THE NEW DORCHESTER DINING SCENE: LIKE THE SOUTH END, BUT FUN

Careful—that other train will land you in Braintree

By MC SLIM JB, Chowhound Editor, Freelance writer for The Weekly Dig | January 16, 2006

I’m proud of my ability to ignore big, useless chunks of the Boston restaurant scene: Quincy Market, most of the North End, Newbury Street, Park Square. But I’m ashamed of one blinding swath of white space in my mental map of Boston: I know practically nothing about Dorchester, the city’s largest neighborhood. I could trot out some excuses: “Nobody I know lives there,” or “It’s too hard to get there on the MBTA,” or “There aren’t any restaurants worth visiting.” But those would all be damned lies, especially that last one.

While it has yet to garner a cluster of pricey fine-dining destinations, Dorchester is hardly the no-man’s-land of forgettable pizza and pub food I once imagined. Rather, it’s an increasingly vibrant place to eat, with an ethnic diversity most neighborhoods would envy: Witness its clutch of Vietnamese, Cape Verdean and Caribbean restaurants, not to mention Polish and Indian joints and more. New restaurants keep opening to feed the families and young professionals who have discovered Dorchester’s affordability and proximity to Boston’s center.

But it’s a huge borough. Where to start? Well, where any value-conscious diner with a thirst for exploration and a T map would: by looking for neighborhood bars with great food. My culinary map of Dorchester may still need a lot of filling in, but I have connected a few tasty, cool, bargain-priced dots:

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While trading Chowhound tips with my neighborhood wine merchant, I get a big thumbs-up on The Blarney Stone, which she lives near. “Really? That faux-Irish-looking joint? There must be fifty places like it on Dot Ave.,” I say. “No,” she insists, “Don’t let the name fool you. The food is terrific, and a bargain, and they have the most wonderful patio.” Hmph. Guess I gotta try it.

Once we get there, it starts to make sense: After nearly 35 years as a working-class Irish bar, the Blarney Stone has gone New Dorchester, bought and re-invented by the folks behind The Paramount and Peking Tom’s. The inside is a bit cavernous and clubby-looking, with a dance floor and DJ booth. The patio is indeed gorgeous, a sunny oasis well-shielded from nearby traffic. Fine cocktails are another pleasing jolt. “Screw a well-pulled Guinness—this is a great Sidecar!” my honey says. The four of us share a few plates: the suddenly ubiquitous mini-cheeseburgers (pretty good, though messy, $8); a full-sized burger (much better, $6); baked rigatoni with chicken (gigantic, a bit bland, $12); a generous lamb skewer, expertly charred, still juicy inside, with a side of mashed ($7); and respectable onion rings ($3). We’ve laid out $9 apiece on food, and we’re full, though not too full to soak up another round and some more sunshine. “I would have changed the name,” my buddy says. “Shhh,” I tell him. “If everyone figures out this isn’t a bad-nachos kind of bar, we’ll have to wait two hours for a patio seat next time.” [The Blarney Stone, 1505 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester. 617.436.8223. www.blarneystoneboston.com]

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