Food & Drink
Email this page
Print this pageDaytime Diversions for the Diehard
For the truly food obsessed, here are a half-dozen chowhound-worthy Boston-based venues to help survive those long hours between lunch and dinner.
Stir
The braintrust of the food and beverage pros behind the No. 9 Group (No. 9 Park restaurant, plus catering and specialty retail) has gone into the education business. Stir, a new culinary classroom in the South End, hosts cooking demonstrations for the general public the first few days of each week: Mondays are typically wine dinners, and Tuesdays and Wednesdays might be anything from bistro cooking and breadmaking, to chocolate concoctions and a tribute to Julia Child. The space is intimate—a 300-square-foot test kitchen has a center island that seats ten—and inspirational: Walls are floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with classic and hard-to-find culinary tomes available to peruse or purchase.
102 Waltham Street, Boston, 617-423-STIR, stirboston.com
Super 88
Eighty-eight is a lucky number in Chinese, but the mention of good fortune isn’t what draws shoppers to the Super 88 market in the South End. It’s the plentiful aisles of ingredients hard to find elsewhere: wasabi powder and ground bean sauce, dried sardines and smoked oysters, live eel and bitter melon tea. The market—founded by a Vietnamese family who survived Communist takeover, a shipwreck, and a fire—wasn’t originally geared toward the Caucasians who now flock the aisles. But the Asian-fusion food craze emboldened many to attempt the foods popularized in their favorite restaurants.
50 Herald Street, Boston, 617-423-3749; super88market.com lists additional locations.
Formaggio Kitchen
This Cambridge shop—and its little sibling in the South End—is responsible for much of the cheese plated at parties throughout Boston. But the 300-plus varieties stocked on the Wall—plus hundreds of specialty foods—are only the beginning of why this foodie institution is beloved in Boston. It’s not just that samples are plentiful, or that descriptive handwritten tags are helpful and ubiquitous in a down-to-earth scrawl. It’s the service and the expertise that make Formaggio a standout. Ask for advice, and ye shall receive; request cheeses that meet dietary restrictions (say, pregnancy) and you’ll leave satisfied. Show interest in their cellar cave, where wheel upon wheel ripens behind the scenes, and you’ll likely be rewarded with a tour.
244 Huron Avenue, Cambridge, 617-354-4750, formaggiokitchen.com
Flour
The ambience is homey—painted a pale blue you might find in a child’s playroom, with a blackboard trumpeting the weather and the daily specials. The ample display is like a primer for baked goods, from the staples (scones, brioches, sour-cream coffee cake) to the unexpected (handmade Oreos, homebaked Pop Tarts, eclairs filled with an airy whipped cream, pleasantly lighter than a creme patisserie or custard), plus salads and gourmet takeout. The effect of so much, mounded on platters with such wholesome richness, is irresistible; carry out as much as you can.
1595 Washington Street, 617-267-4300; 12 Farnsworth St., 617-338-4333, flourbakery.com
The Butcher Shop/Plum Produce
Is it the most kitcheny place to have a drink, or the most barlike place to stop for groceries? This duo of South End shops (courtesy of the No. 9 Group) wears several hats, and all of them fit. The Butcher Shop is both a wine bar and a prepared foods shop; the sleek black soapstone bar is the hub of sipping and snacking, while well-stocked glass cases in the rear make available homemade terrines and several cuts of naturally raised beef. The adjacent produce shop is an intimate space packed with a surprising variety of unusual fruits, vegetables and herbs (native fiddle heads and ramps, white asparagus and kumquats), plus house-made confitures and jellies.
The Butcher Shop, 552 Tremont Street, Boston, 617-423-4800
Plum Produce, 106 Waltham Street, Boston, 617-423-PLUM, plumproduce.com
ChocoLee Chocolates
You can’t miss it: It’s the storefront surrounded by passersby with their tongues hanging out. At this new South End truffle emporium by famed Boston chocolate madam Lee Napoli (formerly of restaurants Icarus, Grill 23, Maison Robert and Bricco), the confections run the gamut from hand-dipped truffles (espresso, hazelnut, chocolate mint, Grand Marnier and poblano chile) to made-to-order mascarpone beignets. Salted caramels are dipped in chocolate dark as the day you could not stop eating them.
83 Pembroke Street, 617-236-0606
Copyright 2012 Rhode Island Monthly
