Modern Bakery Boston

Boston Chefs Serve Lobster, Oysters With Biotech's Mini-Boom: John Mariani

Can restaurateurs sniff out a recovery, when the rest of the country has the jitters? It would seem so in Boston , where several well-financed new eateries have opened just as the city’s economy shows signs of a small, biotechnology-driven boom.

The nation’s largest private construction project is on Boston’s waterfront, anchored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) ’s $900 million, 1.1-million-square-foot office building. Already on the scene is Legal Harborside at Liberty Wharf, a venture of the Legal Sea Foods chain, which has 18 casual restaurants and markets in Massachusetts and units in nine other states.

The new restaurant is President and Chief Executive Officer Roger Berkowitz’s answer to those who kept asking when he would open a true fine dining venue. Legal Harborside, set on what used to be Jimmy’s Harborside for 85 years, is three stories and 20,000 square feet, making it the largest restaurant in Boston.

The first floor is as casual as other Legal eateries. The second is done in the sleek style of an ocean liner, with curved rosewood ceilings and black, mast-like columns. The wine list includes bottles no other restaurant in Massachusetts has.

Both levels are packed every night, with crowds spilling onto the 150-seat rooftop bar, which opened in June and is designed to look like a ship’s deck.

The menu has 14 species of oyster, sourced in cold northern waters from Cape Cod to British Columbia. Chef Robert Fathman does a splendidly rich lobster soup dashed with sherry under a cap of buttery puff pastry, and while his tempura of soft-shell crab with grits and white asparagus is the epitome of summer food, the accompanying squid-ink vinaigrette is anything but.

The simply sauteed gray sole gains a great deal of flavor and texture from crab-stuffed squash blossoms, a green garlic veloute and charred spring-onion relish. For dessert, go for the bruleed mascarpone cheesecake with minted berries and a brandy snap.

rolling writes: Modern Pastry (Boston)

Why I like the canolis better here than Mike Pastry is because it's smaller- it's easier to eat, and makes you feel less guilty about the calories that you're going to put on anyway (self delusion, I know). I tried the one with the chocolate filling. I like how it's thin and crisp. And somehow the amount of chocolate filling was just right. It didn't make me feel like it was too much, or too little.

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