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  • Where to Dine on New Year’s Eve 2012 in Boston

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    This is an outdated post. Click below for the link to:

    Where to Dine on New Year's Eve 2015 & New Year's Day Brunch 2016

    Our readers are already searching our past posts to figure out where to dine this New Year's Eve in Boston. It's time for you to grab a reservation at a special place!

    We all have our ideas of the perfect New Year's Eve. Are you looking for a place to ring in 2013 with a happy crowd? Or will you make a reservation for a quiet dinner before popping a cork for a private celebration? 

    We fall into the food-loving, quiet celebration group, and we'll tell you about some places where that's possible.

    But, we have to admit one of our more memorable New Year's Eves was spent at the bar at Hamersley's Bistro. We had planned to slip in and out for a quick, quiet dinner and managed to stay for a much longer time enjoying the company of a great group at the bar. This year, they're planning a four-course prix fixe menu with a champagne toast if you're there at midnight.

    Everyone can begin at Open Table. They maintain a list of special New Year's celebrations at area restaurants. This is perfect if you're meeting up with a group here in the city and the site even offers places like AKA Bistro in Lincoln for those who prefer a suburban location.

    You can put a time into the reservation box on the main page and see what's available. Remember, many places have special prix fixe menus for occasions like this and some may require a credit card to hold a reservation.

    The site Boston Chefs always posts a listing of its member restaurants that have special plans for New Year's Eve. Here is their New Year's Eve list. And, here's the list for New Year's Day.

    Update 12.27.12: Eater Boston has added its Map of What to do on New Year's Eve.

    Update 12.28.12: Grub Street Boston put up their, "Grub Guide: Where to Get Dreamy Takeout on New Year's Eve"  Some good choices there.

    There are also restaurants that have planned a special New Year's Eve menu but have built their reputation on high quality food. These are places where you can expect to have a wonderful meal any day of the year.

    • Island Creek Oyster Bar is serving its regular menu and, for that kindness, we've put them at the top of this list. 
    • Eastern Standard, next door, is doing the same. Regular menu, great wine list, craft cocktails.
    • Grotto on Beacon Hill, Kitchen in the South End, and Marliave downtown all join that list of places sticking with the food you love.
    • Craigie On Main is planning two sets of seatings for two prix fixe menus. Call fast, these reservations will be snatched up quickly.
    • Brasserie JO has a special menu but alway provides great food in a relaxed atmosphere, and their desserts are a party in themselves. 
    • La Morra in Brookline – chef Josh Ziskin says he saves some of his most prized dishes just for this evening. He's serving a four-course Italian dinner with a glass of Prosecco for toasting. 

    Where are you spending the evening? What's your favorite way to celebrate? Come back on January 1st and tell us about your New Year's Eve.

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     Details:

    Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
    Photography: Photo: iStockphoto.com

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • Easter Sunday Dining Reservations 2012

    Those in the know already have reservations for Easter brunch and dinner. This is one of the big days for dining out, and popular restaurants will fill their tables for Sunday April 8, 2012, quickly.

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    First up, the list of places that organize information about Easter reservations and special offerings. 

    Open Table seems to have the most complete information, and you can click right through to make reservations. They also give you some idea of prices and special menus. And, you'll find a few places that are offering their regular menus as well. 

    Boston Chef's offers a place to look at the offerings from their member chefs and restaurants.

    Gayot lists favorite brunches at places like Henrietta's Table in Cambridge. 

    Next a few places we picked from these lists

    To meet up with family who don't want to come into the city, consider AKA Bistro in Lincoln. We're happy to see that they're offering their regular brunch menu in addition to some Easter specials. The nearby deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is the perfect place to walk off your brunch and take Easter photos. 

    Turner Fisheries Restaurant & Bar says, "For a Bountiful New England Seafood Buffet–visit us on Easter Sunday from 10am-3pm. We'll feature the freshest seafood and traditional Easter Sunday favorites." If you have a seafood lover in your family or typical Easter brunch is not your favorite meal, this could be an alternative.

    Craigie on Main in Cambridge has a special prix fixe, three-course brunch but it was nice to discover that Chef Tony Maws is also offering some Passover favorites on April 6-7. 

    Don't be surprised if some places require a credit card to secure the reservation. This is the type of holiday when people may book multiple restaurants and decide where to go at the last moment. That can cause the restaurant to turn away other potential customers.

    One thing we would look for, if we were dining out on a holiday, is a place that is offering its regular menu for the day. That's always a plus for us. We're not fans of special menus.

    If you know of places where the regular menu will be served, let us know. If it's a place we can recommend, we'll add it to our list.

    Opting Out of Easter

    If this holiday stuff is really not part of your life, this is a great day to go ethnic. Chinatown will be wide open and filled with great menu options. Your neighborhood Indian, Korean, Chinese, or Persian restaurant will be happy to feed you. And, most BBQ and Pizza places do not have Easter menus.

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    Don't miss an Easter photo opportunity. This Canon G12 digital camera kit will give you what you need to take stills and video of your Easter celebration. Canon's G series is our all-time favorite for everyday cameras. We own the G10 and G11. They're a little bigger than the compacts most people use, but let you shoot with automatic settings or easy-to-use manual controls that please the many pros who use them as second cameras.  And, if you are ready to turn pro, follow our lead. We just added the Nikon D7000 Digital SLR to our camera fleet and are extremely happy with the performance it has delivered.

     

    Details:

    Writers: Penny & Ed Cherubino

    Photos: from iStockphoto.com

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads out of comments.

  • The Serious Eats Book is a Seriously Good Gift for…

    One of my favorite food sites, Serious Eats pubished a really wonderful book this year. Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are, will make a Seriously Good Gift for a food-loving friend who loves to travel for food or find great food when they travel.

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    How do you know if someone is a serious eater and would love this book? Fortunately the team has put together a simple test to help you decide. They say to ask the following:

    "Are you a Serious Eater?

    1. Do you plan your day around what you might eat?
    2. When you are heading somewhere, anywhere, will you go out of your way to eat something delicious?
    3. When you daydream, do you often find yourself thinking about food?
    4. Do you live to eat, rather than eat to live?
    5. Have you strained relationships with friends or family by dictating the food itinerary—changing everyone’s plans to try a potentially special burger or piece of pie?"

    If you're nodding your head as you read, you'll want this book! And, if you're like me you'll turn right to the pages for your favorite locations. 

    The Boston area is well represented.

    Serious Eats executive editor, food-lab guru, and recipe czar J. Kenji López-Alt has serious Boston connections. He's an MIT grad who has cooked in some of Boston's top restaurants and spent a few years working behind the scenes and in front of the camera at Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen.

    Serious Eats Up and Down the Price Scale & Recipes too!

    Lets take burgers as one example. The book covers What Makes A Great Burger, Burger Styles, Regional Burger Styles, The Hamburger Fatty Melt, Got Buns Hon?, Where the Beef Is: 30 Great Burgers, and the Patty Melt. 

    They tell you where to find the best regardless of price. Five Great Chefy Burgers details the ledgendary offering at Craigie on Main along with others great burgers they've found around the country. 

    But, they also cover the Five Fast-Food Burgers Worth Your Time, including a new entry in our area, Five Guys.

    Finally, they devote pages to Making Burgers At Home. Remember, this team holds a daily conversation with a vast community of food lovers. They have tested and then incorporated the tips from this remarkable resource. 

    Reviews

    This book has had rave reviews from the New York Times, The Amateur Gourmet, Publishers Weekly, Mercury News, and Weekender.

    For yourself or someone else, we highly recommend this book. Leave it out, and you'll find yourself picking it up and getting lost in the 368 pages of delicious!

     Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are.

     

    Details:
    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Cover Art courtesy of Clarkson Porter Publishers, NY

    Disclosure: Penny is a paid, freelance contributor to Serious Eats. Here is our full disclosure policy.

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.