Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1067657
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 20 JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2019 Many restaurants will warn you that your dinner plate is hot. But at Black and Blue Crab and Steak, they really mean it. Before bringing out a steak, servers set a wooden charger on the table, along with the obligatory super sharp knife. e main attraction sizzles through the dining room on a metal plate at the new Burlington steak house before coming to rest on that charger. Seared at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit—hot enough to melt silver—the 14-ounce Kansas City bone-in strip steak wears a beautiful char on the outside, with a juicy, tender medium rare interior. Beef and seafood are the stars at Black and Blue, the first Massachusetts outpost of a popular upstate New York restaurant group built on warm hospitality, carefully sourced proteins, and an outstanding wine program. Starters explore land and sea quite nicely. e summery Blue Crab Cocktail is more like a salad, featuring a generous portion of sweet North Atlantic blue crab atop a round of diced avocado and cucumber, surrounded with a drizzle of herb aioli. For hearty winter fare, try the Pork Belly, braised and marinated in an Asian-inflected sweet sauce and then seared to crisp perfection. Accompanied by a gingery carrot purée and a bright Brussels sprout slaw, it's nicely balanced and unique. / E AT+ D R I N K / THE MENU Appetizers Blue Crab Cocktail $15, Pork Belly $10 Entrées, Kansas City Bone-In Strip 14 oz. $38, Sea Scallops $31 Sides Dumplings $7, French Fries $7, Mac & Cheese $7 It's also a tricky dish to pair a wine with, but the staff at Black and Blue is up to the task. Blind tastings every Friday train servers to identify flavor characteristics in different grapes, and the flexible food-friendly list of 17 wines by the glass and 120 by the bottle gives them a lot of options to work with. Black and Blue's other locations have been recognized with a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for their wine lists, and it wouldn't be surprising if Burlington gained the same status. e restaurant even offers some special wines by the glass, like the 2016 Caymus Caber- net Sauvignon from Napa Valley, thanks to the Coravin wine preservation system. It doesn't come cheap, at $42 per glass, but it might be just what a perfectly cooked steak demands. Seeking something less intense? Pair the sea scallop main course with a glass of Pas- cal Jolivet Sancerre. e richness of the four Clockwise, sweet potato dumpling, blue crab cocktail, and chef Keith Anderson.