City Table

A few years ago I had the chance to mentor a new teacher in my building.  It was a great experience and I ended up learning so much from her.  She's left our school but we've stayed in touch.  She totally understands my love of the city and recently moved to Somerville.  It had been way too long since we had seen each other.  Thankfully, Friday night we fixed that and met up at City Table at the Lennox Hotel for dinner.  I've been wanting to check this place out so I was excited when this was the restaurant she picked.  It also happened to be Restaurant Week which worked out perfectly.

I can't say enough great things about this place!  The restaurant isn't huge and it's split into three spaces:  the bar/lounge with hightop tables and two smaller dining room areas which seat about 15-20 people.  The restaurant features really high ceilings with a gold tin roof and lots of crown molding.  The restaurant is decorated in rich chocolate browns and tans.  It definitely passes the "you can hear each other talk" test that is becoming so vital as I get older (and not because my hearing is going but because I don't want to work so hard to hear the person I'm having dinner with.)

We went with the restaurant menu, but they also gave us the regular menu so I had a chance to take a look at it.  I was impressed with the variety of choices and price points.  You could easily come and have an expensive city meal.  There are lots of a apps, a couple pizza choices, sandwiches, and entrees.

I started with the chopped salad which had been plated using a salad mold, so it was a packed cylindrical shape.   It was stuffed with olives, feta, and tomatoes.  I enjoyed it but my friend got the duo of tacos and those looked amazing!  It was practically a meal in itself.  For my entree I went with the roasted chicken with truffle whipped potatoes and mushroom sauce with a touch of lemon.  This was one of the best chicken dishes I have had in the city!  The truffle was perfect in the potatoes and not overwhelming at all.  The mushrooms were earthy and the sauce went with the chicken perfectly.  For dessert I got the chocolate torte and my gosh was it decadent.  It was basically liquid chocolate fudge in a delicious crust with soft, light homemade cream on the top.

If all of that wasn't great, what sealed the deal for me with this place was the prosecco.  Anyone who knows me knows that I adore all things bubbles.  I don't pretend to know anything about types, brands, vintages, etc.  So what I'm about to say comes with no hint of authority but the prosecco I had at City Table was the best glass of prosecco in the city!  The funny thing was that I was torn between ordering a cocktail or a prosecco when I noticed the woman at the table next to me sipping her bubbles out of a beautiful champagne flute.  I'm a big stickler for bubbles being served in the right kind of glass.  I want elegance when I'm drinking my bubbles and I hate the stemless glasses at Brass Union and Highball Lounge, or the lowball glass they serve prosecco in at Parlor Sports (although in their defense, who orders prosecco there?)  They looked a bit like those pictured, but even better.  I texted JO on my way home and let him know we would be going back to get those bubbles again!

On our way out of the restaurant we exited out of the hotel entrance.  That's when I noticed City Bar, the bar inside the lobby.  It looks fabulous, uplighting and sleek, and I bet they serve the same prosecco in there, and I do have a slight obsession with hotel bars so we definitely have to come back.

It was great to catch up with a good friend at such a great spot in the city.