Clockwise left to
right: Telepan’s
lobster bolognese;
Joseph’s Steakhouse
in Bridgeport, CT.;
and bourbon peaches
on display at
Washington, D.C.’s,
Blue Duck Tavern.
Best of the Northeast 2006
Arrive’s annual
roundup of some of
the best restaurants
in the Corridor—
among the best
in the country
BY JOHN MARIANI
MASSACHUSETTS
Dante—Royal Sonesta Cambridge Hotel,
5 Cambridge Parkway, Cambridge; 617-497-4200.
The Dante in question is Dante de Magistris, whose work in
Italy at the famous Don Alfonso on the Amalfi coast has given him
the inspiration to create a novel style of Mediterranean cuisine
that is very much his own. At his namesake restaurant in the Royal
Sonesta Hotel—a swank, high-ceilinged, 200-seat dining room
done in blond wood and pillars, with floor-to-ceiling windows—
Dante is proving himself to be one of Boston’s most exuberant
chefs, and he has taken on breakfast, lunch and dinner with daring.
His food is bright in color, uncontrived and deeply flavorful,
starting with a delicious salmon tartare spiked with wasabi ginger
soy sauce, cucumber, tobiko lobster roe and crisp baby greens.
Sweet Gorgonzola cuddles the hominess of soft potato gnocchi
pasta dumplings, and scallops are basted with porcini mushrooms
and served with truffled tapioca, fava purée and caramelized
Vidalia onions. A crispy, very juicy organic chicken comes with
