Monday, November 26, 2012

The Back Deck, Downtown Crossing, Boston

The Downtown Crossing area of Boston has really come along way in the last few years. Once a place deserted at night, now comes alive as hosts of new restaurants and bars open in the area. One such place though is straying from the norm of the gastro pub and run of the mill taverns and is offering Bostonians the magic of Summer all year long. The Back Deck is adorned with paintings and is decorated in a way to make you feel like the warm, light air is always around despite those frigid temps that are on their way. I dined there on a night where spirits were high among the diners and it wasn't hard to envision the merriment of a back yard BBQ.


We decided to enjoy our summer throwback by ordering several of their smaller dishes and sharing- so we ordered their turkey burger, to which we added Swiss cheese and it was served with a choice of fries, potato salad or slaw (in typical backyard BBQ fashion)- we opted for the fries. We also settled on their Sausage and Mashed, billed as andouille sausage grilled over charcoal and served with mashed potatoes and gumbo greens. Finally we also ordered their Beef Kabob - served with a tomato-caper chutney, cornbread and a green salad.

The beef kabob was delicious- cooked to order, smokey cubes of grilled meat were tender and flavorful. Paired with the acidic and salty chutney, I felt as though I was at a party hosted by a friend- one who served well thought out, well planned foods to please their guests.

The andouille sausage was also very tasty- slightly spicy with the same wonderful char flavor I was looking for. A bite of this fatty (in a good way) meat, with a heaping forkful of the creamy mashed potatoes and I knew Id hit a good combination. Potatoes are such a decadent and delicious way to cool spice- makes me want to always heat heaping mounds of buttery potatoes whenI have anything spicy. The salad served with it was light and refreshing- exactly what was wanted as a palate cleanser.

Next up was the turkey burger and here was a the miss of the evening. It goes without saying that turkey meat doesn't have as much fat in it as beef does and therefore can be drier if not handled correctly. Unfortunately those steps were missed, and the result was an extremely dry patty. The potato bun it was served on was nice, it had nice flavor, it was a good size for the burger itself, the dish just lost itself on its star. I did not end up spending any extraneous bites on this one.

We ended our meal with the dessert that couldn't be ignored- the Back Deck's S'more. Touting homemade graham crackers, and cranberry marshmallows we couldn't resist. The graham crackers had a wonderful rustic look to them, enforcing their homemade premise, and were full of rich spicy flavor. The cranberry marshmallow nicely hovered the line of sweet and tart, and was oozing forth from the graham crackers with the gooeyness of a good roast over a fire. My disappointment here lay in their decision to pair a classic Hershey square with this. The waxy, almost fake tasting chocolate distracted from the flavors of the other ingredients and poisoned them with its cheapness. A good piece of dark, rich chocolate would have been the piece to make this dessert worth returning for.

Overall, I enjoyed my time at the Back Deck. The frivolity of the atmosphere combined with their dedication to charcoal grilling will make them stand out as a spot to head to as the snow swirls through the narrow alleyways of Downtown Crossing. There were, of course, some misses, but as the grill falls into its routine more and more Im sure those can be ironed out.

Restaurant Reviews: A dead art?

Last December I declared 2023 the year I would return to food writing.  It was a bold statement (even now as I look at my last published dat...