Charles Street Dinner: Peregrine

Peregrine began as an independent restaurant, and is now an integral part of The Whitney Hotel, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner to hotel guests and local residents as well. It is a chic little restaurant at the base of Charles Street, just a stone’s throw from the Esplanade, the Charles River, and Boston Common in Beacon Hill. While the peregrine falcon, is the fastest animal on the planet, the restaurant Peregrine, is a place where time slows and you can slip away from the city hustle and bustle for a relaxing dinner in the dining room, on the outdoor patio tucked inside the courtyard, or at the understated but just sexy enough (in a very New England way) inviting bar. There is an ease settling into the space whether you have just come back from shopping Charles and Newbury Street, planned a date night for dinner, or are meeting up with some friends at the bar, but it is the food that will bring you back in over and over again. I was invited to taste the new Peregrine menu which has been created by Chef Tatiana Pairot Rosana in collaboration with Chef de cuisine Hunter Daniels.

The evening began with a glass of Prosecco, which I took out to the patio. Despite the warm weather, the patio is so inviting even for a little a while. The fairy-light-adorned trees are so pretty against the backdrop of The Whitney Hotel’s classic Boston red brick walls. The patio has a lounge section with comfortable cushioned setees as well as a few tables for dining. The patio will be going through an expansion soon so catch a night out on the patio while you can.

Good bread is the perfect litmus test for a restaurant and Peregrine both makes and sources just the right stuff. The dinner started with a beloved Boston staple, the Parker House Roll. The whole concept of a Parker House Roll originated in 1870 at Boston’s Parker House Hotel. They also source some of the bread, such as the sourdough for the ricotta toast from local beloved bakery Iggy’s Bread whose loaves and rolls are on many restaurant’s menus who know when to outsource to just the right people.

For our dinner at Peregrine, the first course was a trio of dishes paying homage to the nearby ocean. Chefs Rosana and Daniels source as much locally as makes sense for the menu and season. I love a crudo, but not everyone does, for those who do not like raw seafood the pickled shrimp are a great option. I happen to love a crudo but I also love pickled anything so I clearly just need both. The oysters were from Chatham. They were pristinely shucked and served with a classic house made mignonette. We started with pickled shrimp that came with giardniera (pickled garden vegetables) with crushed olives and some Calabrian chili served with butter crackers, which are soda crackers coated with butter and baked a second time. The tuna for the crudo comes into Peregrine a couple times a week and it is serve with fennel, celery, preserved lemon, bottarga (one of my favourite “shaved on top” seasonings that is salt cured and pressed fish roe).

The second course had the perfect trio of dishes that in any group of dinners would please probably everyone, but if you had someone who doesn’t eat seafood, or someone who doesn’t eat dairy, or someone who is all about seasonal local vegetables then they would each go wholeheartedly for one of the three options. The first crowd pleaser was the ricotta toast served with raw honey on sourdough. The ricotta was creamy and smooth offset with a sprinkle of black pepper and a subtle light drizzle of honey. The marinated beets had their earthy sweetness that was served on some nice bitter Castelfranco radicchio and dollops of creamy fresh stracciatella. The beets and radicchio was my kind of dish with so many contrasting flavours and textures with the addition of some pistachios for a little extra flavour and crunch. For the seafood lover, there were Bang Island mussels from Maine. These were “tinned fish” style, but hold the tin. The mussels were in escabeche (a preparation in vinegar) with smoked paprika and slivers of pickled garlic.

I am the type of person who would gladly make a meal of just a few of the first and second course options, but with friends you can try a little of everything from every course. I would also come back to Peregrine for a solo dinner at the bar with just one of these main courses. They all hit the spot and each would cure a specific craving or satisfy whatever mood I am in.

The comfort and warmth of the confit chicken was like when you just want a perfectly roasted chicken for dinner, but so much better. The chicken is deboned and confit (crisped in fat) and served with a comforting Basque tomato and red pepper sauce. As soon as there is a chill in the air, a flannel shirt, a walk along the Charles River and this chicken dish is the most perfectly romantic night you ever need (solo or with a date). Next, we tried the spaghetti chitarra (pasta made by pushing it through a guitar string like warp which makes it ever so slightly rough along the edges so it grabs onto sauces perfectly). This pasta dish is a mash-up of perhaps the two most comforting rich creamy sauces of the classics: cacio e pepe and carbonara and it was comforting and rich without being overly creamy or oily which is the magic of a proper cacio e pepe and/or carbonara. Lastly, for summer going into fall (and for anyone who wants as much seafood close to the source while visiting the area as possible) the Chatham cod was cooked just right; it was that nice glossy opaque flake of fresh white fish brought in straight from Cape Cod. The cod was served with the sweetness of melted leeks, gentle brininess of green olives, an artichoke relish, pretty and ever so slightly bitter nasturtiums to offset the piccata beurre blanc. The cod was another dish, that I could eat any time of year and any day of the week.

Dessert was a chocolate Basque cheesecake, that I was planning to just take a tiny nibble of because I have big serious thoughts about ruining my cheesecake by adding chocolate (the worst offender) or just about any other flavour that is not fruit on top at most. I am a purist when it comes to cheesecake, but I have to admit that I had way more than a nibble and somehow the semi-sweet chocolate in this Basque cheesecake was pretty good. It was served with fresh berries and whipped cream and was excellent with an espresso from the bar. We were also treated to a mini espresso martini which was just right and I would come back and have one again as a little nightcap before hopping on the T home to Cambridge.

For the wine drinkers, the wines we had all went nicely with each dish. I am no wine connoisseur so I always default to a combination of two things: speak to the sommelier or bar/wine folx and ask to taste before committing. For our first course, we all had a muscadet: Domaine du Heron from the Loire. For the second course I chose the arneis: Cantine Giacomo Ascheri from Langhe in Piedmont. For the third course, I chose the sancerre: Domaine Reverdy-Ducroix also from the Loire. I used the very sophisticated strategy of choosing France/Italy/France because I liked that pattern. But, really the Peregrine crew did the heavy lifting of choosing wines that would go with each course so I could be silly within those parameters.

I am, at heart, a cocktail girl so of course had to try the White Lady and Emma Topp was kind enough to let me try her bacon old-fashioned. The White Lady is classic gin fizz; gin, lemon, egg white and it was refreshing and smooth. The old fashioned, was extra with a bacon fat washed bourbon, not too much maple syrup and topped with a rasher of candied bacon. I think I need to come back for brunch and get the bacon old fashioned. It could also be a nice night cap / savoury/sweet dessert option. I am fond of a cocktail for dessert.

Peregrine is located inside The Whitney Hotel. It is a stone’s throw from the Charles River and the Charles MGH T stop at the base of the iconic Boston cobblestoned Charles Street, which begins at the corner of the Boston Public Garden. Peregrine is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Reservations can be made here, but walk-ins are also welcome.