Restaurant Week: Meritage

Restaurant Week is almost over. For two weeks in March, hundreds of restaurants in Boston open up their doors and offer 3-course fine dining for $33. This is a great opportunity to try those places that your wallet wouldn’t normally venture towards.

Have you ever been to the Meritage?  No?  Well make sure you do.  Thanks to Restaurant Week, I headed there earlier this week and sampled the delights of Masterchef-style cooking.  I wont even attempt to describe the menu or the presentation because I simply wouldn’t do it justice.  If you like elegance, pretty food, and looking out across the Boston harbour at night then you’ll be in the right place.

Restaurant Week returns in the summer – dates to be announced soon.

Meritage is situated on the second floor of the Boston Harbour Hotel (map).  Nearest T-stops are Aquarium and Government Centre.  Photo courtesy of Timeout.com.

Pointless fact: Meritage is a hybrid of two words – ‘Merit’ and ‘Heritage’.  Named for red and white Bordeaux style wines produced in California.  There has been much controversy over the pronunciation of this American winery trademark.  Most people, including wine experts, use a French accent.  This makes ‘Meritage’ sounds like it rhymes with barge or gavage.  Yet officially Meritage  is pronounced rather flatly, rhyming with ‘heritage’. Well after a few glasses of wine I thought it was interesting!

Getting involved in boating

For many people one of the main attractions of living in Boston is the Charles River.  On a beautiful day you can see the boats sailing on the water, the university rowers racing against each other, and the dragon boats in training.  Now that the warm spring weather is underway, more and more boating enthusiasts are taking to the water.

If you want to try sailing but have never even stepped onto a boat, or you want to start without investing a bucket-load of money, then head to Community Boating.  A non-profit organisation located on the lower section of the river (close to where it empties into the Boston harbour). Community Boating offers courses for sailing and windsurfing, and I think (or rather ‘hope’) they let anyone in, including balance-inept novices like me!

My first visit to Community Boating was for a fundraising event at the Cheers Bar in Beacon Hill. (Also my first time to the iconic Cheers Bar.)  I arrived with nothing but a $20 bill, I left with a new sailing bag – handmade out of recycled sails, many new friends and feeling slightly inebriated.

 

My second visit to Community Boating was as a volunteer for the start-of-season work party.  Over eighty people volunteered their Saturday to get boats into the water, rigged up and ready to go.  Naturally, my knowledge of knot typing is fairly limited (slip and reef) so I helped clean the boats.  Here I learnt the importance of balance when stepping onto several rather unstable sailing boats, and my affinity for grabbing on to the mast for dear life.

Yes, cleaning items did go overboard.

My third visit is anticipated this Saturday, March 31st.  Community Boating are hosting an Open House between 10am and 3pm. Here you can have a tour of the boat house, meet the instructors, and check out the fleet.  FREE beginner sailing lessons will be given all day.  This is too good an opportunity to miss!

Community Boating is located on the south side of the river, by Charles/MGH T-stop (map).  Check out the website for more details: http://www.community-boating.org/ 

Top photo courtesy of Mandegan at Panoramio.com