The Ultimate Locavore Meal: Beacon Hill Bistro

As a wonderful side benefit of donating money to the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project for a new Mobile Poultry Processing Unit, my husband Alex and I were invited to a locavore meal on Thursday, July 16th, prepared by Executive Chef Jason Bond at the Beacon Hill Bistro, located in the Beacon Hill Hotel on Charles St. in Boston.

And it was spectacular! Aside from getting to sit next to Jennifer Hashley (of Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds) herself, the food was phenomenally good. Of course, all of the ingredients came from Pete & Jen's own livestock and Verrill Farm's vegetables, so they were fresh and wonderful. The meal also came with an impressive selection of (regrettably not local) wines.

The Beacon Hill Bistro is a smallish restaurant with lovely arches and wood beams. It suffers a bit from poor acoustics - we had to shout to be heard throughout the meal, and I noticed that felt had been tacked to the undersides of the tables to help absorb some of that noise - but it's also cozy and comfortable. Be warned that the restrooms are not handicapped accessible (down two flights of stairs in the basement). The wait staff was wonderful and attentive with a well-informed somalier describing exactly where and how each of the wines was produced.

As we stood or sat down to chat, we nibbled on appetizers from three platters of pates and terrines (I had never even heard of terrine before - it's essentially upscale meatloaf made of finely chopped meat, cooked in an earthenware dish called a terrine, and served at room temperature, and it's as different from meatloaf as pate is from devilled ham). The pates were made from chicken or rabbit liver, and the terrines were made of pork, including one stuffed into the hoof of a pig. All were utterly delicious with amazingly smooth texture. There was an aspic that made the rounds of the tables but somehow never got back to me - o, woe! This was served with a selection of fresh breads and mustards. (Mustard was a recurring theme throughout the meal.)

The first course was an arugula salad with seared rabbit livers, grained mustard, and creme fraiche. This is according to the menu, and I have to say that I don't recall the creme fraiche at all, but the liver was tender and delicious in the mustard, and it was accompanied by a rabbit heart and kidney, both of which were astonishingly good. This was accompanied by the best wine I have ever tasted. Seriously. It was Jim Barr "The Lodge Hill" Dry Riesling, Clare Valley, 2008. Smooth, dry, and utterly without aftertaste, I could have happily drunk nothing but that wine the entire evening. Alex and I are planning to lay in a case of it.

The second course was the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had - no offense, Mom! Incredibly tender dark chicken meat with homemade egg (of course) noodles, carrots and peas and other vegetables in a strong, subtle broth. Marvelous. This was accompanied by a chardonnay that was probably pretty decent but suffered by comparison with the riesling (Domaine Talmard Macon Chardonnay, Bourgogne, 2007). I should also say that I've never really liked chardonnay, and this was no exception.

The entree knocked Alex's socks off; smoked Tamworth ham with glazed new carrots, kohlrabi, and cabernet radishes. Alex is a serious ham fan - his favorite breakfast these days is breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, chunks of ham steak from Chestnut Farm, shredded cheddar cheese, and green chile. This ham blew away every other ham we'd ever tasted. It was almost sweet, it was so tender and flavorful, so the inevitable mustard balanced it very well. To our astonishment, the radish was roasted and utterly delicious. Alex was convinced it had to be a sweet onion and not a radish. I am dying to try this trick myself with the last few radishes in my garden. The ham was accompanied by a fairly nice syrah (Clos la Chance "Black Chinned" Syrah, Central Coast, 2005).

For dessert, we had "Just Dug Carrot Cake," and it totally lived up to its name. Carrot cake is my favorite kind of cake, and this one had carrots so fresh and wonderful, I almost didn't notice the cake. I was also distracted by the accompanying creme fraiche and cream cheese ice cream (this must be tasted to be believed - it's as creamy as you might imagine something with "cream" twice in its name, but not very sweet) as well as several candied herbs. We all had a great time trying to guess which herbs. The tarragon was easy, but we were stumped on the other two, which turned out to be shiso and angelica leaves. Wow! This was accompanied by a tiny glass of slightly effervescent strawberry wine every bit as good as the Riesling. This was not on the official menu, and I couldn't here the somalier's explanation of it, but I will be keeping my eye out for strawberry wine in the future.

It turned out to be Jen's birthday, with Pete's coming on the following week, so Chef Bond also brought out a chocolate cake for them, which the rest of us refused to touch on the grounds that a) it was theirs and they deserved to have all of it, and b) we were utterly stuffed. I did, however, get to taste some candied angelica stem (had to be removed in order to put the cake in a box), which was lovely. I've never had candied herbs before, and I'm deeply intrigued. The candied shiso really surprised me, and now I find myself wondering: candied sage? Candied cilantro? Hmm...

Chef Bond came out with the cake and spoke to us about his commitment to local food sources and the MPPU project. Apparently, he has gone out and helped Pete and Jen slaughter their chickens in the past. He described how wonderful it is to have this deep connection to the food he works with, and about the superior quality of locally-sourced meats and produce. Pete and Jen presented him with a framed set of photos of their livestock in appreciation of the meal.

Of course, this was a special dinner with special ingredients, but knowing the chef's commitment to local, sustainable food, I'd return to the Beacon Hill Bistro in a heartbeat. While the dinner menu is pricey ($20-30/entree), the lunch menu is nicely affordable, offering dishes like Tea-Cured Gravlax, Herbed Potato Salad, Green Beans, Baby Greens for $13.00 (intriguing) and Local Grass-Fed Beef Steak, Frites, Watercress and Madeira Butter Sauce for $15.00.

I highly recommend the Beacon Hill Bistro for its excellent food and commitment to local, sustainable food.