December RC was quite an adventure, and I dedicate it to our dear friend Eric, who is one of the founding RC members. I still remember hatching this idea with him, and seven years later we’re still going strong. Though he can’t make it in person since moving to DC, he is with us in spirit every month.
I can’t lie, I might have had a sneak preview of First Printer, well maybe two sneak previews. But neither of the previous times were quite as memorable. The evening started out with the restaurant having no record of the reservation Rob made over a month ago. He had reserved the “vault”, a private space in the back, but since they claimed to not have our reservation, the vault was booked by a book club. Luckily they were still able to accomodate us at a regular table, and the server tried to redeem them by buying our first round of drinks.
For appetizers we ordered the hushpuppie of the day (which were salmon, and just ok), the mussels, and the fried chicken and waffles. We also got some $1 Island Creek oysters. They serve $1 oysters after 10 PM and our server said she could “pretend it was after 10″…I think she was still trying to win our favor after the reservation mix-up. I liked the idea of the mussels in theory (Pretty Things Jack D’Or, house ground chorizo, garlic confit, tomato confit, charred cipollini onions, and grilled bread), but in reality they weren’t my favorite…though others at the table seemed to really enjoy them. The chicken and waffles (buttermilk fried chicken, maple bourbon butter, homemade marmalade), which is an entree, was probably the highlight of the meal for me. That was some pretty delicious fried chicken.
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| Sweet and salty fried goodness |
For my entree I was sold on the lobster roll after being informed that the restaurant has a lobster tank, so anything with lobster is super fresh and cooked to order. The lobster roll was tasty, but nontraditional (there was mustard in it) and impossible to pick up to eat.
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| Lobster roll with two ginormous pieces of bread |
Other entree orders included
- Pan Seared Atlantic Cod & Root Vegetables (rainbow carrots, yellow ahd chioggia beets, turnips, parsnips, daikon radish)
- Pan Seared Scallops (butter bean, edamame succotash & piquillo pepper vinaigrette)
- Grilled Shrimp & Grits (sharp cheddar grits, spiced lobster jus) — they fly the grits in from South Carolina, and apparently they should also need to fly in some salt
- Sweet Lobster Chowder (fresh local lobster, new potatoes, corn, chive)
- Vegetable Conscious Flatbread (mascarpone spread, roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, charred peppers, augula, and chili oil) — this is what I’ve had both previous times I was here, and I’m two for two in thinking it is weird that it is called “Vegetable Couscous”
The excitement really started when the fire alarms went off, which might be a fairly regular occurrence based on the not surprised reaction of the staff. Luckily we were just about finished with our entrees, though not our wine. Since everyone in the restaurant had to go outside and wait for the fire trucks to come, they gave us paper soup cups so that we could finish our wine outside while we waited for the alarms to get turned off. Two fire trucks arrived with several fire-people and yet they could not seem to figure out how to turn off the alarms. By this time we had finished our wine and wanted to leave so we settled our check outside, and they did not do anything to compensate for the inconvenience of the fire alarms.
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| Fire trucks! |
The damage:$52 per person (complimentary first round of beverages)
The rundown:
First Printer
15 Dunster Street, Cambridge
Kara Cooks and Eats 