The Sea Dog at Dear Annie close to Porter Square in Cambridge. (Photo: Tom Meek)
We final visited Dear Annie when the wine bar and cured fish nosh spot had simply opened – bravely, I would add – on the top of Covid. The menu has continued to evolve over its transient time, at all times creative and at all times with sturdy pescatarian leanings. The intimate spot, with one huge communal desk, facet benches and perimeter poufs, is a meals and vino collaboration between Field & Vine and the workers at Rebel Rebel, Union Square businesses uniting for a Porter Square enterprise that has been cited on nationwide high 50 lists by Bon Appétit journal and The New York Times.
There’s no wine listing per se. It’s “curated” so that you go up the the order counter, inform them your yen and an professional offers you sips of the all-natural reserves till you strike the proper physique and style. The meals too you order at a kiosk, however it is delivered to your desk (recognized by a quantity marker) by the pleasant workers.
New issues on the menu that excite are the spicy shrimp salad with trout roe, a smoked bluefish sandwich with home barbecue sauce and a spicy seafood fumet (inexperienced crab-based broth), however I’ve actually develop into an enormous fan of the Sea Dog, a seafood sausage of shrimp, scallops and whitefish served in a brioche bun and topped with dill and relish. It has all of the sinful pleasure of one thing off the griddle from the sausage man with none of the coronary-tomorrow duress. It’s juicy and lightweight, flavorful and clean in texture – you may style all of the components, they usually play collectively in a seamless symphony. The housemade bun is ideal, a fragile service that’s by no means bready or decreases your pleasure within the spotlighted ingredient. The canine include fermented garlic tartar sauce that’s clearly there, as are the dill and relish. But they likewise don’t detract, and are simply refined gamers organising the soloist on the heart.
Monday night time is pizza night time at Dear Annie, when you will get your palate-pleasing wine (the number of oranges is without doubt one of the most strong and greatest round) to clean down a hearty sq. of Sicilian ’za. On Sundays, Dear Annie opens early (at 4 p.m.) for “Snacky Afternoons.” The seating is tight, however it’s not far off from a hyper common espresso store, and there at all times appears to be a seat together with your identify on it, During hotter climate Dear Annie takes up patio area on Massachusetts Avenue.
I’m tremendous interested in that bluefish and barbecue, however alas, I’m simply an old sea canine with a scrumptious habit that’s laborious to interrupt.
Dear Annie, 1741 Massachusetts Ave.Baldwin close to Porter Square, Cambridge
Tom Meek is a author residing in Cambridge. His opinions, essays, quick tales and articles have appeared within the WBUR ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom can also be a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike in every single place.
