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More than a restaurant, brand-new 112 Eatery is the
flower of a restaurant community coming of age.
Listen up: Appetizers aren't the typical calamari
and bruschetta food-cost boosters. Instead, they
skip that and go straight for the good stuff: lamb
chops seared to a perfection of fire and meadow. A
Boston Bibb lettuce salad in a dressing of the
fattest olive oil and the freshest herbs. Entrées
aren't the expected $23 salmon and $19 chicken
quarter; in fact, you're encouraged to skip the
whole entrée thing altogether and just load up on $8
plates of pasta that could be straight from the
Ligurian hills. Or buoyant poofs of fried bread and
prosciutto. Or short rib chili. Wines are priced to
drink, not to shock and awe. The whole shebang is
served until 1:00 in the morning, so that you can
lead your actual life, with its theater tickets,
rock shows, or heaven forbid, kids or work crises
that don't let you get out the door until 9:00--you
can lead your actual life and still enjoy a life
with foods of great ambition and accomplishment. Who
would even think to offer all of these perks of fine
dining stripped of all the pomp and nonsense that
usually accompany it? Two restaurant lifers, of
course: Chef Isaac Becker and front-of-the-house
spouse Nancy St. Pierre. Only people who personally
know hundreds of restaurant insiders would ever make
a great leap forward like this, assuming that
there's enough of a community of folks who think
like chefs and servers to support a restaurant that
does, too. |