Boston: A Food City?

Boston, one of the most well-known historical cities, is more than just John Winthrop’s City Upon a Hill and the home of the Boston Tea Party. While places such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles have received significant press attention as food hubs in recent years, Boston has yet to be put in the spotlight. Boston occasionally appears on some websites’ top 25 lists, yet these lists fail to explain what makes the city a force in the industry and brush it off as having good chowder, as if that is all this city is good for.

Boston strikes a balance between new and old. Visitors and Bostonians alike know of legends such as Union Oyster House and The Parker House Hotel—where the Boston cream pie was created—but only those who are lucky enough to call Boston home venture out to new spots in the Seaport District or Jamaica Plain. Boston knows how to use its signature local ingredients, such as seafood, to create unique culinary experiences, while blending classics and new food.

Boston’s history does play into the city’s food fame—there’s a reason why it’s called Boston clam chowder. Yes, you will hear it called New England clam chowder in some places, but you know it’s because the chowder is so good, everyone else in New England wants to claim it as their own.

Admit out loud that you do not like lobster, and you will get a few glares. Seafood is a staple, bottom line. Make sure you wash it all down with a Sam Adams beer.

While New York’s population is over 8.4 million, Boston’s population falls at roughly 646,000: 13 times smaller. Despite this, Boston can say (if it could talk) that it has just about anything you could crave, just in a smaller areas accessible via the MBTA instead of the MTA. Allston has a large number of Korean restaurants; Latin American cuisine is particularly prevalent in East Boston.

The North End is dedicated to Italian cuisine and the Mike’s vs. Modern fight is legendary. A relaxed dinner conversation in the North End can quickly turn into a heated debate across the table when someone asks, “What’s for dessert?” even though we all know Mike’s is better.

Boston is also big on brunch—Aquitaine, Tatte, The Beehive and Deep Ellum are all famous for their quality food and atmospheres to match on a sleepy Sunday morning. The Beehive is famous because of its live jazz music throughout the day, and Tatte’s assortment of beautiful cakes, pastries and shakshuka is more than enough to keep you full until dinner.

Boston is also home to Joanne Chang, winner of the prestigious 2016 James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker. Chang’s Flour Bakery + Cafe boasts eight locations across Boston and Cambridge. She also opened Myers + Chang with her husband, Christopher Myers, in 2007.

Television host and owner of Blue Ginger, Ming Tsai, is also a legend in the area. Blue Ginger, located right outside the city, made Zagat’s “Best of the Best - Boston’s Most Popular” list. Boston University has its very own Gastronomy Master of Liberal Arts program, which was founded by Jacques Pépin and Julia Child, some of the most well-known names in the culinary industry.

Although Boston has plenty of stand-alone restaurants, you can easily find collaborative spaces throughout the city, such as the Boston Public Market, Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Eataly.

The Boston Public Market, located at the edge of the North End, is a year-round treasure. There are nearly 40 vendors in the market on any given day; in the month of February, they held a “Root + Reboot Wellness Festival” in THE KITCHEN (a part of BPM) that featured guided meditation and a fitness Q&A, in addition to a sampling of seasonal cocktails.

Faneuil Hall is one of the most well-known places to eat and shop in Boston; both sides of the venue are lined with food stalls filled with salty, sweet and tasty creations. It draws crowds, both of locals and visitors, on the daily. It even has a Ghirardelli—yes, a San Franciscan and Californian import, but Boston is happy to acknowledge that other places have good food, too. Don’t worry, we have plenty of original restaurants to try.

In November 2016, Eataly opened in Boston, joining other locations such as those in Tokyo, Japan, Toscana, Italy and Istanbul, Turkey. Each of the several Eataly locations worldwide has a particular focus: the São Paulo outpost is dedicated to Italian immigrants; the one in Toscana is dedicated to the Renaissance. What is unique about Boston’s location is that it’s dedicated to seafood. There is an entire counter for fresh fish to take home, and Il Pesce, a seafood restaurant inside the venue, features local flavors. It also has a giant marketplace in the middle to buy fancy kitchen gadgets and the “essentials” like freshly made squid-ink pasta and a $105 cheese grater.

Clearly, Boston is not messing around. When a 45,000 square-foot food hub is built smack in the middle of the huge Prudential Center to replace its original food court, you better bet they will be keeping the local cuisine in mind.

Boston could also be synonymous with the phrase “food truck success stories.” Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, Clover Food Labs, Mei Mei, Bon Me: the list goes on. These food establishments have had such profitable food trucks that they have opened brick-and-mortar restaurants for all of their hungry customers to stop by at any time. These and other businesses have continued to successfully run both their restaurants and trucks, allowing their loyal clientele to continue to enjoy eating in any environment they please—whether that be in a suit walking down Newbury Street, or in a Boston University sweatshirt on South Campus.

The mix of diversity, new and old age restaurants and opportunity for growth should put Boston on everyone’s food destination list. It has not made it there yet, but when it does, you heard it from The Buzz first.

BY SARAH WU | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CALLIE AHLGRIM | DESIGN BY MADELEINE ARCH