommends.
But standing in the way of progress is none other than Boston Mayor Tom Menino. The mayor has made it clear that no one should be allowed to sip a Sam Adams or a glass of chardonnay within view of the Frog Pond or the Common playground, which is a truly baffling position. No one’s talking about a nightclub here.
Emerson College runs a small cafe on the Common, but it loses money. There is another cafe at the Frog Pond. But neither is viewed as a destination or generates the kind of patronage that a full-service restaurant would - one that, yes, serves beer and wine.
Among the committee’s other recommendations: A year-round carousel. A defined dog park. A greater presence of park rangers and programming, including more concerts and stage performances.
And perhaps most important, the committee calls for better outreach to businesses, institutions and residents, whose properties benefit from their proximity to the Common, to support its improvement and use.
Boston Common should be viewed by both residents and tourists as a destination, not a cut-through on the way somewhere else. By planning carefully and maximizing private investment - not to mention setting aside outdated Puritan values - the city can make it so.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1140529
By Boston Herald editorial staff | Monday, December 22, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Editorials
Boston Common is America’s oldest public park and sadly, it shows. Now a special City Council committee, led by Councilor Michael Ross, has made some solid recommendations for improving the shabby conditions on the Common and maximizing its use.
Taxpayer resources, of course, are scarce and the committee’s to-do list exceptionally long. But the report should at least serve as a blueprint for improving this vital city resource.
Since the committee began its work attention has been focused largely on its recommendation to allow a commercial restaurant - and with good reason.
As the report points out, the more people who use the Common the more crime rates drop. A full-service, year-round restaurant could also help generate income for park upkeep and maintenance and the other infrastructure improvements the committee recommends.
But standing in the way of progress is none other than Boston Mayor Tom Menino. The mayor has made it clear that no one should be allowed to sip a Sam Adams or a glass of chardonnay within view of the Frog Pond or the Common playground, which is a truly baffling position. No one’s talking about a nightclub here.
Emerson College runs a small cafe on the Common, but it loses money. There is another cafe at the Frog Pond. But neither is viewed as a destination or generates the kind of patronage that a full-service restaurant would - one that, yes, serves beer and wine.
Among the committee’s other recommendations: A year-round carousel. A defined dog park. A greater presence of park rangers and programming, including more concerts and stage performances.
And perhaps most important, the committee calls for better outreach to businesses, institutions and residents, whose properties benefit from their proximity to the Common, to support its improvement and use.
Boston Common should be viewed by both residents and tourists as a destination, not a cut-through on the way somewhere else. By planning carefully and maximizing private investment - not to mention setting aside outdated Puritan values - the city can make it so.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1140529
New Indian Restaurant in Brookline
DINING OUT
A fresh perspective
Indian restaurant serves up coastal specialties
By Devra First, Globe Staff | December 22, 2008
You won't have the chicken tikka masala. You won't have the saag paneer. They're not on the menu. You won't even have the samosas, unless you come at tea time on the weekends, when they're properly served as snacks rather than appetizers.
Instead you'll have the plantain gule (plantain dumplings in onion sauce), Andhra chapala (fish with tomato and tamarind), or Karnataka tiger prawn curry. And you will like it.
Tamarind Bay Coastal Indian Kitchen is not the place to come for your old favorites, dishes that, delicious though they may be, are a dime a dozen in the Boston area. Chef Wali Ahmad is inspired by the food of India's coastal regions, states such as Kerala, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka (you may have been there by phone; Bangalore, the capital, is home to many of the folks who save us from computer inadequacy). And coastal cuisine means lots of fish and seafood.
The Karnataka tiger prawn curry features just-cooked-through crustaceans in a bath of mild, creamy coconut and yogurt. It's subtle and pure white, quite unlike what you may think of as curry - a catchall term if ever there was one. Mangalorean lobster features a split tail with meat removed, coated in a sauce of coconut, garam masala, and mustard seeds, and piled back into the tail; the head half of the lobster is propped vertically on the plate behind it, as if keeping watch. Andhra chapala is a whole bronzino covered in a yellow-brown paste flavored with star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, and more.
These dishes aren't fiery; they're just highly flavorful, replete with spices. A pink-orange chutney made from ginger, tomato, and almonds lends a slight kick. Many dishes on the menu come with rice and daal; the daal is the heavenly black lentil dish you may have tasted at the original Tamarind Bay in Harvard Square. These lentils, rich and nearly smoky, are cooked overnight in spices; they're also available as a vegetarian entree. Anyone who even vaguely admires lentils will swoon over them.
You will find tikka here, in the form of chicken and shrimp starters. The shrimp tikka are curled in a row, tender and sweet after marinating in coconut, yogurt, and curry leaf. An appetizer of cabbage chitwa is like an Indian latke, with vegetable shreds instead of potato. The cabbage patties are fried and served on shredded cabbage, the antithesis of the Cabbage Soup Diet (but much tastier). Tulsi malai lamb is highly spiced kebabs marinated with tulsi (holy basil) and served with more of that ginger sauce. They stand vertically, like Lincoln Logs at attention, a pappadum-like crisp perched among them jauntily. (The pappadums, by the way, are excellent here - a complimentary basket of freshly fried crisps that taste nearly exactly like Munchos. Parathas are good too, flaky and layered.)
There are plenty of options for those who don't like seafood. Matki dum murgh is a warming dish of chicken in a thick sauce perfumed with cardamom and mace. An even better saucy dish is the plantain gule, plantain dumplings in an onion sauce you may have had before on chicken. The dumplings are reminiscent of meatless kibbeh in taste and texture.
If that onion sauce tastes better than you remember from past renditions, it's likely because Ahmad cooks each dish fresh to order, rather than preparing a batch of sauce and using it to make many dishes over the course of a day. (He's likely the closest we have to an Indian celebrity chef in Boston, having worked on the television cooking show "Khana Khazana.") This is particularly evident on a slow weeknight, when everything comes to the table steaming. On a busy weekend, the Andhra chapala we loved on a Tuesday isn't as hot, and a skin is beginning to form on the sauce.
Not every dish quite manages to evoke the coastal breezes. Masala crab cakes promise an intriguing fusion of US and India, but they barely taste of crab. Sweetish spices dominate; the brown domes smell something like cookie dough. A soup of plum tomatoes, curry leaf, and tamarind is too tart - the tamarind takes it in that direction, then hands off the baton to lemon juice. Still, when the kitchen is on, it is really on. (Service can be strange, however, either far too attentive or somewhat out of it.)
Dessert is a different spin, too. You've got your kulfi, as usual, but this one is flavored with tomato. The ice cream is cut into rounds, laid out in a row, with shards of caramelized sugar placed between them. You may like it (I did), you may not (no one I was with seemed to), but you likely haven't had it before. And the dish called "sweet potato cake" is missing an article: It's really sweet potato and cake, with "cake" used loosely. A piece of roasted sweet potato is topped with a dark brown, chewy, macaroon-like confection. For the more traditional-minded, one night there was a lovely, straight-up rendition of kheer, a rice pudding.
Tamarind Bay Coastal has a full liquor license, which results in drinks with names such as "Kolkatta Cosmo" (Absolut Citron, pomegranate and grapefruit juices, Cointreau, and fresh ginger and mint) and "Malabar Mojito" (gin, cucumber, red pepper, and cilantro) that are nominally Indian in flavor. Owners BS Ajai Kumar and Vikas Kapoor stick with the coastal theme for the decor, with blue banquettes and cool blue lights behind the bar; statues and wall hangings depict scenes from Indian folklore.
It's atmospheric, if not quite enough to make us feel like we're there. At its best, the food takes care of that - it's fresh, both in its ingredients and to our palates. It offers a different spin on a cuisine of subtlety and regional specificity, both of which are often lost in translation.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
A fresh perspective
Indian restaurant serves up coastal specialties
By Devra First, Globe Staff | December 22, 2008
You won't have the chicken tikka masala. You won't have the saag paneer. They're not on the menu. You won't even have the samosas, unless you come at tea time on the weekends, when they're properly served as snacks rather than appetizers.
Instead you'll have the plantain gule (plantain dumplings in onion sauce), Andhra chapala (fish with tomato and tamarind), or Karnataka tiger prawn curry. And you will like it.
Tamarind Bay Coastal Indian Kitchen is not the place to come for your old favorites, dishes that, delicious though they may be, are a dime a dozen in the Boston area. Chef Wali Ahmad is inspired by the food of India's coastal regions, states such as Kerala, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka (you may have been there by phone; Bangalore, the capital, is home to many of the folks who save us from computer inadequacy). And coastal cuisine means lots of fish and seafood.
The Karnataka tiger prawn curry features just-cooked-through crustaceans in a bath of mild, creamy coconut and yogurt. It's subtle and pure white, quite unlike what you may think of as curry - a catchall term if ever there was one. Mangalorean lobster features a split tail with meat removed, coated in a sauce of coconut, garam masala, and mustard seeds, and piled back into the tail; the head half of the lobster is propped vertically on the plate behind it, as if keeping watch. Andhra chapala is a whole bronzino covered in a yellow-brown paste flavored with star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, and more.
These dishes aren't fiery; they're just highly flavorful, replete with spices. A pink-orange chutney made from ginger, tomato, and almonds lends a slight kick. Many dishes on the menu come with rice and daal; the daal is the heavenly black lentil dish you may have tasted at the original Tamarind Bay in Harvard Square. These lentils, rich and nearly smoky, are cooked overnight in spices; they're also available as a vegetarian entree. Anyone who even vaguely admires lentils will swoon over them.
You will find tikka here, in the form of chicken and shrimp starters. The shrimp tikka are curled in a row, tender and sweet after marinating in coconut, yogurt, and curry leaf. An appetizer of cabbage chitwa is like an Indian latke, with vegetable shreds instead of potato. The cabbage patties are fried and served on shredded cabbage, the antithesis of the Cabbage Soup Diet (but much tastier). Tulsi malai lamb is highly spiced kebabs marinated with tulsi (holy basil) and served with more of that ginger sauce. They stand vertically, like Lincoln Logs at attention, a pappadum-like crisp perched among them jauntily. (The pappadums, by the way, are excellent here - a complimentary basket of freshly fried crisps that taste nearly exactly like Munchos. Parathas are good too, flaky and layered.)
There are plenty of options for those who don't like seafood. Matki dum murgh is a warming dish of chicken in a thick sauce perfumed with cardamom and mace. An even better saucy dish is the plantain gule, plantain dumplings in an onion sauce you may have had before on chicken. The dumplings are reminiscent of meatless kibbeh in taste and texture.
If that onion sauce tastes better than you remember from past renditions, it's likely because Ahmad cooks each dish fresh to order, rather than preparing a batch of sauce and using it to make many dishes over the course of a day. (He's likely the closest we have to an Indian celebrity chef in Boston, having worked on the television cooking show "Khana Khazana.") This is particularly evident on a slow weeknight, when everything comes to the table steaming. On a busy weekend, the Andhra chapala we loved on a Tuesday isn't as hot, and a skin is beginning to form on the sauce.
Not every dish quite manages to evoke the coastal breezes. Masala crab cakes promise an intriguing fusion of US and India, but they barely taste of crab. Sweetish spices dominate; the brown domes smell something like cookie dough. A soup of plum tomatoes, curry leaf, and tamarind is too tart - the tamarind takes it in that direction, then hands off the baton to lemon juice. Still, when the kitchen is on, it is really on. (Service can be strange, however, either far too attentive or somewhat out of it.)
Dessert is a different spin, too. You've got your kulfi, as usual, but this one is flavored with tomato. The ice cream is cut into rounds, laid out in a row, with shards of caramelized sugar placed between them. You may like it (I did), you may not (no one I was with seemed to), but you likely haven't had it before. And the dish called "sweet potato cake" is missing an article: It's really sweet potato and cake, with "cake" used loosely. A piece of roasted sweet potato is topped with a dark brown, chewy, macaroon-like confection. For the more traditional-minded, one night there was a lovely, straight-up rendition of kheer, a rice pudding.
Tamarind Bay Coastal has a full liquor license, which results in drinks with names such as "Kolkatta Cosmo" (Absolut Citron, pomegranate and grapefruit juices, Cointreau, and fresh ginger and mint) and "Malabar Mojito" (gin, cucumber, red pepper, and cilantro) that are nominally Indian in flavor. Owners BS Ajai Kumar and Vikas Kapoor stick with the coastal theme for the decor, with blue banquettes and cool blue lights behind the bar; statues and wall hangings depict scenes from Indian folklore.
It's atmospheric, if not quite enough to make us feel like we're there. At its best, the food takes care of that - it's fresh, both in its ingredients and to our palates. It offers a different spin on a cuisine of subtlety and regional specificity, both of which are often lost in translation.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
US Hotel Security Article
India siege raises security concerns at US hotels
December 2, 2008 6:56 PM ET
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Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Shortly after news spread that gun-toting terrorists had launched a deadly siege on Mumbai, 75 blue-and-white police cars carrying 150 officers fanned out across Manhattan, lights flashing.
Their mission: To quickly shore up security with a show of force outside the Waldorf Astoria, New York Palace and other marquee hotels.
The response, though strictly precautionary, demonstrated that the deadly attack in India had far-reaching implications for police and private security officials in New York and other U.S. cities.
"I think that this could be a wake-up call," said Robert Grenier, a former CIA official with the Kroll Security Group.
Some suspect the Mumbai attackers had inside help, which points to the need for aggressive screening and monitoring of hotel workers, Grenier said. The assault in India likely involved extensive reconnaissance — another lesson in the need for constant vigilance in spotting and confronting suspicious visitors, he said.
But hotels face a delicate balancing act.
"We have some guests who pay an exorbitant amount to stay in our hotels, and security is a level of inconvenience," said Jimmy Chin, who heads security at the New York Palace and chairs the security committee for the Hotel Association of New York. At the same time, after Mumbai made headlines, "There's an expectation to see security," he added.
The attacks in India have been a hot topic in Chicago's hotel industry, said Kevin Boland, a marketing manager at the city's Drake Hotel.
The 535-room Drake, a landmark city hotel skirting posh, Michigan Avenue boutiques, reviewed its security measures in the wake of the attacks and "realigned" some security staff, Boland said.
"Like what happened in India, we don't want to be in the situation of where we weren't prepared," he said. "People can get bogged down in paperwork and what happened (in India) can change your priorities."
In Los Angeles, police have been studying the Mumbai attacks and are considering sending investigators there to learn more.
"We look at these new kinds of tactics and the way they orchestrated this and modify our approach," said Deputy Chief Michael Downing, who heads the Los Angeles Police Department's counterterrorism unit.
Police in New York and Los Angeles have programs to share intelligence and security tips with large businesses, including hotels, through Web sites, closed-door briefings and seminars. The NYPD also has beefed up patrols outside major hotels since the attacks in India.
Unlike fortified hotels in international trouble spots, the U.S. hotels haven't resorted to heavily armed guards, checkpoints or other drastic measures to deter terror. Besides what's visible — plainclothes security agents and surveillance cameras — major chains are reluctant give specifics about their security.
Asked about any additional safeguards at the Hilton-operated Waldorf Astoria in midtown and the Millennium Hilton across from ground zero in lower Manhattan, the chain would only say it always makes safety a top priority.
"Further, many of the actions we are taking are, of necessity, invisible to our customers," Hilton said in a statement.
It's unlikely that any hotel, no matter how exemplary its security, could fend off a concerted, Mumbai-style attack on its own, said John Serafini, co-owner of Elite Protection, an Illinois-based security firm that counts several large Chicago hotels as clients.
"As far as engaging an armed assault as the one in India, I don't know if anyone is fully prepared to repel an attack on that scale," he said. "Even if a hotel has a fully armed staff, it is still a dangerous proposition to engage an attack like that."
___
Associated Press writers Michael Tarm in Chicago and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
advertisement
December 2, 2008 6:56 PM ET
advertisement
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Shortly after news spread that gun-toting terrorists had launched a deadly siege on Mumbai, 75 blue-and-white police cars carrying 150 officers fanned out across Manhattan, lights flashing.
Their mission: To quickly shore up security with a show of force outside the Waldorf Astoria, New York Palace and other marquee hotels.
The response, though strictly precautionary, demonstrated that the deadly attack in India had far-reaching implications for police and private security officials in New York and other U.S. cities.
"I think that this could be a wake-up call," said Robert Grenier, a former CIA official with the Kroll Security Group.
Some suspect the Mumbai attackers had inside help, which points to the need for aggressive screening and monitoring of hotel workers, Grenier said. The assault in India likely involved extensive reconnaissance — another lesson in the need for constant vigilance in spotting and confronting suspicious visitors, he said.
But hotels face a delicate balancing act.
"We have some guests who pay an exorbitant amount to stay in our hotels, and security is a level of inconvenience," said Jimmy Chin, who heads security at the New York Palace and chairs the security committee for the Hotel Association of New York. At the same time, after Mumbai made headlines, "There's an expectation to see security," he added.
The attacks in India have been a hot topic in Chicago's hotel industry, said Kevin Boland, a marketing manager at the city's Drake Hotel.
The 535-room Drake, a landmark city hotel skirting posh, Michigan Avenue boutiques, reviewed its security measures in the wake of the attacks and "realigned" some security staff, Boland said.
"Like what happened in India, we don't want to be in the situation of where we weren't prepared," he said. "People can get bogged down in paperwork and what happened (in India) can change your priorities."
In Los Angeles, police have been studying the Mumbai attacks and are considering sending investigators there to learn more.
"We look at these new kinds of tactics and the way they orchestrated this and modify our approach," said Deputy Chief Michael Downing, who heads the Los Angeles Police Department's counterterrorism unit.
Police in New York and Los Angeles have programs to share intelligence and security tips with large businesses, including hotels, through Web sites, closed-door briefings and seminars. The NYPD also has beefed up patrols outside major hotels since the attacks in India.
Unlike fortified hotels in international trouble spots, the U.S. hotels haven't resorted to heavily armed guards, checkpoints or other drastic measures to deter terror. Besides what's visible — plainclothes security agents and surveillance cameras — major chains are reluctant give specifics about their security.
Asked about any additional safeguards at the Hilton-operated Waldorf Astoria in midtown and the Millennium Hilton across from ground zero in lower Manhattan, the chain would only say it always makes safety a top priority.
"Further, many of the actions we are taking are, of necessity, invisible to our customers," Hilton said in a statement.
It's unlikely that any hotel, no matter how exemplary its security, could fend off a concerted, Mumbai-style attack on its own, said John Serafini, co-owner of Elite Protection, an Illinois-based security firm that counts several large Chicago hotels as clients.
"As far as engaging an armed assault as the one in India, I don't know if anyone is fully prepared to repel an attack on that scale," he said. "Even if a hotel has a fully armed staff, it is still a dangerous proposition to engage an attack like that."
___
Associated Press writers Michael Tarm in Chicago and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Restaurant at new House of Blues in Boston
Feelin’ blue
By Inside Track | Monday, December 22, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | The Inside Track
Word is, the all-new House of Blues on Lansdowne Street will sport a trademarked Foundation Room, a four-star restaurant, 50-plus women’s toilets and a prayer room, where, we suspect, you can atone for the sins you’ll commit in the rest of the joint!
The soon-to-open Live Nation venue and 2,400-seat music hall, will - thankfully - class up the back of Fenway Park [map] with its rockin’ new facade and whiz-bang signage. Ah, Axis, we hardly knew ye . . .
The new venue is the latest addition to the national HOB chain, which was born in a funky three-decker in Harvard Square in 1992.
And it’s not the only new venue coming to Lansdowne Street. Word is, the Lyons Group is planning a western-saloon-style joint will open farther down the street at Bill’s Bar .
Sounds very Disney World, doesn’t it???
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1140581
By Inside Track | Monday, December 22, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | The Inside Track
Word is, the all-new House of Blues on Lansdowne Street will sport a trademarked Foundation Room, a four-star restaurant, 50-plus women’s toilets and a prayer room, where, we suspect, you can atone for the sins you’ll commit in the rest of the joint!
The soon-to-open Live Nation venue and 2,400-seat music hall, will - thankfully - class up the back of Fenway Park [map] with its rockin’ new facade and whiz-bang signage. Ah, Axis, we hardly knew ye . . .
The new venue is the latest addition to the national HOB chain, which was born in a funky three-decker in Harvard Square in 1992.
And it’s not the only new venue coming to Lansdowne Street. Word is, the Lyons Group is planning a western-saloon-style joint will open farther down the street at Bill’s Bar .
Sounds very Disney World, doesn’t it???
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1140581
Saturday, December 20, 2008
JetBlue is official airline of the Red Sox
JetBlue makes pitch to Sox fans
Promotions may help the loyal follow their team
By Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff | December 19, 2008
JetBlue Airways Corp. is teaming up with the Red Sox. The airline's first pitch is a nine-hour sale that starts at 9 a.m. today, with one-way fares as low as $9 in honor of the team's legendary No. 9 hitter, Ted Williams.
The airline, known for providing every passenger with a leather seat and a personal television screen, is becoming the team's official marketing partner through 2011, winning the rights to advertise at Fenway Park, paste its logo on the Sox's website, and plaster the team's red-stocking logo on JetBlue's marketing materials.
To create buzz, JetBlue is launching the fare sale on routes between Boston and all of the other cities it serves that are near American League ballparks - for travel between Jan. 6 and Feb. 10, with some restrictions.
The carrier is also dreaming up contests, airline ticket giveaways at games, and vacation packages that would allow members of Red Sox Nation to follow their favorite players to stadiums around the country, said Robin Hayes, JetBlue's chief marketing officer.
The partnership gives JetBlue, which already is the marketing sponsor of the LA Dodgers, Buffalo Bills, Orlando Magic, and Boston Marathon, another way to jockey for more passengers at Logan International Airport in Boston.
This week, JetBlue said it would starting in May add 11 flights from the Hub, the carrier's second-busiest city.
"It's so core to what it means to be in Boston," said Lisa Borromeo, JetBlue's manager of national sponsorships, said of the Red Sox. The matchup "really speaks to Bostonians and makes them understand that we understand who they are and where their passion points are."
Sox manager Terry Francona agreed the partnership is a win-win.
"When we announced the deal internally," said Sam Kennedy, the team's chief sales and marketing officer, "I got an e-mail from Terry Francona saying, 'Aw Sam, congratulations. I love the TVs,' " referring to the seat-back sets playing DirecTV for free on JetBlue planes.
Neither party would disclose financial terms of the deal. But Henry H. Harteveldt, principal airline analyst for the market research firm Forrester Research Inc., said he would not be surprised if a three-year deal, which Delta Air Lines Inc. previously had with the Red Sox, cost JetBlue $8 million to $12 million over the life of the contract.
"I really question what the payoff is for some of these sponsorships," Harteveldt said. However, he said it could be worth every penny if the Red Sox continue to do well and JetBlue carries the players, especially when they return from out-of-town playoff wins to a media circus at the airport.
But the champs haven't decided which airline should fly their players, equipment, and scouts hundreds of thousands of miles a year from one game to the next. Kennedy said the team is in discussions with JetBlue about that, and the airline's chief executive recently told the Globe he'd like to win more charter contracts, especially those awarded by the Hub's high-flying sports teams. The Sox expect to make a decision next month.
Delta, which currently handles the team's charter business, said it's also in negotiations to be the charter carrier for the next few years. However, the airline said it made "a business decision" not to renew its marketing sponsorship because of both the deteriorating economy and its merger with Northwest Airlines Corp., which is resulting in the world's largest airline. Delta said it is picking up all of Northwest's marketing sponsorships.
"Delta is committed to lowering costs, increasing revenue, and further improving our competitive position," said spokeswoman Susan Elliott. "We've continued to refine our sponsorship portfolio over the last several years accordingly."
Nicole C. Wong can be reached at nwong@globe.com.
Promotions may help the loyal follow their team
By Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff | December 19, 2008
JetBlue Airways Corp. is teaming up with the Red Sox. The airline's first pitch is a nine-hour sale that starts at 9 a.m. today, with one-way fares as low as $9 in honor of the team's legendary No. 9 hitter, Ted Williams.
The airline, known for providing every passenger with a leather seat and a personal television screen, is becoming the team's official marketing partner through 2011, winning the rights to advertise at Fenway Park, paste its logo on the Sox's website, and plaster the team's red-stocking logo on JetBlue's marketing materials.
To create buzz, JetBlue is launching the fare sale on routes between Boston and all of the other cities it serves that are near American League ballparks - for travel between Jan. 6 and Feb. 10, with some restrictions.
The carrier is also dreaming up contests, airline ticket giveaways at games, and vacation packages that would allow members of Red Sox Nation to follow their favorite players to stadiums around the country, said Robin Hayes, JetBlue's chief marketing officer.
The partnership gives JetBlue, which already is the marketing sponsor of the LA Dodgers, Buffalo Bills, Orlando Magic, and Boston Marathon, another way to jockey for more passengers at Logan International Airport in Boston.
This week, JetBlue said it would starting in May add 11 flights from the Hub, the carrier's second-busiest city.
"It's so core to what it means to be in Boston," said Lisa Borromeo, JetBlue's manager of national sponsorships, said of the Red Sox. The matchup "really speaks to Bostonians and makes them understand that we understand who they are and where their passion points are."
Sox manager Terry Francona agreed the partnership is a win-win.
"When we announced the deal internally," said Sam Kennedy, the team's chief sales and marketing officer, "I got an e-mail from Terry Francona saying, 'Aw Sam, congratulations. I love the TVs,' " referring to the seat-back sets playing DirecTV for free on JetBlue planes.
Neither party would disclose financial terms of the deal. But Henry H. Harteveldt, principal airline analyst for the market research firm Forrester Research Inc., said he would not be surprised if a three-year deal, which Delta Air Lines Inc. previously had with the Red Sox, cost JetBlue $8 million to $12 million over the life of the contract.
"I really question what the payoff is for some of these sponsorships," Harteveldt said. However, he said it could be worth every penny if the Red Sox continue to do well and JetBlue carries the players, especially when they return from out-of-town playoff wins to a media circus at the airport.
But the champs haven't decided which airline should fly their players, equipment, and scouts hundreds of thousands of miles a year from one game to the next. Kennedy said the team is in discussions with JetBlue about that, and the airline's chief executive recently told the Globe he'd like to win more charter contracts, especially those awarded by the Hub's high-flying sports teams. The Sox expect to make a decision next month.
Delta, which currently handles the team's charter business, said it's also in negotiations to be the charter carrier for the next few years. However, the airline said it made "a business decision" not to renew its marketing sponsorship because of both the deteriorating economy and its merger with Northwest Airlines Corp., which is resulting in the world's largest airline. Delta said it is picking up all of Northwest's marketing sponsorships.
"Delta is committed to lowering costs, increasing revenue, and further improving our competitive position," said spokeswoman Susan Elliott. "We've continued to refine our sponsorship portfolio over the last several years accordingly."
Nicole C. Wong can be reached at nwong@globe.com.
Chinatown Restaurant reviews
Take a culinary holiday to Chinatown this Christmas
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, December 19, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews
Many Bostonians will dine in Chinatown over the next few days -as a break from or alternative to holiday feasting. There are so many restaurants crammed into this tiny neighborhood, it can be hard to chose where to go. Here are two of my favorites that guarantee a memorable meal without breaking the bank:
Peach Farm
4 Tyler St.; 617-482-3332.
I eat at Peach Farm every few months. I like the smiling staff, the family-friendly atmosphere and the long hours - it’s open daily, from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m.
But, most of all, I like the menu, with its emphasis on creatively prepared seafood. Seafood so fresh that, when you order a bass from the tank by the door, they bring it to your table, flapping in a plastic bucket, en route to the kitchen.
Steamed tender with slivered ginger, sprigs of cilantro and scallion greens and presented in a pool of soy, the bass is filleted tableside. Remember to save the meaty cheeks for your most-honored guests.
Peach Farm is well-known for its scallops steamed on the half shell. I like them topped with vermicelli, browned garlic and scallion greens. They also do superb clams in spicy black-bean sauce. Their crispy fried bean curd with shrimp - deep-fried squares of tofu stuffed with spongy shrimp paste - is killer.
This was the first place I ever had the Hong Kong classic jumbo shrimp with walnuts. Chef Tung Tang’s version is excellent - a platter of battered and fried shrimp drizzled with mayonnaise and surrounded by candied walnuts and steamed broccoli florets. Chinese broccoli is delicious under a ladle of briny-sweet oyster sauce.
There are so many dishes I’ve enjoyed over the years: Deep-fried oysters you dunk into szechwan pepper dipping salt, ginger and scallion lobster and stir-fried sea conch with vegetables.
If you don’t eat seafood, you have nothing to worry about. Try the sizzling beef with black pepper - a hot cast-iron skillet of steak, bell peppers and onions in peppery gravy.
Walking into the restaurant one evening last week after a long absence, I couldn’t help but notice the new coat of paint and new carpets. But the neon-pink tablecloths haven’t changed - nor has the cuisine, which is some of the tastiest in Chinatown.
Wing’s Kitchen
23 Hudson St.; 617-338-2218.
So many restaurants in Chinatown offer the same old-same old menu of Cantonese and Chinese-American favorites that it’s well worth searching out places that specialize in more unusual, regional cuisines.
That’s how I stumbled upon Wing’s Kitchen, a basement hideaway that serves the foods of Shanghai.
Wing’s is truly a mom-and-pop affair. Owner Tin Wong waits tables while his wife May - who worked at a Shanghai-style restaurant in Hong Kong for 15 years -single-handedly runs the kitchen.
I’ve eaten here so often I’ve compiled a list of must-order dishes. Chewy fresh bamboo shoots in soy sauce and sesame oil, steamed pork mini-buns, and the famous pork-filled xiao long bao soup dumplings, with a slurp of boiling broth in the middle.
Or crispy vegetarian duck - layers of bean curd skin rolled around bamboo shoots, carrot and wood ear that’s supposed to evoke roast duck. It doesn’t, but you won’t mind. One dollar will get you a hard-boiled egg soaked in sweet soy and star anise. It’s delish.
Don’t pass up May Wong’s exquisite Shanghai meatball. Made of ground pork, it’s fried, braised and finally glazed in red cooking liquid, then presented surrounded by steamed cabbage so that it is supposed to evoke a lion’s head. Stuff sweet and salty minced pork into squares of flaky bread studded with sesame seeds.
Any of the gnocchiesque rice cake options are good. I especially like rice cake tossed with pork and pickled cabbage. Lima beans and bean curd - actually ribbons of bean curd skin with limas and slivered greens - is remarkably like pasta.
May I also suggest: homey braised beef brisket, fried eggplant in glistening “sweet” sauce and “egg white in crab meat looks” - scrambled egg whites which purportedly resemble crabmeat when mixed with runny yolk, ginger, soy and black vinegar.
Wing’s Kitchen is a small space that seats about two dozen. A recent renovation involving lots of Concord grape-colored Formica is rather spiffy.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/reviews/view.bg?articleid=1139955
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, December 19, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews
Many Bostonians will dine in Chinatown over the next few days -as a break from or alternative to holiday feasting. There are so many restaurants crammed into this tiny neighborhood, it can be hard to chose where to go. Here are two of my favorites that guarantee a memorable meal without breaking the bank:
Peach Farm
4 Tyler St.; 617-482-3332.
I eat at Peach Farm every few months. I like the smiling staff, the family-friendly atmosphere and the long hours - it’s open daily, from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m.
But, most of all, I like the menu, with its emphasis on creatively prepared seafood. Seafood so fresh that, when you order a bass from the tank by the door, they bring it to your table, flapping in a plastic bucket, en route to the kitchen.
Steamed tender with slivered ginger, sprigs of cilantro and scallion greens and presented in a pool of soy, the bass is filleted tableside. Remember to save the meaty cheeks for your most-honored guests.
Peach Farm is well-known for its scallops steamed on the half shell. I like them topped with vermicelli, browned garlic and scallion greens. They also do superb clams in spicy black-bean sauce. Their crispy fried bean curd with shrimp - deep-fried squares of tofu stuffed with spongy shrimp paste - is killer.
This was the first place I ever had the Hong Kong classic jumbo shrimp with walnuts. Chef Tung Tang’s version is excellent - a platter of battered and fried shrimp drizzled with mayonnaise and surrounded by candied walnuts and steamed broccoli florets. Chinese broccoli is delicious under a ladle of briny-sweet oyster sauce.
There are so many dishes I’ve enjoyed over the years: Deep-fried oysters you dunk into szechwan pepper dipping salt, ginger and scallion lobster and stir-fried sea conch with vegetables.
If you don’t eat seafood, you have nothing to worry about. Try the sizzling beef with black pepper - a hot cast-iron skillet of steak, bell peppers and onions in peppery gravy.
Walking into the restaurant one evening last week after a long absence, I couldn’t help but notice the new coat of paint and new carpets. But the neon-pink tablecloths haven’t changed - nor has the cuisine, which is some of the tastiest in Chinatown.
Wing’s Kitchen
23 Hudson St.; 617-338-2218.
So many restaurants in Chinatown offer the same old-same old menu of Cantonese and Chinese-American favorites that it’s well worth searching out places that specialize in more unusual, regional cuisines.
That’s how I stumbled upon Wing’s Kitchen, a basement hideaway that serves the foods of Shanghai.
Wing’s is truly a mom-and-pop affair. Owner Tin Wong waits tables while his wife May - who worked at a Shanghai-style restaurant in Hong Kong for 15 years -single-handedly runs the kitchen.
I’ve eaten here so often I’ve compiled a list of must-order dishes. Chewy fresh bamboo shoots in soy sauce and sesame oil, steamed pork mini-buns, and the famous pork-filled xiao long bao soup dumplings, with a slurp of boiling broth in the middle.
Or crispy vegetarian duck - layers of bean curd skin rolled around bamboo shoots, carrot and wood ear that’s supposed to evoke roast duck. It doesn’t, but you won’t mind. One dollar will get you a hard-boiled egg soaked in sweet soy and star anise. It’s delish.
Don’t pass up May Wong’s exquisite Shanghai meatball. Made of ground pork, it’s fried, braised and finally glazed in red cooking liquid, then presented surrounded by steamed cabbage so that it is supposed to evoke a lion’s head. Stuff sweet and salty minced pork into squares of flaky bread studded with sesame seeds.
Any of the gnocchiesque rice cake options are good. I especially like rice cake tossed with pork and pickled cabbage. Lima beans and bean curd - actually ribbons of bean curd skin with limas and slivered greens - is remarkably like pasta.
May I also suggest: homey braised beef brisket, fried eggplant in glistening “sweet” sauce and “egg white in crab meat looks” - scrambled egg whites which purportedly resemble crabmeat when mixed with runny yolk, ginger, soy and black vinegar.
Wing’s Kitchen is a small space that seats about two dozen. A recent renovation involving lots of Concord grape-colored Formica is rather spiffy.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/reviews/view.bg?articleid=1139955
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