Half order of Lucca’s beets five ways

Executive chef Anthony Mazzotta of Rockland’s new Lucca South Shore has a tasty bio that’s a good fit for the organically grown careers of the new restaurant’s three owners. Sean Williams, Matthew Williams (they’re brothers), and Ted Kennedy opened the first Lucca in Boston’s North End in 2000. The trio have since opened outposts in the city’s Back Bay, Logan Airport, and now, their fourth, in Rockland.

Mazzotta started cooking at home with his Italian parents in Norwood, went on to culinary school, and later distinguished himself working under renowned chef Thomas Keller at both his rarified French Laundry in Napa, and his Per Se in Manhattan. More recently, Mazzotta circled back to where he started, cooking locally again with Ken Oringer at Toro and Lucca Back Bay. Running the new kitchen with Mazzotta is chef Nate Lawrence, who closed his popular Munch Mobile Kitchen food truck a couple years ago.

“Anthony’s food is exquisite . . . and we’re lucky to have gotten Nate,” said Sean, who is always at one of the restaurants with his two partners.

“A big part of our success is being there,” said Sean. “We basically bus tables. There’s nothing we won’t do. When you open a new restaurant everyone comes in expecting everything to be all figured out, but there’s a lot to figure out. It’s not quite a well-oiled machine yet, but it’s getting there. We’ll keep improving over time — adding more dishes, stepping up service, trainings, all of it.”

THE LOCALE

The 300-seat restaurant, the former Bella’s, is a 10,000-square-foot building on a 3-acre lot. The partners bought it in June 2019 and, after a substantial renovation, held a soft opening on New Year’s Eve. Take a stroll around to get oriented: A 75-seat bar and lounge up front has a lively vibe with up-lighting that turns the ceiling different colors, windows, a fireplace, and huge black-and-white prints of Roman gods. The rest of the dining areas branch off down a dramatic black-and-white-tiled hallway: There’s a second gleaming mahogany bar; a private dining room, enclosed but visible; and a field of white tablecloths in the back divided with interior structures into various areas. Permits are in the works for an outdoor lounge and maybe, someday, a big chef’s garden out back.

THE MENU

On a recent late February night, the place was packed by 6 p.m. Same the next visit. For starters, I went a little nuts over the butter-braised calamari appetizer ($13). The fish curls are so tender and melded with the buttery tomato sauce they stay flavorful the whole chew through. I will make a meal of this appetizer with a slice of Lucca’s Margherita pizza ($12) some night. The slow-roasted cod ($29) is another delicate preparation, marinated in herbs that imbue it with rich flavor and strewn with spinach, fregola, and chopped hazelnuts. I so prefer dry, al dente pasta that I wasn’t as excited about either of the homemade pasta dishes we had as my tablemates were. If you’re a fan, then you’ll like the ricotta cavatelli ($27). The ribbed inch-long pastas are sauced with hunks of tender braised boar, rich pork meatballs, and Swiss Chard. A huge portion of home-style, fork-crushed potatoes is a perfect side for the magnificent grass-fed tenderloin ($39) and the five presentations of beets ($13) is a knock-out. Hunks of roasted beets are arranged over a pink beet yogurt, adorned with a portion of finely chopped “beet tartar,” and strewn with a raw beet slaw dressed with beet vinaigrette. Best beet dish I’ve ever had.

Lucca South Shore, 933 Hingham St., Rockland, 781-871-5789, luccasouthshore.com.

Joan Wilder can be reached at joan.wilder@gmail.com.

The lamb burger with caramelized onions and truffle fries

WHO’S IN CHARGE

It’s hard to beat a family-run eatery like Cohasset’s Corner Stop for heart. Over the last seven years, husband and wife Rudy and Ron Vale have created a big welcoming restaurant infused with a sense of community and warmth. Having both worked in the industry for years before taking the plunge and buying their own place, the couple came to ownership with plenty of experience, and it shows. The 115-seat restaurant has a casual vibe that’s elevated by the Vales’ hospitality and the terrific servers they’ve empowered. The couple offers their second dining room for community events sometimes — a storytelling evening every other month, meetings of the Rotary Club, and more. Over the past five years, the Vales have donated 10 percent of each October’s sales to the Breast Cancer Research Center and, with other community donations, have raised nearly $90,000 for the organization.

THE LOCALE

A rock wall rises behind the Corner Stop, and from the main bar and dining room, most of what you see out the big windows is stone. It’s a cool calming view and in winter the space feels a bit like a ski lodge with its large U-shaped bar, stone fireplace with adjacent love seats, and plenty of room for tables and banquets. Pretty glass pendant lights fly above the bar, which is a lively place to eat even if you’re not drinking. The second dining room, on the other side of the entrance way, is more sedate. Wide hallways lead to various areas, giving guests space to chat with friends en route from the coat room to the bar or their table.

ON THE MENU I haven’t batted 100 percent at a restaurant in a while, yet on three recent visits to The Corner Stop everything we ordered was great. Maybe our luck was due to helpful suggestions by good servers. Or maybe it’s that chef Bob Gould and the Vales have really drilled down and honed their menu to a hit parade they can produce with consistency. For starters, the gorgeous sea scallops appetizer ($12), two to an order, are served over a rich serving of mushroom risotto with just the right touch of truffle oil. Another small dish, the short rib empanada ($9), is a perfect little meat pie served with a sensational horseradish dip. Street tacos ($13 lunch/$13.50 dinner) are a nice trio of lightly blackened cod topped with a smoky chipotle aioli. The flatbreads are actually house-made pizzas with great crust, and the slightly spicy sausage fennel ($14) is as good as can be. I’ve become leery of ordering salads, disappointed by limp mesclun, but you can count on the salads here. The packed bowl ($13) is fresh and filling with arugula and the mild, but chlorophyll-rich, green that is (well-raised) baby kale and more: quinoa and farro, nuggets of roasted Brussels sprouts and butternut squash, big dollops of goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, and pieces of candied pecan that taste just like French toast. All the salads can be ordered with an added-on protein, and the chicken ($6), so often a dried-out afterthought, is moist slices of brined breast. The pan-roasted salmon ($16.50 lunch/$24 dinner) is a nicely grilled fillet atop an original crumble of cornbread, quinoa, bacon, and Brussels sprouts. The lovely lamb burger is served on a grilled brioche bun, with a pile of gorgeously caramelized onion, a rosemary feta spread, arugula, and some terrific truffle fries. I’m all in on this place.

The Corner Stop, 235 Hull St., Cohasset, 781-875-3065, www.cornerstopeatery.com

Lucky Finn Hanover’s live video stream of Scituate Harbor from the back deck of its sister Scituate cafe.

WHO’S IN CHARGE

People are drawn to the restaurant business from all different backgrounds and succeed in as many ways. Talk to Mary Ellen Stoddard, owner of the new, second Lucky Finn Café at the equally new Merchants Row in Hanover and you learn her secret: She has her hand in absolutely every part of her cafés’ operations, from food prep procedures and purchasing to building operations, technology, and staffing. “I was the youngest of 10 and have always been a pitch-right-in person,” said Stoddard, who jumped into the restaurant business in 2017 when she bought the existing Lucky Finn on Scituate Harbor. The original location doesn’t have a kitchen so Stoddard was forced to use a remote commercial kitchen for some menu items, but, now, she’s got her own.

“This location is so different for us — it’s three times the size and has a full kitchen,” said Stoddard. The café also houses five beautifully designed remote work spaces for rent which must have the best amenities on site of any other work spaces for miles around.

“I love Lucky Finn — I go there three or four times a week,” said Frank Giglio II of FP Giglio Properties, site developers. “They do a really good job connecting with the community.”

Remote work spaces at Hanover’s Lucky Finn cafe

THE LOCALE

Lucky Finn opened on Oct. 25, at the new, still-launching Merchants Row on Route 53 in Hanover. The 16-business retail complex consists of three buildings connected with open-space walkways. It’s a good-looking development built on the ruins of the quaint old Merchants Row, which was demolished in 2018. The beautiful new cafe was designed to pay homage to the original with heavy raw wood beams, white shiplap, and walls of windows. Three chandeliers sparkle prettily over window and bar seats (with recharging outlets), a banquet with throw pillows, marble-top tables, and even a nook with two comfy chairs, hidden away. But the big fun reason the café looks and feels especially good is a spectacular 16-by-9-foot screen on one wall streaming a live video feed of Scituate Harbor from a camera on the back deck of the Scituate café.

ON THE MENU

Lucky Finn’s garden salad with a scoop of cranberry walnut chicken salad

Bottom line for a place like this: The espresso drinks and drip house coffees are very well done and so are many of the teas and other hot and cold drinks. I so appreciate that the café filters its water: Check out the black canisters and copper piping construction on the wall near the espresso machine. I like that the chai latte ($3.75/$4) is a house-brewed chai tea with steamed milk and no sweetener, so you can add you own. The fresh-squeezed lemonade ($3.75) is still a standout and now there’s a lovely, mild hibiscus ginger kombucha ($4/$4.75) on tap (ask for it without ice). Favored eats include various baked goods, sandwiches, salads, soups, acai bowls, desserts, and more. With the new kitchen, Stoddard is refining the menu as she goes. Among my go-to lunches are the delicious cranberry walnut chicken salad ($8), ordered on the terrific sourdough, and the tomato pesto mozzarella panini ($8). The garden salad ($8) is a good lunch ordered with a scoop of tuna fish or chicken salad (add $3.50). For something small and savory, the clam chowder ($6) still works its classic magic. And, for sweets, the macaroons ($2.50/3 for $7) from Weymouth’s Farmhouse Baking Co. are a standout: so good with a coffee at tea time.

Black rice bowl with mango, avocado, feta, cashews and black berries Photo credit Meghan Maguire

WHO’S IN CHARGE Once upon a time — in Julia Child’s day, say — people cooked, dined out, and ate whatever the heck they wanted with pure joy and abandon, but not anymore. Today, our heads are filled with thoughts about which foods are good and bad and guilt that we should be eating better. But whatever healthy foods you aspire to, you don’t have to make seismic changes to improve your diet.

“One of my core values is that small changes add up to big changes,” said Norwell’s Tami Guiney, owner of the bustling Daily Press juice bar and vegetarian eatery in Cohasset. Neither Guiney nor her knowledgeable head chef Meghan Maguire are vegetarians, but both their diets largely include the dishes and juices they serve. With so much of the menu dependent on fresh produce and ripe fruits, the kitchen has become terrific at curating a daily supply. “Ripeness takes a little bit of luck,” said Guiney, who grew up on a farm in Michigan cooking with her mother from their gardens. “It’s the most destabilizing thing not to have ripe avocados. We bring them in green and ripen them.”

THE LOCALE The Press is a storefront in the Old Colony Square at Cohasset Station on Route 3A. When it opened in 2014 it was small, but two years ago Guiney expanded into an adjacent space. A large circular counter fills half the airy room, the front wall is all windows, there are rustic wooden tables, and it has a corner with a love seat and chairs. Most people take their food to go, but it’s a pleasing enough space for eating in.

ON THE MENU There’s a lot more to eat here than just the dazzling cold-pressed juices, but definitely have one. The combinations on offer are skillfully balanced. The Pure Greens ($8) turns celery, kale, lemon, and apples into something that seems lighter than water yet bursting with flavor. Others are just as amazing.

On several recent visits, we’ve found sandwiches, salads, acai bowls, grain bowls, and soups beautifully prepared and the staff helpful and efficient. The veggie burger ($7.50), which can also be ordered as the Skinny Jill salad ($9), is an outstanding homemade patty with a meaty texture made of real veggies and black beans, not processed soy. Topped with a creamy aioli, fontina cheese, tomato, microgreens, and served with veggie chips, the burger is totally satisfying and delicious. Same goes for creative chili-pecan crusted cauliflower tacos ($9) with chipotle aioli and chunks of creamy avocado. The black rice bowl ($9) has become another favorite with its chewy-terrific rice, blackberries, mango, roasted cashews, chickpeas, feta, and pesto.

The Cobb salad ($9), the farmer’s daughter sandwich ($7.50), and the avocado toast ($8) are all good choices. The quinoa salad ($8) is a cool plate of the mild, proteinous grain, but beware: It has a lot of red onion (I’m asking for less next time).

Guiney’s popular acai bowls ($8) are a thick, cold puree of the nutritious purple berry topped with various fruits, granola, even goji berries. Chia seed pudding cups ($4) are another welcome snack or small nutritious meal and the daily soups also fit that category. I’ve enjoyed two: the roasted tomato and the quinoa chili ($5/$7 cup/bowl), the former sided with a gruyere toast, the latter some tortilla chips. There are no desserts, but the dreamy peanut butter (banana) blast smoothie ($7.49 for 12 ounces, $8 for 16 ounces) does a sterling imitation. And Guiney has just debuted four colorful hot “latte” drinks ($5) made with a frothy blend of coconut and almond milks flavored with various warming spices and “super foods” like cacao and the more exotic chaga, pink dragonfruit, and maca. Nice this time of year.

The Daily Press, 132 Chief Justice Cushing Highway, Cohasset, 781-261-6099,
www.thedailypressjuicebar.com .

Joan Wilder can be reached at joan.wilder@gmail.com.

WHO’S IN CHARGE

It took Pookie Akarasereepoowapon 10 years to find her way to owning her own place — the wonderful Eggs & Thai Café in Dedham Center. The Bangkok-born Marlborough resident moved to the United States in 2008 and spent her first year working in the kitchen of her aunt’s restaurant in Nashua. But Akarasereepoowapon didn’t want to cook — she wanted to serve people and run a restaurant’s front of house. To do that, she realized she had to learn to speak English well and spent the next three years back in the kitchen while studying the language. It took her another five years of working as a server at Framingham’s Pho Dakao to save the money to buy Eggs & Thai from its previous owner. Since opening in July 2018, word of mouth has drawn guests for lunch and dinner. “Business is good,” said its smiling owner.

THE LOCALE

Dedham Square continues to surprise as vibrant new businesses, cafes, and restaurants move into old spaces, enlivening the small city center. Eggs & Thai is on the fringe of the busy square — a mere block up High Street — in a half-subterranean space down a small side alley. The pristine little restaurant is a 37-seat space with peach-colored walls, marble tabletops, and various homey decorations: a lit candle, a fireplace hung on one wall, white lattice work behind a rattan table, flowers, colorful curtains, wall sconces.

ON THE MENU

Eggs & Thai Cafe’s wonderful basil half duck.

There’s something so gently insistent about the flavors of Thai food. They’re complex, yet not heavy, with various echoes of coconut, chili, holy basil, lemongrass, lime leaf, the ginger-like galangal, and the umami base notes that a bit of fish sauce lends. Eggs & Thai’s menu is large, with many variations on themes listed among the different appetizers, soups, salads, rice plates, stir-fries, noodles, and curries.

If you get lost, ask Akarasereepoowapon what to have: She’s the warm heart and soul of this unassuming restaurant. There’s so much good to eat here. Take the shrimp mango avocado curry ($19), and you should! It’s a fragrant light curry filled with large shrimp and hunks of perfectly ripe, slightly cooked avocado and mango that are exciting to eat in a hot dish.

The shrimp won ton soup ($6) is a rich broth with its chilies, sweetness, and lime hitting you all at once. Another soup, the chicken noodle ($13), has an overly mild broth but the fresh Chinese broccoli, cilantro, and scallions in it are good and it’s fun to eat Thai-style with a spoon in one hand and a fork for the noodles in the other.

The Thai broccoli ($8), made with Chinese broccoli, is a fine dish — the chard-like leaves and sweet stalks of this wonderful vegetable handled beautifully and rendered tender and meaty. The fresh rolls ($9) are light, springy rice paper roll-ups stuffed with perky baby lettuces, carrots, basil, shrimp (or tofu), and vermicelli: I would choose them over the somewhat tough chicken satay ($9). Not so the tender basil half duck ($23). This dish is served on a white platter with two fantastically crispy legs over moist meat served atop a stir fry of fresh vegetables.

The wide rice noodles in the drunken noodles ($11/$14) satisfy with every mouthful of this eggy, broccoli, onion, pepper, and carrot stir-fry and the pad Thai ($11/$14) is just as good. Be sure to consult with Akarasereepoowapon about how spicy you want your dishes: This wonderful kitchen runs hot!

A3 in Kingston

IN THE KITCHEN

If you live in the suburbs, you might not have a family-style eatery nearby that’s consistently good enough to frequent often like people do in many cities, especially European ones. But Boston’s suburban dining scene gets better every year, and Kingston took a step in that direction with the opening in 2017 of chef-owner John Cataldi’s A3. Named after the stretch of motorway in Southern Italy where Cataldi’s great-grandparents were born, A3 is the chef’s shot at reliving his childhood in the late ’60s.

“I grew up in my father’s first restaurant, Nanina’s in Fields Corner in Dorchester, eating with the whole family — my sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins all together,” said Cataldi. The chef, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, makes all A3’s pizza dough, bread, bacon, sausage, pasta, and dressings just as he’s been doing since 2004 at his first restaurant, Solstice, right next door. Whereas Solstice is more of a fine dining spot with an elaborately creative American menu, A3 is casual, but the same attention to detail is there on the plate at both restaurants.

“We’re not trying to be Northern Italian,” said Cataldi. “We’re more of a family place that makes Italian-American food: simple dishes done right with a little bit more care than most places are willing to do.”

THE LOCALE

Cataldi sure found himself a great spot for A3. It’s adjacent to Solstice in downtown Kingston, although the buildings couldn’t be more different. Solstice is set back off the road in Kingston’s beautiful old train station, and A3 is a white, single-story building right on the street. Its only signage is the digits A and 3 etched on its windows. If you don’t see it, just turn in at the sign for Solstice, which shares the same driveway entrance.

The 38-seat space is a very pretty, bright, pleasing room with windows on two sides, wooden floors and tables, white tin ceiling squares, crisp white subway tiles, and yellow pendant lighting. There are high-top tables and countertop seating along the front window and overlooking the pizza ovens and kitchen. Center stage is a big 16-seat island with chairs on all four sides — perfect for a girls’ soccer team having pizza on a recent Thursday night.

ON THE MENU

A3 bills itself as a “pizza pasta parm” place, but there are also several types of crostini, meatballs, fried mozzarella, real salads with good protein add-ons, and a big antipasto plate. The margherita pizza ($19.50) has a terrific thin crust, and I love that Cataldi makes the big pie with both fresh and aged mozzarella. Order it perhaps with a side of his great meatballs ($10), which have a comforting, light texture. They’re served three to a plate topped with a dollop of whipped ricotta and served with a slice of toasted cheese bread. A3’s Caesar salad ($10.75) is a reminder of why this simple dish is a classic. The dressing is light (Cataldi also bottles it for sale), the croutons are made from homemade bread, and it’s dusted with fluffy, freshly grated Parmesan cheese. You can really bite into the strozzaprete pasta in the carbonara ($18), its creamy sauce made with house-made bacon and a sprinkling of bread crumbs. The shrimp scampi has a mild creamy sauce that’s topped with four perfectly cooked extra large shrimp. One of the things that makes A3 so good is a professionalism that gives the kitchen a consistency you can count on. That’s key.

From the Parrot’s new rooftop patio — at low tide. Photo by Joan Wilder for the Boston Globe,.

WHO’S IN CHARGE

Chef Brian Houlihan has really topped himself this time. On July 4, the restaurateur slung a banner from the former Red Parrot in Hull unveiling his newest restaurant’s new name, The Parrot, and opening its doors. Never mind that three of the enormous restaurant’s reconfigured dining areas were still under construction: The expansive ground floor beach bar dining room was ready and Houlihan was in the kitchen.

Since moving to Boston from Ireland at 18, in 1993, and working in several of the city’s kitchens, including the Four Seasons, the Scituate resident has opened four successful restaurants, starting in 2003 with Bia Bistro in Cohasset. Next, came the Tinker’s Son in Norwell, the Galley Kitchen & Bar in Scituate, and Trident Galley & Raw Bar in Hingham. The long-running Red Parrot, an oceanfront behemoth sprawling over the equivalent of a city block, had gone downhill over the years and Houlihan’s wonderful transformation of it is thrilling.

Asked why he would take on such an enormous venue, Houlihan joked. “Oh, I don’t know. It’s an icon? It was my civic duty?”

Pan roasted salmon. Photo by Joan Wilder for the Boston Globe.

THE LOCALE

The new restaurant is so completely changed it’s disorienting to people who knew the old place. The beautifully spacious beach bar dining room, with its simple white walls, tin ceiling, and wood floors is an airy space completely open to the sea: The restaurant’s front wall is glass and folds out of the way, accordion-style.

Meanwhile, around back is an entirely different environment: an Irish tavern in dark gentlemanly colors with its own back door. Up a half-flight — Houlihan calls it the mezzanine — is a dining room with large windows. Go up one more flight and you’re on the rooftop patio with its amazing views. Inside, construction is still underway on a dining room that should be open by Thanksgiving. All together, The Parrot will seat 400. Houlihan may develop two menus for different areas, and is likely to shutter the beach bar in the winter and open the pub and the third-floor dining room.

First floor beach bar at the new Parrot at Nantasket Beach. Photo for Boston Globe by Joan Wilder

ON THE MENU

The Parrot’s starting summer menu smartly mixes $6-$8 burgers, tacos, sliders and other beachy fare with a nicely chosen handful each of raw bar selections, starters, salads, and entrees that top out at $48 for a 28-ounce rib eye for two. On five or six summer visits, we ate up everything: the carefree summer atmosphere of the inside-outside beach bar as well as lots of terrific plates. Among my favorites is the yellow fin tuna poke ($14), a gorgeous, velvety smooth plate of diced tuna in a ginger, garlic, soy, hoisin, lime marinade. The batter-fried Scituate haddock ($20), a.k.a. fish n’ chips, is a gorgeous filet of haddock in a batter crispy enough to let you hold it, and light enough to break apart at the touch of your teeth. The house clam chowder ($6) is a very satisfying cup thick with plenty of tender clams. All the tacos are good: the fried haddock ($8) with its pico de gallo and sriracha aioli, my favorite. The smash burger ($8) delivers a hamburger experience and the pulled pork slider ($6) is better with its smoky meat and bright slaw. Houlihan reminds me most of Houlihan in two entrees. The rustic pan-roasted salmon ($26) is enriched with bits of very crispy skin and served with fingerling potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts over an outstanding light seafood sauce. I loved it. Equally great is the grilled swordfish ($28). The large filet is topped with a small pile of lightly pickled, sweet cucumbers and carrots and served over some sensational chimichurri sauce. All we needed was more!

Il Massimo’s frito misto, a piping hot plate of fried shrimp, scallops, calamari, octopus, and smelts. Photo by Joan Wilder for the Boston Globe.

WHO’S IN CHARGE

It’s uplifting that the newest restaurant at Dedham’s Legacy Place is an Italian family-run spot, not a chain. Il Massimo is owned by Esther and Joseph DeQuattro, a husband-and-wife team from Providence. The couple have been in the business since opening their first restaurant, Pane e Vino, on Federal Hill in Providence in 2002. Fourteen years later, in 2016, they launched Il Massimo in the same neighborhood. Last year, Legacy Place approached the couple about opening another Il Massimo in Dedham, and they decided to go for it: “It’s only 35 minutes without traffic,” said Esther (don’t smile, Boston). On any given day, the DeQuattros will be at one or another of their three places. Executive chef Joseph, who learned to cook from his Italian grandmother and mother in Providence, oversees kitchen operations, and Esther the front of house. Running the Dedham kitchen on a day-to-day basis is chef Edgar Morales, who left his job as the chef of Il Massimo Providence to open Legacy Place.

THE LOCALE

Il Massimo at Legacy Place. Photo by Joan Wilder for the Boston Globe.

When the DeQuattros acquired the space that Met Bar & Grill vacated last summer, they took it down to the studs and spent five months renovating. The result is a spacious 200-seat restaurant with tall ceilings, chandeliers, a large glass wine wall, modern fireplaces, and several different seating environments. There are tables in dimly lit areas, wooden high tops, an elevated row of round booths along one wall, a curtained private room for 40. An L-shaped bar extends into a grouping of tables street-side in a light-filled area with white walls that opens to an enclosed, trellised patio. Depending on where you’re sitting, Il Massimo is good for a private relaxed meal, a bite after J. Crew (but before Anthropologie), drinks after work, or a private party. It has a high-energy, capable, corporate feel, but because it’s in a shopping and entertainment center, guests have carte blanche to come as they are: in sweats during a day of shopping, dressed up to do the town, or anything in between.

ON THE MENU

Il Massimo is open all day and the lunch, brunch, and dinner menus are large with lots of good choices. The restaurant also offers a prix fixe three-course lunch with many choices for $20, which is hard to beat. I’m crazy about the polpo appetizer ($14 lunch/$15 dinner): It’s a cold plate of poached octopus, sliced as thinly as prosciutto, served with raw fennel, oranges, and micro-greens. The luscious fritto misto ($16 lunch/$18 dinner) antipasto is a piping hot plate of fried shrimp, scallops, calamari, octopus (that eat like scallops), and tiny little headless smelts. The Caesar salad ($10 lunch/$12 dinner) delivers its classic goodness (and is a large plate even when ordered as part of the prix fixe lunch). Fettuccine alla Bolognese ($16 lunch/$23 dinner) has never been my favorite dish, but our friend liked his. The eggplant Parmesan ($12 lunch) has thin delicate slices of eggplant, but never mind that — order the ravioli ripieni di burrata ($16 lunch/$20 dinner)! The large ravioli ooze soft burrata cheese and are covered with a buttery stew of grape tomatoes, toasted garlic, and herbs. The branzino is an equally enticing ($18 lunch/$26 dinner) dish. The whole grilled fish (sans head) is butterflied and served with soft beluga lentils and a pile of perfect cauliflowerettes toasted to a gorgeous medium brown. What a fab new restaurant!

Il Massimo, 400 Legacy Place, Dedham, 781-493-8113, dedham.massimori.com.

Lucky Finn Cafe on Scituate Harbor. Photo by Joan Wilder for the Boston Globe.

WHO’S IN CHARGE

From the day Mary Ellen Stoddard got the idea to buy the Lucky Finn Café to the day she sealed the deal was exactly three months. That was in June 2017 and since then, Stoddard has expanded to year-round service and added a few menu items, but otherwise hasn’t changed much at this beautiful café on Scituate Harbor.

In fact, the Norwell resident is about to open a second Lucky Finn at the brand new Merchants Row in Hanover. The second café will have more space for cooking and storage than the Scituate location, which is housed in the single downstairs room of a building constructed on stilts over the water. Lucky Finn is among the places with the best views on the South Shore, and maybe the only one where you can take a seat on the water for the price of a cup of coffee.

To pay homage to the original café, Stoddard is installing a large screen at the new Hanover outpost, where she’ll stream a live feed from the video camera she has on the Scituate café’s back deck.

“I think that will be really fun,” said Stoddard. “You can be having a hot drink in Norwell in the winter, and see what’s happening on the harbor.”

THE LOCALE

Housed in a gorgeous cedar shack perched above a small boat pier, the café’s location is outstanding. The interior is a shabby-chic mix of bleached white wood, distressed wood tables, rattan chairs, and big windows with expansive views of the harbor from every seat. Most summer days, the doors and windows are all open so instead of air conditioning, breezes and sea smells fill the place. Snag a stool on the rear deck and watch summer play out across the harbor.

ON THE MENU

I love coffeehouses that serve more than just baked goods, and Lucky Finn does. Of course, it wouldn’t be a café worth mentioning without good coffee, and Stoddard’s got that covered. We’ve had many of Lucky Finn’s espresso drinks and the flavor of the single-origin, mildly roasted beans, from Barrington Coffee Roasting Co. in Lee, Mass., isn’t too dark or too light, but just right. A selection of other drinks is nicely curated, with the freshly squeezed lemonade ($3.75) a standout. (Would that it were served in a glass for sipping by the sea, not plastic!)

The small all-day menu offers a variety of choices, especially for a spot that has no kitchen. There’s something tasty and nourishing for everybody, vegans and the gluten-averse included. Fresh pastries arrive daily from Pain D’Avignon in Hyannis, and there are savory sandwiches, salads, a couple soups, and more.

If you don’t want bread, the power bowl ($8.95) is a deconstructed breakfast sandwich with baked eggs, quinoa, cheddar, and ripe avocado over a bed of greens. Lobster rolls (market rate, $19.50 that day) are a good option for visiting guests who want a piece of New England, and the grilled cheese ($6.95) and the tuna melt ($8.95) both hit the spot.

Each bite of the humble veggie hummus wrap ($6.95) is a surprising burst of fresh goodness in a party of cukes, carrots, spinach, and red onion, but the wraps are small here. Same goes for the BLT and avocado wrap ($7.95) — it’s wonderful but even better if you choose sourdough, as is the very tasty cranberry walnut chicken salad sandwich ($7.95).

Whatever you order, every seat in the house is pure summer.

Lucky Finn Café, 206 Front St., Scituate. 781-378-2932, www.luckyfinncafe.com .

A single Wellfleet oyster at Salt. Photo by Joan Wilder for the Boston Globe.

WHO’S IN CHARGE

Chef Johnny Sheehan has got himself his first restaurant on the Plymouth waterfront. Sheehan, who worked in Boston at Ken Oringer’s Clio and the remarkable but short-lived Liquid Art House, has partnered with co-owner Dan Casinelli and family to open Salt Raw Bar.

Casinelli, a Plymouth native, worked as a restaurant service consultant before opening Leena’s Kitchen across town in 2016. Meanwhile, the award-winning Sheehan, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Cambridge, loved Plymouth when cheffing at the town’s New World Tavern a few years back. Long acquainted, the two men reconnected at the 2018 Nantucket Food & Wine festival and a restaurant was born.

“I was very into working on something together because I know what Johnny’s capable of,” said Casinelli. The partners share a passion for serving guests fine food in the pleasurable environments that high hospitality can create. “We’re really excited to see more and more people sharing dishes and eating like a family.”

THE LOCALE

The owners gave the former Patrizia’s trattoria a facelift before opening in late 2018, but the 120-seat space didn’t need much. The pretty restaurant sprawls up a slight hillside from the street, set among the shops in the meandering Village Landing Marketplace. A beautiful front patio (peruse the outdoor sectional sofa for really comfy dining) overlooks the local scene and the harbor, and a covered side patio, up a little alleyway, offers shelter and extends the outdoor season. Inside, two dining rooms and two bars provide relaxed upscale seating.

ON THE MENU

Sheehan’s canvas is big and the menu he and Casinelli have created can only be called modern American cuisine — it’s full of flavors from all over the world. Sheehan deploys French sauces as easily as he does Asian influences while showcasing favorites featuring spices and preparations from regional America, Mexico, Italy, Peru, North Africa, and more. When developing the menu, the chef relied on good technique and fresh ingredients.

“I reached back to all the interesting flavors I love from across the globe,” said Sheehan.

Both lunch and dinner menus include creative raw fish dishes and a complement of small, large, and (at dinner) family-sized plates. Among the offerings are such diverse dishes as burgers and steak frites, salads, cheese dumplings, fried chicken marinated in Tikka Masala curry, lobster tagliatelle, seared salmon and halibut, and chateaubriand.

The service was just right on two recent visits and the kitchen sent out beautiful plates. Even a single Wellfleet oyster ($3) is given every respect: My friend’s arrived atop an earthenware bowl of ice with a slice of lemon and three sauces, including a deeply flavorful cherry mignonette. The fried cauliflower ($12) is a wonderful plate of tempura-like flowerets, seasoned with the Moroccan spice ras el hanout and scattered raisins and pistachios. The family-sized skillet of seafood fried rice ($34) is a gorgeous light summer dish studded with crab, shrimp, sausage, egg, peas, carrot, scallion, basil, and cilantro drizzled with a Peruvian spice aioli. The lobster roll ($19) is a big sandwich of lightly dressed lobster meat on that classic deliciousness that is a grilled brioche bun. On an overcast day, the Szechuan beef ramen ($17) hits the spot. This bowl of spicy broth is filled with wide slices of beef as velvety as pasta, shitake mushrooms, and noodles. I ate it with a porcelain spoon in one hand and a fork in the other. Yum.

Salt Raw Bar, 170 Water St., Plymouth, 774-283-4660, www.saltrawbarplymouth.com