Posts Tagged “somerville”

You know how some locations just seem cursed?  Those odd retail or restaurant locations that just can’t seem to support a business no matter what?  Sometimes it becomes a sport to guess how long the next one will last and sometimes you just stop bothering to even try.  That used to be the case at 187 Elm Street in Somerville, just a bit too far out of Davis Square and not quite close enough to Porter.  In my memory it’s been Carberrys, O’Naturals, Boloco, and Green Tomato at least.  And now it’s Pizzeria Posto, and I think the curse might be kaput.

Posto is a Neapolitan-focused slow-food influenced joint with a wood-burning pizza oven, a wine bar, and several impressive menu items beyond pizza.  It’s been packed on each of my three visits. The minimalist website is little more than menus and links to Facebook and Twitter – an interesting development I’m seeing more and more for businesses.

1. Pizzeria

Pizza is Posto’s main attraction.  They serve just one size, a generous personal pizza, in ten classical and modern varieties with a handful of options from $12 for the Margherita to $18 for some of the fancier pies, with some add-ons that can take you to $25 and beyond.  Fresh farm egg, anybody?  The ingredients are top-notch and the crust is about right on the chewy-crispy continuum.  I keep meaning to ask for mine well done to get more of the wood-fired char.  Maybe next time.

2. Vinoteca

With 19 red wines by the glass (yea, and some whites and pinks and fizzies too), this is a pretty serious wine bar.  What really impressed me was the mix of prices – you can get a decent glass of wine for $5  In fact there are four reds and six whites for under $10 a glass.  And there are some $20/glass reds too.  The only odd thing – and maybe it’s only odd to geeks like me – is that there’s a gap in the red wine price curve between $6 and $11.  Random omission, statistical aberration, sinister anchoring ploy?  Who cares – drink up.

3. Et Cetera

Posto offers some attractive appetizers, including some nice arancini, classic calamari, and a delicious burata.  They also offer some crispy fried pig’s ear.  Yes, you read that right.  Like the saying goes, you can’t deep-fry a silk purse.

With sea salt and lime, how could I resist?  Well, let’s just say it’s probably nor for everybody. There’s a real difference in the texture of the thin end of the ear and the thick end, and I’m not sure if either one is what I had in mind.  But I’m glad I tried it and for $7 it was well worth checking out.  There’s no shortage of other pig parts on the menu, from roast pork and prosciutto on the pizzas to guanciale (that’s jowl, folks) in one of the pasta dishes.

4. Pasta?

I’ve tried two of the three pasta dishes on the menu.  Very impressive for a pizza joint, but it’s obvious that we’re not dealing with a regular pizza joint here.  Agnolotti with veal, chard and savory herbs were delicately lemony and beautifully hand-made.  Tagliatelle with braised rabbit, fava beans and peas was also a spring-themed winner.

5. Basta!

Yes, there’s even dessert.  They make their own cannoli, of which I was initially suspicious – how could one restaurant do all this?  Well, for $5 I ended up with two good-sized cannoli.  No silly dipped shells, no campy candied fruit, just the shell, the cheese and the powdered sugar, folks.

Time will tell if Posto can overcome geographic destiny, but I’m rooting for it.

There hasn’t been a halloween themed post proper on the ‘duck yet, but a series of random events (and the annual invite to GP’s house o’ horrors) have conspired to make it so.    I was up at Tufts for a panel discussion called Framed: Contemporary Art and the Museum last week and picked up a card that reminded me of a great show on view in the University Art Gallery, Sacred Monsters: Everyday Animism in Contemporary Japanese Art and Anime, which is on view through November 22.  You should go.  It’s spooky and entertaining.

The show includes work by eight artists – Chiho Aoshima, Nobuhiro Ishihara, Kenjiro Kitade, Mahomi Kunikata, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Mr., Oscar Oiwa and TOKYO KAMEN - and screenings of eight films, both animated and live action: Akira, Beautiful Dreamer, Ghost in the Shell II: Innocence, My Neighbor Totoro, Paprika, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and The Grudge.  As the catalog says:

This exhibition examines representations of mythical spirits, gods, monsters, and other mutant, sentient beings in contemporary Japanese art and film as expressions of animist belief through the work of eight emerging and mid-career artists. The theme is also explored through a complementary program of continuous anime screenings presented in the Gallery.

Many contemporary Japanese visual artists and animators incorporate animist beliefs in their work as cultural rather than religious expression. A shared iconography connects the artists and anime included in this exhibition, ranging from kami (gods) to yokai (monsters), sentient and non-sentient beings with supernatural powers, and hybrid mythical creatures. These traditionally Japanese representations – visible, tangible, and ubiquitous – actively dissolve boundaries between the living and the dead, the human and non-human realms.

Interestingly, especially in light of the Framed discussion, there is an additional exhibit, in a separate but attached gallery, called Ghost Stories, featuring scary woodblock prints by Yoshitoshi and other ukiyo-e masters of the 19th Century.  With titles such as Omori Notices a Demon, Yoshihara’s Ghost Attacks, Oiwa and the Sash Serpent, and Greedy Old Woman Chooses the Heavy Box, this work is clearly ancestral or inspirational to many of the nearby Sacred Monsters.  When you’re recovered from Halloween and need a fresh scare, see both shows.

I’l love to blog about Somerville’s Ball Square Fine Wines & Liquors‘ recent expansion and renovation, their superior selection and the expertise of their staff.  Anybody who’s been there can attest to those.  Instead I shall blog about being sassed for desiring a wine with a punny name.

I popped in to BSFW&L on the weekend seeking to pick up a gift of wine for some dear friends.  Dear friends who like red wine and cats.  The wine is called Chat-en-Oeuf, which is a wine from the Rhône’s Côtes du Ventoux, a near neigbor of the pun’s object, Châteauneuf-du-Pape.   I know they’ll like this stuff, even if for a superficial reason. The label is illustrated with a cat sitting on a egg, as can be seen on Peter May’s excellent winelabels.org site.

“We don’t usually carry wines with cutesy names,” the reigning clerk opined.  I’ve learned that “we don’t usually” often means “I’m trying but failing to be polite about my disdain for your suggestion.”  No inquiry about what I liked about the wine, no attempted upsell to a different Rhône that might be in stock, higher quality and less punny.

It was a bit like trying to buy “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from Jack Black in High Fidelity.  Perhaps sensing my unease at having my choice chat upon, the clerk offered to order it for me.  I passed.

Let’s be clear, I’m no friend of the pun in general.  But I will happily buy silly things as gifts if they make the recipients happy.  Smart wine guys like Gary Vaynerchuk and Dale Cruse know that drinking wine should be fun, and they certainly shy away from judging by the label or the name.

I ordered a case of my punny catwine from the Wine & Cheese Cask near Inman Square.

Following up on the five things I won’t miss about Davis, here are five that will keep me coming back:

Dave’s Fresh Pasta: there are lots of fine lunching establishments around here, even though not one serves the idealized cheese sandwich, but Dave’s is special.  Besides the awesome selection of grilled sandwiches (my faves include the cubano and the muffaleta), Dave’s has an excellent wine section, a wonderful cheese case, an impressive deli, and oddly enough I’ve never even tried the fresh pasta.

The lunch special at Dragon Garden: yes, I know this place looks suspect at best, but they dish up a ma po tofu lunch special that’s $5 with soup and a can of soda.  There’s something comforting about this sort of thing, and it helps lower you center of gravity in the winter.  I also enjoy their general gau chicken and tofu.

Coffee: Davis has at least three major coffee streams: Dunkin, Starbucks and independent Diesel.  I enjoy the latter two in equal measure, but I have to give special kudos to Diesel’s pool table and Starbucks’ fireplace.

Local shops: There’s some chain food in Davis, but not much if any chain retail.  I especially like Magpie, D Squared, and Bowl & Board as representatives of the vibrant local business scene.  Sharp-eyed fashion blogger A even crossed the river from bizzaro-Davis fashion capital JP to visit Suneri boutique here.

Rounding out my top five is the double treat of the Kick Ass Dairy Bar and When Pigs Fly Bakery a bit outside the square proper on Highland.  I don’t care for those allegedly kick-ass cupcakes (and cupcakes are so last year anyway) but the fresh and local fare at the dairy bar and bakery are peerless.  A bakery that sells loaves whole or cut on the spot is a must-have for any neighborhood that wants to be called such.

Rome might be the Eternal City, but I will always return to Davis Square, the Paris of Somerville.

Change is the only constant, and soon I’ll be spending a lot less time in Davis Square.  It’s truly the Paris of Somerville and I’ll miss it – except for these things:

Chuggers: Maybe one day I’ll have a minute for their cause (by which they mean a dollar, or several) but until then I will continue to avoid these earnest yet shadowy CHarity mUGGERS who are a plague upon Davis Square.  At least the clean-cut gents promoting the LDS wear nametags, and we know who they represent.  I gave at the office, thanks.

Crappy pizza: Sure, this is a problem in many places, but the drought of quality pizza in Davis is just despressing.  There’s lots of great places to have lunch around here but sometimes you just want a slice.  Is thin crust without orange oil too much to ask?  Do we have to order in from Medford?

Precision parking enforcement: I don’t have much sympathy for people who park illegally or for those who try to drive in dense urban areas, but the Somerville parking enforcement around Davis is deadly accurate to the minute of meter expiration, and frankly, it bums me out.

Diesel booth squatters: I don’t remember ever wanting to study as long and hard as these people do, no matter how caffeinated I was.  What’s the deal with spreading your stuff out to soak up an entire four-top all day long?  Don’t you ever have to go to the bathroom?  Aren’t you worried about bedsores?

The horrifying stench off Grove Street near Elm: I don’t know what it is or where it comes from, but it’s bad.  Real bad.  I think it’s actually the smell of death.  And as summer advances, it’s not getting better.  If that’s coming from one of those restaurants, somebody needs to look into it, stat.  Maybe the guys playing soccer in bloody aprons in the parking lot know something about it, but I’m not going to get close enough to ask them.