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The Beat Hotel

There’s a new restaurant in Harvard Square brought to us by the group that owns Beehive in the South End.  It’s been on my radar and we finally made it there last Saturday.

I liked the feel of the restaurant.  It’s very funky and eclectic, has some fun pscyhedelic style artwork, mismatched chandeliers and a good bar scene.  The tables are set apart so that you’re not on top of the people next to you which is very important to me.  Someone’s into music because the background music was excellent from my point of view.  Why?  Because anyone including Mink DeVille on a play list knows a little something!

Now for the food.  There were some hits and some misses.

We started with smoky Chipolte BBQ spare ribs.  They were a hit.  Melt in your mouth kind of ribs.  Pulled lamb nachos were cold and had to be returned.  They came back to the table hot and were not reheated but a new order.  I liked them but thought there was a little more cheese than pulled lamb.

Spaghetti with crispy artichoke, shrimp, pecorino and EVOO was delicious.  It had a bite to it and was even better as a reheat the next day.

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A burger with Gorgonzola was ordered rare but came to the table medium rare.

An organic chicken piccata with gnocchi was okay but nothing outstanding.

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Wines can be ordered by the ounce or a carafe which is about 2 1/2 glasses.  The selection is all American.  They are choosing wines from sustainable vineyards and I like that concept but from my perspective, a Verdelho from the West Coast was not a match for one from Portugal.  Just my opinion.  Then, on a nod from the owner I tried an Albarino.  Again, it didn’t quite equal a Spanish Albarino.  I’m in no way a wine snob but I know what I like and these didn’t quite make it for me.

 

So would I go back?  Yes, to listen to the live music and  sit at the bar.  As I said, I liked the vibe of the restaurant and I’d give it another chance.

See you at the bar…

 

Beat Hotel on Urbanspoon

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Andres Carne des Res

Well, we barely stopped for a minute in Bogota.  Every restaurant we ate at was excellent (except for one).   But, the piece de resistance was yet to happen.

Andres Carne de Res – we heard about it, we read about it and wondered if it was worth the hype.  Should we really go?  We almost thought no, but Edgar, our guide in Bogota told us we had to experience it and experience it we did! Continue reading “Andres Carne des Res”

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Christmas Eve 2012

A movie and dinner.  A perfect way to spend Christmas Eve with L and M.

The movie – Rust and Bone.  A Belgian-French film.  It’s a complex love story, tough but riveting.  It left us sitting in our seats for a few minutes because we had to digest what we’d just seen.  It’s not a kid’s movie.  Marion Cotillard plays a woman who trains killer whales and is involved in an accident at a marineland in Antibes, France in which she loses both legs. She has to learn how to deal with her new reality. Enter  a man she has previously met in a bar who’s a kick-boxer and struggling to find work and support a son.  Together they seem to find a common ground and  without giving anything away, this is the basic story.  It is directed by  Jacques Audiard  who also directed The Prophet, another complex movie that if you haven’t seen, you should. Continue reading “Christmas Eve 2012”

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Expect the Unexpected

It was a beautiful Saturday.  Perfect for walking Romeo and letting him splash around in the lake.  But as we were walking back towards the car, I tripped and fell.  By the time I got home, my ankle was double it’s normal size.  So, where did I spend a few unexpected hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon?  At the emergency room.  It all turned out well.  Nothing fractured, just some soft tissue bruising; nothing some Advil and ice packs and a few glasses of wine can’t help along with staying off my feet for a while -right!

So, after relaxing a little we got in the car with L and M on our way into Boston for a little tapas and some great Spanish wine.  But the Mass Pike was bumper to bummer, Route 30 was bumper to bumper and we decided to rethink our plans.

L heard about a little bistro in Hudson, MA called Chloe Bistro.  I checked Open Table and they had a table for four available, so we headed to Hudson.

Yes, Hudson, MA.  A little town, not known for much but now trying to upscale their downtown.  Chloe Bistro is such an example.  It’s been in Hudson for about 10 years.  It was serendipity.

Twinkly lights welcomed us to a very cool hostess and a big bar.  Our table wasn’t quite ready so we settled in at the bar for some homemade fries and buffalo wings, some good wine and for Roy a Pernod.  A three piece jazz combo was playing, the lights were low, the wine was good and we were happy.

When our table was ready, we dug into the menu.  The restuarant calls itself an American bistro, but I’d call it more of a French bistro.  Roy and I shared a roasted caesar salad and a chicken and duck pot pie.  The gravy was rich and the topping was light and flaky.  L had lamb two ways, grilled chop and braised shank, and M also had the pot pie.  There’s always room for dessert so we shared a Ghirardelli chocolate crepe and pumpkin bread pudding.  We practically licked the plates.

As it turned out, we had a great night.  What made it great?  A great waitperson, a very cool hostess, a live 3 piece jazz combo and, oh yeah, the food!  Who needs Boston when there are great finds like this in the burbs.  Well it’s a little far for us to travel but will we go back?  Definitely!

See you at the bar….

 

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I’m speechless…

Coppa.  Just a sliver of a restaurant on Shawmut Avenue in the South End of Boston.  It has a pedigree. Ken Oringer and Jaime Bissonnette own the restaurant and also own Toro together.  Hailed by every food critic far and wide I can see why.  It’s serious not fussy.  Just really great ingredients put together in inventive ways.  The people that work at Coppa are artists, committed and proud of what they do and it shows, from the bartender to the sous chef making the Tuna Crudo.

We were on our way to another restaurant but when I mentioned Coppa to Roy on the street, someone passing by said, “you have to go there , it’s the best”.  And, so that’s where we ended up.  Since it was only 5P we knew we’d get 2 at the bar.

And we did  Already, a buzz at 5 o’clock we grabbed a couple of seats and ordered 2 Prosecco to toast the beginning of summer.  And then, what to order.  Hard to choose, we started with ostriches  (2 oysters) with hint of rhubarb verjus, set on a mound of salt, incredible.  Then, we ordered the Pizza Pepe Blanco named after Pepe’s in New Haven.  We’ve had the pizza blanco at Pepe’s, but Coppa’s is probably the best pizza we’ever had.  A white clam pizza with bacon and baby leeks.  The crust perfect with not a hint of oil.  Made in a wood burning oven.  And, an order of arancini with fontina cheese.

I was watching as one of the chefs was preparing the tuna crudo.  He did it with such intense attention to detail and it looked so good, I had to order it.  A thick slice of the pinkest tuna, radish, sriracha and sweet sicily.  Who thinks these concoctions up? That’s why Coppa is what it is!

I had a delicious sparkling Rose which the bartender who looked like Rosaria Dawson recommended, and Roy had a good, old Narragansett beer!

A special shout out to Nicole who was sitting next us.  She’s an open water swimmer and going to Istanbul next week to participate in a swim across the Bosporus along with 4,000 other swimmers.  Cool right???

It was such a beautiful night we decided to go elsewhere for dessert and ended up at Beehive, at the bar of course, and had a fantastic rhubarb and berry bread pudding with vanilla ice cream.

A good way to start the summer, don’t you think?

See you at the bar….

Coppa on Urbanspoon

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A Movie and Abigail’s

Yesterday afternoon we saw Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary about Jiro Ono the owner of  Sukiyabashi a sushi only restaurant universally regarded as the best sushi restaurant in the world.  The restaurant, inconspicuously located in a Tokyo subway station, has only 10 seats and a dinner there costs a minimum of $350 per person.  People come from around the globe and call months in advance for reservations.  Jiro who is 85 years old has no signs of slowing down.  It was a fascinating movie and we will never look at sushi in the same way. Continue reading “A Movie and Abigail’s”

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Qingdao Garden

Saturday night in Chinatown. That sounded like a good idea; we haven’t had Chinese in a while.  But by the time we got in the car and started driving we decided that Chinatown would be a hassle with the parking nonexistent on Saturday night so we went to Cambridge to a restaurant we’d been to once before and loved – Qingdao Garden. Continue reading “Qingdao Garden”

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Zihau

Ixtapa/Zihautanejo share an airport.  That’s where the similarity ends.  Ixtapa is a resort designed by the Mexican government, think Cancun.  Big hotels, manicured boulevards, strip malls, restaurants, secure condominiums.  Zihautanejo or Zihau as it’s called by the locals is a town which grew from 8,000 to 80,000 when people came to work at the Ixtapa hotels and restaurants.  It was just a sleepy fishing village and the fishermen still bring their catch in every day.  It’s got personality and the most beautiful beach, Playa Ropa.  Zihau is more our style and its where we spent the last few days of our vacation.

Continue reading “Zihau”