Dante and Red House

One week post election, I think pretty much everyone in Cambridge (and most reasonable people in the country) felt like they had been slapped in the face.  Each day was a new disaster and spirits were low.   I definitely was in need of a city night and I was craving pasta, which is actually a bit of a difficult thing to procure in Cambridge.  We tried to get dinner reservations but I think all of Cambridge and Boston needed a night out so reservations were pretty scarce, to nonexistent.  That's when I remembered Dante, at the Royal Sonesta.  Dante is really well known for it's patio and I've been wanting to check it out, so we considered it a bit of a research mission for patio season.

The restaurant has some great views of the city skyline, if you are lucky enough to get a seat by the windows.  We had a lovely waitress.  We decided to get a few appetizers and half portions of pasta.  We got the arancini and burrata.  Both were good, but lacked a bit of flavor.  The arancini were served with truffle honey instead of the traditional mariana sauce.  I really wished they served it with mariana because they were cooked perfectly.  The burrata was also good, but nothing to write home about.  It was a bit solid and not creamy enough, but still good.  I got the cabanara pasta and again, it was good but not delicious.  Overall, the restaurant had great views, a nice atmosphere, and good food but I'll probably only go back for the patio.

After dinner, we walked to the Kendall T station, hopped on the train, and headed over to Harvard Square.  We'd won a membership to Club Passim almost a year ago and had yet to activate it.  We stopped by Passim, got our membership in order, scooped up some tickets to future shows, and found ourselves in the Square with no specific plans.

We decided to find a place for a drink and ended up at The Red House, a perfect destination for a cold, winter night.  The Red House has the cutest bar area.  It's small and cozy and features a lovely fireplace.  It's a totally rustic space that you just don't see in the city.  We were lucky there was a free table.  We had a lot of fun relaxing and forgetting the trouble of the week.