Cambridge Common

Chicken Parmesan

There’s something that, until recently, I didn’t really appreciate about Boston.

We really holds our own when it comes to local craft beers.

From Pretty Things to Jack Abbey and my newly discovered recent darling, Blatant One, Boston has been churning out some pretty incredible beers.

At the same time, more and more craft-beer focused restaurants have been popping up in Cambridge. Lord Hobo opened in November of 2009 and focuses on many import beers. Mead Hall opened in Kendall Square in April of 2011 and boasts an impressive selection of beers.

And then there are the old standbys who have been around for ages. 

I visited Cambridge Common for the first time back in 2000. At the time I didn’t live in the area and thought that it was sort of located in an area that wasn’t super convenient. Nestled between Porter and Harvard Square on Mass Ave, Cambridge Common is a good 5-10 minute walk from both T-stop.

However, now that I live virtually across the street from the restaurant, I’ve come to appreciate it as a place that has an awesome selection of beer (31 on tap!), good solid food, very reasonable prices, and friendly service.

It’s our go-to standby when we feel like munching on some casual grub nearby without breaking the bank.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I would characterize Cambridge Common as a New England gastropub whose food is just a tad tweaked for the Cambridge audience. Of course you have your typical fish & chips, burgers, BLTs and the like. However, you also have the option of getting Italian pastas, roasted Brussels sprouts, a “soup of the day” that’s always vegetarian, and globally inspired plates such as paella or hummus and falafel.

Fried Pickles - $5.95

Not surprisingly they do fried things really well, and one of our favorites is the beer battered fried dill pickle spears, which are served with ranch dressing and spicy chipotle aioli for dipping. The tartness of the pickle balances out the spicy deep fried coating, and the appetizer is surprisingly addictive.

Sliced Sweet Potato Fries ($5.95)

Similarly, we love the sliced sweet potato fries - corrugated fried potato slices whose many ridges offer that much more surface area of “crunch.” It’s become our new go-to starter that we get every single time.

"Uncommon BLT" - $7.95

The sandwiches are excellent. I often get the Uncommon BLT, which uses apple smoked bacon and comes with avocados, baby spinach, and tomatoes. If you go during Sunday brunch, you can get a fun brunch version that not only includes avocadoes but also a fried egg.  I love the spiced curly fries that come with the sandwiches (but then I sort of have a weakness for spicy curly fries).

Paella

Dinner offerings are solid but have been a bit more underwhelming. The Chicken Parmesan (pictured up top) is hearty, bold, and generously portioned, giving us plenty of leftovers for another meal. However, the pasta texture leaves something to be desired (it's a bit mushy). The paella is pretty average, though to be fair, it costs well under $15 and therefore is limited in its ability to include higher priced seafood (it’s mostly squid and mussels).

Chicken Cous Cous Salad

They have some healthier options, such as the Chicken Cous Cous Salad, which has a nicely seasoned lemony salad (though the chicken itself is a tad dry). Bryan tried the Taco Salad recently, which he thought was slightly underwhelming.

Every time we have gone, we have had excellent service in a cool, no-nonsense kind of way. The servers all know beer really well and will happily recommend various beers or even let you try a small flight to decide which you like best. The last time I went, the server even let me sample a taste of the two available soups, which was really helpful.

The prices are very reasonable – most lunch items cost around $10 and most dinner entrees are in the $12-$15 range.

As I said before, the beer selection is excellent. They have thirty-one beers on tap, including many local craft beers. They offers various sort of flights or you can design your own. You can always sample a beer before trying it, which is fun.

The other day, Bryan and I didn't get home until past midnight from a late flight into Boston. We were thrilled to discover that Cambridge Common opens until 2AM (kitchen closes at 1AM).

Thanks to Cambridge Common, we didn't have to go to sleep hungry that night.

Cambridge Common
1667 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA

5 Napkin Burger: Beer and Bourbon Series!

A burger so juicy that you will need five napkins to wipe up all the juice?

That's the claim behind 5 Napkin Burger, a fancy hamburger-focused bistro that spun off of a really, really popular burger on the menu at Nice Matin, an Upper West Side restaurant in New York.

The restaurant has since been expanding, with the first Boston location opening in Back Bay right inside the Prudential this past year.

Recently, they began a Beer and Bourbon Dinner Series, where the restaurant partners with various different beer or bourbon providers and offers a multi-course dinner paired with the featured drink company's products. For $45, you get a 2-course dinner plus dessert, passed hors d'oeurves, and a chance to try 4-5 different types of beer.

Bryan and I happily accepted an invitation to attend the first dinner of the series this time around, feature Stone Brewing Company.

The evening begins with passed h'ors d'oeuvres and a sample of Stone Levitation Ale. The beer was light and refreshing, not too malty or hoppy, with a hint of sweetness.

My favorite appetizer of the evening was the cheddar tot. It's a perfectly fried little bite filled with mashed potatoes and cheese.

The guacamole was good as well, chunky and chock full of avocados. The chicken skewers, on the other hand, were dry, overcooked, and not very pleasant to eat at all. I couldn't finish mine. Similarly, the tuna tatami wontons, topped with a bit of wasabi mayo and tobiko, were underwhelming.

I did run into Michelle from The Economical Eater, who was also at the event! 
After about 30-40 minutes of hanging out in the hors d'oeurves room, they introduced Stone Brewing Company and ushered us into the main dining room. We all sat at a long table, making friends with those around us.

First Course: Peel & Eat shrimp & Beer Boil

Whole shell-on "beer boiled" shrimp were served with drawn butter with a side of parsley. I'm not sure if I like beer-boiled shrimp. The texture of the shrimp was oddly mushy and not very flavorful. Bryan, who hates getting his hands dirty, suffered silently as he picked at the shrimp shells to get at the mushy meat. We were quite disappointed with the shrimp and neither of us finished that course.

The Stone IPA paired with the dish, on the other hand, was quite good - hoppy with malty notes.

Then the main courses came, along with normal and sweet potato fries. I absolutely loved the sweet potato fries. They were crispy and perfectly seasoned on the outside while sweet and moist on the inside.  I usually love normal fries more, but in this case I found myself continually going back for the sweet potato fries (though the normal fries were good too!).

Bryan ordered the Mushroom bleu "black & blue", which means the burger is charred on the outside but then basically rare on the inside. The Mushroom Bleu contains seven ounces of fresh ground beef, blue cheese, and is topped with sautéed mushrooms and shallots.

They did an excellent job executing the burger. It was cooked perfectly, with a good char on the outside and a nice rare center. The blue cheese flavor was prominent, though not evenly distributed. In general, the burger definitely was made with high quality ingredients.

Despite all that, Bryan still though the burger did not quite reach an optimal balance of texture and flavor. The bread to meat ratio was not ideal: he wished for less bread and more mushrooms and sauce. He also would have preferred some sort of crisp or crunch (maybe from lettuce, or something fried?).

But perhaps we're being picky, comparing this burger against some of the best burgers in the city. Overall, it's still a perfectly enjoyable burger and still much better than many burgers throughout the city.

The beer that came with this course was delicious, and probably my favorite of the bunch. We had the Arrogant Bastard Beer, an aggressive IPA that was deep, hoppy, and flavorful, almost like caramel. It definitely was strong enough to pair with the flavorful entrees we were enjoying.

I ordered the Veggie Burger, which was served with 5 Napkin's own sauce ("5N Sauce"), bread & butter pickles, lettuce, and tomato on a multigrain roll.

I was really really impressed with the veggie burger and I really think it's one of my favorite veggie burgers I've had! Unlike many veggie burgers, which rely on rice or beans, this one had beets as one of the main ingredients. It was a gorgeous bright red tone (ha ha, it looked like Bryan's rare meat burger!), and was filled with lentils, carrots, beets, wheat berries, and sunflower seeds (among many other ingredients, I'm sure).

I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. If I came back, I would seriously consider ordering it again.

For dessert, we had "Smore's Pie", a cylindrical dessert made with chocolate ganache and marshmallow on top of a graham cracker crust and covered with a chocolate glaze. It was OK but nothing particularly exciting. This was paired with Stone Smoke Porter, a deep, chocolatey and creamy beer that actually worked quite well with dessert!

Overall, this entire meal was fun, informative, and really a pretty good value. For only $45 (inclusive of tax, tip, everything), you get to try 4 different beers, a bunch of hors d'oeuvres, and a three course meal. They are pretty generous with the pours, and they won't hesitate to refill if you finish your beer early. [Heh, I have such low tolerance you can see how much of each beer I could finish before moving onto the next one, thus explaining how I was able to get this shot!]
 
It was a great chance to try the burgers at 5 Napkin, and we discovered a new craft brewery that makes very good beers. Stone Brewing Company beers can be found in several places around Boston, such as Lord Hobo in Cambridge and Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont.

There's still one more going on tomorrow night, featuring Long Trail Brewing Company. You can get tickets here.


Disclaimer
I did not pay for this meal

Lord Hobo

I am currently in China right now and will be there for the next two weeks. This is the first of several posts that I had prepared beforehand for when I was away. Please understand that during this time my response to comments / e-mails / etc. will be slower than normal. Finally, if you are so inclined, you can vote for me here for Project Food Blog.

40 microbrews? Hard to find beers from around the world?

Owner Daniel Lanigan is no stranger to this beer business, having run two "cult beer bars" in Amherst and Northampton. The last time I had encountered such a diversity of craft beers was probably at Granville Moore's in Washington D.C.

Bryan and I finally got a chance to check out Lord Hobo (which took over the old B-side Lounge in East Cambridge) this past weekend. I had heard great things about it, so I was anxious to see if it lived up to the hype.

The ambiance inside is dark yet hip, with tall wooden stools and chairs spread through a wide open space. The center bar, which boasts all those interesting drafts, clearly steals the show as it is prominently displayed in the center of the restaurant. I found the room to be uncomfortably cold, to the point where I was almost shivering.

Of course, the focus is on the beer, and the drink menu literally takes up over three quarters of the menu. There's one page of food and about 4-5 pages of drinks. It's mind boggling and overwhelming, to say the least. Thankfully, the server is happy to bring you little "tastes" of their brews free of charge. I tried three different ones before deciding on the St. Bernardus (shown on the left). The servers are very knowledgeable about the beers (I'm sure they are used to having guests come in who have no idea what to order), and can certainly guide you along in a mini-tasting, which is quite fun.

The food was surprisingly good! We're talking nice, gastropub food. Bryan likened it to the style of Garden at the Cellar, one of our favorite restaurants. We started with a lovely crab and avocado salad, which was very nice - fresh ingredients, lightly seasoned, it was the perfect start of a pretty good dinner.

I got the seared halibut, which came with a nice succotash of corn and peas that tasted very fresh. The fish was nicely seared, although just a tad on the dry side. I guess sous vide cooking has really made me kind of picky when it comes to meat textures!

Bryan got the steak which was seasoned with chimichurri sauce and came with a side of fries. We requested that the fries be served with the truffle aoili, which was actually really intense and truffly (yum!). Bryan thought the steak was cooked a perfect medium rare, and he liked the chimichurri sauce, so he was quite pleased.

We were surprisingly impressed with the food at Lord Hobo. The prices are reasonable, although you can quickly spend a lot if you each get a few craft beers. Although Cambridge boasts a lot of gastropubs that serve very good food, Lord Hobo shines when it comes to beer. You really can't get this many hard-to-find beers anywhere else close by.

If you like trying all sorts of interesting beers in a fun environment with good food, definitely check out Lord Hobo. Just don't forget to bring an extra sweater.

Lord Hobo
92 Hampshire St.
Cambridge, MA 02139

Granville Moore's

Moules Fromage Bleu - Bacon, Hook’s Blue Cheese, Shallots, Spinach , White Wine, Lemon Juice - $16

When you walk into Granville Moore's Frittes Ales Moules, you feel as if you have traveled at least 75 years back in time. The interior feels almost pre-industrial, with exposed brick walls and old wooden floors. You can't miss the HUGE bar that takes up a majority of the narrow real estate. A few wooden tables and benches line one wall, but clearly, beer is the focus here.

In fact, Granville Moore's has one of the largest Belgian beer selections in the mid-Atlantic region. They carry over 50 types of bottled beers (plus at least 4 draft beers) - and every single one of them is Belgian.

Granville Moore's is named after Dr. Granville Moore, a doctor whose office used to occupy the current location decades ago. Dr. Moore provided pro bono care to the less fortunate in the neighborhood. The building stood vacant for 30 years before a few business-minded entrepreneurs purchased the property and opened up Granville Moore's.

It's pretty hard to get into Granville Moore's these days. They don't take reservations, and the place has become quite famous ever since chef Teddy Folkman beat Bobby Flay in a moules frite throwdown. The winning dish? The Moules Fromage Bleu, pictured above.

We had a fabulous meal here, and I would highly recommend this place to anyone who loves good beer and excellent mussels in a fun, lively, and historic location.


Granville Moore's is not in the best of neighborhoods, located at H Street NE. In fact, the restaurant is surrounded by an eclectic mix of  thriving businesses, rundown buildings, and boarded up storefronts. Some see Granville Moore's as a sign of positive change, the first step in the revitalization of an old, tired neighborhood.

Frites (large - $7.50)
Be prepared to wait, as this place is super popular, and lines go out the door. To pass by the time, we ordered some beers and some fries, which were fantastic. Hand cut from Idaho potatoes and fried twice, these were so good I hardly used any of the dipping sauces.

Of course, the sauces are fine and good, and you get a choice between Truffle Aioli, Homemade Hot sauce, Horseradish cream, Curry Mayo, Garlic Ranch, Chipotle BBQ, Morney Sauce, or Chipotle Mayo.

The bar is super well-stocked, and the bartenders know their stuff.

Here's some of the beers we tried.

Here's some more!

Finally, after waiting about 45 minutes, we were able to sit down and enjoy some food! We tried a variety of appetizers.  From top left going clockwise:  1. Bison Chili ($6)  2. Fried Risotto Cakes ($8)  3. Crab Croquettes with Gruyere and Dijonnaise ($8)  4. Jumbo Bacon Wrapped Scallops with Butternut Squash Puree ($12.50)  All of these dishes were pretty tasty, though I don't think any of them stood out to me as the best I've ever had.

Moules Moroccan – Beer Poached Fennel, Spicy Lamb Sausage, Curry Cream Sauce - $16

The mussels were delicious. We tried three different flavors: the Moules Fromage Bleu (shown at the top of the post), Moules Champignon (Mushrooms, cream, Hoegaarden, Truffle Oil), and Moules Moroccan (shown above). Our favorites? Probably a toss-up between the Moules Fromage Bleu and the Moules Moroccan, with the Moules Champignon a distant second. The mix of flavors in both the Moules Fromage Bleu and the Moules Moroccan were fantastic, and the sauces were aromatically fragrant, savory, and full of umami. We loved dipping our bread in the sauce - yum! The Moules Champignon was pretty good, though not as flavorful or complex as the other two. Surprisingly, I could hardly taste the truffle oil.

We loved this place and had a blast not only trying out so many different kinds of beers, but also enjoying the flavorful mussels and the crunchy fries. It's worth the 45-minute wait, especially when you can drink beer and eat fries while you are waiting!

This post is part of the larger Washington DC Eats Series.  Other post(s) in this series:
Ceiba
Il Canale
Ben's Chili Bowl

Granville Moore
Capitol Hill
1238 H St NE
Washington, DC 20002