Eating places
Coda Restaurant Group is opening its latest idea Friday.
Gufo, the most recent restaurant from Coda Restaurant Group, will open Friday at 660 Cambridge St. in Cambridge. The fashionable Italian restaurant opens with dinner service as the primary stage for the multi-functional, 4,200-square-foot area. Subsequent month, Gufo will open its café, serving house-made pastries and enoteca-inspired sandwiches corresponding to mortadella and stracciatella-stacked atop focaccia.
Along with the restaurant and café, Gufo encompasses a 50-seat, all-weather patio and a bocce court docket that’s accessible on a first-come, first-served foundation. Throughout the day, friends will have the ability to order from the café counter and convey out the connoisseur to-go objects to the courtside high-top tables. Service can even be accessible throughout the night.
“It was actually necessary to supply completely different avenues for folks within the neighborhood,” government chef Andrew Herbert advised Boston.com, who joins Gufo most not too long ago from sister restaurant The Salty Pig. “We wished to be open all day and have one thing accessible at any time.”
Gufo interprets to “owl” in Italian — you’ll discover sketched owls on the wallpaper all through the ethereal interiors — which Coda Restaurant Group director of operations and associate, Ted Hawkins, defined: “We now have taken on the Gufo as our id as we pay homage to this humble, fierce, and sensible animal as we try to be a neighborhood restaurant full of care, thought, and intention open to our neighborhood from morning till night time.”
Within the title of neighborhood, Herbert stated that the menu in the primary eating room is supposed to be shared.
“That’s the best way I prefer to eat,” he stated, “to attempt just a little little bit of every thing.”
As Herbert steers away from the normal appetizer and entree menu, the eating expertise is split into 4 sections: bites, shared plates, pizza, and pasta.
The “bites” start with a seasonal number of six snacks that resemble a mezze board. On this manner, Herbert stated the menu is barely extra Mediterranean-Italian with some African influences reasonably than centered on a specific area of Italy. Gadgets like artichoke, prosciutto, and olives are priced at $6 every, however the value is discounted for 4 objects ($22) or six objects ($30) to encourage diners to attempt all of them.
“After I write a menu, I attempt to consider how folks can share issues and revel in issues as a bunch,” Herbert stated.
Shared plates embody arancini, head-on shrimp, and entire roasted fish, which is presently black bass marinated and completed in chermoula (North African salsa verde).
“When folks see it being walked by means of the eating room, it grabs their consideration,” Herbert stated.
The 12-14 inch thin-style, hand-tossed, creatively topped pizzas are in related fashion to The Salty Pig, utilizing a barely bigger Wooden Stone, gas-fired fireplace for the perfect crispiness. Having opened for family and friends this week, Herbert stated a fan-favorite pie on the menu has emerged: white pizza with mozzarella, sliced zucchini and anchovy filets that’s completed with a sprinkle of arugula and spicy fresno French dressing.
As for pasta, he stated the squid ink bucatini is a standout with skinned clams, andouille butter, lemon, and parsley.
Dessert could possibly be thought of the fifth portion of the menu as Herbert is thrilled to supply tender serve ice cream — beginning with chocolate and vanilla — topped with seasonal toppings. Proper now, that features coconut duca, candy coconut with nuts, in addition to a magic shell, chocolate that’s poured over and hardens atop the ice cream.
“It’s all very approachable,” stated Herbert, including that the cafe will supply a snug, but stylish, work-from-home various whereas the “oasis” of a patio and open air space is good for consuming pizza and ingesting beer, wine, or a wide range of proprietary craft cocktails with mates.
Gufo, 660 Cambridge St., Cambridge. As soon as the café opens, the espresso counter will serve from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; café lunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m., and the 16-seat bar will serve mild snacks and pizza from 4 to 11 p.m.
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