Channel Cafe review

Channel Cafe: On (Fort) Point
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, November 20, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews

CHANNEL CAFE: B

Channel Cafe doesn’t feel like Boston. With its painted-brick and rock walls, impossibly high ceiling, mismatched furniture, worn floorboards and eclectic artwork, it feels more like Seattle, the East Village or Harvard Square, back in the day.

At once a dining room, art gallery and local hangout, this two-story tall basement restaurant in the Artist Building co-op at 300 Summer St. is little-known outside the community of artists, architects, attorneys and businesspeople who live and work in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood.

Some secrets should be revealed.

For many years, Channel Cafe served only lunch - vegetarian-friendly soups,salads, sandwiches and light entrees. A year ago, owner Ana Crowley opened for dinner, Thursdays through Saturdays. Six months ago, Crowley hired former Alchemist Lounge sous-chef Brian Van Etten to run the kitchen. In October, she extended dinner to Wednesday nights.

The vibe is laid-back. The fare is rustic, flavorful and fresh.

Many dishes utilize the year-round, weekly farm share from Enterprise Farm. (Channel Cafe is the share pick-up location in downtown Boston for the South Deerfield organic farm.)

Enjoy the last of the year’s corn in sweet-corn gnocchi ($9), tossed with corn-scented cream, roasted garlic, cubed tomatoes and squares of bacon - an unadvertised substitute for promised pancetta. A pear and apple salad ($9) with baby arugula and creamy gorgonzola dressing celebrates autumnal fruit.

From the daily specials chalkboard, we order spicy fried chicken taquitos ($8), fried tortilla cigarillos stuffed with monterey jack and hot sauce. They’re a gooey pleasure. Crumbly, house-made lamb sausage ($9) is served, bruschetta-style, on rounds of toast, schmeared with Sriracha-flavored whipped feta and topped with roasted red-pepper-and-honey aioli.

Van Etten doesn’t cook fancily. He eschews glitz for simplicity. He cooks with his soul. I’m enrolling in his fan club.

Dinner doesn’t get more Sunday supper satisfying than chicken cutlet paillard ($17) on mashed potatoes with steamed green beans and a ladle of garlicky chicken jus. The chicken is moist, the potatoes creamy and the beans crunchy. If only promised braised leeks weren’t AWOL.

I wish more Hub eateries would offer seitan - a chewy wheat gluten that’s a marvelous alternative to meat. Channel Cafe’s balsamic-braised seitan ($17) is a fab combination of savory-sweet seitan, braised cipollini onions, slivered carrots, cubes of fried butternut squash, green beans and almonds, delectably jumbled together in the same bowl.

Slices of seared duck breast ($19) painted in truffle honey are wonderfully juicy. They’re excellent with curly kale sauteed in pancetta fat and white wine and a scallion-potato croquette - an oversized tater tot rolled in bread crumbs.

Braised Moroccan lamb and chickpea stew ($18) is a homey stew of lamb, carrots, bell pepper, onion, squash, celery and tomatoes incumin-cinnamon gravy. It’s great with toasted walnut brown rice dolloped with a tablespoon of cilantro creme fraiche.

Cloth napkins would be nice. And how about a basket of bread plus butter or olive oil?

My beer buddies will applaud Channel Cafe’s extensive suds selection. My wine friends will scratch their heads at the limited wine list.

Try a citrusy 2008 Dario D’Angelo TrebbianoD’Abruzzo ($28) with the chicken and seitan. Or a fruit-filled, high-octane 2006 Stray Dog Zinfandel ($28) with the duck and lamb stew.

Daily desserts may include fried-to-order doughnuts ($4.50), three cinnamon-sugar-dusted beauties, and Thanksgiving-worthy pear raspberry pie ($4.50). There’s no need to nuke a chocolate-chunky Toll House cookie ($1.50).

Service is friendly and unobtrusively attentive.

On Friday nights, a DJ spins. Saturdays, there’s live acoustic music.

At Channel Cafe, food meets the arts with delicious results.

300 Summer St. (Fort Point Channel). 617-426-0695; channel-cafe.com.

Price: $20-$40

Hours: Breakfast: Mon.-Fri., 8-11 a.m.; Lunch: Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Dinner: Wed.-Sat., 5-10 p.m.

Bar: Beer and Wine

Recession specials: No

Accessibility: Accessible

Parking: On street
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