Tapatio Mexican Grill in Somerville Destroyed By Fire Last Night

A large fire occurred at Broadway in East Somerville last night, gutting the Tapatio Mexican Grill and at least two other businesses. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the fire. At this point, it is unsure how the fire started. Whether Tapatio rebuilds or not remains to be seen; hopefully they will be able to re-open at some point.

Time for a Restaurant Poll!

It is getting close to the end of the year, and I am getting the "best restaurants of 2006" list ready for Boston's Hidden Restaurants. It is not easy to pick a winner in some of the categories this year, since there have been so many good restaurants that we have tried, but I suppose that's half the fun!

My question to viewers out there is, what are your favorite restaurants of 2006? In particular, I'd love to hear from you in particular about any or all of the following:

Best Pizza in the Boston Area
Best Hamburger in the Boston Area
Best Hot Dog in the Boston Area
Best Italian Restaurant in the Boston Area

Feel free to pick from any other categories. I'm just curious to hear from you about this. Perhaps I can check out a few of your choices as we head into 2007. Thanks!

Tags: Boston restaurants best restaurants Boston

Speaking of the Boston Restaurant Forum...

Now that the Boston Restaurant Forum is back online, I figured it might be a good time to update folks on some of the latest topics added to the forum. A few of the forum topics are listed below if you would like to read them: [ED NOTE: We have taken out the links to our forum, as it is now closed.]

Feel free to sign up for the forum if you are interested in posting new topics or replying to old ones!

Tags: Boston Restaurant Forum Boston restaurants

Salem Wood Cafe, Malden

We tried a restaurant in Malden last night that has been getting some good press of late. The Salem Wood Cafe, which is on Salem Street in Malden, is a place that looks like so many other working-class bars and restaurants in Malden, Everett, Revere, and the surrounding area, but it is a big step above most of them as far as quality is concerned. The steak tips, for instance, seem nearly as good as those at the New Bridge Cafe in nearby Chelsea, which is saying a lot. The tips were tender, had a slightly sweet marinade, and had very little gristle at the Salem Wood. In fact, I'd say that the tips themselves were equal in quality to those at the New Bridge, though the New Bridge may have the best marinade anywhere in the Boston area.

The other food was good there, too, including a special they had last night. It was a type of lasagna that had sheets of pasta rolled into cylinders, and it was very good. The lasagna came with dense, hearty meatballs that had at least two or three different kinds of meat in them (I definitely tasted pork in them; possibly veal, too). Other items we had included a baked sweet potato, good rolls of bread, and basic salads.

I want to get back to the Salem Wood Cafe to try some of the other dishes, including the veal parm and the burgers. But it will be tough to get past those steak tips, so perhaps I'll have to go there a few times!




Tags: Malden restaurants Italian restaurants Boston steak tips

Boston Restaurant Forum Is Back Up!

Thanks to the good folks who fixed the database problem within the Boston Restaurant Forum. It is back up and running!

If you would like to read posts on the forum, or post new topics (or reply to old ones), head over to the Boston Restaurant Forum and join in on the fun! [ED NOTE: We have taken out the link to our forum, as it is now closed.]

Boston Restaurant Forum is Down Today

Just a quick note that the Boston Restaurant Forum within the Boston's Hidden Restaurants site is down today because of an issue with the database, so if you try to get into the forum, you probably won't have any luck.

If this problem looks like it might go on for awhile, I will let everyone know later today or tomorrow. It looks like a simple problem in that the database is not accessible right now; hopefully it will be up again ASAP!