We had some dance workshops in Washington Square, Brookline today, and we were starving at the end of it. We looked at the cheap sushi place, then decided we'd rather the fireplace at The Fireplace, but that was an hour wait, so we bailed and walked up the street to see what else was around. The Publick House had lots of belgian beer signs in the window, so we figured what the hell and went in.
Yay for us, because it reminds me a lot of my beloved Hop Leaf in Chicago. The food is not quite as great, but very very good nonetheless. The mac and cheese is in fact all that. The mussels are very nice -- we had the ones with smoked beer and fatty chunks of bacon. Squash soup was well executed. And the frites... I was picking bones with the frites because I prefer mine much crunchier, but they were quite tasty, and then I started to notice just HOW tasty, with the delicious whiffs of animal fat coming off them. So I snagged the barman and asked what they fry in, and he grinned at me in a knowing way and said "Lard."
HOT DAMN.
I have forgiven them for not being crunchy.
And please, if you like beer, you'll love this place. Tons of Belgians, exotica of every sort, and this particular barman took my vague mutterings of "german beers, marzens, dark lagers" and in about 3 seconds brought me a hoppy little octoberfesty sort of thing that was just exactly what I wanted.
Snug, brown, woody, and gezellig, as they say in Holland and I assume they also say in Belgium. We will be returning.
Posted by foodnerd at November 21, 2009 08:42 PM