IN THE KITCHEN
Chef owner Brian Houlihan opened his first restaurant, Cohasset’s Bia Bistro, 15 years ago. Since then, he’s built a great reputation and a small empire on the South Shore, making it a better place. First he expanded Bia from 45 seats to 80 (and is about to expand it even more). In 2009, he opened the popular Tinker’s Son in Norwell, and in 2013 partnered with Erica White to open Scituate’s Galley Kitchen & Bar. A little more than a year ago, he debuted his fourth place, Trident Galley & Raw Bar, hiring Patrick Hurley, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, to head the kitchen. Each restaurant is different, but each reflects Houlihan’s love of robust flavor, careful preparations, local ingredients, and good service.
THE LOCALE
It’s been 10 years since the then-emerging Hingham Shipyard complex got hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis. I would have bet that it’d never make it and I’d have been wrong. Unlike Paul Wahlberg’s struggle to get Alma Nove up and running back then, Houlihan’s timing was better: He slid into the former Union Fish space like a smart hermit crab finding a good shell. The restaurant is a casual upscale, L-shaped place with a long marble bar, walls of windows, a lot of pleasing rustic wood, a partially open stainless kitchen, and only two small TVs! Houlihan put his touches on the space, but basically it was already great. In warm weather, Trident’s patio gets packed and its little corner of the shipyard — clustered with Hingham Beer Works, Wahlburgers, and Alma Nove — is right by the water.
ON THE MENU
Trident isn’t just a raw bar. Aside from a range of oysters there are half a dozen mains, charcuterie plates, and 30-40 smaller dishes that range in size and price ($4-$16). A lunch menu adds some sandwiches to the mix, and weekend brunch includes a few breakfast dishes. On three recent visits, the service was friendly and good, the atmosphere upbeat. The duck confit ($12) is a tender (salty) leg sided with a frisee salad dressed in a bright citrus vinaigrette that pairs deliciously. The fried fish taco ($6) is crispy and built with care: The small round is piled with very fresh micro greens, onions, frisee, cilantro, and fresh salsa. Pan-seared sea scallops ($14) are lovely atop roasted sweet peppers and served on one of the restaurant’s many pretty plates, this one a white rectangle. The good grilled Spanish octopus ($16) is a large curl of the meaty fish, served with great sautéed kale and fingerling potatoes. For dinner one night, salmon ($28) is a nicely pan-seared fillet, and the kitchen obliges our friend and serves it with rice and roasted cauliflower rather than its regular sides. The chicken avocado sandwich ($14), comes with bacon, cheese, onions, truffle mayo, and patatas bravas. The roasted root vegetables and creamy polenta that side the braised short rib ($12) are as mouthwatering as the tender meat. We said nothing about not liking the lamb kafta skewers ($12), but noticing that the dish went uneaten our waiter took the item off the bill. Extremely hospitable. What else? The good duck liver pate ($6) is served with lightly grilled bread, mustard, and pickled veggies. Of the three house desserts on tap this month, we chose the wrong one: an undercooked apple crumble ($9) without much crumble. It was, however, topped with Norwell’s Hornstra Farm ice cream, which melted over the warm apples and in our mouths. A rare miss for Houlihan and a great save from a local purveyor.
Trident Galley & Raw Bar, 23 Shipyard Drive, Hingham, 781-374-7225, www.tridentrawbar.com.
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The Summer House at Just Right Farm
It’s hard to think of the South Shore without conjuring endless beaches. But a bit inland and south the area opens into vast fields, bogs, and woods that stretch into deep countryside.
How surprising to find fine dining in an area like this, then again, how appropriate to eat where food is grown.
This is the idea behind Kimberly and Mark Russo’s new farm-to-table dinners – staged at their Plympton farm in an elegant, screened-in summerhouse 20 paces from their kitchen.
In case you’ve missed this phenomenon, family farms across the country have been hosting dinners in their fields, barns, and kitchens for a while now. The meals are prix fixe, single seating events that feature locally sourced foods, many of which are grown on the farm.
Since buying the 10-acre Just Right Farm in 2004, the Russo’s have been restoring the old place to reflect their belief in weaving simple rural ways back into contemporary life. They’ve built a large organic garden; a workshop where Kimberly makes furniture; a labyrinth for contemplative walking where Mark holds retreats; a restaurant caliber kitchen; and most recently, the stand-alone screen house.
Mark, a veterinarian, helps host the Friday and Saturday evening dinners but they are clearly Kimberly’s baby. Working with one other cook – caterer Elaine Murphy who this year closed her True Blue BBQ stand in Kingston — Kim devises each week’s menu from her garden and what’s available from area – and regional – farms.
“We don’t go to the grocery store,” says Kimberly, who has owned two small restaurants and worked in the industry all her adult life.
There is nothing in the screened-in dining room that is not both utilitarian and beautiful. Kimberly built the three, 10-foot wooden tables that seat a total of 24 guests for each five-course dinner ($100 per person). Made from ash, they are stained black and set with tall sparkling gas lanterns, flowers, small salt and pepper cellers, and simple white porcelain plate ware. Three handmade sideboards of rough-hewn wood and iron pipe — left over from the kitchen renovation — easily hold towering flower arrangements and various family-style side dishes. Ceiling fans keep the air moving and a rich mahogany floor shines darkly. Only the billowing white drapes gathered in the corners are for show alone: Who would want to block out the surrounding woods?
One side is better than the next
Eating vegetables that Kimberly grew – and cooked – at a table she made, in a building she designed, makes a statement.
Sitting eight to a table promotes a fun communal experience, but the seating is so spacious it’s perfectly comfortable to be private if you’d prefer. The service is marked by a similar balance of availability and reserve. Kimberly greets guests before dinner with a quick talk about the place, introduces the servers thoughtfully, then retreats to her kitchen. Throughout the meal, either a server or Mark introduces every dish, explaining where the foods were sourced.
In this the inaugural season of 16 weekends, Kimberly and company have their act together. Minutes after the 7 p.m. start time and Kimberly’s welcome, the servers deliver a taste from the chef – the tiniest, exquisite amuse bouche: a square of feta cheese (Falls Village, Conn.) from goats at a farm the couple knows well and tiny bites of roasted cherry tomato and eggplant from the garden.
The first course follows effortlessly despite a torrential downpour that only makes things cozier: delicious briny wild blue mussels (Jonesboro, Maine) atop a lovely linguini in cream sauce.
A vividly scarlet chilled beet soup with a dollop of crème fraiche comes next: beautiful and delicious.
It’s a homey touch to offer a pristine white bowl of brightly colored pickled veggies on the sideboard next to loaves of bread from Plymouth’s wood-fired Hearth bakery. I take spoonfuls of sweet onion, uncoiling in small bites, and my neighbor takes turnips. And the simplest thing is to die for: rosemary-flavored butter!
Course three is a composed salad on a narrow plate that makes the most of Just Right’s farm garden: There are long, thin ribbons of cucumber arranged in curls; red, yellow, and roasted tomatoes in all their ripe glory; fingerling potatoes, as small as grapes, sitting on a smear of aioli, and the babiest of carrots, cut lengthwise, looking like perfect candies in the soft light.
“Intermezzo,” says our server, as she comes around with an unexpected scoop of perfumey green tea and mint sorbet to refresh the palate.
The main course is bountiful. A pan seared pork rib chop (Radham, N.Y.), topped with slices of grilled rosemary peaches (Plympton), lies over a pile of outstanding grits with feta that has people who say they don’t like grits swooning. The plate is full of sides, one better than the next: slices of heirloom tomatoes; a fabulous kale and cabbage slaw dressed with a bit of smoky bacon fat; and sweet corn cut from the cob.
Guests linger over a fluffy, perfectly sweet and sour round of lemon mascarpone topped with candied orange rind and sided with some syrupy blueberries (Dummerston, Vt.) and two of the best shortcake cookies ever. Coffee (Newton) in French presses appears on the sideboards as Kimberly comes into the dining room again. After introducing Murphy as the woman “to blame if you liked the cooking,” she goes from person to person offering slivers of a second dessert: a wonderful dark chocolate tart. Too much!
Don’t miss this place.
140 Palmer Rd., Plympton Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m., from June 15 to Sept. 29, by reservations only 781 936-5330 justrightfarm.com Accessible to the handicapped Major credit cards accepted
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Veggie burger at JW Burger Bar
Even a mediocre french fry can hit the spot, but a real one — made from raw potatoes and deep-fried perfectly — is one of life’s simple pleasures.
The new JW’s Burger Bar has some.
Cut from russets daily, they’re thinish, crispy on the outside and meaty on the inside. But they’re not the only thing that sets JW’s apart from the other new burger places around.
This Scituate eatery is the latest offering from South Shore restaurateur Joanie Wilson and her husband, chef Jimmy Burke, whose first restaurant, Allegro, broke culinary ground in Boston when it opened in 1981.
Since then, Burke has opened a string of great restaurants — currently putting most of his energy into the couple’s outstanding Italian place, Orta, in Pembroke. Although JW’s is largely Wilson’s baby, Burke has designed much of the menu, and his award-winning touch is apparent.
JW’s shares the former Raymond’s paint store building with a dance studio, and the division of space is quirky. A walkway leading to the side rear of the building brings you to JW’s front door and entry into a narrow interior hallway. The high-ceilinged main room houses a shiny, blond wooden bar and extends into a shack-like, side-room dining area.
The whole space is hung with paraphernalia and ephemera with a sort of western, nautical, retro, tropical theme — all of which conveys a lively, wacky vibe. Best of all, there’s a great patio out back.
In case you’re confused about the name: JW’s Burger Bar opened as Backyard Burger Bar in December. Last month, however, the couple was forced to change the name when a chain of Tennessee burger joints with a similar name threatened to sue.
Although this is predominantly a burger place, a close reading of the menu will reward those who don’t want burgers, or want to eat lightly, or are even vegetarians.
The veggie burger ($10) is a truly delicious original, not some frozen cardboard stand-in. Although it’s a bit crumbly, it’s a tasty lentil-, barley-, and vegetable-based patty topped with homemade salsa.
Other lighter options include an excellent grilled Bell & Evans (antibiotic- and hormone-free) chicken breast sandwich ($8) and several salads that can be ordered with various protein add-ons. A Caesar ($7), for instance, with a salmon burger or chicken breast on top (add $8) is a very nice meal.
The peel-and-eat wild shrimp ($9) are beautifully springy and clean-tasting, their dorsal veins cut out through the shell. They come on a small bed of mesclun with lemon and a cocktail sauce with plenty of horseradish kick. The fried shrimp in the appetizer ($8.25) are light and crispy, although I prefer a more savory batter — this one reminds me of beignets. Still, you want to keep biting into another one, and the house-made tartar sauce is a big cut above the average while absolutely delivering the flavor of the condiment so many of us love with fried fish.
Which reminds me: Another tasty departure from burgers is the fried fish sandwich ($12), which is large enough to be, basically, fish and chips with a bun.
And the beef burgers? They’re good. According to John Dewar at meat distributor T.F. Kinnealey Co., in Brockton, the “natural” beef comes from Nebraska from animals that are not administered growth enhancers or antibiotics.
We’ve enjoyed the burger ($10) and the bacon cheeseburger ($13) – half-pounders big enough to have a pink middle (unlike fast-food burgers, which can only come well done). Turkey burgers ($11), which can be stultifyingly bland, are moist and flavorful, too.
The restaurant’s ribs ($14) are pretty spicy, and the hunk of seductive, diner-style grilled cornbread that comes with them is a sweet contrast. Worth mentioning, too, is the cooling house cole slaw. And, if you like barbecue, try the pulled-pork sandwich ($10).
Desserts are confined to a few selections of cupcakes from the superb Pembroke-based JennaCAKES. But on three visits, we were too full to remember to order one.
Next time — out on the patio.
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As Jacques Pépin made the rounds of the 120 guests attending the celebrity chef dinner at Hingham’s Summer Shack last Monday, guest after guest embraced the legendary chef – metaphorically or literally.
“We just love you!’’ said a woman as she held Pépin’s hand in both her own.
An exceedingly social creature, Pépin matched this outpouring of affection with the open-heartedness that characterizes all his work: the 21 books; decades of magazine articles; university and culinary school teaching; and the hundreds of PBS cooking shows that began long before anyone had even thought of the Food Network.
Among his vast accomplishments is a decidedly local one. Pépin and longtime friend Julia Child founded the country’s first master of liberal arts in gastronomy degree program at Boston University in 1993. The program combines cultural studies with the university’s Culinary Arts Program, which was founded by Child, Pépin, and Summer Shack owner-chef Jasper White.
“Jacques is the best teacher of technique in this country,’’ said Rebecca Alssid, director of BU’s Food and Wine program.
“I am more a teacher than a chef,’’ said Pépin, as a line of adoring fans waited to have him sign his new book, “Essential Pépin: 700 Recipes From My Life in Food,’’ before being seated for the one-time, $250 prix fixe dinner.
The book is illustrated with 300 of Pépin’s charming drawings – he’s been painting for 50 years. And rather than a simple collection of his greatest hits, many of his recipes have been simplified for this edition.
“I like to simplify,’’ said Pépin, who experiences cooking as an ever-changing pursuit that continually presents in new ways. White expressed a similar sentiment, likening the appeal of cooking’s infinite variety to the limitless music a composer can create with the same 12 notes.
In the process of revisiting decades of recipes for the new book, Pepin saw many of them differently than when he originally wrote them.
“I’d look at a recipe and say, ‘Why did I do that?’ And find a slightly simpler way.’ ’’
Jasper White, owner of Summer Shack, with Jacques Pépin, the first celebrity chef in his winter series.
According to the man many remember from his TV series “Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home,’’ the freedom to forge new approaches emerges only after a cook has mastered his medium. For this, Pépin knows that repetition is the key.
“For the professional chef, you must repeat, repeat, repeat techniques until they become part of you, part of your DNA, and the knowledge is in your hands. Until then, you can’t concentrate on the texture of the dish, the flavors, the combinations,’’ he said.
Along with this emphasis on technique is Pépin’s equally strong insistence that respect for food and pleasure must accompany any good cooking experience.
“Young chefs who come to me and say they want to write books and create television shows will be disappointed because that is unlikely to happen. You have to love cooking, feel gratified feeding people – and then being a chef can be a nice life.’’
For people who don’t cook but want to learn, Pépin takes a page from Child’s book. “Do you have a friend that cooks? Ask if you can go to their house an hour ahead and watch them cook. By the second glass of wine, even if the chicken is burned a little bit, who cares? It really doesn’t matter that much. Relax. You are creating pleasure, you are supposed to have pleasure yourself. You have to look at cooking as a fun thing, then you get better at it.’’
While Pépin’s hundreds of shows and exquisitely detailed cookbook instructions offer a wealth of technique, technology has put a wondrous tool in the master teacher’s hands: The book comes with the three-hour DVD, “All the Techniques That Cooks Need to Know.’’
“I’m dean of studies at the French Culinary Institute for 25 years in New York and a teacher at BU for 30 years,’’ said Pépin. “All those schools are very expensive, and basically most of the techniques we teach are on this tape,’’ he said.
“With the tape you can watch it again, put it back, put it back, stop it – and then you can see, ‘I think his knife is a little more flat when he scraped the butter.’ This is invaluable.’’
Monday marked the first of Summer Shack’s second season of celebrity chef dinners. The general procedure has the visiting chefs teach their recipes to Summer Shack’s staff and cook the dinner with them.
In this case, White’s staff cooked Pépin’s menu. Over dessert – an ethereal frozen Grand Marnier soufflé – Pépin loudly clinked his glass to get everybody’s attention and praised White and his crew.
“They did it better than I could have,’’ said Pépin, eliciting a cheerful “no’’ from the crowd. White went on to applaud his friend and introduce his kitchen staff. Half the guests were standing and applauding while this warm exchange continued.
The meal began with a lovely amuse-bouche of molasses-glazed salmon and fennel salad on brown bread, accompanied by Grand Brut, Perrier-Jouët.
Next, was Pépin’s tender mushroom-stuffed escargots with a bright frisée salad, an old recipe from his days at Plaza Athénée in Paris. White did a brilliant job with Pépin’s lobster in artichoke hearts – a dish that required cooks to trim six cases of artichokes down to the luscious meat at their cores.
The main course was chicken ballotine with a turnip and potato purée sided with smoky turnip greens. A Pouilly-Fumé and a California pinot noir were poured freely.
Although White and Pépin can’t remember exactly when they met, they were both close friends with Child.
Pépin met her in 1961, when she “was totally unknown.’’
“Julia had sent her manuscript to a friend of mine – Helen McCall, editor of McCall’s in New York. When Helen asked me to look at it, I did, and we thought it was very good.
“Helen said, ‘Well, the woman is from California and she’s coming to New York next week, why don’t we cook for her? It’s a big woman with a terrible voice.’ That was Julia.’’
And that’s Jacques.
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News of the recent opening of Hingham’s new burger joint exploded this summer in a Hollywood-powered media blitz that was hard to miss. Even before the TV segments, newspaper, US and People magazine blurbs, there was lots of local talk: a deal for a reality show on the place had been signed; a green initiative, somehow linked to the White House, was underway; and plans were being drawn for a nationwide chain.
Whether or not these rumors come to pass, the hilariously and brilliantly named Wahlburgers, lends some of Hollywood’s bright light to the Launch at Hingham Shipyard complex, hopefully helping to anchor its growing presence.
The 80-seat (there are another 40 on the patio) uber fast food restaurant and bar is owned by longtime South Shore chef Paul Wahlberg and his celebrity brothers: TV- and movie stars Donnie and Mark Wahlberg.
In June 2010, when Chef Paul opened his first restaurant, Alma Nove, across the street from the new Wahlburgers, his
brothers were investors, but quietly so.
Now, with Alma Nove’s success, the brothers have put their star power and family story on proud display in a brand with an unforgettable name that could take this bad boy to the stars.
The retro modern diner-inspired décor is filled with movie memorabilia and the family focus is graphically encapsulated in the restaurant’s highly visible logo: Wahlburgers: Our Family, Our Story, Our Burgers. That story — written on the rear wall in large letters — is a familiar Boston tale: nine kids in a triple-decker in Dorchester didn’t have much but each other.
The bright windowed space is a large V-shape (or maybe it’s half a W?) with an open kitchen between the two rectangular wings. One side offers table service with seating either at large communal tables for 10, or at the bar. On the other side, people order at the counter and either sit at a booth or a two-top – or get the food to go. In warm weather, there’s great patio seating.
Housed in the former Pizzapalooza (which, sadly, never drew a crowd), Wahlburgers has been packed (during peak hours at least) daily since it opened last month. On four recent visits, timed to avoid crowds, the place was still crowded. The owners, who also include family friend Ed St. Croix (cq), have created a very clever business by including a full bar and making it the only place around that’s open seven days a week until 1 a.m. The option, too, for self-service nicely removes the cost of a tip, as do the credit card receipts, which offer no line for writing in a tip.
Wahlburgers isn’t really about the food. It’s about fun and filling up on satisfying comforts in a lively, easy environment. Eight flat screens line the walls above the bar – the brothers are big Boston sports fans. Music, too, is important to the lads (Donnie got his start in the ‘80s in the boy group “New Kids on the Block”) so the sound system is great and the play list widely varied.
The menu is small but well thought out. There are nicely seasoned turkey burgers ($6.25) and three main beef burgers – the cheapest being the single decker ($4.50), and the most expensive, the triple decker at $9 (“like the house we grew up in” says the menu). The sandwiches have a grilled toasted bun and can be ordered with a large selection of toppings that includes fresh jalapenos, smoked tomato salsa, and sriracha sauce. A single or double decker with, say, catsup, mayo, mustard, pickles, tomato, and the “government” (American) cheese the Wahlberg’s grew up on, delivers mouthfuls of hard to resist, classic, fast-food burger flavor.
Three burgers with set toppings are offered as specialty choices. The Thanksgiving turkey burger ($7.50) is topped with stuffing, cranberry sauce, roasted squash, and mayo. It is sweet, savory, and gooey — in a good way. The beef is all antibiotic- and hormone-free, a nice boon, and healthier burgers, including salmon and mushroom, are due to debut soon. The kids menu has good Bell & Evans (cq) hormone- and antibiotic-free chicken fingers with fries for $5; a simple grilled cheese on thick white bread with fries ($4), “smahlburgers” with fries ($5), and kid-sized sodas for a buck. There are also tater tots ($3) and sweet potato tots ($3), which are fine but I’d rather have the fries ($3).
I love (God forgive me) Wahlburger’s hot dog ($4), with its snappy bite, the choice of some good sauerkraut, and its grilled roll. (I don’t know where else around here I could get as good a dirty water dog as this one.) We also found the skinny onion rings outstanding, and one hard pull on the thick chocolate frappe ($4.65), made with local ice cream from Nona’s Homemade (cq) ice cream shop, brings on flashes of pure childhood goodness.
The chef’s ingrained hospitality is evident in little touches aimed to please a variety of guests: good French roast coffee; house-made lemonade, locally-sourced Hornstra Farms chocolate milk, and caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, and avocado as optional burger add-ons ($1).
Noticeable too are a pair of plain salt and peppershakers on each table (no need for paper packets of S & P at Wahlburgers).
Very retro.
19 Shipyard Drive, Hingham
Daily 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
781 749-2110
wahlburgers.com
Accessible to the handicapped
Major credit cards accepted
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Being a café lover of the first order (there’s not much I enjoy more than hanging at a great café), I am thrilled out of my mind that Hingham resident Bob Weeks, of Redeye Roasters, is planning to open a café in the Bare Cove Marina building, across from Stars Restaurant, on Hingham Harbor.You may know Weeks from the hand-roasted coffee he sells at several local shops or from the great coffee he serves from his colorful coffee truck at the Hingham Farmers Market. The new café-to-be — Redeye Roasters Coffee and Espresso Lounge — will occupy 1,000 square feet of the side of the marina building toward the Hingham Bathing Beach, while the other side will serve as storage for marine activities. [See the view below] “We’re putting windows on the water side, so very soon you’ll be able to have a coffee and look at the boats and water,” said Weeks, who hopes to open by late August or early September.
Weeks, who launched Redeye Roasters after leaving his advertising job in 2006, plans to offer all types of coffee drinks, teas, pastries, gelato, and affogato. (He may be in the market for a local baker to supply the shop, so if you’re that person, check him out.)
In Plymouth, the historic building where the wonderful Martha’s Stone Soup restaurant (cq) used to be is set to open on June 23 as a restaurant serving classic American fare.
Rye Tavern is the newest baby of partners Christopher Tocchio andKristian Deyesso, owners of Plymouth’s Union Fish Seafood & Raw Bar; Boston’s Church Restaurant & Nightclub; and The Regal Beagle in Brookline.
The owners have gutted the building, known as the Wright Tavern, built in 1792, and created seating for about 50, which includes some patio dining, said Brandon Babiarz, executive chef of Union Fish. The menu will be small and have a farm-to-table, seasonal focus inspired by the garden on the property.
It’s great that these guys are renovating and restoring this special, remote venue at the intersection of Old Tavern Trail and Old Sandwich Road in Pinehills. The restaurant will be open at 5 p.m. daily for dinner.
The former Cafe Ona (and before that Cafe Calabria) at 443 Nantasket Ave. in Hull is now Lynda’s Restaurant – a breakfast and lunch place owned by Joe DiVito, who owns Weinberg’s Bakery just up the road. The restaurant, which is open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., serves breakfast all the time as well as lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Among the many standard American breakfast and lunch dishes are some Italian favorites. Lynda’s also serves espresso drinks, Hornstra dairy’s local milk and chocolate milk, and soymilk. Daily specials are posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
DiVito has been able to secure customer parking in the Knights of Columbus lot across the street from the restaurant, something the site’s former incarnations didn’t have.
Chef Paul Wahlberg and company are planning to open a casual burger, hot dog, and frappe type restaurant adjacent to the chef’s fine dining restaurant, Alma Nove, at the Hingham Shipyard late this summer, according to Wahlberg’s publicist, Mindy Valone, at Boston’s CM Communications.
Although Wahlberg spoke at length to a local paper last month about his plans and inspiration for the new place, he’s now unavailable for comment, so we’ve been unable to confirm anything more than the basics.
Wahlberg opened Alma Nove last summer with partners that include brothers Mark (movie guy) and Donnie (music and movie guy).
A new burger place, Wild Willy’s Burgers, is planning to open later this month at 588 Washington St., not far from the Fore River Bridge. The restaurant is part of a small chain – there are six others spread among Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire.
The new place is owned by husband and wife Paul and Ruth Bennett.According to the restaurant’s Facebook page, Wild Willy’s will be open daily from 11 a.m. (noon on Sundays) until 9 p.m. (8 p.m. on Sundays). For info about possible employment, call 617- 472-9453, or stop by the restaurant.
The Quincy Farmers Market, which opens on June 24, will be selling Massachusetts wines for the first time this season.
According to Janet Little, market manager, state legislation was passed last year that allows the sale of Commonwealth farm wines at farmers markets. The city of Quincy this month licensed the farmers market to hold wine tastings and sales.
The market, which is open from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays, will feature wines from one of four Commonwealth wineries each week. The participating wineries are Coastal Vineyards of South Dartmouth; Westport Rivers of Westport; Zoll Cellars of Shrewsbury, and Turtle Creek of Lincoln.
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I saw the future of South Shore dining last weekend and it was moving.Literally, moving.
Restaurants on wheels – food trucks – are getting major support from the Boston City Council, which passed an ordinance in April to expand access to them. More recently, legislators opened up the first batch of locations throughout the city for about 30 mobile eateries, and — like mushrooms after rain — the trucks are sprouting up everywhere.
And last Saturday in Plymouth, there was The Fabulous Food Truck Festival.
Circled around the green at Pinehills Village, a half-dozen mobile restaurants created something akin to an instant, gourmet food court.
At midday there were at least 60 people in line at all the more unusual, new trucks like Bon Me, The Eat Wagon, and Grilled Cheese Nation.
Summer Shack’s Clambake on Wheels, The Froyo truck, and Kick Ass Cupcakes were also crowded, and although standing around on a beautiful day isn’t the worst way to pass time, I just didn’t have the patience.
If, however, I could walk up to a truck at a local park or parking lot and get a rice noodle salad for $6 — the way I now get a hot dog from the hot dog cart at Hingham’s Bathing Beach — I’d be there every day.
That said, I did, actually, weasel my way to the front of the line and into a delicious sandwich from Grilled Cheese Nation.
Like all the truck menus, partners Todd Saunders’ and Ron Sarni’s bill of fare is smartly small. I chose a delicious Gouda grilled cheese with caramelized onions and mushrooms, called In Gouda We Trust.
What makes the food truck phenomenon so exciting is that most of the food is fresh, innovative, and inexpensive.
Trucks are the new world for many young chefs coming up in a scaled-back economic climate flavored with environmental concerns. Their passion to make beautiful food, channeled through the times and the trucks, is resulting in simple yet sophisticated dishes made from high-quality — often organic and/or locally sourced — ingredients.
Saturday’s fare included burgers and hot dogs from grass-fed beef; cheeses from local producers like Smith’s Farmstead; organic breads from Iggy’s; and brown rice with tofu and shiitake mushrooms.
The trucks share a hip, no-frills, utilitarian style and depend on free, online marketing via websites, Facebook, and Twitter (Bon Me’s website identifies its trio of owners as “Ali (the Chef),” “Asta (the Trucker),” and “Pat (the Numbers Guy)”.
I don’t know the pedigree of all the chefs and cooks behind Saturday’s trucks, but I do know that Bon Me’s Ali trained at the country’s foremost cooking school – the Culinary Institute of America — and that Boston chef and James Beard nominee Will Gilson co-owns The Eat Wagon along with Aaron Cohen, the guy behind Twitter’s “Eat Boston.” (Nearly 16,000 people follow Cohen’s Tweets about where to eat in Boston.)
Grilled Cheese Nation owners Saunders and Sarni have also launched Food Truck Nation, a support organization for food truck owners and wannabes. The organization represents one of the food truck manufacturers, which could make it easy for newcomers to get in on the scene. Sarni is also the founder and president of the Boston Area Food Truck Association (BAFTA), which has 50-plus members who are extremely active.
“I’ve never seen a group of people working so hard to help each other. We’re trying to collectively launch an industry here. Our goal is to make Boston the best food truck city in America,” said Sarni.
Tricked out food trucks start at around $60,000 and average upwards to $150,000.
“The low cost, allows young culinary professionals to start a truck and make their mark,” said Sarni, who expects Boston to see a couple dozen food trucks this year and maybe as many as 50 next year.
He also thinks it’s inevitable that the phenomenon will be coming our way once it’s really up and running in Boston.
I’ll be waiting.
Think of the work it takes to make a good, simple dinner.
Then imagine doing that times 100 from morning to late at night, sometimes seven days a week, holidays absolutely included, often working in small, very hot spaces in close proximity to a crew of other petal-to-the-metal cooks.
Forget about routine family life, free time, hands unblemished by burns and cuts — and you’ve got a vague picture of the chef’s life. So, how and why do they do what they do?
Must be love.
That love of food -– and the talent that inspires it — was on display front and center at last week’s “A Taste of the South Shore” – a rock concert of a food fund-raiser for the YMCA.
Well before the 6 o’clock start, dozens of vans and trucks circled into Lombardo’s event facility in Randolph, and workers from 25 food establishments unloaded tons of equipment with the can-do-anything prowess of roadies. Taking their show on the road meant transporting all the food – down to every little garnish – and a kitchen’s worth of pots and pans and butane burners; serving, display, and setup items; tablecloths, signage, menus, flowers, and more.
When the work was done, the circumference of the enormous ballroom (so large it dwarfs three vast ceiling chandeliers with 15-foot diameters) was ringed with food: A continuous edging of tables, covered with dishes ranging from the good to the spectacularly delicious, spread all the way around the room.
As the chefs and cooks manned their stations to greet and serve guests, upwards of 500 arrived; ascended Lombardo’s dramatic, glass-enclosed spiral stairway; found their place at one of the large tables; and went off to forage for food!
Despite the large crowd, there were no lines at the stations. Eating whatever you wanted was as easy as reaching for a plate of anything, and I mean, anything – from delicate haute cuisine appetizers to gorgeous roasts and potatoes.
I ate Island Creek oysters on the half shell; yellowfin tuna tartare [shown here]; sirloin crostini with truffle oil; peanut lo mein noodles, sushi; salt cod with whipped potatoes; boneless short ribs (at least four places served them); fried green tomatoes with bacon: beef tenderloin garnished with edible orchids: brown rice vegetable salad: crab and shrimp cakes; cappuccino, ricotta pie, grapes, and strawberries.
A couple hours into the evening, Y officials and friends took to the podium and honored architect and longtime YMCA supporter John Sheskey. The presentation was heartwarming as speakers verbalized the good will and generosity of spirit of Sheskey and everyone who works to support the YMCA, including the chefs.
John Boucher, of South Shore Savings Bank, had it right.
“It’s all about the food,” said Boucher. “We never have any problem getting people to come here because of the food.”
Which is just what I’d been thinking. In fact, at that very moment, I’d been wondering why all non-profits don’t just do this: Get a bunch of phenomenal chefs to donate their time and food so it can sell tickets and raise money?
The event netted more than $80,000 for the YMCA – money that will enable it to continue providing families with membership assistance and scholarship subsidies for all its programs in Quincy, Hanover, and its summer camp on the Cape.
And the whole $100-per-ticket fund-raiser was built around the draw of the 25 establishments that contributed their food.
Just before the presentation, the chefs and cooks gathered for a group photo before being sent off to relax and have a drink in the big lobby area. The crowd gave them a standing ovation – with some shouted bravos, hoots, and hollers.
The success and draw of the event was a powerful show of force by a community of South Shore restaurants, chefs, and food businesses that has grown enormously since the event began 14 years ago.
Here’s a list of them: Atlantica, BonCaldo, Caffe Tosca, The Chef’s Table, Coffee Break Café, Dancing Deer Baking Co., Fratelli’s Pastry Shop, Freeport Tavern, Fuji 1546 Restaurant & Bar, Granite Grill FX, Hancock’s Steak House, Jasper White’s Summer Shack, Kama Lounge, Konditor Meister, Lombardo’s, Malai Thai Restaurant, Neighborhood Club of Quincy, Phillip’s Candy House, The Red Parrot, Salsa’s Mexican Grill, Scarlet Oak Tavern, Star’s on Hingham Harbor, Tosca, Whole Foods Market, The Winery on 53.
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Among other tasks, she’s making a batch of filling for her chicken empanadas with corn and black beans. She has already poached chicken breasts (the secret? — three tablespoons of butter for every quart of poaching water); grilled corn on the cob; crumbled cheese (queso fresco); and marinated black beans in cumin and chili “with a bit of balsamic and garlic.” After she adds each ingredient to a large stainless steel bowl, she takes a fresh spoon and tastes the mixture.
It is a process of chopping, stirring, and tasting; chopping, stirring, and tasting.
“If you love to eat, you can cook, but go slow, don’t add things without tasting, tasting,” said Saporito, who is three years into her second successful restaurant. In 2004, after 16 years in business, Saporito, with her husband and business partner, Andy Boothroyd, sold their acclaimed restaurant Saporito’s Florence Club Café in Hull. In 2007, they opened Hola.
Saporito follows flavors, and they take her places. She can trace their trails around her life – from her parent’s kitchen in Harrison, N.J., through the many restaurants she’s worked in, the places she’s eaten, every cooking class she’s taught. She remembers particular flavors from where she first discovered them and brings them into the creation of a new preparation, a new dish, a new restaurant.
“I usually get hooked on some kind of flavor I like and start fooling around,” said Saporito. “I either try to replicate it or do my own version – or, if it’s from a different cuisine, I imagine how it would be in Spanish or Latin form.”
There are many examples.
Saporito’s empanadas are a take on a savory pastry she loved from a food cart on the island of St. John.
Hola’s aren’t fried, though; they’re made with puff pastry and baked. Very delicious.
Her lovely mojo sauce – cilantro, parsley, lime juice, garlic, honey, a little olive oil — is a riff on one she had at Orinoco, a Venezuelan restaurant in Brookline. Hola serves it with a cold tapa of queso fresco and ripe avocado.
The restaurant’s chicken tamales are Saporito’s take on the pupusas that a couple from El Salvador she used to work with would bring into Saporito’s. And Hola’s ceviche-style tuna with mango vinegar, chili oil, and spicy cabbage is more sushi than ceviche – an adaptation she thought would fly with more of her customers than the classic pickled fish dish.
Her romesco sauce is modeled on the taste of one she had in Chicago (“I think it was Chicago”). it has more vinegar than a classic romesco, and less tomato.
And, her saffron panna cotta dessert special?: The coming together of the gift of a bottle of sweet saffron syrup (“What the heck can I do with this?”) and something she ate at Mario Batali’s Babbo in New York City. (She now makes her own saffron syrup.)
Saporito stockpiles flavors like an artist gathers materials then plays with them like she did when she starting cooking at nine years old.
And Hola is the perfect restaurant for her at this point in her career: it’s smaller than Saporito’s and the food is largely based on salsas, marinades, rubs, viniagrettes, and syrups, which don’t require that she be at the restaurant at 7 a.m. to put up an enormous pot of stock. She and Boothroyd sold Saporito’s so they could have more time with their family, and they do.
How does destiny work anyway?
Saporito is the Italian word for tasty — or deliciously flavorful.
And here we have Maryann Saporito who has a gift for playing with flavors, the enviable record of having started two distinguished restaurants, and a name that means flavorful.
Of course, every chef aims for great flavor, but their dominant methods for creating great dishes can be different. Some may rely on technique, others on procedure, others on structure. Saporito seems to be led by flavor itself.
Anyway, not to get too heady: it’s fun and exciting to be in the kitchen with Maryann. She’s bright and fun and her conversation and acts are full of love for food and life and people. The restaurant is lively, pretty – the kitchen a neat playground with Saporito at its center. And, the food….the food is very saporito.
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