Of Culinary Concepts’ culinary concepts, Market is the least clear-cut. It’s not to be confused with the company’s Spice Market, which offers Asian street food. It’s certainly not to be confused with J&G Steakhouse - let’s thank Vongerichten for understanding how little this city needs another one of those. Nor is it to be confused with the other Boston restaurant called Market, in the Financial District. It’s inconvenient to be a small business when a culinary juggernaut with the same name rolls into town.
This Market’s website describes it as “a casual family kitchen.’’ (If yours is the family casually serving dishes such as sea urchin toast with yuzu and jalapeno, I’m up for adoption. Call me.) It relies heavily on local ingredients. And it serves some of the well-known dishes from other Vongerichten restaurants such as Jean Georges and Perry St - foie gras brule and warm chocolate cake, for example. Like a greatest hits album, this may feel to longtime fans like a retread. For those just discovering Vongerichten, it’s a taste of talent. This is the album they’ll want to buy. Maybe, after they get to know it, they’ll branch out to explore the rest of his catalog.
Much of Market’s menu goes like this: Take comfort food, add some excitement, cook properly. Pizza, the crust a bit puffy but golden at the edges, gets topped with fontina, a thin smear of black truffle, and frisee. Here the prickly green is rendered magically pleasant and soft, a great vehicle for the bold truffle flavor. Fried clams are crisp and light, a seafood-shack favorite dusted with basil salt, slices of red chili scattered over the plate. They’re served with a chili dipping sauce that tastes like sriracha mayonnaise but has the airy, whipped texture of meringue. That unexpected detail elevates the dish.
