These four local spots are among America’s best wine restaurants, according to Wine Enthusiast magazine
The annual list looks at way more than just how many bottles a restaurant stocks.
Four Boston-area restaurants earned honors from Wine Enthusiast magazine for being among America’s 100 best wine restaurants of 2016.
Troquet in Boston, Bisq and Craigie on Main in Cambridge, and Taberna de Haro in Brookline all made the list, and they were the only New England restaurants to do so.
Wine Enthusiast‘s annual list looks at eateries that do more than just stock a lot of bottles. A “best wine restaurant” is a place where wine, food, service, and atmosphere all come together, with an “emphasis on discovery,” according to a press release.
The list, which appears in Wine Enthusiast’s August issue and hits stands this week, is organized into special features and trends, rather than a full ranking of all the restaurants. In the online edition, the list also highlights restaurants’ “riot dishes,” which, in the magazine’s terms, are ”dishes that could cause a riot if they dared take them off the menu.”
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Troquet landed in the “classic” category. This French-American bistro situated right along Boston Common serves almost 50 wines in two- and four-ounce portions and houses more than 500 bottles—many that have been cellared for more than a decade—according to Wine Enthusiast. Troquet’s ricotta cheese cavatellli with wild mushrooms is its riot dish.
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Bisq, a small plates and charcuterie eatery in Inman Square, is featured in the “new and noteworthy” category. Bisq earned points for stocking wines from the Loire Valley, as well as for offering Jura wine, a distinct French wine produced in the region between Burgundy and Switzerland. Its riot dish is Chef Dan Bazzinotti’s “Bazz Board,” a charcuterie selection of five rotating off-menu items which provides a different taste a few times a week.
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Craigie on Main is one of the magazine’s “not to be missed” selections. The Cambridge spot, helmed by chef and owner Tony Maws, focuses on local food with seasonal menu changes. The wine list here is heavy on German Riesling, Burgundy, Piedmont, and an “impressive selection of affordable aged wines,” according to the magazine. You can get a 15-year-old bottle and Maws’s riot dish, Crispy-Fried Essex Clams with preserved lemon, pickled peppers, dried black olive, and squid ink anchoiade.
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Taberna de Haro serves Spanish wines and tapas in Brookline, and made Wine Enthusiast’s very specific “amazing laser-focused wine list” category. This all-Spanish wine list features more than 300 bottles—including 75 Sherries—and pairs with authentic Spanish food. Chef and owner Deborah Hansen told the magazine her riot dish which she could never take off the menu is her black paella. The rice and squid dish pairs with a “myriad of wine styles,” she said.
Other categories on the Wine Enthusiast list include “tasting menus,” “great glass programs,” “grand openings,” and “Steakhouse 2.0,” for steakhouses that challenge the traditional wine-and-meat pairing rules. See the full list here.
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