Caffe Nuovo for Breakfast with an Italian Twist!

I don’t know about you, but when I go out for “girls night” it often leads to memory lapse, lost items, unexplainable bruises, and a very achy morning after. Last Friday was no exception.

I can see you all reading this now…judging me…asking “why would you do that? That sounds miserable.” Well, I do it for a few reasons:
1 – my girls know how to have fun and it’s worth the confusion and pain in the morning.
2 – the memories we eventually piece together are some of the most hilarious we make – and we relive them years later.
3 – nothing beats a good breakfast when you have a hangover.

This entry will be mostly about the breakfast…but to give you some background – here’s a little info about the night before. Since Packie lives downtown, we often congregate at her place to start our evenings. After a few mixed drinks consisting of whatever she had in the apartment, Packie, DD, and Jensky made our way to Bell in Hand in the Faneuil Hall area.

The cover was $5 and there was a live band playing. Our only photo documentation of the evening is one picture of 4 drinks being held up – so I’ll just tell you about it. Bell in Hand offers a free coat check (awesome when you’re bundled up to fight the winter weather) and we found a spot at the bar right in front of the band. They played songs that everyone knows the words to, but that no one would soberly dance to. As you can imagine, the dance floor slowly filled up as the hours passed… All in all, I’d say it was worth it for $5 to get in. The rest of the night was one disaster after another…I’ll be honest, it still hurts to go up stairs. BUT the next morning we found comfort in breakfast food.

Caffe Nuovo is a snazzy, new establishment on Salem St. in the North End. They are open 7am – 2pm daily for brunch. We were fortunate to get there before the rest of the hungover crowd (try to show up before 11am), and got a table right away. The menu has all your favorites – various types of eggs, waffles, french toast…and everything was awesome. My waffle ($7) was gone in about 40 seconds. Don’t pretend like you’re not impressed.

Though we all opted for comfort food due to our condition, I’m looking forward to trying Caffee Nuovo again for some of its more innovative dishes. Some of the most unique brunch combos include: mozzarella caprese salad with basil pesto and scrambled eggs ($12); spaghetti carbonara with egg yolks, parmesan cheese and black pepper ($13); and milanese style veal or chicken cutlets topped with 2 eggs any style ($11).

Though I haven’t tried any of these interesting selections yet, I’d be willing to bet they are delicious. Based on the quality of the food and the prime location this restaurant snagged in the North End, I’m thinking about taking the family out for brunch here next time they visit. I’ll let you know how it goes!!

A presto,
Little B

Always a Good Time in Allston

First of all, I’d like to apologize for the hiatus I’ve clearly taken. The holidays were chalk full of travel and general madness, and as a result, I’ve neglected my blog and my readers. I will say, I appreciate the nagging to start writing again and it feels good to be missed :) So thank you!

With that, it’s back to business. I have a couple places I’d like to talk about in this entry. Recently some friends of mine have moved out to the Allston area so I’ve had the opportunity to frequent some of my favorite restaurants/bars in the area, as well as to try some new ones.

First up, Sunset Cantina / Sunset Grill and Tap. Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about this place. There’s always a decent crowd, and yet there’s always a table or a seat at the bar for your group. The real draw of this place is that it has the largest selection of on-tap / in bottles on the east coast: 112 taps and 380 microbrews and exotic imports. They have some great deals on unique beer selections, as well as meads and a huge assortment of fancy cocktails.

For those who are just as happy with a Bud Light as they are with a Brooklyn Lager (yum…), not to worry my friends, Sunset has another draw just for you. That is…cheap, delicious food. Their menu is gigantic and I’ve never heard a complaint about anything on it. My personal favorito is the chicken fajita burrito ($9)…check out the menu for details, but let me just tell you – its awesome. There are too many menu items to mention, but one more that stands out above the rest – the sour cream–n–chive fries. Sounds a little odd, but I’ve never seen a basket of fries disappear so quickly. They are heaven!! Also, check the website before you go over – you can often find 2-for-1 dinner coupons on their website. Or if you go to school in Beantown, check out those student discount booklets…Sunset always has coupons in there!

One word of caution - Head upstairs to Big City for a game of pool, but I do NOT recommend getting their pulled pork nachos. This is probably TMI – but let’s just say I didn’t keep them down for long. Yikes.

The second place I’d like to mention is new to me, and I must say, I visited under very unfortunate circumstances. We decided to head to Joshua Tree to watch the Patriots game this Sunday. Son of a…!!! Im still outraged by that performance….Anyway, no complaints about the bar. The food was good, and the wings were 25 cents. We downed a couple pitchers of Bud Light. Prices were pretty standard. I’ve heard a lot of people say this bar tends to cater to a younger crowd. I guess I’ll have to go back to further assess – all I remember is an obnoxious number of Jets fans…

Good place to watch sports though – I’d say there were at least 20 (probably more) TVs lining the walls. There was literally not a single place you could be sitting where you couldn’t see the game. That’s all for now. It’s good to be back, Boston.

And I’ve never said this before, but Brady leaves me no choice…Go Steelers!
Little B