Figs and summer evenings

We have been having truly glorious weather here in Boston lately. It's supposed to be ridiculously hot and humid this weekend, but for now the nights are cool and the days are warm and breezy. Perfect weather for an outdoor concert, but I'll get to that in a minute. First, Figs!

I'm not sure who took a bit out of that sign... I guess they were hungry? Anyway. This is the second of Todd English's Boston area restaurants I went to over the course of two days (I had a lunch meeting at Kingfish Hall on Tuesday.) It was an interesting experience. The food was good, but the space is sort of weird. It's very narrow, and I was sitting with my back up against a tray of silverware so there were constantly servers hovering around, setting up other tables.

We started with the "Asparagus Frites" which I was not expecting to be breaded, but it was fairly light. The salad underneath was over-dressed but the arugula was tasty. I probably would have eaten all the greens had the over-zealous server not taken the plate away as soon as the asparagus were gone.

They let you split the pizzas down the middle so we had two, which was good because the name of the restuarant had given me a hankering for the combo you see above: figs, prosciutto and gorgonzola. There was a fig/onion/balsamic jam underneath it all. Frankly, there were too many figs. I am a huge proponent of the sweet/salty combo but this was so much fig it almost felt like desert. Adam thought the prosciutto was too salty, but I was pretty glad it was there as a foil for the figs. Also, those strange green things on top? Yeah, I still dont' quite know what they are. Green onions, maybe? Very odd and they kept falling off the pizza.

The other half was their special of the day, artichoke and spinach. Also delicious, this was more traditional. Yep. Hm. That's about all I have to say about this one. One more note on the pizza: the crust. It was crispy but suuuuper flour-y. My face felt gritty at the end of the meal. In conclusion, this was an ok meal, reasonably priced (pizzas are $13-$18 and feed two people), and I'd probably go back again. It was conveniently located (42 Charles Street) for the next activity on the evening's agenda:

The Landmark concert series at the Hatch Shell is not a bad way to spend a Wednesday evening.
Just make sure you bring a blanket.

Or some camp chairs.

Or you could improvise.

OR you could just sit there and curl your toes. Next week's concert schedule is for Gershwin and Gospel. If I can convince Adam that George and Ira can be fun, maybe we'll picnic. I'll keep you posted.