This Restaurant's Wings Are Melting

It was a friend's birthday last weekend, and so to celebrate in the style that he deserved, we booked a very large table at a very fancy South End restaurant. Icarus should have been honored to be host to everyone's (or just our) favorite Dutchman. But I guess they weren't, because they wouldn't offer our extremely large party any sort of deal on wine/alcohol - something we were all very prepared to drink plenty of.

Odd.

But maybe not so much, since I've heard that apparently they're going out of business closing to renovate. Not so surprising then, I guess. Honestly, with the state of the restaurant business right now, wouldn't you want to entice diners to return to your establishment? Instill some sense of loyalty? What better way to do that than to ply them with discount booze?? The management at Icarus must have missed that class on recession-management.

They did, however, print special menus for our table that read "Happy 26th Birthday Vincent!". Sweet.

The decor was nice, if not a little stuffy. I've described it to a couple of people as very Blue Blood - dark panelled walls, cherry furniture, deep-colored carpeting, chandeliers, the smell of money.... I walked in and expected all the men to be wearing navy blazers and all the women to be dripping in pearls.

I suppose it's a good thing that Icarus is "renovating", because the layout was definitely a problem. The bar was small and poorly situated, and it seemed that no matter where you stood you were in someone's way. The dining room was effectively split in half, where one portion was raised higher than the other, making it so that the ceiling was significanly lower over that half of tables. We were seated on the raised portion of the floor, and the low ceiling did nothing for holding conversation - I found myself almost yelling so that the person next to me could hear what I was saying. Luckily, our reservations were on the late side, so as the restaurant emptied conversation became much easier.

Apart from poor floor-planning, the meal was delicious. I found myself ordering the lighter fare on the pre-fixe menu (escarole salad, chickpea crepes and lemon panna cotta) and enjoyed every bite. The crepes had a hint of curry and the panna cotta was totally refreshing.

To continue the evening, we journeyed down the street to the totally trendy Beehive, where a funky rasta was performing and my friend's beer Fisherman's Brew was on tap. Our group nearly had the run of the place by closing, and while a small scuffle broke out at the door we emerged unscathed. After a cab ride back to Cambridge and an after-party thereafter, I finally made it home sometime around 5.

The birds were already up, and as I crawled into bed, light was beginning to stream through my window.


And after all that, somehow there's more! Continue on for a quick run-down of the Restaurant Club's outings to Oceanaire and Venetian Moon.


Oceanaire Seafood Room: I'll just begin this by saying that we couldn't have chosen a better place for Restaurant Club Does Restaurant Week. I had heard good things about the place, and it did not disappoint.

The evening was off to a great start with the currant-infused vodka cocktail I got at the bar. It was like drinking candy. And the discounted prefix menu could have easily passed for a full-price meal at any swanky restaurant. While our waitress warned that the portions would be smaller, my piece of swordfish was still a solid 8 oz and took up half my plate.

While no substitions to the prefix were allowed, the choice of apps, entree and desserts were varied, so there was definitely something for everyone. I was very happy with choosing the sorbet over the cheesecake, and the crab cakes and flounder were a hit along with my swordfish. While some restaurants participating have offered a wine pairing with each course for an extra $10-$15, Oceanaire listed three different bottles of wine to choose from to go along with the prefix menu. 3 bottles of discounted wine at a fancy restaurant for the 6 of us? OK!

The ambiance was nice, and despite the high ceilings and the filled tables, the lighting gave the space an intimate feel. Overall, an extremely enjoyable club meeting.

Venetian Moon: The Club decided to go on a field trip and met at this North Reading restaurant. Amazing food, the most comprehensive martini menu I've ever seen, an extremely accomodating kitchen, and always humerous Cougar/faux-tanned Cougar-hunter interaction - but -

COULD YOU BE ANY HARDER TO FIND SRSLY??? Make sure you know EXACTLY where you're going and what you're looking for, because you WILL drive by it 5 times without having any idea you've passed it, and you'll wonder why your GPS is mysteriously re-routing you.

Besides my GPS being absolutely no help whatsoever and navigating me to "Points of Interest" throughout North Reading and Wilmington rather than to my destination, I must have walked past the place 2 or 3 times before spotting the enterance. However, the every-martini-you-could-ever-think-of list and the out-of-this-world food completely made up for the slightly shady, quasi-speakeasy enterance.

The official Restaurant Club post for Venetian Moon can be found HERE.