Transplanting a Seattleite

R. and T. went to Lowe's and Bed Bath and Beyond in Hudson. They came back with suction cup based shower caddies, which look nice and are pretty good for what they are. I've also ordered more permanent (Nie Wieder Bohren) to install with adhesive. R. also got a curtain and a tension rod, so we can now actually use the shower. Despite having taken a shower earlier in the day, T. was so excited it was all set up and ready to use that he beat R. and I to taking the first shower.

R. got take out from Battle Road Brew Pub in Maynard. O.M.G. truly excellent BBQ. The beans and greens are particularly amazing. The slaw is not safe for me. The ribs, chicken and pulled pork are also excellent. And of course the beer is good, but I didn't have any. Fries were not going to be the sort the kids like and they are salty, but the spices are really nice.

I bought Duck Tour tickets for T. and his sitter to use tomorrow. They have all kinds of fun planned.

No horse today; rain. So basically A. and I never did leave the house.

Quite a while back, I heard about a brazilian place in Hyannis and found out I could get a reservation on Open Table. So I did. And we went. It was awesome. I figured it would be, since MIL is a meat and leafy greens with a few veg sort of person, and my sister's family loves steak. My daughter hates food smells, but while she didn't eat much beyond oyster crackers, she also didn't complain very much, so that worked out well. The cold table was amazing, altho I didn't eat much meat because I find all those skewers more than a little overwhelming. The lamb was excellent, and I liked the chicken hearts, too.

We like El Huipil, and their ac is more than adequate. So we went there for dinner since we had two sitters. They have recently gotten a liquor license.

Watch out for those margaritas. At some point, Maynard's Board of Selectmen is gonna crack down on them, in much the same way they put Daniela's out of business here in Acton. In the meantime, think of their margaritas as effectively a triple or stronger.

Tasty food as always. I had the veggie burritos and they were yum. As a result of the margaritas, by the time I left my lips and toes were numb. But before the alcohol rendered my tastebuds completely indifferent to what I was consuming, I really enjoyed the guacamole.

ETA: I made some phone calls after El Huipil and its powerful margarita. The margarita made the phone calls sooooo much easier.

My son likes 99 Restaurants, and we sometimes go to the one in West Concord. Across the street was the West Concord Market, which closed up shop a while back and we all speculated what it was about to become while it was renovated until we wised up, googled around some and learned it would become Woods Hill Table, the restaurant associated with the Woods Hill Farm in Bath, NH. So: fancy Concord restaurant with _their own sourced foods_. (Also, you can apparently rent "The Lodge" at Woods Hill Farm, if you want to have a really nice farm stay experience?)

Anyway. We were excited to go there. I tried to get a reservation, but I kept checking less than a week in advance of a Saturday I had a babysitter and you know how that goes with new restaurants. This time, I had about a week's notice on a Tuesday night babysitter, and still had to choose between a 5 p.m. reservation and an 8:30 reservation or later. I'm old; I went with 5 p.m. If you want to go have dinner there, drop in isn't likely to work. It'll be tempting to go back for a late supper of oysters, dessert and drinks next time.

We split a "Whisky Business" cocktail, which had a bunch of stuff in it including ginger ale, cucumber, simple syrup, No. 1 Pimm's Cup and a named whisky that I have now forgotten. It was very yummy and excellent for a warm day. (Restaurant a/c works great and they don't freeze you to death either.) We had the grilled oysters and chicharrones. We had the baguette, which came with maple syrup and pork fat spread and, inevitably, farm fresh butter (lots of seeds on the mini-baguettes, including caraway). We had the egg and asparagus, which had fiddleheads and really wonderful radishes (should have had the bread come out with the asparagus, to sop up the egg) ETA and how did I forget the super crispy bit of chicken skin and tiny bites of chicken thigh. We had a salad. For the main plate, we had a steak, fries (in tallow! OMG! The very best! And that means that not only is this place not halal or kosher, it's hindi-unfriendly, too. But they are sure supportive of allergies!) and greens (not sure about what greens those were, but they were tasty), and ordered the broccoli rabe for the veg with the main course. We had a nice Willamette Valley pinot noir (don't ask me which one, altho R. might know) to go with dinner. We had the apple crisp with almond ice cream (no milk products at all!) for dessert and a tawny port (again, I don't remember, altho it was really good). We shared everything, and we probably over-ordered slightly (now that I know dessert is possible, I'd probably have reduced one of the vegetable choices altho I'd be hard pressed to give one of the ones I had up).

The service was excellent (we think we've had that server at a different area restaurant -- maybe Red Raven?). I have rarely sat in a more comfortable chair (R. thought it was ever so slightly too tall, which is because he has more of his height in his torso and I have more in my leg). It was not loud (sometimes restaurants get really echo-y). The music was Lumineers, Bon Iver and similar on a pretty short loop, which made me laugh, because it was so over-the-top appropriate to what the restaurant was aiming for that it struck me as funny.

When we moved to Acton, we expected there to be a bunch of perfectly good restaurants in the area, and were happy to have a cafe/diner type place in walking distance with appropriately brusque service and predictable food. We did not expect to find ourselves awash in unbelievably excellent foodie choices a few short years later, when we were finally able to leave the kids with sitters and go out to eat. We figured we'd be going in to Boston-Somerville-Cambridge for that (and we have been to Dali's recently and it is even better than we remembered). To have Bondir's, 80 Thoreau, and now Woods Hill Table one town over (and our own beloved Red Raven here in town) is a sort of foodie good luck that boggles the mind.

Hey, all my Seattle foodie friends: add this to the list of reasons to come visit us.

The restaurant opened its doors at about a minute past 5 and there were already three couples waiting to be seated. Woods Hill Table has a small parking lot. The street meters are 1 hour parking, meters ending at 6 p.m. We killed time for about 10 minutes (we were early) by walking along what will become part of the Bruce Freeman Trail out to where there isn't currently a bridge. Lots of dragon flies out there.

(Also, T., if you are reading, I hope you are amused and find this review as snooty as the 80 Thoreau one!)

A new Walgreen's opened up in Maynard, and didn't last long. Now, it may become a brewery for Battle Road (our New Favorite Beer, maybe -- it's really good), with a restaurant. The zoning change requires a change to Maynard's by-laws, and Town Meeting isn't until May. So, not immediately.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/battle-road-brewing-company-to-re-launch-in-2015-with-new-look-format-distribution-brewery.239239/

We like 29 Sudbury (altho it had a slow start), so we are feeling optimistic.

We were wondering if perhaps the rumored West Concord Beef Company mentioned in that article might be going into the old West Concord Supermarket. It will not. That is going to be Woods Hill Table, a farm to table operation that owns its own farm up in New Hampshire. Looks scrumptious. Very exciting.

https://www.facebook.com/woodshilltable

In the meantime, if you are in the area and drooling for upscale gastropub, try the excellent Red Raven (we luuuurrrrvvve it). If, on the other hand, exquisitely detailed descriptions of locally sourced, seasonal, artisanal etc., try Bondir in Concord. I would never have expected, in the former case, Scupperjack's to be replaced by something so fantastic or, in the latter case, the Walden Grille, likewise. Both have fantastic bars; Bondir specializes in classic cocktails you've never heard of (Seelbach, Giuseppe Goes to the Beach [ETA: my husband tells me this should be Giuseppe Goes to Trinidad], to mention two. He also reminds me how could Vieux Carre was.). Red Raven has the good cherries, so you can order their Manhattan variants fearlessly.