The Birthday Tour de Sewall

I recently had a big birthday that ended in a zero and the three things I wanted were: brunch at Eastern Standard and dinners at Lineage and Row34. I'll admit, this isn't the first time I've done what I like to call "Tour de Sewall." Each restaurant dazzled with excellent food and service. There's an opportunity to go more in depth on each meal, but I'll start with the highlights version.

Eastern Standard has excellent brunch, and few things bring me more joy than people I love with an excuse to eat a large amount of breakfast food. My two favorite things on the ES menu are their chopped salad with pan friend chicken cutlet served in a wooden bowl and the house smoked salmon platter. I rarely order nova outside of New York, but Eastern Standard is the exception to this rule. On my birthday, I was spoiled and had both. I recommend going with another person so you can do the same. The nova is not too salty and pairs nicely with the tomatoes, capers, bagel and cream cheese.

Luckily, I had a break between brunch and dinner. Row34 is hip and happening with great food. You feel cool just walking in, or at least I do! The shrimp cocktail was the highlight of the excellent meal. They were plump and fresh and the cocktail sauce tasted like it had a hint of ginger. The butterscotch pudding was an excellent ending.

As it turns out, this is the last birthday I'll get to spend at Lineage because it's closing this summer. I've been going to Lineage for almost 9 years and love the simplicity and excellence of the menu. My favorite dinner item, which I'm known to eat as often as once a week, is the burger with hand cut fries. They had a hunch that I'd order a birthday burger and surprised me with a candle. Yes, a burger with a candle was the perfect first to go with my last Lineage birthday.

I highly encourage you to stop by any of the three restaurants that I visited on my Tour de Sewall. My birthday was just an excuse, so you can find one too!

Eastern Standard Brunchielunch

Eastern Standard is worth all of the hype it gets. I've only had consistently great meals and service there. No matter what I eat, it's satisfying and creative. Since it was a weekend between 10 and 2, I was geared up for some brunch. I define brunch as breakfast, but bigger. Eastern Standard had a part brunch, part lunch menu because it was Saturday and they only serve full brunch on Sunday. The food was awesome, but sitting outside comfortably in late October was the best part.

After pondering the menu for a while, I was set to order eggs. The past few times I dined at ES, I had a pastrami sandwich and since it was missing from the menu, I branched out. My dining partner had settled on the Croque-Madame. When the waiter told us the addition to the menu, I made a quick change and went for the homemade ricotta gnocchi with veggies and lamb sausage. I am a sucker for homemade pasta, and I figured the gnocchi would be the perfect substitute for all the bread I'd eat if I chose a breakfast option. We decided to balance the extreme carbs with a side salad.

After enjoying the fresh bread, butter and good conversation, the meals arrived. I started eating the perfectly cooked gnocchi with fresh almost crisp cauliflower, pea pods and tomatoes  The gnocchi was seared on the outside and right amount of chewiness. I could not find the lamb in my dish. Not to worry though, because the waiter could not have been nicer when adding it. They re-plated my dish with the lamb sausage, so it went from being a gnocchi primavera to a unique combination of gnocchi, lamb and veggies. I hope that in the future they make both the pasta dishes available. While the lamb sausage added a lot of flavor and smokiness to the dish, it was just as good and even a little bit lighter without it.

The side salad was tasty. It was mesclun greens with a garlicky mustard vinaigrette  Given the size of our entrees it was the perfect size to share. Sometimes at Eastern Standard, I find myself having the great salad versus french fry debate. The fries at ES are thin and perfectly crisp with some fresh herbs and the salad has those qualities with the added health benefits. At lunch we had our salad and fries too, because my dining buddy's dish came with fries.

The Croque Madam was beautiful. It was a layer of french toast topped with ham, cheese and a sunny side up egg and french fries. The dish looked to pretty to eat, and it tasted as good as it looked. The combination of sweet and savory was great. If I had to categorize it, I'd pair it with eggs Benedict because it had most of the same components. We joked about how big the dish was, yet it was devoured. I'm glad I got to try it because, had I ordered it, I probably would have been full for 24-hours and I never like skipping meals!

I appreciated that even after I had the waiter put my leftover two bites of pasta in a doggy bag that they still offered us dessert menus. The desserts sounded delicious, and I was tempted, but we opted to get the check for fear that we would be unable to stand if we ate anymore.

Eastern Standard is one of my favorite restaurants in Boston. Jeremy Sewall is an artist! Their menu has a large variety of dishes with an array of ingredients and prices. While I have yet to go for dinner, I can vouch for the outstanding breakfasts, lunches and brunchielunches. Maybe next time I go, I'll steal less fries and have room for dessert!