Pork Belly

On a Friday night at the Painted Burro in Davis Square, the volume is cranked to high: This one goes to 11. It's not so much the music as the din of the crowd. To reach the bar, one must maneuver through an obstacle course made of people. Every rustic wood seat at every rustic wood table is taken. Last year, upscale Mexican restaurants took over the city — you had your Tico and your Temazcal, your Lolita and your Papagayo. When another opened in the space formerly occupied by the well-loved Gargoyles, the question was: Do we really need more fancified tacos and tequila?

On a Friday night at the Painted Burro in Davis Square, the volume is cranked to high: This one goes to 11. It's not so much the music as the din of the crowd. To reach the bar, one must maneuver through an obstacle course made of people. Every rustic wood seat at every rustic wood table is taken. Last year, upscale Mexican restaurants took over the city — you had your Tico and your Temazcal, your Lolita and your Papagayo. When another opened in the space formerly occupied by the well-loved Gargoyles, the question was: Do we really need more fancified tacos and tequila?

Chef Jim Casey focuses on seafood at Plymouth restaurant the Blue-Eyed Crab, but weekend pig pickin' events there have always been very popular. So when the West Roxbury resident began thinking about a new project closer to home, barbecue was on his mind. The result is the Red-Eyed Pig, offering takeout and very limited seating. With the help of a Cookshack smoker, the tiny storefront turns out large amounts of barbecue for a neighborhood hungry for something different.

Davis Square's Saloon aims to take you for a ride in the wayback machine. Inspired by the pre-Prohibition era, this subterranean sister restaurant to Foundry on Elm features chef Derek Clough's renditions of old-school fare such as steak and kidney pie, bubble and squeak, hamburg steak au poivre, and Boston baked beans with maple-glazed pork belly and brown bread. There's plenty of brown liquor to go with it. The bar stocks more than 100 variants of whiskey, and two kinds each of vodka and gin. Bartenders mix "bespoke cocktails" such as the Ward 44 (pork belly...

Davis Square's Saloon aims to take you for a ride in the wayback machine. Inspired by the pre-Prohibition era, this subterranean sister restaurant to Foundry on Elm features chef Derek Clough's renditions of old-school fare such as steak and kidney pie, bubble and squeak, hamburg steak au poivre, and Boston baked beans with maple-glazed pork belly and brown bread. There's plenty of brown liquor to go with it. The bar stocks more than 100 variants of whiskey, and two kinds each of vodka and gin. Bartenders mix "bespoke cocktails" such as the Ward 44 (pork belly...

62 RESTAURANT & WINE BAR *** 62 Wharf St., Salem. 978-744-0062. www.62restaurant.com. All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Prices Spuntini $7-$12. Pasta $11-$14. Entrees $22-$27. Desserts $8. Hours Sun 5-9 p.m. (bar until 10 p.m.), Tue-Sat 5-10 p.m. (bar until midnight). Thu-Sat late-night menu 10-11 p.m. Noise level Conversation easy, despite irritating techno soundtrack. May we recommend Arancini, zucchini blossoms, pork belly, gnocchi, garganelli, duck.

BOGOTA - Luis Eduardo Lopez, 26, hands over 2,000 pesos in exchange for a warm brown paper bag, which he cradles like gold. "I've spent years trying to find the best chicharron in the city," he says, as he reveals crouton-sized nuggets of deep-fried pork belly. The vendor, who sells her chicharron to hungry shoppers in the Lago neighborhood, hovers over a pot of oil full of slowly rendering slabs of pork belly, yellow plantains, and white corn arepas (the ubiquitous corn patties of which one can find more than a half dozen varieties on this block alone)

BLUE INC. *½ 131 Broad St., Boston. 617-261-5353. www.blueincboston.com. All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Prices Appetizers $8-$13. Entrees $22-$28. Desserts $8-$10. Hours Lunch Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Dinner Mon-Thu 5-10 p.m., Fri-Sat 5 p.m.-midnight. Bar Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-midnight, Sat 5 p.m.-midnight. Noise level Cacophonous. May we recommend Lobster tacos, pork belly, calamari "spaghetti," duck confit.

SWEET CHEEKS 1381 Boylston St., Boston 617-266-1300 www.sweetcheeksq.com Chef Tiffani Faison, of "Top Chef" and Rocca fame, brings barbecue and Southern hospitality to the Fenway neighborhood. Sweet Cheeks opened two weeks ago in the space formerly occupied by Cambridge 1. Loud and open, with music blasting, the restaurant is outfitted with communal high-top tables made from recycled church doors and bowling lanes. Drinks are served in Mason jars, food on brown paper in metal trays.

SWEET CHEEKS 1381 Boylston St., Boston 617-266-1300 www.sweetcheeksq.com Chef Tiffani Faison, of "Top Chef" and Rocca fame, brings barbecue and Southern hospitality to the Fenway neighborhood. Sweet Cheeks opened two weeks ago in the space formerly occupied by Cambridge 1. Loud and open, with music blasting, the restaurant is outfitted with communal high-top tables made from recycled church doors and bowling lanes. Drinks are served in Mason jars, food on brown paper in metal trays.

Chef Jim Casey focuses on seafood at Plymouth restaurant the Blue-Eyed Crab, but weekend pig pickin' events there have always been very popular. So when the West Roxbury resident began thinking about a new project closer to home, barbecue was on his mind. The result is the Red-Eyed Pig, offering takeout and very limited seating. With the help of a Cookshack smoker, the tiny storefront turns out large amounts of barbecue for a neighborhood hungry for something different.

2011 BEGAN with an "Ole!" We rode in on a wave of tequila and yuppie tacos, as half a dozen upscale Mexican restaurants arrived on the scene almost simultaneously. This was the year Kendall Square and the South Boston waterfront took off as restaurant neighborhoods, albeit with very different flavors - the former a haven for small, independent establishments, the latter trending bigger and glitzier. Legal Sea Foods got a flagship with Legal Harborside, complete with roof deck and bouncers; the Fenway branch of El Pelon Taqueria returned from the ashes.

SWEET CHEEKS 1381 Boylston St., Boston 617-266-1300 www.sweetcheeksq.com Chef Tiffani Faison, of "Top Chef" and Rocca fame, brings barbecue and Southern hospitality to the Fenway neighborhood. Sweet Cheeks opened two weeks ago in the space formerly occupied by Cambridge 1. Loud and open, with music blasting, the restaurant is outfitted with communal high-top tables made from recycled church doors and bowling lanes. Drinks are served in Mason jars, food on brown paper in metal trays.

SWEET CHEEKS 1381 Boylston St., Boston 617-266-1300 www.sweetcheeksq.com Chef Tiffani Faison, of "Top Chef" and Rocca fame, brings barbecue and Southern hospitality to the Fenway neighborhood. Sweet Cheeks opened two weeks ago in the space formerly occupied by Cambridge 1. Loud and open, with music blasting, the restaurant is outfitted with communal high-top tables made from recycled church doors and bowling lanes. Drinks are served in Mason jars, food on brown paper in metal trays.

62 RESTAURANT & WINE BAR *** 62 Wharf St., Salem. 978-744-0062. www.62restaurant.com. All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Prices Spuntini $7-$12. Pasta $11-$14. Entrees $22-$27. Desserts $8. Hours Sun 5-9 p.m. (bar until 10 p.m.), Tue-Sat 5-10 p.m. (bar until midnight). Thu-Sat late-night menu 10-11 p.m. Noise level Conversation easy, despite irritating techno soundtrack. May we recommend Arancini, zucchini blossoms, pork belly, gnocchi, garganelli, duck.

BLUE INC. *½ 131 Broad St., Boston. 617-261-5353. www.blueincboston.com. All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Prices Appetizers $8-$13. Entrees $22-$28. Desserts $8-$10. Hours Lunch Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Dinner Mon-Thu 5-10 p.m., Fri-Sat 5 p.m.-midnight. Bar Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-midnight, Sat 5 p.m.-midnight. Noise level Cacophonous. May we recommend Lobster tacos, pork belly, calamari "spaghetti," duck confit.

2011 BEGAN with an "Ole!" We rode in on a wave of tequila and yuppie tacos, as half a dozen upscale Mexican restaurants arrived on the scene almost simultaneously. This was the year Kendall Square and the South Boston waterfront took off as restaurant neighborhoods, albeit with very different flavors - the former a haven for small, independent establishments, the latter trending bigger and glitzier. Legal Sea Foods got a flagship with Legal Harborside, complete with roof deck and bouncers; the Fenway branch of El Pelon Taqueria returned from the ashes.

Sadness: Temple Bar patrons learned earlier this year that chef Tom Berry was leaving for Nantucket’s Great Harbor Yacht Club. Excitement: Chef Michael Scelfo would replace him. The restaurant gods giveth and taketh away. Scelfo earned a following at restaurants such as Tea Tray in the Sky and North Street Grille, a dab hand in the kitchen and a clever crafter of menus. He uses bold flavors in interesting, often mouth-watering combinations. He made dinner worth having at the less-than-food-focused Good Life.

Once business travelers roamed the earth. They were an omnivorous species, and quite thirsty as well. Hotels were their habitat, and they ate and drank in proximity to where they slept. Large packs roved from conference to conference, meeting to meeting, a common sight. No more. These creatures have gone into hiding, scared off by a changing economic climate. One day they may roam the earth again. Until then, a smart hotel restaurant might contemplate an image shift in the interest of biodiversity.

Sadness: Temple Bar patrons learned earlier this year that chef Tom Berry was leaving for Nantucket’s Great Harbor Yacht Club. Excitement: Chef Michael Scelfo would replace him. The restaurant gods giveth and taketh away. Scelfo earned a following at restaurants such as Tea Tray in the Sky and North Street Grille, a dab hand in the kitchen and a clever crafter of menus. He uses bold flavors in interesting, often mouth-watering combinations. He made dinner worth having at the less-than-food-focused Good Life.