Food & Drink
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For those who like to eat (and drink) liberally, hotel restaurants are a godsend. Forget hoofing it to that cafe ten blocks away or dealing with pricey valets. These four upscale hotels are all about one-stop shopping: high thread-count sheets and a menu that rivals any in the city.
The Liberty Hotel
215 Charles Street
617-224-4004
libertyhotel.com
clinkrestaurant.com
The hotel: Possibly the country’s most unusual architectural re-use project, this hotel puts guests smack into a posh, modern renovation of a prison. The former 1851 Charles Street Jail has panoramic views of the city and river, and occupies prime real estate for strolling the riverside Esplanade or shopping on Beacon Hill. Rooms are touched with mahogany, stainless steel and floor-to-ceiling windows.
The restaurant: The forte at Clink is tapas-style dishes (oysters, cheese and charcuterie platters), but there are also hearty entrees such as braised lamb shanks and ribeye steak. The historic jail details—brick walls and cell doors—are riveting conversation pieces, and the popular hotel bar, Alibi, is the place to go to get your story straight. New at the Liberty is Scampo, chef Lydia Shire’s rustic Italian eatery.
The Hotel Commonwealth
500 Commonwealth Avenue
617-532-5300
gbayrestaurant.com
The hotel: The cornerstone of the rehabbed Kenmore Square and home base for Fenway Park and Boston University students. The 150-room property has an old-world feel—medallion ornamentation on ceilings, throne-like armchairs in the lobby—but with contemporary touches like modern art and WiFi throughout the hotel. Some rooms even come with a view of the Green Monster.
The restaurant: Great Bay feels like a giant aquarium: Projected light undulates silvery scales on a wall, and pinpoint lights dangle like anemone from a ceiling beam that resembles the keel of a ship. Theatricality extends to the menu, where each dish has added zing: Salmon is crusted in ratatouille and served with chorizo-parsnip puree and white anchovy; mussels are steamed with coconut milk, red curry and sweet 100 tomatoes.
Fifteen Beacon
15 Beacon Street
617-670-1500
xvbeacon.com
The hotel: The darling of boutique-hotel fans and tech travelers drawn to its sumptuous, small-scale individuality: Each of the sixty rooms has a gas fireplace, a canopied bed, a surround-sound stereo, and its own color copier/fax/printer. The streamlined modernist style—shades of cream and cocoa, and stainless steel hearths—doesn’t preclude classic touches like the original lobby cage elevator of the 1903 Beaux Arts building.
The restaurant: No joke: The hotel’s new steakhouse is named Mooo, arguably one hoofed foot over the line of good taste. But there’s nothing gimmicky about the dining room, with its urbane, sexy sophistication in a palate of soothing neutrals. The menu is traditional with a twist: carpaccio with amarene cherries and Roquefort, beef Wellington with foie gras, tenderloin steak frites with truffled fries.
The Eliot Hotel
370 Commonwealth Avenue
617-267-1607
eliothotel.com
The hotel: The Eliot is an intimate, independent hotel with the classic style of a traditional luxury chain: everything you need, predictably presented with a soothing European sensibility. The ninety-five-room hotel overlooks picturesque, tree-lined Commonwealth Avenue, and is only steps away from Newbury Street’s high-end boutiques and see-and-be-seen cafes.
The restaurant: Clio, a compact and highly stylized restaurant courtesy of Chef Ken Oringer, is renowned for innovative French cuisine with a Japanese flair. Each dish is a blend of exotic flavors, from the signature tomato-water martini to a sauteed halibut with citrus-ginger broth. In 2002, Oringer added
a sashimi bar, Uni, to the restaurant’s lounge, with ingredients flown from Japan daily.
Copyright 2012 Rhode Island Monthly
