The second Boston venue from New York’s Blue Ribbon Eating places has arrived, and it’s a globe-trotting have a look at seafood dishes from Latin America to Europe.
Pescado’s oysters asadas—roasted oysters with chili butter and lime. / Picture by Steve Hill
From lobster tacos to yellowtail crudo to clam and jalapeño pizza, Kenmore Sq.’s latest arrival, Pescador, goals to take diners on a seafood-focused journey via quite a lot of coastal cuisines across the globe. It’s the second of three deliberate Boston eating places from the 30-year-old, New York–primarily based Blue Ribbon Eating places hospitality group, which opened Blue Ribbon Sushi in Kenmore Sq. earlier this 12 months. These two spots, plus the group’s forthcoming brasserie, are positioned in Boston’s Resort Commonwealth, taking on the longtime Jap Customary, Hawthorne, and Island Creek Oyster Bar areas. Pescador is within the former seafood-filled Island Creek house (and earlier than that, much more seafood! Remember Great Bay?), however don’t count on precisely the identical sort of seafood restaurant as its predecessors.
“Our focus isn’t to copy an already-existing Boston seafood place,” says Bruce Bromberg, cofounder of Blue Ribbon Eating places along with his brother Eric. “There’s numerous actually good variations in Boston. This actually comes from a unique place; it comes from our travels and numerous our culinary experiences via Central and Latin America, Spain, Portugal, even areas of France and Italy. We’re taking numerous these flavors that we expertise in our travels and making use of them to the seafood bounty that you simply discover in Boston.”
Pescador’s ceviche bar. / Picture by Steve Hill
The restaurant definitely seems to be totally different, too: The Pescador house feels soothingly beachy with out crossing into kitschy territory. (In the event you’re in search of kitschy, you’ll have to attend for the eventual arrival of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville chain, slated to open at Faneuil Corridor Market.) The vaulted ceiling has pink and orange particulars—“It seems to be like a sundown,” says Bromberg—and an 18-seat ceviche bar with ocean-themed artwork and ornamental fish is a focus of the house. General, the roomy restaurant matches about 200 people throughout a mixture of commonplace dining-room seating, the aforementioned ceviche bar, and a 30-foot cocktail bar that’s jam-packed with agave spirits.
Along with making an attempt to make a seafood restaurant that’s distinctive to Boston, the Brombergs have created a restaurant that’s new for their very own restaurant group—whereas different ideas, like Blue Ribbon Sushi, have a number of areas, that is the one Pescador. Nonetheless, Blue Ribbon followers will discover a number of similarities: “You’ll discover rooster wings,” says Bromberg. “I form of can’t open a restaurant with out having them someplace on the menu.” (Right here, they’re served with chipotle honey; subsequent door at Blue Ribbon Sushi, it’s chili sauce and wasabi honey.)
Pescador’s corn “ribs” with ancho chili, cotija, and lime. / Picture by Steve Hill
However onto the seafood: “One of many wonderful issues about Boston is simply the seafood that’s out there to the group and cooks,” Bromberg says. (And along with sourcing seafood regionally, the staff has put in numerous Boston restaurant-industry expertise on workers, together with co-chefs Keith Pooler and Dan Bazzinotti, who’re overseeing kitchen operations on the trio of Boston joints. They beforehand labored collectively at Pooler’s now-closed Cambridge restaurant Bisq, the place Bazzinotti was opening chef beginning in 2015.) The globe-trotting menu options quite a lot of uncooked preparations (cocteles—much like ceviche however with a tomato juice base—in addition to crudo, aguachile, and extra), a number of dishes that star lobster, and loads of different choices, together with some wood-fire-grilled dishes.
Pescador’s lobster tacos with grilled corn, pink cabbage, and tomatillo avocado salsa. / Picture by Steve Hill
The staff doesn’t draw back from whole-fish preparations—crunch your means via the flavor-packed shrimp “Pescador” appetizer, buttery, head-on Gulf shrimp, earlier than digging into the entire roast branzino, completed in the zarandeado style of the Mexican state of Nayarit. This specific dish was kind of the impetus for the entire Pescador idea, Bromberg says. “We didn’t know what sort of fish we had been going to make use of or precisely what the dish appeared like but, however we went on a visit throughout Mexico slightly over a 12 months in the past, and that was actually a preparation that stood out to us. We noticed it in eating places; we noticed it by avenue distributors: It’s entire fish, rubbed with adobo, roasted over an open fireplace, then served with tortillas and sauces the place you form of make your individual tacos. It’s such a vibrant, enjoyable option to eat—and we’re fairly obsessive about enjoyable methods to eat.”
Pescador’s seafood paella with cockles, lump crab, chorizo, and saffron. / Picture by Steve Hill
Greens play a powerful supporting function at Pescador, with internet-favorite corn “ribs” making an look (they’re tasty along with eye-catching); there’s additionally a peanut-y mushroom mole—an early favourite—and extra.
And on the drink aspect, Pescador goes all in on tequila, mezcal, and some agave-based spirits which are slightly more durable to seek out round Higher Boston, akin to raicilla and sotol. (In the event you discover that you simply take pleasure in these, you also needs to head over to Barra in Somerville’s Union Sq. to attempt some extra.)
A lineup of Pescador’s margaritas. / Picture by Steve Hill
Pescador options the spirits on their very own and in a build-your-own paloma format, and there are additionally different basic and authentic cocktails out there, from a caipirinha and several other margaritas to a Peruvian-inspired bitter that includes the purple-corn drink chicha morada.
“We simply need the entire thing to really feel festive and relaxed,” says Bromberg, “and agave spirits appear to go amazingly properly with all that.”
Pescador’s flan. / Picture by Steve Hill
Pescador is at present open for dinner and drinks Tuesday via Sunday. 498 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, 617-532-1050, pescadorkenmore.com.
