Results tagged “lisascanlon”

If you stop in to When Pigs Fly Sourdough Bakery’s new shop outside of Davis Square, be sure your stomach is empty—the friendly loaf slingers behind the counter have samples of every bread right out on the counter, and it’s hard to say no. Bostonist enjoyed all of the bread we sampled, but we really loved the banana pecan, maple, and brown sugar bread, especially smeared with a little bit of their own pumpkin butter… perfect for breakfast. The potato, roasted garlic, and onion bread was another favorite. The onion and garlic on the outside of the bread was soft and caramelized, and the loaf itself was tender and delicious. With about 20 different breads to choose from, each between 5 and 7 dollars, it’s definitely worth stopping by (and maybe picking up a treat from nearby Kickass Cupcakes while you’re at it). The bread isn’t baked on premises, unfortunately—the smell would be fantastic—but it is trucked in fresh daily from York, Maine. And if you can’t get out to Davis Square, several local grocery stores also carry the breads, including Whole Foods and Stop & Shop. Photo by Lisa Scanlon.

The owners of Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square are on a mission. It’s pretty hard to miss… in fact, it’s conveniently spelled out on a poster behind the counter. They sell fair trade, shade grown, organic coffee and organic food “with an underlying agenda of social responsibility and environmental stewardship.” The counters are made of bamboo or crushed beer bottles; the ceiling tiles are made of 100% recycled material; the shop is illuminated by efficiency lighting; whenever possible, the owners used materials from less than 250 miles away. “Wherever we could make tiny little inroads to what I believe in, we did it,” says Daniel Goldstein, one of the owners. It meant that it took longer than expected to build the cafe, located at the front of Harvest Co-Op... well over a year. But it’s more than worth it, according to Goldstein—he hopes the café will be Massachusetts’ first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified commercial retailer.

The New England Confectionary Company (NECCO) has announced the new phrases that will be printed on its hearts. This year's themes include weather ("Melt My Heart" and "Get My Drift") and animals ("Wild Life" and "Nature Lover").

If Elvis Presley were still alive, he’d be turning 73 today. In honor of the King, one of J.P. Licks' flavors of the month is banana ice cream with hand-swirled peanut butter, inspired by the ingredients in his favorite deep-fried sandwich. Never ones to turn down an excuse to eat ice cream, even in January, Bostonist tried out "Elvis’ Favorite." We have to hand it to J.P. Licks: Their ice cream impersonations are always dead on. (Sometimes with frightening results.) The banana flavor is strong, and perfectly complimented by the sweet, salty, smooth ribbons of peanut butter. The only way it could be closer to Elvis’ famous sandwich is if it was deep fried. But it’s great as it is, a perfect high-calorie tribute to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Photo by Lisa Scanlon.

Now that absinthe is legally available for sale in the US, the green fairy has landed on cocktail menus in Boston. Bostonist went to a couple local bars recently to try out the storied liquor of artists and poets. First, we tried out a more-or-less classic absinthe preparation at Kingston Station. It’s an interactive cocktail, and very pretty—you pour a bottle of spring water over a sugar cube sitting on top of a slotted spoon. The sweetened water trickles through a glass filled with ice and drains into a second glass, which holds your shot of absinthe (Kingston Station uses Kübler brand). As the water hits the absinthe, it becomes opalescent. Preparing the drink is maybe more fun than drinking it—the anise flavor is intense, and it is so strong (even when watered down) that it actually numbed our throats a little. Some of us loved it (the types who buy Good & Plenty candy), while others thought you might as well use NyQuil as a mixer. It’s definitely not for everyone. A couple guys down the bar from us ordered absinthes, each took one sip, and promptly ordered backup beers.

To say that the baristas behind Barismo.com are coffee fanatics is a little bit of an understatement. For example, Ben Chen, an engineer by day, actually bought his own coffee-bean roaster in Taiwan, and then started making modifications to it (drilling extra holes so flames could lick the beans directly; hooking it up to a computer to better monitor roasting conditions). So when Bostonist went to a Barismo coffee tasting (or “cupping”) last week...

Creamed onions are a Thanksgiving favorite at Bostonist’s house (except for the year we accidentally bought cocktail onions instead of boiled onions—bygones). So when we saw a recipe for gratinéed mustard creamed onions in this month’s Gourmet, we thought we’d do a side-by-side comparison of Grandma’s way (below) versus Gourmet (left). In the end, Gourmet’s onions were a bigger hit than our usual onions. The onions were bigger and firmer than the usual bottled...

Bostonist made the trek up to Wilmington on Saturday to check out the latest Derby Dames bout—the Wicked Pissahs versus the Nutcrackers. Boy, was it worth the ride. The Pissahs crushed the Nuts 142 to 41, reasserting their dominance for a packed house after coming from behind to win last year’s season championship in May. A standout Dame on the Pissahs was Krushpuppy, a rookie roller who scored 15 points in one jam—trust us,...

The people behind Diesel Café—which Bostonist has been a fan of since it opened in 1999—are charting (and caffeinating) new waters in Somerville’s Union Square. Bloc 11, which is located in a former bank, has a hip, industrial vibe similar to Diesel’s, but it plays to a slightly more mature crowd—it’s like Diesel, but eight years older. The sandwiches, which run from $6.95 to $7.50, are considerably more tony than Diesel’s, featuring ingredients like caramelized onions, prosciutto, and olive tapenade.

As the nights get colder and we slog through another sleepless Red Sox postseason, Bostonist starts thinking about squash. Butternut squash soup, to be precise. Warm, comforting, and economical, it makes an excellent one-pot meal. One of our favorite recipes is from Jack Bishop’s A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. Bishop’s butternut squash soup with chipotle chiles and garlic really packs a punch—you’d never guess that it contains only a handful of ingredients. (Plus a...

When Bostonist heard that J.P. Licks’ October flavors include not just predictable seasonal favorites like pumpkin and caramel apple, but also a whole series of Thai-food-inspired ice creams, we had to give them a try. The Thai iced tea had a nice consistency—perhaps from the addition of condensed milk—but it had a milder tea flavor than we hoped for. If you hadn’t told us it was Thai iced tea, we might have mistaken it for...

Like frozen-yogurt chains in the ’80s and bagel shops in the ’90s, cupcake bakeries are sweeping the nation. And, as with many trends, Boston is a little late to the game. But, in September, we finally got our own cupcake joint, Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square. Bostonist went to Kickass to see if the cupcakes really lived up to their purveyor’s name.

Don’t let the heat wave fool you: It’s pumpkin season. If you need proof, you can find it tomorrow at the Topsfield Fair, where dozens of farmers will haul in Jabba-the-Hutt-sized gourds as part of the fair’s Giant Pumpkin Contest. Last year’s winner tipped the scales at 1,347.5 pounds—about half the weight of a Mini Cooper. (Bostonist also recommends checking out the fair’s birds of prey, chick hatchery, and racing pigs.) But if you can’t...

For a town that has a good number of vegetarians, Boston has surprisingly few vegetarian restaurants. Luckily, some of our favorite restaurants have veggie options that make even the most devoted carnivore think twice about their order. Chief among them is Mediterreanean- and Arabic-influenced Oleana’s six-course vegetarian tasting menu. Bostonist has tried it out several times, and it is never exactly the same twice—it varies from night to night with what’s fresh and best, and...

Wagamama, the wildly popular UK-based noodle chain that opened restaurants in Faneuil Hall last April and Harvard Square last month, reminds us of IKEA: slick, modern, not terrible quality for the prices, and definitely designed to appeal to the masses. Like the London Wagamamas we’ve visited, the Harvard Square restaurant has a spare, modern aesthetic—diners sit cafeteria-style at long wooden tables set with paper placemats, which also serve as dessert menus and as a place...

There’s nothing subtle about the sign outside the Mayflower Poultry Company in East Cambridge: “Live Poultry, Fresh Killed,” it proclaims across the silhouette of a sunny yellow (and presumably doomed) chicken. We picked up a whole chicken at Mayflower’s butcher shop to see if a freshly killed chicken is better than our usual supermarket bird.