Review: Sinatra Sundays at Lucky's Lounge (CBS Boston)

Come dine with me. Fly me to the food. It was a very good meal. I could go on and on… but I won’t. Instead, I’m going to tell you where you can get your Sinatra fix and a solid brunch.

There’s no sign for Lucky’s Lounge, just a hard-to-spot garden-level entrance in a brick building on Congress Street. The menu’s posted outside, but no other evidence indicates that a restaurant is inside. It’s got a bit of a speakeasy feel, but don’t worry, you won’t need a password to get in. (A reservation’s a good idea, though. This hidden spot gets packed.)

Read the rest of my article over on CBS Boston.

More photos:

Cupcake Quest: Sportello

 This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

...although you're going to have to read through a bit of an anecdote before I get to the cupcakes.

Wednesday was an odd day of bad luck and good luck. I went to my temp job for the first half of the day dressed for a job interview later in the day. My nice suit pants are on the long side, so I wear them with a high pair of heels that are not so great for walking long distances, but aside from a twenty minute walk to the interview, I wasn't anticipating moving much.

Then, the fire drill went off. I'm on the top floor of a ten-floor building, and it took a frighteningly long time for us all to file down all the flights of stairs. We reached the bottom, and my group is apparently supposed to meet a few blocks away on the steps of the Public Library to make sure everyone's out of the building. Already limping, and drenched in sweat from the almost-90-degree day, I hobbled to the meeting spot and eventually back to the office.

Fast forward a few hours: time to go to the interview. I limped halfway there and stopped by a Dunkin' Donuts for a quick lunch, desperate to sit down and relax for a minute. Figures...it had counters only. No tables. I stood at the counter, painfully shifting from one foot to the other, and ate my bagel. A guy spilled a whole iced coffee on the floor right next to me, and it splattered on my pants. Awesome. I cleaned up and headed to the interview, which was near South Station.

After, I had to make a stop at one of my favorite restaurants, Sportello. I rarely find myself around Fort Point, so when I do, I feel compelled to eat there, even if I'm alone and it's 3:30PM, like on Wednesday. The first bit of good luck: my obsession, the spicy tomato soup, had not yet disappeared from the menu! Last year I was disappointed to find that it's only on the winter menu, replaced by a not-quite-as-exciting soup in the warmer weather. But here it was, late June, and it was still available. My luck was changing! It actually looked like the staff was learning about the new summer menu while I was there. They were all sitting at a long table with pens and paper, looking at a variety of dishes. I wonder if I stopped by on the very last day of the winter menu.

Sportello's amazing spicy tomato soup with grilled cheese crostini!

As I ate my soup, I happened to glance over at the bakery section in the corner. (Ok, it was more of a deliberate look than a chance glance.) Cupcakes! I picked out three cupcakes, they brought them over to me, and I waited for my check. And waited. After a few minutes, the waitress apologized and told me that all the computers crashed at once, so they were rebooting. Then, she returned and said I was all set. I guess the computers were really not cooperating. Free lunch! Awesome! I left a tip and went on my merry way, cradling the box of cupcakes. I stopped for a minute near the Children's Museum to fish my phone out of my bag, and a little girl wandered over and got very curious about my cupcakes. I snatched them away before she managed to touch them, and I headed to the T.

Finally...on to the tasting! Joel and Dan - my Julia and Joy replacement Cupcake Quest duo - helped out with this one. After the Kickass Cupcakes debacle when Joel and Dan split the best cupcake in the world and I didn't get to try it (until our second visit later that day), we decided to split the cupcakes in three parts this time so we could each try all of them.

First up, the obligatory red velvet. This one was more of a rusty brown than red, and the cake was sadly very dry and bland. The frosting, however, was delicious - thick and creamy and topped with crunchy walnut bits. Dan and Joel were less angry about the dry cake than I was. They thought the creamy frosting balanced it out.

Next up, a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, sea salt, and peanuts. Unlike the peanut butter chocolate cupcake from Petsi Pies, which had frosting that (appropriately) tasted like peanut butter pie filling, the Sportello cupcake's frosting tasted like straight up smooth, creamy peanut butter. Insanely delicious. The sea salt and peanuts brought this to a whole new level of awesome. Have you ever had a chocolate-covered, peanut butter-filled pretzel? It was like that, but even better. Again, the cake was very dry, but with the best frosting in the world, the cake matters a little bit less.

We saved the toasted marshmallow cupcake for last, due to its impressive visual display. I wonder how they managed to char the edges of the marshmallow frosting like that - a torch, I guess? Anyway, sad news on the toasted marshmallow front. This cake was even dryer and more tasteless than the other two - almost inedible - and the marshmallow frosting had a weird granular texture. We were unimpressed, which makes me very sad, because I absolutely love Sportello.

The Verdict: The peanut butter frosting was soooo good. I would get that and possibly the red velvet again as the awesome frosting outweighs the mediocre cake, but I'd avoid the toasted marshmallow. I also think it'd be worth a revisit earlier in the day to see if the cake is less dry.

Cupcake Quest: Flour

This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

I have never actually eaten anything from Flour (until now). I've stopped by the Fort Point location several times, inevitably after having already eaten at Sportello (and most likely imbibed at Drink), so I could only salivate over the pastries (from a safe distance, of course. Don't worry, I didn't dribble on anyone's sticky buns.)

One of my coworkers walked more than a half hour yesterday to pick up some cookie dough from Flour for a relative's birthday party and called me to see if she should bring back a cupcake. It's hard to say no to mid-work-day cupcake deliveries.

Slightly bigger than your average cupcake.

At 2:30, we had a covert cafeteria meet-up for cupcake questing purposes. We split a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. Size-wise, it was larger than a standard homemade cupcake but smaller than some of the giant ones I've tried so far (J.P. Licks, Shaws, and Gingerbread Construction Co.). The cake had a nicely bitter dark chocolate flavor and was moist and pretty light. There was an appropriate amount of frosting, and it adhered well. The flavor was equal parts cream, sugar, and real vanilla, and it was tasty and rich (but not overwhelmingly so).

The Verdict: This Flour cupcake didn't hide behind gimmicky flavors or decorations. It was a solid classic cupcake, enjoyable and comfortable like your month-old new car: most of the thrill is gone, but it still makes you smile and gets you where you have to go.

(Note: I'm growing bored of the cupcake vocabulary I've been using again and again in these posts, so from here on out I'm just going to go ahead and throw cheesy similes and metaphors at you for your enjoyment as well as mine.)

(Note #2: Did you know that Flour is opening up a third location? It'll be in Central Square (Cambridge), and it's due to open the end of this month. Follow owner Joanne Chang-Myers on Twitter for more information and an always-interesting account of the trials and tribulations of opening a new business.) 

Sportello: An Italian Diner in Fort Point

It's possible to find great Italian food in Boston beyond the borders of the North End. Head out to Fort Point, just steps from the Financial District, and you'll find the lunchtime mecca of the local businesspeople and artists. Sportello is a tiny restaurant offering simple yet gourmet Italian food in a minimalist diner-like setting. Located at 348 Congress Street above the innovative bar named Drink, Sportello is sleek and modern. Seat yourself at a gleaming white counter or head straight to the bakery corner, where you can stock up on cupcakes and cookies or pick up $6 boxed breakfasts that include tea or coffee, granola, a scone, a hard-boiled egg, and house-made preserves.

From your counter seat, you can watch the chefs cook calmly in the tiny, spotless kitchen. The ingredients seem to appear from thin air; everything is tucked neatly away. Everything about Sportello is clean and shiny, a grease-less version of the classic greasy spoon. While you peruse the menu, which doubles as your place mat, your friendly server will arrive with fresh, soft bread and a mix of olive oil, ricotta, and preserves for dipping.

The stars of the lunch and dinner menus are the soups, which will set you back about $9 but are large enough for a light meal. The most popular winter dish is the spicy tomato soup (see photo to the left), rich and creamy with a swirl of chili oil, accompanied by a grilled cheese crostini. Now, in warmer weather, it's replaced by a chilled tomato soup with poached shrimp and piperade. Also on the summer menu: a chicken and summer vegetable soup with basil pesto.

Salads and paninis are also available on the lower end of Sportello's somewhat pricey menu. For $13, try the broccoli rabe panini with pecorino, prosciutto, and cherry peppers. The crispy bread is buttered just enough to be delicious without greasiness, and the bitter broccoli rabe helps tone down the saltiness from the cheese and prosciutto. At night, the paninis disappear, so be sure to head over at lunch time if you're in a sandwich mood.

If you're willing to ignore the diner-style ambiance and spend more for your entree, try a pasta, meat, or fish dish. The papardelle with sauce bolognese and fried basil is an Italian spin on diner comfort food: mild, filling, and a little bit oily. At $17 for lunch or $22 for dinner, you might initially wonder if it's worth the price, but the sauce - a mix of veal, beef, and pork and finished with a bit of chicken liver - will win you over. Unfortunately, the fried basil, which is delicious, only makes an appearance as one measly crispy leaf on top of the mountain of wide noodles. Other entrees include salmon with summer beans and bacon; farfalle with clams, mussels, and radishes; and swordfish with tomatoes, capers, garlic, and parsley.

Desserts like the chocolate budino tart with sea salt and olive oil or the warm bread pudding with house-made jam and honey caramel may tempt you, or you can head over to the bakery across the room for a cupcake or pastry. Or, if you're bothered by the fact that you've already spent too much money in what is essentially a diner, head downstairs to Drink and have a drink. But for a neat little restaurant on the edge of the Financial District, perhaps the prices aren't really that unreasonable, and the quality of the food does rival much of what you can find in the North End.