The Phoenix Network:
About | Advertise

Search Restaurants


Cuisine


Find Restaurants Near You


Stuff@Night

Browse by Tags
All Tags » food (RSS)
The Last Suppers

The Last Suppers


>>Click here for The Last Suppers slideshow<<

It’s one of the most common questions asked of chefs: what would you choose to eat for your final meal? We wanted to know too, so we took the idea a few steps further and rounded up seven of Boston’s most acclaimed chefs to actually cook — and eat — their hypothetical last meals.

The long wooden table is set with simple white dishes and empty wine glasses. The ambience is warm, inviting, almost regal, with wall shelves stocked with bottles of reds, whites, and Champagne. The disciples have been replaced by a veritable who’s who of Boston chefs: Todd English (Olives, Bonfire, Kingfish Hall, and others); Jamie Bissonnette (Toro); Michael Schlow (Radius, Via Matta, Great Bay); Jeremy Sewall (Lineage); Chris Douglass (Icarus, Ashmont Grill, Tavolo); Tony Susi (Sage); and Andy Husbands (Tremont 647). The table is not at Mount Zion, but instead the private dining room of Bonfire, where chef/owner English has opened up his kitchen to let some of the city’s most creative epicures prepare and share what they would create as their last meals on Earth. The food coming from the kitchen is as eclectic as the men preparing it, ranging from classic Italian (spaghetti, bruschetta, and arugula salad from Schlow; potato gnocchi with rabbit and mushroom braise from Susi) to a decadence-and-comfort combination (Southern-style fried chicken and waffles, plus caviar on petite egg sandwiches with Dom Perignon to wash it all down, courtesy of English).

...
Sibling non-rivalries: Family food without the family feud

Sibling non-rivalries: Family food without the family feud




Family food doesn’t necessarily lead to family feuds

Many veterans of the restaurant industry liken working in the kitchen, serving tables, and spending hours with the same people every day to being part of a family. But for those who own and operate restaurants with their brothers and sisters, their restaurants are tru extensions of their homes and families. Sibling-run restaurants are places where the ties of brother- and sisterhood can sometimes be tested, and the line between professional and personal relationships is blurred to near-invisibility.

When we set out to write a story about these restaurants, we were expecting to hear salacious tales of sibling rivalry and middle-child syndrome. But for the restaurateurs we spoke with, working with a brother or sister (and sometimes both) instead has brought them closer, made them recognize one another’s strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately solidified their bonds. For these teams, the recipe for a successful working relationship is a balance of trust, creative compatibility, and complete honesty....
Out of the Box Evening

Out of the Box Evening


 

Unexpected nightlife in unexpected settings

Good News for those with social ADD: Boston’s nightlife isn’t restricted to barstools, banquettes, and club corners anymore. Lately, we’ve been seeing an onslaught of events happening in unexpected places: bookstores, museums, liquor stores, theater lobbies. Read on for some refreshing alternatives to your regular dine-drink-dance nights out.

...
Ain't No Party Like a Hotel Party

Ain't No Party Like a Hotel Party


 

 

Boston's hotel bars are heating things up and packing 'em in 

On a recent Friday night, the crowd waiting to get into the Liberty Hotel (215 Charles Street, Boston, 617.224.4000) was about 30 well-dressed people deep. Inside, diners, drinkers, revelers, and presumably some actual hotel guests swarmed the lobby. It was a typical weekend night at the Liberty, the holding-cell-turned-hotspot that emerged on the local nightlife map just over a year ago. And the momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

The idea of hotel bars used to conjure up two starkly different — yet similarly unsexy — images. Images, on the one hand, of dark rooms awash in mahogany and filled with a sea of suits and power politicians drinking $20 martinis; images synonymous with private men’s clubs, low on fun and high on pretense. And on the other, images of sparsely filled barstools where traveling businessmen sat killing time between meetings.

But for Boston, that stereotype has been steadily shifting as hotel bars shape themselves as destinations — places where locals go after work and on weekends to take in the scene and a few well-mixed cocktails.

...
Stuffed: the Fourth Annual Stuff@Night Dining Awards

Stuffed: the Fourth Annual Stuff@Night Dining Awards




By MC Slim JB and Ruth Tobias

MC SLIM JB:
It’s our second tag-team on Stuff@night’s Dining Awards! How many steak frites did you eat this year? I musta had a dozen and only got excited about one.

RUTH TOBIAS:
Me, I managed to dodge the steak frites, only to find myself in a minefield of gelée and burrata. Granted, there are worse ways to go. What food trends have blown you to heaven recently?

MC SLIM JB:
Sensible portion sizes. i hate “tapas” the size of appetizers, but i’ve seen genuinely small plates at places like Persephone. Give me variety, two bites at a time, like rijsttafel.

RUTH TOBIAS:
A fine choice, sir. And what will you have to drink with your sensible portions?

MC SLIM JB:
Well-crafted cocktails: quality spirits, fresh juices, proper bitters and garnishes, chilled glasses — hold the candy-flavored vodka. Maybe a nice hoskins. luckily, those are getting easier to find; thanks, B-Side! [sniffle] What’s yours?

RUTH TOBIAS:
A shot of bison-grass vodka at the Good Life. Make it a double.

MC SLIM JB:
Hey, that’s where i got my one exciting steak frites: the late-night prime skirt, $18! The circle is complete. To the Awards!

>>Click here to view the Dining Awards gallery<< 

>>Click here for the complete list of winners<< 

  
Win dinner on us! Text FEED, followed by a space, followed by the name of your favorite restaurant, to 22122.

...
What's cooking?

What's cooking?


What happens when you put eight local chefs together at a table and ask them to dish on their industry? We decided to find out. Our recent roundtable discussion with a group of local DJs sparked so much conversation that we decided to try the format again...
Hit the road: more options for suburban dining

Hit the road: more options for suburban dining


There’s plenty of good eating to be found in the ’burbs — even without the involvement of a Boston restaurateur. Pony up a few extra bucks at the pump and check out some of our favorites. Blue Ginger (583 Washington Street, Wellesley, 781.283.5790). Thanks...
Get out of town

Get out of town


Why are so many urban restaurateurs flocking to the ’burbs? We asked; they answered. I may be a legend in my own mind, but I didn’t really imagine, when I left Boston last fall after years of churning out, in my sleep, the kind of shockingly original...
Salad days

Salad days


Forget iceberg lettuce and Italian dressing. From seaweed to candied beets to smoked eggplant, these days chefs are getting increasingly creative with your first course. Once upon a time, it was all so simple. If you wanted a salad, you’d take some lettuce...

Filter further:

Best Body Boston 2009
Daily

The Week in Party Pics

advertisement

About Stuff@Night

Featured articles from the pages of Stuff@Night Magazine, including fashion shoots, interviews, dining roundups, lists, and more.

Subscribe:  RSS feed Rss


The Week in Party Pics

One Night in Boston


Features Photos