Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'mdell you easy Boston
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 2: All Right, the weekend approaches. It's not Saint Patrick's Day weekend,
Speaker 2: so it's not a long weekend, and we can kind
Speaker 2: of sit back and kick back and enjoy the weekend.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that many people do on
Speaker 2: the weekend is they try to find, oh, maybe a
Speaker 2: new restaurant, a restaurant that they haven't been to before.
Speaker 2: And so we thought, and we haven't done this before,
Speaker 2: that we would try to help you out. Maybe you're
Speaker 2: looking for a restaurant in your neighborhood that might not
Speaker 2: be the most expensive, but might really be good. And
Speaker 2: if there's one person who knows a lot of the
Speaker 2: hidden gems of restaurants in the greater Boston area, it's
Speaker 2: Mark Hurwitz who joins us. Mark has been a writer
Speaker 2: in this field for many years. He primarily works for
Speaker 2: NBC ten. He's a food writer there. And Mark, thanks
Speaker 2: very much for joining us on a Friday night and
Speaker 2: maybe providing some guidance to some of our listeners. They
Speaker 2: can pick your brain. I'm going to pick your brain too,
Speaker 2: about some of the great restaurants that maybe most of
Speaker 2: us some of us haven't heard about. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: Good?
Speaker 4: How you doing Dan? Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely. I will tell you that there was a
Speaker 2: period of time, a long, long time ago when I
Speaker 2: lived in Boston, in the city, when I knew the
Speaker 2: great restaurants and all of that. But times have changed
Speaker 2: and the city's a little more difficult to get into
Speaker 2: for those of us who don't live in the city proper,
Speaker 2: and parking is becoming more difficult, Navigating the streets of
Speaker 2: Boston is becoming more difficult. How's the restaurant seen generally?
Speaker 2: I mean, you have as good a sense of this
Speaker 2: as anybody I could imagine. Is the restaurants seen? When
Speaker 2: I say Boston's, we're also talking Great Boston too, because
Speaker 2: there's great restaurants in some of these the suburban towns
Speaker 2: as well. Overall, what sort of a rating would you
Speaker 2: give the restaurant scene in greater Boston at this point
Speaker 2: in time?
Speaker 4: Well, it's a little choppy. So ever since the pandemic,
Speaker 4: you know, it's what five years now, it was booming. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was booming until early twenty twenty, and then, of
Speaker 4: course it's all off a cliff.
Speaker 3: So everyone was.
Speaker 4: Doing takeout and delivery, or a lot of plays just
Speaker 4: shut down tempor earlier permanently, and then they slowly clawed
Speaker 4: their way back, and you know what, by last year
Speaker 4: things were going pretty well. There are pockets of areas
Speaker 4: that are still hurting because like office space, people might
Speaker 4: not have come back into the office is like you know,
Speaker 4: downtown Boston, it's been a little slow, Kendall Square a
Speaker 4: little slow. But lately it feels a little I don't know,
Speaker 4: it's it depends on where you go again, but I've
Speaker 4: been in a lot of empty restaurants lately. So I'm
Speaker 4: a little nervous because there's so many restaurants, new restaurants
Speaker 4: that have opened lately, and I am finding even on
Speaker 4: weekends it's it's you can walk into most restaurants now
Speaker 4: there's no lines at all. It's a little worrisome.
Speaker 2: Now. I can remember, you know, a time when it
Speaker 2: was tough to get restaurant reservations. Oh there's always some
Speaker 2: restaurants that you just impossible to get, you know, small,
Speaker 2: you know, hot restaurants. But why is it? I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty twenty was five years ago. I remember
Speaker 2: when we were doing our grocery shopping at six am
Speaker 2: in the morning and bringing home can goods and wiping
Speaker 2: them off before you would bring them in the house.
Speaker 2: I mean, well, I look back on that, I'm thinking
Speaker 2: to myself, how weird was that. I mean, kids are
Speaker 2: going to our great kids are going to laugh at
Speaker 2: us and say you were wiping off can goods before
Speaker 2: you brought them in the house. But that's what we
Speaker 2: was told to do. Yeah, you know, the Seaport was
Speaker 2: open back in twenty twenty. How much of a hit
Speaker 2: did the Seaport take as the newest, you know, restaurant
Speaker 2: district in Boston did they Did they get hit harder
Speaker 2: than others or have they bounced back more quickly than others.
Speaker 4: I think the Seaport did a little better than people
Speaker 4: might think. So, you know, people think that, oh, you
Speaker 4: know seaports, it's a lot of new apartments and condos,
Speaker 4: so people recently moved in. It's mostly people who live
Speaker 4: there who go to restaurants. And you know, there are
Speaker 4: some tourists who come in there too, and they didn't
Speaker 4: come during the pandemic. And you know, I think, along
Speaker 4: with every other part of the area, they were hit
Speaker 4: during the pandemic. But you know, I go to the
Speaker 4: Seaport a lot, and I think they're doing pretty well.
Speaker 4: I think some of the restaurants there are the ones
Speaker 4: that you cannot get into because they're so busy. I think,
Speaker 4: I really think, I really think the Seaport has done
Speaker 4: a good job. And I know some people will agree
Speaker 4: with me on that, but I go down there and
Speaker 4: it's kind of booming, really, especially compared to say downtown
Speaker 4: Boston Financial District, maybe Kendall Square, you know, some places
Speaker 4: like that that are almost all office space.
Speaker 2: I assume that the Financial District is hurt during the
Speaker 2: day because those those office desks haven't been filled up again.
Speaker 2: But I also assume that because there aren't that many
Speaker 2: people hanging out during the day in the Financial District,
Speaker 2: that some of those bars and restaurants which all of
Speaker 2: us knew, you know, five ten years ago, they probably
Speaker 2: have shut itered.
Speaker 4: Correct, Yeah, a lot of them have closed.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I write a lot of news stories on opening and closings,
Speaker 4: and a lot of those little independent restaurants and some
Speaker 4: of the chains they have shut down, mostly right in
Speaker 4: the heart of Financial District. So we're not talking Chinatown.
Speaker 4: We're not talking Daniel Hall, but you know they area
Speaker 4: Broad Street, High Street, Milk Street. A lot of those
Speaker 4: there are a lot of those places are hurting. Not
Speaker 4: so much the Friday night bars. You know, those places
Speaker 4: have done okay, But if you're talking about the breakfast
Speaker 4: and lunch spots, a lot of turnover and people have
Speaker 4: some people have come back to the offices there, but
Speaker 4: not everybody. You know, there's still a lot of people
Speaker 4: work at home, and I think that's that could be permanent.
Speaker 4: I mean, the way things are these days for us,
Speaker 4: people working at home, and the same in the suburbs.
Speaker 4: People do work at home now more than before the pandemic.
Speaker 2: When we get back, I want to take a break.
Speaker 2: I want to invite people to call and if you
Speaker 2: have a great restaurant that you really like and you
Speaker 2: want to share it with well, with me and Mark.
Speaker 2: I'd appreciate it, and Mark will give you compare notes
Speaker 2: with you on it. I'd like to find out if
Speaker 2: Boston is doing better in terms of restaurants in the
Speaker 2: in the squares around you know ros Roslyndale Square, Claire
Speaker 2: Square in Hyde Park, you know, Mattapan, Blue Hill Avenue.
Speaker 2: If if there's a resurgence of people finding good restaurants
Speaker 2: in those areas as opposed to driving into downtown Boston
Speaker 2: or going to the North End, which of course is
Speaker 2: always a great place to go if you can find
Speaker 2: a parking space. My guest Mark Rwitz. Mark is with
Speaker 2: NBC Boston. He is a food writer. He's also written written.
Speaker 2: His work has appeared in a litany of other places.
Speaker 2: We'll ask Mark about that as well. But we come back, well,
Speaker 2: we'll talk about some of the different aspects of Boston
Speaker 2: because we're just not going to talk about Boston downtown.
Speaker 2: We can talk about that, but we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about some of the community restaurants and then also some
Speaker 2: of the restaurants in now the city's Cambridge, Wealthy and Watertown, Somerville,
Speaker 2: h Revere, all sorts of the communities that surround our
Speaker 2: city are the capital city. So feel free if you
Speaker 2: got a question and you're looking for if you were
Speaker 2: looking for a great type restaurant this weekend to impress someone,
Speaker 2: I'm sure that Mark could give you a couple of
Speaker 2: ideas as well. Six one, seven, two, five four thirty
Speaker 2: or six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty. Mark
Speaker 2: has told us that He would be happy to stay
Speaker 2: with us for an hour, but I think you'd be
Speaker 2: smart if you get on early. We're coming back on
Speaker 2: Nightside with my guest, Mark Hurwitz, a restaurant critic. There's
Speaker 2: nobody that I know in Boston that knows the restaurants
Speaker 2: seen better than Mark, and that's why we have them
Speaker 2: here tonight. Back on night Side right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: nights Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: You know, Mark, We're going to do is We're not
Speaker 2: going to make people wait in the phone. So we'll
Speaker 2: get the phone calls. And I've got a number of
Speaker 2: areas I want to cover, but I want to accommodate
Speaker 2: callers and encourage people but to call and ask questions.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Larry down on the Cape. Larry
Speaker 2: you wan my guess, Mark Hurwitz. He is a food writer,
Speaker 2: works primarily at NBC ten, but he's written for a
Speaker 2: lot of other places that you're familiar with. Go right ahead, Larry,
Speaker 2: you got a question or comment?
Speaker 4: I have a comment.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So a lot of people from the Boston area come
Speaker 4: down to the Cape for vacation. Sure, and I'm going
Speaker 4: to give them the best kept secret in Dennis.
Speaker 2: Oh, here we go. Listen up, people take coats.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, okay, And I know you spend time down
Speaker 4: the Cape, so a little bit. Okay. There is a
Speaker 4: place on the north side of Dennis. Have you heard
Speaker 4: of the marsh Side Restaurant?
Speaker 2: Never have marsh Side Restaurant?
Speaker 4: Well, well that's not the one I'm gonna talk about anyway.
Speaker 4: This place is right next to it. The name of
Speaker 4: the place is Ummammy Pizza. You m a m i
Speaker 4: ummmmi pizza and fusion. And they have a pizza there.
Speaker 4: It's called New Haven Style clam Pie. It's clams, bacon, cheese,
Speaker 4: olive oil, and it's to die for.
Speaker 2: Not a big clam guy. Can I get it? Just
Speaker 2: with the with the bacon.
Speaker 4: It's cape cod Dan, Come.
Speaker 2: On, I get it. I get it.
Speaker 3: I get it.
Speaker 4: That's my tip for the night. And by the way,
Speaker 4: I missed your last episode because I was picking up
Speaker 4: my daughter at the airport, who lives at the most
Speaker 4: friendly country in the world.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know exactly where she lives, Kaboul in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2: And you have her or give me a call or
Speaker 2: whatever and I'll talk with her next weekend.
Speaker 4: I'll try you in the next couple of days when
Speaker 4: she settles in.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, sounds great. Thank you, Thanks Claire, thank you.
Speaker 2: Have you let me ask Mark? Mark, have you do
Speaker 2: you have any knowledge of the Cape restaurants scene as well,
Speaker 2: because that is a very vibrant scene, trust me, particularly
Speaker 2: between a Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Speaker 4: Well, I've actually been to marsh Side. I believe it's
Speaker 4: not the restaurant. I think that's the one. There's a
Speaker 4: special table, round table that overlooks the Marsh is just
Speaker 4: a beautiful space. I have been there. It's a great spot.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize there was a Haven style pizza place
Speaker 4: in that area long or off Strafford sixth Day. I
Speaker 4: love new Haven style pizza.
Speaker 2: Yeah, said you money, So was the marsh Side restaurant?
Speaker 2: Is that one that you would recommend? You know, we
Speaker 2: spend some time down the Cape and it's funny in
Speaker 2: the summertime, it's impossible. I worked Monday through Friday and
Speaker 2: to get into a restaurant on a Saturday night that
Speaker 2: you want to go to, I mean it's you know,
Speaker 2: unless you personally know the owner, it's it's impossible.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, it's tougher to get tables on the
Speaker 4: Cape than it is in the Boston area during the summer.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I mean that's why everybody, everybody has left
Speaker 2: the Cape. So let's talk about restaurants. You know, Mayor
Speaker 2: Menino was big about trying to build up Rosindale Square
Speaker 2: and Clary Square and the different squares around Center Street
Speaker 2: in West Roxbury. And there's lots of good restaurants that
Speaker 2: you are in technically Boston, but they're not downtown Boston.
Speaker 2: I think Mayor Menino called it Main Streets. That was
Speaker 2: a very good program. How are those restaurants doing, because
Speaker 2: there's some really good restaurants in the again, not the suburbs,
Speaker 2: but in the neighborhoods of Boston.
Speaker 4: Well, I think, you know, it's interesting, the further you
Speaker 4: get out into the into the Boston neighborhoods and the
Speaker 4: more suburban they feel, the tougher it is to get
Speaker 4: into the restaurants. So it's it's actually a little like
Speaker 4: the suburbs, especially satellite suburbs like Burlington, Braintree, Peevity, where
Speaker 4: it's tough to get a table. You go to places
Speaker 4: like Rossendale's Square to make a plane. Maybe parts of Dorchester,
Speaker 4: like Lower Mills or Adams Village, Adams Village. It's tough
Speaker 4: to get a table in Adam's Village. I've been there
Speaker 4: so many times trying to get a parking space and
Speaker 4: be a table. So those outer neighborhoods, Yeah, the restaurants
Speaker 4: are doing really well, and I think it's because you
Speaker 4: have a lot of residential areas and also in like
Speaker 4: CA say, Adams Village, expressways so people can easily get there.
Speaker 4: So they're doing really well.
Speaker 2: But also the amount of money that you're going to
Speaker 2: drop at a restaurant in you know, Adams Square, Adams Circle,
Speaker 2: whatever on Adams Street is going to be a heck
Speaker 2: of a lot less than when you when you go downtown,
Speaker 2: and it's going to be a lot less aggravation. So
Speaker 2: again I just have become much more of an anti
Speaker 2: downtown guy. It's just not worth the aggravation anymore. War
Speaker 2: And you know, I don't work downtown. I never worked downtown.
Speaker 2: I practiced law downtown in the seventies and early eighties
Speaker 2: during the day, and but I worked in television at night.
Speaker 2: So my base of operation was Soldiers Field Road. But
Speaker 2: it what give us give us two or three restaurants
Speaker 2: that maybe most people haven't heard of, but they they
Speaker 2: are their secret gems that that people will not be
Speaker 2: disappointed in.
Speaker 4: Are you talking within Boston city limits or or anywhere?
Speaker 2: Let's try Let's let's try Boston city limits however you
Speaker 2: want to define it, and then we can move out
Speaker 2: into the suburbs a little bit.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, one that's been around forever, and I'm surprised
Speaker 4: a lot of people still don't know about it as
Speaker 4: a pleasant cafe in Rossendale. I don't know if you've
Speaker 4: been there, but seriously, one of the best pieces I've had,
Speaker 4: not in Boston but in New England. I mean, there
Speaker 4: are times where I think they have the best peeps
Speaker 4: in Boston.
Speaker 3: It is that good.
Speaker 4: And the thing is it's old school. There's one side
Speaker 4: is a bar, it's all the wood paneling and TVs
Speaker 4: and Keno, and the other side is a restaurant with
Speaker 4: all these wooden boots and they have the steam radiators
Speaker 4: and the servers who have been there forever, and they
Speaker 4: call you honey and sweetie. You know, it feels a
Speaker 4: little like the old Doyle's in Jamaica Plaine, and it
Speaker 4: is just fantastic. It's it's such a great place.
Speaker 2: I can't right, is that right in the square?
Speaker 4: No, it's up the hill. It's near the West Roxbury
Speaker 4: border on Washington Street, so as you head out of
Speaker 4: Rosendale Square heading up the hill toward right there, heading
Speaker 4: towards den Him. Yeah, exactly. So that's a really great
Speaker 4: place that And again I'm surprised people don't don't really
Speaker 4: know about it that much. You know, it's it's a
Speaker 4: special spot. It's a place I go to more than
Speaker 4: most other places. You know, I don't go to restaurants
Speaker 4: and repeat much because I'm always reviewing, but that's the
Speaker 4: one I go to when I take the reviewer's head off.
Speaker 4: So that's one. Another one I like, is uh the
Speaker 4: Galway House in Jamaica. Plane, it's it's old school, another
Speaker 4: old school place. You go there for their fish chips
Speaker 4: and you know, maybe their steak tips or the chicken palm.
Speaker 4: From the outside, the Galway House looks a little dicey,
Speaker 4: but it's not. You know, it looks like a dive bar,
Speaker 4: but it's really not a dive bar because you know,
Speaker 4: the harder Jamaica Plane, it's it's gender five. There's there's
Speaker 4: nothing really scarying down in the downtown area anymore, so
Speaker 4: that's definitely hit in Gem. I absolutely love that place.
Speaker 2: I just had someone who and I just happened to
Speaker 2: pick up my phone. I never look at my phone, so, uh,
Speaker 2: Meg call, uh send me a text here just a
Speaker 2: few minutes ago, said Hi Dan, and again she said,
Speaker 2: we love a grill in tavern in Arlington. Fresh great
Speaker 2: fresh food, great cocktails, wonderful staff. And I probably won't
Speaker 2: pronounce this correctly, and I wish that Meg had called
Speaker 2: in so she could pronounce it. Uh, monotymy grill? Have
Speaker 2: you ever heard of that in in Arlington? Monotymy grill?
Speaker 2: Enemy y Have I mispronounced it?
Speaker 4: No, that's the old name for Arlington. Arlington used to
Speaker 4: be called Mononymou, and that's where they got the name.
Speaker 4: And it's you know, it's a very nice place for
Speaker 4: you know, American food, maybe new American food. I wouldn't
Speaker 4: call it up scale, but maybe leaning toward casual upscale.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: They do music, they have events there, and they have
Speaker 4: good beers. And that's an interesting thing because Arlington used
Speaker 4: to be a dry town. Though you would not go
Speaker 4: to Arlington if you wanted to have a beer or
Speaker 4: hind with your meal, and now you can go to
Speaker 4: on Re Tavern or a few other places in town
Speaker 4: and get a nice meal and maybe glass of wine.
Speaker 4: So yeah, that's a good call there.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that that's a good That is a good
Speaker 2: suggestion a lot of Again, I want others to join
Speaker 2: the conversation and uh and and ask questions, uh if
Speaker 2: if you want to find you know, if you're looking
Speaker 2: for a specific type restaurant this weekend an Italian restaurant.
Speaker 2: We're doing an event with nightside listeners and I want
Speaker 2: to I don't want to use this as a plug,
Speaker 2: but it's a restaurant that Bill and Bowl Winnaker really
Speaker 2: think is great in Westwood. And again I don't know
Speaker 2: how far you get out in that direction. It's called
Speaker 2: Naroli any r O l I. They claim that it's
Speaker 2: like one of the best restaurants that I've ever been.
Speaker 2: It's on Route one A in Westwood. No problem with parking.
Speaker 2: They have a parking space behind the restaurant him on
Speaker 2: street parking without meters, which is my idea for the
Speaker 2: way the world should be. And we're going to do
Speaker 2: a brunch there on April twenty seventh with night Side Listeners.
Speaker 2: Have you ever heard of this? It's an Italian restaurant
Speaker 2: any r O L I I.
Speaker 4: Think isn't that's fairly new, isn't it isn't. I think
Speaker 4: it's in Islington maybe, which is within Westwood. I'm pretty
Speaker 4: sure that's a fairly new place. So you said it's not.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's one A. It's on Washington Street, two
Speaker 2: eighty two Washington Street. And yeah, I'm familiar that Islington
Speaker 2: is sort of like a sub section of either Denham
Speaker 2: or Westwood. I've seen the signs entering Islington leaving Islington.
Speaker 2: It's not that big. But yeah, well again, I just
Speaker 2: I'm looking for ideas and looking for suggestions. My guest
Speaker 2: is Mark Hurwitz. He is a food writer for NBC ten.
Speaker 2: Has to be a nice job to have to just
Speaker 2: go around and enjoy food at different rest Are you
Speaker 2: able to metabolize this food? Mark? I hope that you're
Speaker 2: not putting on extra weight here and if you if
Speaker 2: you are, we have awakened one to eighty, which will
Speaker 2: help you out. By the way, how many nights a
Speaker 2: week do you eat out? Seriously?
Speaker 4: And people always ask me that they just assume I'm
Speaker 4: out every single night. You know, I may I probably have.
Speaker 4: I go out to eat maybe i'd say three times
Speaker 4: a week. And I'm also a hike leader for the
Speaker 4: Appalachian Mountain Clubs, so I actually did. I did fifty
Speaker 4: thousand vertical feet of hiking last year alone, So it
Speaker 4: balances out. So, you know, somehow I'm under two hundred pounds,
Speaker 4: and I do go out to eat a lot, so
Speaker 4: it's you know, I have a hike tomorrow morning, for instance,
Speaker 4: so it all balances out. But yeah, i'd say maybe
Speaker 4: two or three times a week, and I cook a
Speaker 4: lot at home, so it's not quite as much as
Speaker 4: people think.
Speaker 2: That's okay. You've You've built up over the years quite
Speaker 2: a retinue of restaurants. My guess, Mark Hurwitz, NBC ten
Speaker 2: food writer here in Boston, been doing it for a while,
Speaker 2: and he knows this city well well. I have. I
Speaker 2: have a million other questions about restaurants, and I hope
Speaker 2: you do as well. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten,
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven, nine, three one tenth. There. We've
Speaker 2: got a quick news break here and we'll be back.
Speaker 2: Mark's gonna stick with us until eleven o'clock and then
Speaker 2: we're gonna go to the twentieth hour and we're gonna
Speaker 2: change topics and talk about the retail change that maybe
Speaker 2: you grew up with and that you now miss. And
Speaker 2: I can think of a couple and I suspect most
Speaker 2: of you will be able to as well. Back on
Speaker 2: Nightside with Mark Hurwitz, food writer. Back right after this.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: With me is food writer Mark Hurwitz. Uh. He is
Speaker 2: a font of information. So there's just probably no restaurant
Speaker 2: that you can mention him. You know, one that I
Speaker 2: just wanted to throw out there, which I know is
Speaker 2: a favorite of not only mine but also my colleague
Speaker 2: Morgan White, is the Midway Cafe, the Midway restaurant over
Speaker 2: in Dedham, just over the West Roxbury line out of
Speaker 2: Washington Street. Have you been to the Midway or no?
Speaker 4: Oh, I've been there many times. In fact, I was
Speaker 4: there the night that the NBA shut down during the
Speaker 4: at the start of the pandemic. That's when I found
Speaker 4: out that this thing was real at the pandemic. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I've been there countless times for their meat low they
Speaker 4: have a what is a porterhouse, sporkshop something like that
Speaker 4: and everything. The burghers are great. The turkey chili, I
Speaker 4: love that place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the sort of place that you walk
Speaker 2: into and you walk out and you city yourself. Wow,
Speaker 2: that was great. And it didn't cost me at arm
Speaker 2: and a leg. I mean it's moderately priced. It's the
Speaker 2: guy that owns a Bob Jenks is a great guy
Speaker 2: and he and his wife have it and uh, it's
Speaker 2: it's comfortable. The boots are comfortable, the bar is comfortable,
Speaker 2: and this the parking isn't bad. And if you uh,
Speaker 2: if you know where it is, easy in, easy out,
Speaker 2: it's on on good good roads. Those are the sorts
Speaker 2: of places that that I tend to like housing. Let's
Speaker 2: switch from Dedham and Westwood. Uh and if any of
Speaker 2: these restaurants that I've mentioned you folks like, feel free
Speaker 2: to join the conversation. We got some calls coming in
Speaker 2: right now. We'll get to those as well. Tell me
Speaker 2: about the North End. How's the North End doing. I
Speaker 2: know they've had the fight over there over the outdoor
Speaker 2: dining with the mayor. And I love the North End,
Speaker 2: but it's tough to get to there is no parking.
Speaker 2: I got to believe that that it's that things are
Speaker 2: are not as as good as they were a few
Speaker 2: years ago. In the North End.
Speaker 4: It's tough to, you know, on weekends, and I go
Speaker 4: there a lot, and I'm one of those The North
Speaker 4: End is lightning rod. I mean, I know people, including
Speaker 4: some food critics, who won't go there, and and I
Speaker 4: love it. I just love everything about the North End.
Speaker 4: And on the weekends, I mean it is, it is packed,
Speaker 4: especially on nice weekends in the spring summer. So I
Speaker 4: think they're doing pretty well. I'm sure that there are
Speaker 4: some places that aren't doing all that quite as well
Speaker 4: on the whole thing with the patios, the big controversy there. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, I think overall the North End is doing fine,
Speaker 4: maybe not quite as good as before the pandemic. But
Speaker 4: I do find that when I go to restaurants there,
Speaker 4: like Cafe Vortoria, which is in a real restaurant's cafe,
Speaker 4: But whenever I go a Cafe Victoria on Hanover, it
Speaker 4: is packed. So I think they're there.
Speaker 2: That's the place that that's the place, that is the
Speaker 2: cigar bar downstairs.
Speaker 4: Correct, Yeah, yes, And you go there and you get
Speaker 4: the viscotti, and you get a cappuccino, and you dip
Speaker 4: the this scotti in the cappuccino and there's nothing like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'll tell you this. I went into the
Speaker 2: cigar bar. I don't smoke cigarettes or cigars, but I
Speaker 2: went down there and just had a beer or whatever
Speaker 2: it was. The next day I literally had to have
Speaker 2: the suit directly sent to the drug leaders. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: It was like forty dollars just to get it fumigated.
Speaker 4: I mean, oh, I can imagine.
Speaker 2: Something like Yeah, never had before. Let's get some more calls.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Judy in Medford. Judy, you were
Speaker 2: next on Nightside with my guest, Mark Hurwitz, NBC food writer.
Speaker 2: Go right ahead, Judy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: One of my favorite restaurants, actually my most of the
Speaker 5: Italian in Arlington, Scuotra.
Speaker 2: I will be surprised if Mark does not know that one.
Speaker 2: What do you say, Mark Scutra in Arlington?
Speaker 4: I know of Scootra. I know people have been there.
Speaker 4: I have not been there myself. I have heard really
Speaker 4: great things though family owned.
Speaker 5: The chef is great, the staff is terrific. You go
Speaker 5: there to die and you don't push you out in
Speaker 5: the bar. And the bartenders are terrific even they have
Speaker 5: all different kinds of options for those of you who
Speaker 5: don't want to invobe alcohol, but very good on mocktails
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 4: And is that on Summer Street. I'm trying to picture that.
Speaker 5: It looks like Summer Street to you, but it's really
Speaker 5: Summer Street is right.
Speaker 6: Off of it.
Speaker 5: It's in back and mass al.
Speaker 4: You're off the lakes, right, Yeah, No, I have not
Speaker 4: been there there.
Speaker 5: You are want to yourself to take a trip out there, definitely.
Speaker 5: And then my favorite world million in town is true?
Speaker 2: That name of the Let me ask both of you
Speaker 2: this since your since you know Arlington, what was the
Speaker 2: name of the Great Steakhouse which was on mass Avenue
Speaker 2: very close to the kidneys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Jimmy's Jimmy Jimmy Steerhouse. Yeah, it's sure.
Speaker 2: I have not been there. Again. What happens is you
Speaker 2: get to the suburbs and you just you go to
Speaker 2: the same places and it's you know, you get comfortable.
Speaker 2: And that's that's a mistake that I that I make,
Speaker 2: which I don't want to make. Think the future. These
Speaker 2: are great. So it's called scutro, Judy.
Speaker 3: Right, s c U r O s c U t
Speaker 3: r A SCOO truck scootra.
Speaker 2: What does that mean in Italian?
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 5: You asked the wrong girl.
Speaker 2: Well that's okay. I'm sure it means great food or
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 5: Especially all the time. It's really great.
Speaker 2: And you don't walk out of there, you know, having
Speaker 2: spent five hundred dollars for two people.
Speaker 5: Right, No, you do not no, no, And and it
Speaker 5: is really they go a lot with the seasons of
Speaker 5: to where they've had with us. But the specials are
Speaker 5: there's always a special on and then deserves are terrific
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 3: They were.
Speaker 5: Really it's a terrific Uh, it's a truic place to Oh,
Speaker 5: if you haven't tried it, have you guessed by all news?
Speaker 2: Go and try it sounds great, sounds great.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Judy, You're welcome.
Speaker 2: Let's let's keep rolling here. Going to go to Karen
Speaker 2: in Wisconsin. Karen, I have no idea if you're going
Speaker 2: to give us a restaurant in Wisconsin. But I'm not
Speaker 2: sure Mark is going to be able to call me
Speaker 2: if go ahead, Karen.
Speaker 8: Now what I'm going to do is now that I
Speaker 8: know it's still there and I love it is. I'm
Speaker 8: going to give a second the Pleasant Cafe in Rosendale.
Speaker 8: He had mentioned it, and I lived right down the
Speaker 8: street from there. I love that place, the pizza and
Speaker 8: the stakes and everything he said about it. I want
Speaker 8: to give us a second notion to that bar. I'm
Speaker 8: glad that it's, you know, like restaurant bar and it's great.
Speaker 2: Right. Well, Karen used to live here in the Boston area,
Speaker 2: and that's why that's why she knows your Boston restaurants.
Speaker 2: That is for sure, no doubt about that. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: that's a good one, Karen, appreciate it. Thank you for
Speaker 2: all the way for Wisconsin. Hope everything's well.
Speaker 8: Okay, there's several good ones also, he mentioned in JP
Speaker 8: and Death surrounding area. So there you go.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, thanks for participating. It is always thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: Thanks very much, thank you.
Speaker 4: One thing about the Pleasant Cafe. One thing I didn't
Speaker 4: mention about the Pleasant Cafe. One of the reasons I
Speaker 4: go there. Besides the pizza, they have a list of
Speaker 4: drinks that basically are from the nineteen thirties and forties.
Speaker 4: You know, you can get like a Brandy Alexander, Tom
Speaker 4: Collins Slow Jin Fizz. You can get a California root beer.
Speaker 4: I mean they I go there and sometimes I grab
Speaker 4: my phone, which they shouldn't do in a restaurant, and
Speaker 4: I'll quickly I'll type in, like what's this story? What's
Speaker 4: the godfa? You know, and and and all the drinks
Speaker 4: are fantastic, But you know, they're not pretentious drinks. They're
Speaker 4: not the new fangled stuff. These are drinks that you've
Speaker 4: got back well, none of us were back around the thirties,
Speaker 4: but these are drinks.
Speaker 2: At least we weren't drinking in the thirties, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
Speaker 2: Here's one that that I love in Malden and went
Speaker 2: there a lot. It's run by a friend of mine,
Speaker 2: Paul Solano. Pearl Street Station in Malden, mass It's a
Speaker 2: great restaurant. The food is fat. Have you been there?
Speaker 2: Pro Street Station?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I do. I do radio and a lot
Speaker 4: of the radio people will go there. We've had big
Speaker 4: groups at Pearl Street Station. They used to be at
Speaker 4: another location long ago, but now they're in that huge space.
Speaker 4: It's multiple rooms and uh oh, they have some of
Speaker 4: the one of the best chicken palms I've ever had.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you're talking my language now, that's that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Chicken bob the best. I am not the most adventures
Speaker 2: in either for me as a as an Irish kid
Speaker 2: from Reidville. Uh. I you know the idea of Italian restaurants,
Speaker 2: that's that's that's pretty good for me to get out
Speaker 2: there and enjoy it. I love Italian restaurants, I really do. Uh.
Speaker 2: And there's so many good ones in our area. We
Speaker 2: we ate the other night with some friends out at
Speaker 2: a restaurant in Sherborne, Massachusetts. We lived there for many years.
Speaker 2: It's been the Sherborne Inn. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: ever been out there. It's now called I think the
Speaker 2: Fireside Tavern. And it was really good. It was really good.
Speaker 2: The whole atmosphere had changed. A number of the people
Speaker 2: who were in there were trying to take it up
Speaker 2: high and make it, you know, a big, a big
Speaker 2: number restaurant, and they have changed, they've have taken it
Speaker 2: down a little bit. We hadn't been there in years.
Speaker 2: We were with some our some of our friends from
Speaker 2: hollist and we met there and that was really good.
Speaker 2: Now again, maybe we just hit it in a great night.
Speaker 2: But I enjoyed it, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a beautiful space. It's just old school New England.
Speaker 4: I love that place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they have a great The bar there is
Speaker 2: wonderful if you just want to sit at the bar
Speaker 2: as opposed to the restaurant. So yeah, yeah, Hey, I'm
Speaker 2: hanging in there. Everything I've mentioned, you're with me on it,
Speaker 2: which is great. We're going to take a quick break.
Speaker 2: I got three more calls to deal with quickly. By
Speaker 2: the way, I noticed that you have a lot of
Speaker 2: followers on your Facebook page. Well, how many people do
Speaker 2: you have following your story your report?
Speaker 4: Well, on social media, maybe three hundred thousand. And I
Speaker 4: run a group. I run a group, a restaurant group
Speaker 4: on Facebook that has about forty five thousand. And that
Speaker 4: group's great because there are chefs, restaurant owners, food critics.
Speaker 4: A lot of my friends who are food writers are
Speaker 4: on that. So if you ask questions you will get
Speaker 4: some really good am.
Speaker 2: Wow wow, that that is a big number. I hope
Speaker 2: you you'll let them know you're going to be on
Speaker 2: Night Side tonight and if if you haven't, they can
Speaker 2: listen to the this hour will be posted at Nightside
Speaker 2: on Demand and you can put it up on your
Speaker 2: web page and allow people to listen to you tonight
Speaker 2: here on Nighttide, it will be available.
Speaker 4: I definitely will do that. I already told everybody in
Speaker 4: the group, and I told us others on social media,
Speaker 4: and my mother who's sleeping, h she wants to listen.
Speaker 4: Then I said, I told my mother. I said it's
Speaker 4: going to be on a podcast, so she can do
Speaker 4: it over the weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, we have big numbers of people who listen
Speaker 2: to the to the podcast, so it's just Rob Brooks
Speaker 2: who post this. It would be probably posted by time
Speaker 2: Rob goes home by three am this morning, so it'll
Speaker 2: be the ten eight hour Nightside on Demand dot com
Speaker 2: pretty easy to find. We'll take a quick break here
Speaker 2: on Nightside. I got Linda, Tim and Christine coming right
Speaker 2: up with their restaurant selections Weymouth, Wilburn and Denham. That's great.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ.
Speaker 2: News Radio, where we were talking, by the way about
Speaker 2: restaurants on the Cape. There's a great restaurant in Chatham
Speaker 2: called Pates. It used to be an old school more
Speaker 2: you know, kind of like a nineteen fifties sixties restaurant,
Speaker 2: but they have changed it up and it's a really
Speaker 2: great restaurant owned by a friend of mine named Jim Peterson.
Speaker 2: And if anybody can get into there in Chatham on
Speaker 2: a on a well, anytime, whether it's March or May,
Speaker 2: June or July, you like that. Have you ever been
Speaker 2: down to Pates and Chatham?
Speaker 4: No? I think the only place I've been to in
Speaker 4: Chatham is that outlet of Max for lobster roles. But no,
Speaker 4: I haven't been to that place.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, No, that that the outlet I've been to
Speaker 2: that one. Yeah, Max Max, this is a good one.
Speaker 2: I'm familiar with that as well. Let's keep rolling here.
Speaker 2: We're going to pick up a couple more, at least,
Speaker 2: well three more. Callers. Got to be quick, Linda, you
Speaker 2: got to be quick for me. You got two behind you,
Speaker 2: Go right ahead.
Speaker 7: I can be real quick. I get a question, somebody
Speaker 7: else can follow up and answer. I've in New Hampshire.
Speaker 7: I can recall from younger days ninety nine restaurant I
Speaker 7: think it might have been. The original is still up there.
Speaker 2: What time was it? Ohgi, Okay, well, let's see. Let
Speaker 2: me do this. I'm going to ask I'm going to
Speaker 2: ask Mark if if he knows if the ninety nine
Speaker 2: began in New Hampshire. That's a very popular restaurant. I
Speaker 2: think it's still doing well at the ninety nine, still
Speaker 2: doing Walmart.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I still I go to them. Don't tell
Speaker 4: any when I go to them. Whenever I go there,
Speaker 4: people say, what are you going ninety nine for?
Speaker 3: You're a food writer.
Speaker 4: I'm like, I like one ninety nine. But yeah, I
Speaker 4: don't know if that's a good question about Hampshire. I mean,
Speaker 4: I know there's a lot of them in the Boston area,
Speaker 4: but I'm not sure.
Speaker 7: Just over the border. Okay. The other question is is
Speaker 7: Dallly's in Braintreet used to be there? It's now with
Speaker 7: the Toyota with the hype flying flag.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Dall's Steak House.
Speaker 2: Called next Hour on that because those that's one of
Speaker 2: those that I missed. I missed that, and I missed
Speaker 2: the uh the steak place on Route one going north
Speaker 2: that had the fake cows out there. Oh well, the
Speaker 2: Hilltop the Hilltop Standouse, absolutely da. I got two more.
Speaker 2: I gotta get to thank you so much. Have a
Speaker 2: great weekend. Gotta go, gonna go next to Tim in
Speaker 2: wilbur And Tim, you were next on nights. I go ahead.
Speaker 3: I think I heard somebody say Jimmy's and Arlington.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Years ago. I was alignment for the EDS, and we
Speaker 3: used to go in there, the whole crew, about five
Speaker 3: of the line trucks. They wouldn't chat yet.
Speaker 2: Now that's that's my sort of restaurant right there. I
Speaker 2: wasn't alive with the electric we were you with me?
Speaker 3: I'd live the waitress a twenty dollars tip.
Speaker 2: Well, at least Tim, Were you with Boston Edison and
Speaker 2: then the back in.
Speaker 3: The day, Yeah, there was nineteen seventy eight. I was
Speaker 3: here for three years and I didn't like the job
Speaker 3: that much, so I left. It was a big mistake.
Speaker 3: I'd be rich.
Speaker 2: Yep, there's no doubt about that. All right, Thanks Tim.
Speaker 3: Great. By the way, I got my night side T shirt.
Speaker 2: All right, we'd proudly weird, proudly I were good. All right,
Speaker 2: Thanks Jim, thanks for it. Have a great night. Good night.
Speaker 2: Christine in Denham. Christine, I'll bet you've been to the
Speaker 2: Midway Cafe in Denham, Right, I have, I have, so
Speaker 2: give us another restaurant in debt him or what anywhere
Speaker 2: you want? Get what? What? What would you want? Which
Speaker 2: restaurant would you like to talk about? To ask a
Speaker 2: question about?
Speaker 5: I love the Bay Point in Quincy.
Speaker 3: That's the I love that place Bay Pointed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, it's really nice. It's beautiful. The location. You
Speaker 4: gotta there's a patio that overlooks the ocean. It's so
Speaker 4: nice there.
Speaker 2: Yes, how often? How often do you get there? Christine?
Speaker 5: Almost every summer?
Speaker 2: Wow, that's beautiful, it's always. It's a great tradition.
Speaker 5: The mill Walk in Situate, that's another good one.
Speaker 4: Oh, I was just there.
Speaker 2: You are?
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's terrific, great great seafood there.
Speaker 2: Thanks Christine, talk to you hater good night. Uh what
Speaker 2: happened in the Marley Ive in downtown? Is that still
Speaker 2: around to now? No?
Speaker 4: And I'm really depressed about that. That was one of
Speaker 4: my go to places back way back when. Well, I
Speaker 4: think it was the oldest Italian restaurant in I mean
Speaker 4: it wasn't truly Italian. I think it was Italian and French.
Speaker 4: But one of the maybe the oldest Italian restaurant in Boston,
Speaker 4: along with what was it in Javelli's and East Boston.
Speaker 4: Those two places were just legendary.
Speaker 2: Well, another good one, which again when we were at
Speaker 2: this when I'd be working at the State House, was Denis.
Speaker 2: We were around when Deani's right on on on Tremont Street.
Speaker 4: I might have been. Was that around in the eighties?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, it was there for many many years,
Speaker 2: and it was it was just it was a great
Speaker 2: political restaurant. I mean, you know, you got you at
Speaker 2: the Parker House and then Deni's and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: now there's a whole different group of restaurants that have
Speaker 2: come in. But what would you give as an overall rating, Mark,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you've traveled to Boston as a restaurant town,
Speaker 2: Greater Boston as a restaurant town. What sort of grades
Speaker 2: would you give it. I'm sure New York is an
Speaker 2: a because you can get anything you want in New York,
Speaker 2: and Chicago probably has some great steak places. Wait is
Speaker 2: Boston rank? And and you know, look, Washington has a
Speaker 2: lot of great restaurants as well, but Boston rank do
Speaker 2: you think?
Speaker 4: Well, I've been in Chicago Philly, Washington, Boston, San Francisco,
Speaker 4: New York, Churs, Boston, and I give it. I'd say
Speaker 4: a minus B plus. I mean, it's a really great
Speaker 4: city for food, and it's it's gotten better in many ways.
Speaker 4: It's also lost a little bits charmed with the Old
Speaker 4: School restaurant's closing. So i'd say minus B plus is
Speaker 4: a great city for food. I'll tell you though, Providence,
Speaker 4: and I just wrote about a place for Providence. It
Speaker 4: just went up tonight on NBC L Providence has an
Speaker 4: incredible food town.
Speaker 2: So Hill's tough to be tough to beat. Federal Hill. Hey,
Speaker 2: I got one more here, let's get one more under
Speaker 2: the wire. Different community. Melvin in Roxbury, Melvin, we get
Speaker 2: less than a minute. What can you do with it?
Speaker 6: Buddy Roll, Paul mod Dixon's Dona, the best fried Chicken,
Speaker 6: the best Chittling's, the best hog Marks was the best
Speaker 6: of all. Dad and Bob the chef.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember Bob the chef. Absolutely. Hey, Melvin, you've
Speaker 2: never called me? Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna here. Bob the Chef used to work for
Speaker 6: Mob Dixon's at Shamattabb which he owned the place down
Speaker 6: there and he stole all her recipes and he opened
Speaker 6: up Bob the Chef at six oh four Columbus alf
Speaker 6: At the True Story.
Speaker 2: Hey, Melvin, is this your first call the night side. Yes,
Speaker 2: we got to give you a quick round of applause
Speaker 2: our digital studio audience. Melvin, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: Thank you for calling. Talk again. Okay, thank you, right
Speaker 2: back at you Melvin's thanks and Mark, this was a
Speaker 2: fun hour. I really we we got to talk about
Speaker 2: a lot of different locations. I really enjoyed the hour.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did
Speaker 2: and love to have you back at some point, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe as we talk about summer dining.
Speaker 4: Okay, that was great. Yeah, definitely, summer dining would be
Speaker 4: te rific with doutor patios. I would love to come
Speaker 4: back and talk about that.
Speaker 2: Mark, I appreciate very much Friday Night. You have a
Speaker 2: great guest. We had some great calls. This hour far
Speaker 2: exceeded my expectations. Thank you, my friend. We got a
Speaker 2: grab mine. Okay, thanks Mar and it's on me. Talk
Speaker 2: to you later. Okay, here comes the eleven o'clock news.
Speaker 2: It is the twentieth hour and We're going to change
Speaker 2: the focus just a little bit. Okay, gonna give you
Speaker 2: a chance to tell me what retail chain store do
Speaker 2: you miss. I don't miss many, but there's a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of them that have gone the way of all
Speaker 2: good things. And let's talk about that in the next hour.
Speaker 2: We will be back on Night's side right after this