SundayTribune 4 July 2010 T2 Travel 19

WHERE TO EAT IN BOSTON

For steak:Abe and Louie’s One Woman Dynamo:Barbara (www.abeandlouies.com) on Lynch (www.barbaralynch.com) has Boylston Street and Grill 23 in Back B&G Oysters and the Butcher Shop Bay (www.grill23.com). in the South End, No. 9 for fine dining Good North End Italians: Mamma in Beacon Hill and Drink, for custom- Boston, Maria (www.mammamaria.com) made cocktails. and Lucca (www.luccaboston.com). Best Burgers: Mr Bartley’s Burger The Improper Bostonian’s best Cottage (www.mrbartley.com) and Italian restaurant:Erbaluce Upstairs on The Square (www.erbaluce-boston.com) in Bay (www.upstairsonthesquare.com), Village. both in Cambridge. South End Hot Spots:For tapas, Great Bars with Great Food:The Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonette’s Franklin Café Toro (www.toro-restaurant.com). (www.franklincafe.com) and Post but better Coppa (www. coppaboston.com) is 390 (www.postrestaurant.com) their Italian version. Mistral Bistro-tastic:Bouchee on Newbury (www.mistralbistro.com) – try their Street (www.boucheebistro.com) beef tenderloin with mashed potato and Bistro du Midi and white truffle oil thin crust pizza. (www.bistrodumidi.com) Fine-dining Farm to Table: Upmarket Diner:Houston’s on L’Espalier (www.lespalier.com) State Street near Faneuil Hall Casual Farm to Table:Sel de la Terre (www.hillstone.com) (www.seldelaterre.com) (signature For chocoholics: Hotel Chocolat dish: braised Provencal short ribs) (www.hotelchocolat.com) offers Hotel Restaurants Worth tutored tastings –visitors can learn Shedding its once clam-heavy food Checking Out: Mark Goldberg’s to distinguish between chocolate of Woodward at Ames different origins and intensity and be reputation, Boston has re-emerged (www.ameshotel.com), Market by taught how to pair various chocolate Jean George Vongerichten at the varieties with appropriate wines. as a new city to be reckoned with fabulous new W Hotel www.BostonUSA.com/ (www.whotels.com), Oringer’s Clio RestaurantWeekSummer among food-loving tourists, (www.cliorestaurant.com)in the Eliot Restaurant Week Boston runs from Hotel and the Uni sashimi bar there – 15-20 and 22-27 August. writes Katy McGuinness ‘the best in the city’.

HINK of Boston resident, runs food tours of and food and what her neighbourhood and, for kind of dishes $50, will teach you to shop T spring to mind? and eat like an Italian New England Clam (www.foodtoursofboston.com). Chowder and Boston Baked The renaissance in the Beans. Lobster. Cod and culinary life of Boston scrod. Clambakes. Fried probably owes its genesis to clams. Clam rolls. Steamed the influence of long-time clams. Lots of clams. Cambridge resident Julia Things have moved on Child (she of Julie and Julia though and, while the dishes fame). Child lived on Irving that are traditionally Street (round the corner associated with historic from Harvard Square) until Boston live on and remain the death of her husband Paul popular, the city’s food (played by Stanley Tucci in Katy McGuinness stayed at Shannon and Boston. offering has become ever the movie) and shot many of Fairmont Gold, Fairmont Battery • Aer Lingus also offer daily flights more sophisticated. Boston, her legendary PBS cooking Wharf. (pictured above) between Cork and Boston via once thought of as a city with shows in the kitchen of the www.fairmont.com/batterywharf. Dublin, in conjunction with Aer little to offer the discerning house. • Aer Lingus operate daily flights Arann. foodie, is now at the forefront When the grande dame between Dublin and Boston, and • For further information, log onto of the ‘farm to table’ moved to California, the four weekly flights between www.aerlingus.com movement and the ‘small kitchen was removed from plates’ trend that are the house in Cambridge and sweeping (or have swept, reassembled in the depending on which part of Smithsonian in Washington. the country you’re looking at) In the 1980s, chefs such as America. Jasper White (Summer Farm to table is another Shack), Ming Tsai (Blue way of saying local, seasonal Ginger) and Todd English and sustainable – all heirloom FROM TOP: the fabulous B&G Oysters in the South End, the Library at (Olives) kicked off Boston’s beets and happy pigs. Frank l’Espalier for power lunches; Boston’s famous Lobster Roll rebirth as a culinary McClelland of L’Espalier and destination. Boston’s Sel de la Terre is one of the cherrystone and littleneck the locals love them. restaurant week is now so movement’s prime exponents clams and the grilled oysters If seafood is one of the twin successful that it has two – – much of the produce used in that have made it a Boston pillars of traditional Boston winter and summer. Over 220 his Boston restaurants comes institution for almost 200 cuisine, then Italian food is restaurants participate, each from his own farm. He’s only years. And however much the other. Boston’s Italian offering set menus one amongst the many Boston’s culinary oeuvre has heritage is evident on every showcasing their signature exciting chefs working in the developed and expanded street in The North End – the dishes, making it an ideal way city today. since the Union Oyster House city’s Italian quarter. to sample some of the city’s The Union Oyster House is first opened its doors to Along with a plethora of finest without breaking the the oldest operating diners way back when, most what the locals disparagingly bank. restaurant in the United visitors to the city will still refer to as ‘red sauce The next one is in August – States – it’s been in want to eat at least one meal restaurants’ (many of which a great time to visit Boston as continuous business on that pays homage to the good are not great – see the side- the city has a more hospitable Union Street, on the Freedom old days. For a modern take bar for two that are), there climate than New York (less Trail near Faneuil Hall, since on all things fishy and are delicatessens, wine- humidity), there are good 1826. A quick look at the crustacean, the Legal merchants, bakeries and hotel deals on offer and the menu and you might suspect Seafoods chain greengrocers that cater to new season’s collections will that it hasn’t changed much (www.legalseafoods.com) is that most demanding of be in the stores (shopping in in the intervening years. It’s hard to beat – there are culinary shopper: the Italian. Boston is always worth the still awash with the branches all over town and Michele Topor, a North End trip, but that’s another story).