North End of Boston

Anyone know a good place to take 16 or so well travelled high schoolers for the "authentic" North End Italian Experience?

I remember everything being good, but I'm looking for a really standout spot if anyone knows one.

if you get there early enough, you could all cram into Pomodoro, my favorite place in the North End. It truly is tiny, and doesn't have a bathroom, but you can see the cooks prepping your pasta. They have truly excellent dishes. After that, you could go next door to Modern Pastry for the best cannolis (AVOID Mike's Pastry!). Modern wins hands down because they fill the shell while you wait and they are not overly sweet. Try the dark-chocolate dipped shells.
Embarrasing admission: When I had a job near the North End, I would often eat my slice of pizza while waiting in line for a cannoli and just barely make it back to work in time!

Pomodoro: 319 Hanover St., 617 367 4348
Modern Pastry: 257 Hanover Street

messycook wrote:After that, you could go next door to Modern Pastry for the best cannolis (AVOID Mike's Pastry!).

I've never been to Modern Pastry, but I found Mike's to be pretty damn good!

Mike's Cannoli


If Modern Pastry is better, it must truly be stellar.

I do think that Modern Pastry is stellar....I find Mike's to be a tourist trap, with lots of Cool Whip and too much sugar in their goods. I know this is a huge generalization, because they have a lot of different things to choose from, but I've just never really liked anything I have had there. Anyway, Modern is a very small shop in comparison and looks kinda crummy from the outside... I love their cannoli so much, we ordered 70 of them for dessert for our rehearsal dinner last year

Pomodoro won rave reviews with the kids and my mother. Adjectives like "spectacular" and "astonishing" were thrown around. Some had the Chicken Carbonara ("unbelievable") and a few had the Seafood Fra Diavolo ("so good I wanted to rub it in my hair" for whatever that's worth)

Everyone was too full for Modern, which is too bad, because I was anxiously awaiting a report. I've always been a fan of Mike's Ricotta Florentines, but, I'm always interested in new cannoli experiences.

I see no shame in what sounds like a fabulous way to spend a lunch break.

Thanks bunches.
ee

If it's a group of sixteen, that might take up the entire seating area of The Daily Catch in the North End.

I've eaten numerous times at this tiniest of all storefronts, where I would order linguine with calamari, and watch the dish cooked literally three feet from me. The pasta waits pre-al dente, while cleaned squid no doubt caught that morning are thrown into a hot skillet with olive oil, garlic and white wine. After a couple minutes some red sauce is added with spices & parsley, then finally the linguine is added to the pan. Voila! Probably 5 minutes start to finish, and as fresh as could be imagined.

The owners of most restaurants in the North End can be a little suspicious of outsiders, but wouldn't it be an awesome experience for your group to set something up with the owner of Daily Catch to dine on an off-hour that they normally would be closed, and have the place to yourself?

Good luck to you, and enjoy the North End!

The Daily Catch
323 Hanover St.
Boston, MA
(617) 635-4000

If you can ditch the kids, go to Bricco for very good Italian food. It's at 241 Hanover St.

I think jnm123 is onto something. Daily Catch is so quintessentially 'your small, family, Boston Italian place', that if there were any way to give your kiddos this experience, it would be well worth it.

Although I don't know the folks there, they certainly were more than welcoming to me and TODG, and spent all the time needed to talk about the menu, what was freshest, best way they'd prefer to cook it, etc. Now admittedly, most of the folks who came in the door were local regulars--they hardly needed to actually *order* their skillet lunches--but I don't think it would be unreasonable to at least try to work out some sort of an off-peak arrangement with them.

Not only will the surroundings, ambiance and tenor of things be local and unique, the food will be awfully good as well!

I say, go for it!

Geo

Geo wrote:I think jnm123 is onto something. Daily Catch

Geo,

Agree with you and JMN123 on all counts, Daily Catch was particularly welcoming with terrific food. Even though we were not exactly ravenous, have just grazed the North End's Saint Agrippina festival, our meal at Daily Catch was memorable.

As mentioned the restaurant is small which leads to lines, on this particular evening in August mercifully short.

Daily Catch


Chalkboard ordering system, with ever changing daily specials.


Upon hearing, with some disbelief I might add, I'd never had a squid meatball, our waiter was quite emphatic in his recommendation, not that I needed much convincing. Slightly lighter overall texture than traditional with a hint of the sea in a very fresh flavored tomato sauce.

Calamari Meatballs


Also enjoyed fried calamari, tender with great flavor, though I'd have liked them a bit crisper.


In keeping with all squid all the time I had black pasta with ground squid in garlic and olive oil. Delicious, especially after a hit or two of crushed red pepper, and perfectly prepared.

Black Pasta w/ground squid


My bride went with linguini with clams, white wine, garlic and olive oil. Tender clams, spot-on pasta, a lovely dish.

Linguini w/Clams


She briefly considered lobster fra diavolo but felt she could not do it justice after the Saint Agrippina festival. It looked terrific.

Lobster Fra Diavolo


Coke in small glass bottles, Montepulciano by the glass, locals on either side of us during dinner, friendly engaging waiter, great food and reasonable prices.

Terrific recommendation, thanks.

Enjoy,
Gary

Daily Catch
323 Hanover Street
Boston, Massachusetts
617-523-8567
http://www.dailycatch.com/main.html

So glad you enjoyed it Gary--sounds like you two had a great time. And man! do those pix make me hungry! (It's not like I'm starving up here in Montreal or anything, but those dishes, esp. the linguini + clams, do something to a person's appetite-circuits...)

Onward, every onward!

Geo

Sorry to bring up an old thread, Gary did you notice any flavor differences of the squid ink coloring the black pasta?

Blown Z wrote:Sorry to bring up an old thread, Gary did you notice any flavor differences of the squid ink coloring the black pasta?

Blown Z,

I remember the Daily Catch's black pasta flavor being lighter, less sea faring funky than squid ink typically imparts, for example the deliciously murky depth of flavor of Fideua Negra (baby squid in its own ink) at Mercat a la Planxa.

It was a very good meal, and 20-months later it's still a fond memory, but I don't remember the dish having a particularly strong squid ink flavor.

You going to the Daily Catch? I'd be very interested in your take if you have the same dish.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary,

There is a filipino dish similar to Fideua Negra which also gives it that murky depth of flavor you speak of and I was curious if that carried over to the pasta as well. Boston isn't in my travel plans anytime soon unfortunately but the menu at the Daily Catch looks wonderful. I especially thought that they serve you your pasta in the pan they cook it in was pretty neat!

Best,
Ken

There's a festival in the North End just about every weekend of the warmer months, this weekend being the 90th "Feast of all Feasts", Saint Anthony's Feast. G Wiv reported on Saint Agrippina's Feast here, and as you can see, the festivals are all quite similar with respect to food vendors. I was coming off a rather hefty brunch so didn't get to hit every vendor, but was curious to try the Latin American stall which I hadn't seen before.

Saint Anthony's Feast