thePULSEBar Food
Belly up and get happy
March 2004 – After years of getting a bum rap, bar food is really coming into its own all over Worcester county. Maybe it’s the infusion of “tapas” (an exotic name for finger food) at several local nightclubs and restaurants or the fact that bar menus often exclude high carbohydrate side dishes like potatoes, but whatever the reason there are lots of local choices for unbeatable bar food.
There are four places where the bar food is as good as the booze:
One Eleven Chophouse & The Sole Proprietor, Worcester
These two local restaurants owned by the same family — perennial “best restaurant” winners in Worcester Magazine’s “Best of Worcester” Readers’ Poll “ — are top of the pile when it comes to bar food. The Sole Proprietor on Highland Street has a long list of delicious seafood entrees on their bar menu ranging from reasonably priced seafood and clam chowder to superb oysters on the half shell with lots of choices in between. The Sole’s classy bar also features a handful of cozy booths, perfect for impressing a new date as you share those oysters, often called the ocean’s natural aphrodisiac…
One Eleven Chophouse on Shrews-bury Street (home to one of our cover story bartenders, Pete Smith) is so popular with bar dwellers on Friday and Saturday nights that you have to get there before 5 p.m. to grab a seat at the big, classic “steak house” bar. The Chophouse’s bar menu includes all kinds of reasonably priced entrees that will fill you up if you don’t have time to enjoy one of the restaurant’s superb steaks: such as the shrimp and tomato with garlic plate, several meat dishes such as grilled flat iron steak and meatloaf and some of the same seafood delights available at The Sole.
Served on white linen napkins by Pete and other long-time One Eleven bartenders — who will also be able to make you an excellent vodka or gin martini or a cosmopolitan — this bar food is so good that it’s better than lots of other restaurant’s main fare.
The Flying Rhino, Worcester
The Flying Rhino, like One Eleven Chophouse, is located on Shrewsbury Street, which seems to have more good places for bar food than any other neighborhood in Worcester. The Rhino’s intimate, yet colorful bar area features several high tables and chairs in addition to a good-sized, comfortable bar that is filled to the brim on the weekends. The Rhino introduced a new late-night menu a few months ago, expanding the restaurant’s selection of creative, tasty offerings.
Until the late night menu kicks in you can savor any item from The Rhino’s diverse menu including “rhino-size” salads such as the healthy “Summer Spinach” for around $7.00 and my favorite, the “Andouille & Apple Salad” which is a meal in itself with spicy grilled andouille sausage, Granny Smith apples, cheddar cheese, walnuts and red cabbage with Vidalia onion dressing (also $7.00).
The Rhino’s “Wild Bites” menu with such treats as Coconut Shrimp ($7.95), Pot Stickers (dumplings stuffed with seasoned pork, $4.95) and the Mixed Grille (skewers with chicken souvlaki, swordfish, andouille sausage and teriyaki steak tips for $15.95) are also good bar food choices especially when served with one of the Rhino’s specialty martinis like the Bikini (Absolut Vodka, Malibu Rum and pineapple juice) or the famous Rhino Tranquilizer (Stoli , Grand Marnier, Amaretto, Cointreau and a splash of cranberry juice).
Vincent’s and Ralph’s, Worcester
There must be something about good bartenders and good bar food because Vincent, owner of Vincents on Suffolk Street and the famous Ralph’s on Grove Street, was also a winner in the Pulse’s Best Bartender contest.
Vincent doesn’t mess around with fancy food at his classic Suffolk Street bar, which was profiled in a recent issue of Stuff Magazine as one of the country’s best dive bars. The food in this small, but bursting with terrific memorabilia including a fabulous juke box, bar on Worcester’s east side is homemade, cheap and filling – the kind of food Mom used to make like ziti with meatballs or sausage for $5 to $7, homemade lasagna for $7.50, tuna sandwiches on hand-cut Italian bread for $4.75 and a bar food classic, a cheese plate with cheese, hot English mustard, raw onions and Saltine crackers for $4.75.
Vincent says his cheese plate is modeled after a vintage bar food entrée he first tasted 150-year-old McSorely’s in New York City.
Ralph’s, which also offers some of the best live music in the city, has long been known for big burgers and killer chili, but try the Ploughman’s Platter, a meal in itself with sausage, pickles, cheese, onions and rye bread for around $5.00.
And like Pete at The Chophouse, Vincent makes a superb martini no matter what you choose when you belly up to the bar.
