I also love East Coast Grill and could tell you many, many wonderful things that have happened to me and my family there, but I wouldn't hit it on Hell Night, and it isn't trendy in the sense of everyone looking like Kate Moss.

Mmm. I wish I were sitting down to a plate of the chipotle chicken livers right now.

what the hell is hell night?
could be fun??????

bachslunch,
i can handle the trendy and attitudy as long as the food is great.
if not, why even bother?
i never understand how such places stay in business.

Hell Night is a once-a-year special menu event (covering a three night period) at East Coast Grill. It's a hard core chili-head's dream, with a menu including what is billed as the hottest plate of pasta anywhere, liberally spiced with ghost chilies. Adam Richman visited there on his Boston episode of Man V. Food.

In general, I like East Coast Grill a lot -- very good BBQ for the area, and excellent seafood.

bachslunch,
thanks for that info.
yummy! sounds like my kind of food.

Hi abranz,

My friend and I just came back from Boston and we really enjoyed Figs, awesome "upscale" pizza in the Beacon Hill area, and The Beehive, very cool restaurant with live jazz/fusion music most nights and a great atmosphere. We had fantastic food at both. Have fun!!

omg! so many choices!!

reilly,
thanks for the tip on figs.
do they serve a neapolitan pizza?
i'll look it up.

figs looks amazing.

we loved todd english's blue water grill so i can imagine how good this will be too.
thank you!

Figs on Charles Street, the Beacon Hill location is great--we just stopped there for a late lunch when DS and fiancee were out visiting--but it is tiny. I mean like 8 or 10 tables and while I would put it in the trendy category, it is not a "destination" place for a dinner out, IMO. Not for an out of town special occasion like you are looking for, just my 2 cents.....

Hell Night description from the East Coast Grill web site:

<i>To the Chile-Heads and Their Loved Ones,

On the eve of this unprecedented 3-night over-the-top fiery food challenge between the East Coast Grill and our heat seeking public, I think it's important to remember the exact nature of our original dispute.

...I've always liked spicy food and, in the early days of the East Coast Grill (circa 1986), we had gained a little reputation for serving some spicy dishes, which was a little unusual outside a Thai or Mexican restaurant. Unsuspectingly, I was baited into a culinary dare by a small, sick sect of the dining public whose taunts of "that really wasn't that hot" finally got the better of me and my formal training. I could not control the burning desire to silence at least a few. The resulting creation was the now infamous Pasta From Hell, fueled primarily by the original Inner Beauty Hot Sauce.

Customers dropped like sweaty, panting, weak little flies. The kitchen howled at their tormentor's agony. But when the smoke cleared there were a few left standing, a crazed, goofy, half smile on their faces and a faraway look in their eyes, and, as I looked out from behind the grill, I would get an almost imperceptable, knowing nod. Their fix had been had and, lost in that chile stupor, they acknowledged the contest was a draw. But, like a gunfighter in the Old West, I knew this was only the beginning. They would return, they would bring their friends to face the true test.

Word spread until there was an actual demand for a night when only wicked hot food was served. The brave and the super freaks came in droves to feed their strange and weird addiction. The first Hell Night was born. More came and we created the Hell Doubleheader and today, for the only time in world history, you are participating in not 1, not 2, but 3 straight nights of pure atomic cuisine -- the only Hell Tripleheader known to humankind. Chefs Pat and Drew and Jason do battle today with recipes handed down by chefs before them. The legends of past fire eaters are whispered to new staff. So here we are in continuation of the eternal struggle. New dishes are designed, new chile mixes created, gas masks distributed. The kitchen is ready..are you?

We won't stop until you do.

Good luck,

Chris</i>

abranz - two things - did you see this on the NY Times college blog site "The Choice" today?
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2.../29/tufts-sex/

and last spring when we were visiting Cambridge w/ our teenager, we ate at:
http://www.bandgoysters.com/

in the South End.Really good food, upscale, hip crowd, but not youngsters. Reminded us of Mary's Fish Camp in NYC

tc,
thanks for that piece on hells kitchen. it sounds magnificent. i hope to experience it one day and hope i will be one of the few left standing with eyes glazed over.

mp,
b & g oysters sounds great especially as we love seafood.

i posted in the lounge about the new tufts sex in dorm policy

http://www.fodors.com/community/fodo...dorm-rooms.cfm

there is quite a discussion going on there if you care to check it out.

You might want to check out BOND, SPLASH or DISTRICT.

These venues are currently all local favorites. They are fun, cool places to go.. visited by many celebrities when they are in town, as well.
Just make sure you pay attention to which days you go, special events etc... i included the website links for you.


*Bond is located downtown, in the Langham Hotel, on Franklin Street. Its very sophisticated & trendy. Currently the new hot spot.
http://www.bondboston.com/

*Splash just opened up on 150 Kneeland Street. A water themed venue, Vegas style atmosphere on the roof deck w/ a fountain & private cabanas. Ultra lounge dining after-hours until 2am.
http://www.splash150kneeland.com/

*District, right around the corner from Splash, at 180 Lincoln Street. Voted Boston's trendiest bar last year, and this year awarded as Boston's Best Wednesday Night.
http://www.districtboston.com

this is exactly what i was looking for!

love all 3 especially bond.
thanks so much

Bond is really a cougar hangout, wouldn't think college aged girls would really be impressed, and the food has gotten really lukewarm reviews. Not sure about Splash, but District is nighclubby, not a dinner place.

They look like more like "clubs" to me, as well. There may be a 21 y.o minimum to enter some of them, but they are definitely not restaurants in the traditional meaning of the word. There is a big difference, in Boston anyway, between a hip restaurant and a club.

There are places in Davis Square--Tufts "campus town"--- that are restaurants at dinner time and clubs later in the evening that would be more appropriate venues than these appear, but that is just my 2 cents and not a penny more!

I realize that I am *so* not the target market of those places, but I find it odd that I have never heard of any of them.

wyatt and socialworker,

thanks for the 1st hand info.
i thought district did look very loungey and the menu did not have too many options.
but the atmosphere and music looked great on the websites for bond and splash.
also, menus for both looked like they start the evening with dinner and late night turns into a club.
but definitely no cougar hangouts. yuck!

i will send out all these choices and will defer to the wishes of the teen and the other parents we are dining with.
thanks again

a big thanks and an update to everyone who gave us such great restaurant ideas.

we ended up having 2 dinners, 2 lunches and one brunch.
with such limited time we did not want to go to a place without reservations.

our first lunch which was originally supposed to be sampling cafeteria food had to be quickly re-thought as there was a complete power outtage on the campus because of a manhole fire in medford.
we ended up at devi as dd had missed indian food
as socialworker had mentioned, it was not fabulous but for a typical indian buffet it was o.k.

that night, friday, we had dinner at sonsie which was excellent. it was definitely a hot spot especially for parents and teens.
i was in love with their chandeliers.
dh had the canneloni which was much heavier than he expected. dd and i shared
pan roasted scallops with pumpkin gallette, steamed mussels, mushroom tart on a bed of frisee and endive with walnuts.
the appetizer portions were huge and we were so full, we could not even contemplate dessert.

saturday lunch was at tried and true legal seafood. i am amazed at how consistently good they are. this was our 3rd time, each at a different location.
their oyster bar as well as the tuna shashimi were excellent.

dinner that night was at al dente chosen by dd's bff's parents - a typical italian place with huge pasta portions. it was perfect for the 9 of us - loud and crowded and a lot of fun.
dd and i satisfied ourselves with salads. dh was in pasta heaven.
after dinner, we took a stroll and ended up at a small restaurant/bakery and indulged in canolis and tiramisu

our last meal was a dim sum brunch in chinatown at china pearl. although the dim sum was not the best i've had, the price was a third of what we would pay in s.f.
most importantly, dd was able to satisfy her craving for har gow and sesame balls.

so thanks again for all the recommendations. i will definitely be using them during the next several visits.

I was just thinking about you yesterday. We had the most beautiful kind of perfect NE autumn day and I was so wishing that you also would have had that kind of weather!!

In spite of the weather, it sounds like you had a really nice week-end. So glad that you had good restaurant experiences and I also hope that your daughter is happy--so far-- with Tufts.

bookmarking!