Saturday, December 12, 2009

Restaurant review: Eastern Standard

This past Thursday J10X and I decided to get the fuck outta Dodge and go to Boston and take in some new sights.

We rode the train from the Riverside Station all the way over the river into Cambridge to check out an antiques market near a restaurant that was rumored to have a tiki bar.....we ended up spending hours in the antiques place as it was 4 stories high. Lots of item were insanely overpriced (according to the pricing by some vendors, I have a Vanderbilt's fortune in costume jewelry) but we escaped with two tiki mugs and a couple of small Japanese woodblock prints from the early 1900s, all of which were good deals.

We then staggered out into the cold and walked a bunch of blocks over to the East Coast Grill in Inman Square - well, we finally found it, but it wasn't going to be open until 5:30pm, which was 3 hours away. So, that went on the list as a place to go back to in the near future.

We hopped on the T, back over the river, back to Kenmore Square and landed at the Eastern Standard: gorgeous room and bar, lots of dark wood, and red and brown leather upholstered chairs. Comfy and inviting. We were there in time for the mid-day menu, which was a lot like lunch and reasonably priced. We had a look at the drinks menu, and (score!), they had tropical drinks and are known for creating their own in-house syrups and infusions. The drinks menu is changed from what you see online, but they offer everything. J10X opted for the Zombie, and I, the Metamorphosis.

The Zombie was made according to the 1934 recipe and obviously had many hand-made elements in it, not to mention a ton of rum. It was easily as good as any Zombie I sampled at the Mai Kai in Florida, and it was well worth the price as it was served a pint glass. The Metamorphosis was constructed of some sort of Czechoslovakian bitters (Becherovka?), honey and fresh lemon juice - it was both warm and refreshing and really delicious (and after doing a little research, it's also called 'The Millenium' in other places.) It was served up in a martini glass, but also had quite a kick to it. Our lovely waiter, Dave, told J0X that the bartender had 'something special' for him when he finished the Zombie. Well, J10X was still sitting up after the Zombie, and was rewarded with a Cinnamon Planter's Punch: I am not a rum lover by any means, but this was one delicious cocktail. It goes on the list of only 3 drinks that have rum that I would ever consider drinking (the other two being a Derby Daiquiri and a Stormy Weather.) We were definitely pleased to find this place!!

We each had a sandwich, and if you get one with roast beast on it, it's piled high. Both were served with delicious fresh pommes frites and were really good.

Two drinks packed quite a wallop, so we decided to go and brave the wintry wind outside as the fine folk at the ES wouldn't adopt us and let us move in. The restaurant & bar are attached to a hotel, so some of you may want to keep that in mind.

So, we ducked into a book store right next door, don;t remember the name of it, but they had a fine assortment of art books, graphic novels and literature, all very reasonably priced.

We then decided to hit up Harvard Square (back on the train, over the dang river again...) and actually did some holiday shopping until we called it quits and headed home.

Rating: The Eastern Standard gets 4.5 stars out of 5, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

2 comments:

C. Margery Kempe said...

I didn't know about the antique mart or the Eastern Standard! I just don't know about Boston like I used to do when I lived there, sigh. My last trip was so quick, I barely saw anything at all.

The Queen said...

Oh, you'd love the Eastern Standard!