Phantom Gourmet: Washington Square Tavern In Brookline
BROOKLINE- It might be the steak to end all steaks. A 25-ounce, masterfully-seasoned, perfectly cooked, exceptionally juicy bone-in ribeye for two. You won't find at one of the fancy big city steakhouses. It's served at a casual little neighborhood spot called the Washington Square Tavern.
Before anybody ever heard of the word "gastropub", this Brookline bar and restaurant started serving high quality craft beers and high class comfort food back in 1999. With Executive Chef Kevin Deschenes in the kitchen, the cuisine just keeps getting better.
"Great farm to table food; crazy selection of scotches, whiskeys, craft beers. We change our menu four times a year. We have a small kitchen and four or five guys in there at a time. It's definitely a dance when it's busy; people running behind each other and flames and it's a lot of fun. It's definitely choreographed chaos."
If this food is result of chaos, let the anarchy of eating begin! You can find dishes like Crispy Fried Calamari and Pan Seared Duck Breast with Blackberry Jam. There's a hearty Pasta Bolognese made with slow-cooked beef, pork, and lamb over nice, plump rigatoni. Try the beautiful ball of fresh, extra creamy Burrata Cheese served with figs, candied pumpkin seeds, and crostini. If you're ready to go all-in on some serious eats, order up that legendary Tomahawk Steak for Two.
"This is a 25-ounce Tomahawk Chop, also known as a bone-in ribeye," Kevin explained. "It's got great marbling; we season it, grill it, finish it in the oven, roast it with some nice butter, salt and pepper and let it slow cook to seal in all those juices. Serve it with fingerling potatoes and some fresh mizuna.
"It comes out on a cutting board," he continued. "It's got onion rings right on the bone. It's got a bone about 6 inches long sticking out. Two people can dig right in and have a great meal. It's huge. I mean 25 ounces of meat plus probably another 10 to 12 of bone. So it's a good chunk of meat."
For some beef that's a bit more manageable, and of course affordable, Washington Square's dry-aged Burger is just as juicy, and sharing is not required.
"This is a house ground burger. We serve with it either blue cheese or sharp cheddar and we do caramelized onions, fresh baked bun, hand cut fries, rosemary parmesan fries," Kevin said. "It's a really nice burger."
Even though the bar is stocked with a huge selection of top quality scotches and fine wines, and the walls are stacked with enough books to fill a library, the menu here is rather short and sweet, because it's always changing with the season. They make just about everything in house, like their plate of housemade Pork Bratwurst with curry fries.
"The bratwurst we make in house. We also do the curry in house, and the sausage we cure, we make some big, fat steak fries with that, some fresh fennel for a little extra flavor. It's a great dish," Kevin said. "We got a ton of great beers here that not a lot of people get, so it's kind of one of those that goes great with a craft beer."
As would the Seafood Jambalaya, jam-packed with shrimp, scallops, house made linguica, and smoked saffron rice. Then there's the always popular Roasted Half Chicken in a mouth-watering pan jus.
"Well I like to think we've been doing it long enough where we can cook a nice piece of chicken. We sear the skin side down, perfectly seasoned, it gets nice and plump. We stuff it with all kinds of different fresh mushrooms - shiitakes, black trumpet mushrooms," the chef listed. "We make a nice sauce with some garlic, some veal demi, some chicken stock, a lot of fresh herbs and some butter; comes with nice Dijon whipped potatoes."
Washington Square Tavern serves dinner 7 nights a week, the bar is always open late, and they even do Sunday brunch where you can find delicacies ranging from Scotch Eggs to scrapple. But Kevin says food is only a part of the attraction to the Washington Square Tavern.
"I would like our guests to have an overall great experience, from the food to the cocktails; we have a very extensive wine list, craft beer list. It's a very comfortable place to come. You feel at home. You want to sit here and have a couple drinks. You want to order a couple courses. You want your friends to meet you here. It's just a great place to hang out."
You can find the Washington Square Tavern at 714 Washington Street in Brookline, and online at washingtonsquaretavern.com.
Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.
