More Boston Eats

On our second day in Boston, we were drawn by an incredibly powerful force to The Pour House for brunch. We used to live just a few blocks from The Pour House and we spent almost every Sunday morning there. It's a fun, casual bar and greasy spoon kind of place. They offer a huge menu of breakfast and brunch specialties, hamburgers, sandwiches, and some nice Italian and Mexican dishes. The prices are ridiculously cheap, the food is always ready fast, and the servers are usually very nice.

When we were Pour House regulars, we'd always eat at the bar (instead of a regular table) and all the bartenders knew us. The minute we'd sit down, the bartender would pour us our regular drinks. While I ordered many different things from the menu at other times in the week, Sundays were usually reserved for huevos rancheros. And the bartenders knew that. One of my favorite bartenders even took the liberty of ordering me the huevos rancheros once without asking me what I wanted. (He did check after he put in the order...and he was right)

So this visit was no exception. I had their delicious huevos rancheros...a big plate of scrambled eggs, black beans, salsa, shredded cheddar cheese and a bit of sour cream. Win had one of their burgers and it was just as good as he remembered. Something else that's nice about The Pour House is that they serve breakfast foods for quite a while into the day and they start serving their lunch menu earlier in the day than most. So everyone can find something they like. It's probably just because it became such a comfortable routine for us when we lived there, but in my mind there's very little that beats a walk over to The Pour House on a weekend morning for a delicious breakfast, a cozy conversation, and maybe a skim of the newspaper.



Since we had eaten a rather large morning meal, we decided to forgo a traditional lunch and just relax with a drink in the afternoon. We headed to Aquitaine in Boston's South End for this refreshment. Aquitaine is a lovely bistro and wine bar and they have been recognized by Wine Spectator for having one of the country's best wine lists. In addition to wine, they have a full bar and make delicious cocktails as well. It was the hottest day Boston's had all summer, and sitting at Aquitaine's sleek, pretty bar with an amaretto sour sounded really good. And it was. We also spotted a bottle of rum called Sailor Jerry. Win's a rum fan so he tried it to see what this Sailor Jerry was all about. It had more of a vanilla essence to it than other rums and Win enjoyed it.

Next we were off to our friend's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and it was so nice to see how happy the bride and groom were. They did a wonderful job planning and executing every last detail of the event themselves. They held the wedding ceremony in the backyard of their house and included their beloved dog, Pepper, as one of the bridesmaids. Oddly enough, when a guest asked them if Pepper was coming to the reception too, the couple gave the guest a strange look and said very seriously "No. Why would Pepper come to the reception? She's a dog!" So now we all know: Dogs can be in wedding ceremonies, but it's crazy for them to come to the reception afterwards.

With our Boston trip fast drawing to a close, we had just one more meal we could squeeze in. We saved that for Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger. More on that tomorrow...