Sweet and Sour in Boston

Friday was a pretty gross and rainy night, but Jason and I ventured out in town to grab some drinks. I had a Groupon to Stoddards which was about to expire, so that was our first stop. It's a newish place that opened in late summer, located in Downtown Crossing on Temple. The space is very beautiful, with an extremely ornate carved wooden bar. There's not a lot of room by the bar, and it was packed with a bustling after work crowd, so we decided to come back later when (hopefully) it would be less crowded.

We decided next to try Battery Park, which was having its soft open. Located on Batterymarch in the Financial District, it's a nice, but kind of expected space. Pretty much like most of the new bars in Boston, it has lots of dark wood, a few flatscreens behind the bar, and current pop music soundtrack. It's not very big inside, but it has a large outdoor space (which I didn't see). We sat at the bar and chatted with the bartender, who told us that the kitchen wasn't fully operational, but offered us some free appetizers to try. I didn't see a drink menu, so I decided to try Hex Octoberfest, which is a Magic Hat product. I'm normally not the biggest fan of Octoberfest, but it was such a cold, rainy night, it seemed appealing. I enjoyed it a lot, it didn't seem as heavy as other Octoberfests, with a nice spice to it. They brought us some chicken tenders (very standard, which is not to say they were bad in any way, there's just not much to do with them) with a delicious spicy ketchup, and buffalo chicken wontons which were extremely tasty. We saw them bring another couple down the bar a plate of calamari that looked delicious. I'll definitely check it out again sometime, I'm interested to see what their menu will look like and how they manage cocktails.








After Battery Park, we went to one of my favorite haunts in Boston, Ames Plow. Located under Ned Devine's in the Quincy Market Building, this place is very no-frills and pretty divey, but I like it for the jukebox and $2 PBRs. Maybe as libations liaison, I shouldn't admit that so readily, but I'm also Abby's cousin, so there you go.



Finally, we headed back to Stoddard's. It was still really busy, but as luck would have it, we managed to grab two seats at the bar. This place has both extensive beer selection and craft cocktail list. The cocktail list has drinks from different time periods, such as an Aviation, Sazerac, etc. Since I was ordering a burger (which was very tasty), I had a BBC Steel Rail Pale Ale to start. If you haven't tried this western Mass brewery, I'd suggest it, they make some great beer. The pale ale is their flagship brew, and it's a great tasting, refreshing beer. It was perfect with the burger. After I ate, I ordered a Blood and Sand cocktail. This was phenomenal. It consists of whisky, vermouth, cherry brandy, and orange juice. It was garnished with orange peel and a dried tart cherry. It was an amazing balance of tart and sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are a lot of drinks on the menu I'd like to try, so I'll probably go back. The drink prices are actually not bad for the craft cocktails compared to other higher-end places in Boston, each are $9. The only thing that bothered me is that the beer menu doesn't list prices. You don't want to order an interesting sounding beer and have it be $15 or some such, and it's sort of awkward to ask for the price first. But all in all, I liked the space, and the staff was friendly. Very worth a try.