Review: Taste of Park Plaza
I joined Sr. et Sra. Il Consiglieri last night for the Taste of Park Plaza. $40. Eight stops. Food and beverage at each. All to benefit the Boston Food Bank. In order of our restaurants:
1) Swan Cafe at Park Plaza: This is the lounge in the lobby of the hotel. Comfy chairs. We had smoked salmon on toasts - very salty, and lukewarm, which was weird, and roasted chicken wings with some kind of hot and sweet green sauce that was amazing. Mint and jalapeno or something equally interesting. Paired with Sam Adams, or a white wine that the Sr. and Sra. said was fantastic.
2) Finale: We decided to start sweet and end savory, so we hightailed it to Finale first. Chocolate decadence (which we also had at the Finale tasting two weeks prior), paired with a Riesling. So good. The Riesling was extremely sweet and almost Mead-like. After a bit of the bitter chocolate dessert, the sweetness of the wine mellowed into something gorgeous. Fantastic pairing.
3) Ben & Jerry's: We got teensy cups of ice cream. They were good, but we didn't want to fill up so quickly and mess up the rest of our night.
4) Au Bon Pain: Watermelon lemonade to drink - which basically is watermelon sherbet floating in a cup of lemonade. Refreshing, especially as we were realizing that the restaurants are horribly under-air conditioned. Joining that was a barbeque chicken sandwich. It tasted more Thai than barbeque, but it was good, and snack size, which was better. We had been in for an hour and already flipped half our restaurants. We decided our plan of attack while getting some fresh air outside.
5) The Melting Pot: OMG HOT CHEESE. We were ushered into a tiny back room which was already crowded with folks. Cups of beer and wine were just sitting on tables. Me: Sam (why mess with what works?); Sra. was not happy with the wine, and switched to Sam. Sr. choked down his wine. Apparently it was from Iowa or Indiana or somewhere that really shouldn't do wine. The fondue was deeeeelicious. Cheddar beer-base with the bread, and dark chocolate with strawberries. Wha-bam.
6) McCormick & Schmicks: MADHOUSE. This was the most confusing of the restaurants. They penned everyone into a sunken room, which was hot as Satan's balls. Good thing they were pouring generous glasses of beer. Sr. et Sra. had another semi-decent red at this location. Food at this location was wasabi tuna on cucumber slices, and a bruschetta that was basically chopped tomatoes on bread slices. I passed on the tomatoes, but had the tuna. It was okay. I really like the taste of tuna on its own, and too much wasabi just makes everything taste like wasabi. The tuna got lost. That irked me.
7) MJ O'Connors: One of the Irish Pub conglomerate that also owns The Harp, the Green Briar, and Ned Devine's. I admit that I did not have high hopes for the Irish pub. I was pleasantly surprised. They were serving up clam chowder and shephard's pie, along with another generous pouring of Sam. The shephard's pie was deconstructed, so it was more like a stew with mash. It was OK, but there was a little Dinty Moore in the background for me (Sr. et Sra. loved it, so it could just be me). The chowder, on the other hand, was AMAZING. Very thick, very buttery, with tons of clams and very few potatoes. There was also a significant onion flavor, and the sauteed onions in the broth were melded in very well. I had two cups of chowder in 113% humidity. It was that good.
8) Bonfire: Our last stop on our journey, on purpose. It is the most foo-foo of all the restaurants, as it is Todd English's steak joint. It is very "modern medieval", with high-backed chairs and heavy, rustic round tables. I was back to a dinky shot glass of Sam, while Sr. et Sra. had a decent glass of red. We sat in air conditioned glory for well over 40 minutes, mostly because we had to wait for service for most of that time. But it was worth it. Our two bites were a surf & turf taco, which had grilled steak and fried baby shrimp wrapped up in a hoisin-based barbeque sauce and topped with cilantro. The other one was an empanada of ...aw, who the hell cares. That motherfucking taco was the most amazing thing I'd put in my mouth all night. We all got seconds, and the second taco was even better than the first. We were cool and full.
9) Whiskey Park: The end of our journey. We had sprung for the VIP tickets, which included the after party at Whiskey Park and a swag bag. I hadn't been there in quite some time, mostly because it's pretentious as fuck. But at this point of the night, it was nice to sit in a cool, dark room and listen to not-too-loud music. I sprung for a Hendricks gin and tonic, which wasn't on the open bar menu, and which cost me $14 including tip. It was so fucking worth it. I hadn't had Hendricks before (I'm a Sapphire girl), but let me tell you - I might need to switch it up. It's infused with rosepetals and cucumber, which makes it a bit sweeter than traditional gin. Mixed with the tonic and topped with a cuke slice, and any latent perspiration I had from earlier in the evening was wicked away. The swag bag contained a ABP travel mug, a scotch glass, wine key, an overtly phallic Sam bottle opener, and gift cards and coupons for a few of the restaurants.
So, If I were to craft a perfect dinner out of the Taste of Park Plaza, it would be:
APPETIZER: Clam Chowder, and maybe a chicken wing
CHEESE COURSE: fondue
MAIN COURSE: Surf & Turf Tacos
DESSERT: Chocolate Decadence
DRINK: Hendricks and Tonic
If they do this next year, I'm definitely going again.