Lingbo Li
$40.09 Dinner deal at L’Espalier
So word from McClelland at Boston’s swanky L’Espalier (where I recently did a lovely lunch) is that they have had a change of heart and are now participating in Restaurant Week… sort of.
A distinct possibility is that they realized with all the business heading towards other high end restaurants doing Restaurant Week, they faced the possibility of rotting truffles and surplus humanely farmed lobster moldering away, and thus decided to join the fray on their own terms.
The dinners are $7 more expensive than how much RW dinners are supposed to be, but the lunches are $4 cheaper, and hey, it’s L’Espalier! Here’s their bit of propaganda that ended up in my inbox:
We are pleased to announce that we are expanding our Restaurant Week repertoire! Lunch will be extended an extra week, and for the first time, we will be offering a “modified” Restaurant Week dinner menu for the bargain price of $40.09!
LUNCH $20.09
First course, main course & dessert
Daily from March 9-March 31
11:30am-2:30pm
DINNER $40.09
First course, main course & dessert
Daily from March 15-March 27, excluding Saturday, March 21
5:30pm-10:30pm
3 Course Lunch at L’Espalier ($24!)
Beet mousse, parmesean crisp
Chicken, pomme puree, watercress, braised leek
Walnut brownie, vanilla ice cream
Kickass Cupcakes: A Happy Hour
If you go to Davis Square..
Free cupcakes? Yes, it’s true.
If you go to Davis Square, you must swing up onto Highland Ave to get a taste of Kickass Cupcakes. If you are there on the last Monday of the month between 5 and 7, you’ll also be treated to divine miniature cupcakes, gratis.
What I always hate about free food events though, is the inevitable hordes of people that turn out. I just can’t seem to relax and enjoy what it is that I’m eating. (Free sushi is the worst. It’s like everyone is snatching the only HIV medication in the world to save their dying baby brother.)
Thankfully, there wasn’t much of a wait – just a packed shop.
The three course menus
At first, I wasn’t sure what I thought of the concept of “cocktail” themed cupcakes, but I was soon won over.
Some chocolate specimens
Here are the actual cupcakes. The Champagne Bubbly had strawberries and champagne in the center, along with a champagne frosting. The Mai Tai impressed me the least, maybe because the concept of a purposely artificially fruity cupcake doesn’t quite jive. Choc-o-tini was accompanied by its own vodka dipping sauce – a slightly viscous, sweet, alcohol liquid that didn’t add a whole lot to the flavor of the cupcake (the chocolate just overpowers the subtlety), but was fun to sip on its own.
From left: "Bubbly", "Mai tai" "Choc-o-tini" (with vodka dipping sauce in the little plastic cup)
I succumbed to one of these suckers (berry crumbly)... a lot more dense than their other varieties. See the amazing carrot cake cupcakes on the lower shelf.
Then I ended up buying a cupcake anyway…
A good appetite
Recently, losing several of my basic, most definitive drives has left me in confusion as to what is left of me when basic desires, like the one to eat and the will to work, has left. Both working and eating pretty much consume all my waking hours. Despite the fact that not eating has left me slightly trimmer in figure (one day of not eating doesn’t have *that* dramatic of an effect, though), I realize that I would never trade my love of food for anything.
I will take food and my strange, psychologically-fraught associations with it and my long and storied relationship with it over not having an appetite anytime. Not eating is akin to not living.
Lana Lingbo Li
I'm a world traveler / enthusiastic eater who's now blogging and producing videos over at HelloLana.com. Visit me there!
As Seen On
