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Scollay Square
The vote is in: More good food on Beacon Hill
BY ROBERT NADEAU
Scollay Square
(617) 742-4900
21 Beacon Street, Boston (Beacon Hill)
Open Mon–Thu, 11:30 a.m.–11 p.m.; Fri, 11:30 a.m.–midnight; Sat, 5 p.m.–midnight; and Sun, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. and 5–10 p.m.
AE, DC, MC, Vi
Full bar
No valet parking
Sidewalk-level access

My original rule was, "Thou shalt not dine within one thousand cubits of a university or government building." I am not a wrathful dining god, but experience had taught that transient audiences like students and political appointees were not enough to discipline the average restaurant. Then UpStairs at the Pudding broke the university rule, and Barbara Lynch shattered the government mold at No. 9 Park, in the shadow of the State House. Now the crew behind the Border Café — which does a pretty good job in Cambridge, despite being in the Harvard University zone — has actually embraced the transient stereotype with Scollay Square. The location is not in the old Scollay Square, which was down by the present City Hall, but the room is full of photos and fake memorabilia of the old burlesque houses and saloons, and runs a soundtrack of ’40s big-band swing.

Fortunately, the food wanders a little farther from the politician’s ideal than the Border Café wanders from Tex-Mex, but there’s enough big meat and potatoes in case a lobbyist and a few hungry reps come through the door. Much of the menu is seafood, but it’s described in masculine — not to say aggressive — terms, as though repeat crustaceans were being sentenced in a new crime bill: "skillet-roasted" mussels, "oven-fired" oysters, "seared" Jonah crab cakes and scallops. Heaven for diners is hell on shellfish.

In fact, our favorite appetizer was a special on seared (but mostly raw) tuna ($11), sliced into smaller squares than sashimi, the flavor sealed with a little toasted sesame oil, a dab of wasabi, and some salty greens.

I also like the portobello quesadilla ($8), a four-slice turnover with nicely melded mushroom and cheese flavors. Wood-roasted-chicken-and-seasonal-vegetable soup ($5) is a rather salty and peppery bowl of cream of chicken with carrots, broccoli, and onions. A beet-and-goat-cheese salad ($7) is something of a best buy. Although the beets taste boiled rather than roasted, there are lots of them, lots of shaved-ricotta salata, and lots and lots of field greens.

The breadbasket is full of a cake-like white bread, which I don’t favor, but the main dishes bring so many kinds of potatoes that it won’t matter much. With a special broiled salmon fillet ($19), we got the "lobster mashed potatoes" ($5/side), which actually contain chunks of lobster and are nicely flavored by lobster broth. The salmon was white-colored, possibly wild, certainly nicely made. Rounding out the platter was very carefully grilled asparagus ($5/side).

We also got the asparagus on a "cider-brined double-cut pork chop" ($19), the obvious choice for pork-barrel pols. Joking aside, it’s an excellent piece of meat, if somewhat better done than the ordered "medium," and juicy but not over-salted from the brining step. The classic mushroom gravy is ideal. The potatoes on this one are scalloped, as were the potatoes with a special on poached halibut ($20), one of the best-flavored pieces of fish I’ve had this year, served over a salty but effective white-bean ragout.

My favorite among the seafood, though, was seared scallops ($20), genuinely seared and highly flavored sea scallops — it’s that season on Georges Bank — served with the asparagus and a kind of fried potato pancake.

The wine list at Scollay Square is really a treat, and wines are served in very large glasses to show off the aromatics. The 2000 Liberty School Syrah ($8/glass; $28/bottle) showed why it’s worth growing Rhône grapes in California, why it’s worth letting wines age a little, and what a basket of fruit, berry, and chocolate-cedar aromas you can get out of the combination. A 1999 Beaulieu Vineyards Napa Merlot ($9/$30) had as spicy a nose as some Bordeaux, while a Buckley’s Merlot ($6/$22) was in the more familiar soft style of California merlots. My lone white, the Phillips Viognier EXP ($9/$30), was as piny and floral as a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, another good argument for Rhône grapes in California style. Wines here are served in little carafes, so you can add to the giant glasses as you please. There’s no reason not to do this all at once, given the size of the glasses, but the carafes make it easier for the bar to keep a uniform pour. Coffee ($3) and decaf ($3) are very good, but tea ($3) has you select from a box, then hurry to get your bag into a mug of hot water.

Desserts are something of a letdown, although they’re popular combinations with food of this kind. The chocolate mini-bundt cake ($6) is sort of molten and very chocolaty, but it feels to me like eating half-cooked batter. The white-chocolate bread pudding ($6) is eggy and rich, but the subtlety of white chocolate is lost — it’s just bread pudding. A New York cheesecake ($6) is heavy and rich and, well, heavy.

Because we were big spenders on a slow Sunday night, or because someone saw me taking notes, or because the management is determined to please — probably the latter — we also had a complimentary round of Banfi Rosa Regale as a dessert wine. This is a sweet, red version of Asti Spumante, and very good with dessert, for dessert, after dessert, or on a day when someone is eating dessert, somewhere...

Service at Scollay Square is very good, even as it fills up. Servers are dressed in black with white ties, more a nod to New York wise guys than to the old Scollay Square crowd, but it shows attention to detail. Our server explained the menu well, catered to odd tastes, and never missed a trick, without being obtrusive. The atmosphere in general is better than it might seem. There’s lots of noise with an open kitchen, plus hardwood floors and high ceilings, plus background music. Glowing neon and bright lights (only one silent sports TV), along with old hotel-lobby art nouveau mirrors, make up at least some of the décor. But all this activity seems to create a kind of privacy for the well-spaced tables. You could buy or sell a vote here, but you could also have a nice dinner out.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com.


Issue Date: May 7 - 13, 2004
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