1271 Boylston / 1363 Boylston (Fenway)
It’s been a while since we linked the words Crazy-Sexy-Cool together in a single sentence, and with full-on props to TLC’s humble beginnings, we’re going to go ahead and attach all three adjectives to the March ’16 BCC meeting. In honor of the holiday that happened to bedazzle our date of choice, we did indeed go out for drinks, but we turned the leprechaun on his head in our choice of venue, beginning our night by sidling up to the Fenway’s Verb Hotel bar rather than the generally prescribed South Boston pub.
Hojoko is a “Japanese tavern” with hipster kitch, tripping on bright colors and Hello Kitty, but in a way that titillates rather than annoys. The gregarious bartenders gave us a shock when—in a city where haughty “mixologists” rarely deign to acknowledge your physical presence, never mind smile and make idle conversation—they joyfully (yes, really) welcomed us to their not uncrowded establishment and gave us the inside scoop on ordering unusual drinks in fun, tiki-style glassware. Combining a certain amount of showmanship with (OMG!) laughing and (NO way!) the occasional friendly gambit not only indicated they were having a good time behind the bar and cared that you had chosen to spend a few hours in their company, but they might actually be fun to hang out with in general. This old-fashioned kind of barkeep-flirtation was the perfect way to set up a long night in each others’ company.
We loved the design of the drink menu and the nice array of cocktails, beers, and sake, while admiring the brightly colored drinks prepped for the masses in serving tanks—complete with floating toys inside. Some favorites concocted by our bearded, tattooed man ‘o the hour included a tasty but VERY strong MaiTai (honestly, pretty safe to say all drinks were strong), a Dark&Stormy with a badass bite, a sweet and pretty Pina Colada with a bar-side toasted marshmallow, and spicy frozen daquiri topped with Nerds that was not only enjoyable because Nerds rock, but also because it deserves accolades for accessing that hard-to-reach place that gets you all warm and tingly while making you shiver uncontrollably at the same time (oh, baby, yeah!). Overall? Hojoko is a one of those great dates that deliver: cute, fun, engaging, with one hell of a “Oh, no reason” kiss. An A+ for after-work drinks for all you crazy-sexy-cool kids who are looking for a good time, sans pretension.
A short and admittedly cocktail-chatty amble down Boylston brought us to our culinary complement to our early St. Patty’s Day drinks: We stayed true to the Asian theme with TigerMama, although the restaurant hosted a far more sophisticated feel than Hojoko. The vertical garden, neon lights, and wooden lanterns provided ambiance that geared us up rather than tuned us down. A Vietnamese street gone Hollywood. Not a huge space, and perhaps a tad overcrowded by encroaching palm branches that while providing privacy, table to table, interfered with some necessary transit to and from the kitchen (and for us) the ladies’ room.
Although we had a reservation, we had to wait at the hostess station for five minutes or so without anyone informing us that they were setting up our table. While, in our Hojoko-cocktail-fueled state, we were perfectly happy to entertain ourselves with the mosaic-mirrored baby elephant at the door, we would have liked a more organized greeting and better service at the front of the house. The table we eventually sat at wasn’t ideal, either, with two members on endcaps that, when combined with the stop-and-go traffic patterns caused by the overeager greenery, made them feel a bit like speed bumps on a busy Cambridge side street.
But awkward beginnings can be overcome, and our pleasant, bright, and attentive server was immediately on-hand and happy to bring us beverages as we considered the night’s food options. One member went for cocktails and wasn’t overly impressed, but TigerMama has a pretty decent list of beer and wine to choose from, including traditional offerings and tasty pairings that weren’t meant to be the highlight of the meal as much as to highlight the meal itself.
The menu, as so many are these days, is designed to be shared plates, building from smaller and lighter fare to heavier dishes. Apps are usefully classified as “Cold & Fresh” and “Crispy & Spicy” so you can address the particular needs of your palate appropriately. The Bun Cha Hanoi (crispy pork rolls, sour broth, grilled pork patties, lettuce, and herbs) had potential to be a delightfully tasty dish, but the server who dropped this dish at our table failed to explain how to eat it (the lettuce wraps were buried under the pile of fresh herbs), so we picked at it in semi-confusion and sacrificed the unique combination of tastes for inept sampling. The Southern-Style Pork Laap (lime-spiked hand ground pork, thai chili, mint) was SUPER SPICY and the wok-roasted okra was Tasty with a capital “T.” The texture (tricky with okra) was fabulous and while it again brought the heat, it wasn’t over the top. A great dish for sharing and just gazing at, if you’re a fan of vegetarian-variety eye candy. The Short Rib Rendang was a tender, delicious, coconuty treat that again won admiration for presentation.
Even though it was recommended that we get two to three dinner dishes each, members went for one apiece (note that the recommendation would have been way too much). It was, admittedly, hard to narrow it down as everything truly looked delicious, but the Sticky Lamb Ribs, Lamb Roti, and street noodles set off fireworks by turns, and the surprise of the night was the Pad Thai—a thoroughly unadventurous choice but we figured a good marker of the restaurant’s quality if it stood out from all the other PTs we’ve ordered over the years via Foodler. It was the dinner-and-a-movie dish of the night: when your date can blow you away in a totally mundane and obvious scenario, it is probably worth doing it again. Let’s just say we would have missed most of the movie—the Pad Thai was that good.
We almost didn’t get dessert because from the description on the menu, they looked pretty standard. Talk about a lesson in open-mindedness! These were two of the best-tasting creations we have—literally—ever tasted. The Milk Toast was sent from heaven…with wings of butter, condensed milk, and coconut cream. COME ON! And then there was the rich and luscious whipped coconut cream over tart mango and sweet coconut sticky rice—the perfect post-coital smoke following a spicy meal. We wanted to climb inside and bathe in this mixture like Roman gods.
With its raucous and off-beat beginning and divinely sweet and satisfying end, this night was damn close to 5-cockworthy. Crazy. Sexy. Cool.
The Boston Cocktail Club 