So, I've saved the best for last. Or...I've procrastinated and put off the post requiring the most work until now. But really, this is the piece de resistance of all my Boston Trip posts. My cousin Evan has been working for a few months now as the sous-chef at Oro, a new restaurant in Scituate. My family usually doesn't venture out of the house for dinner on our annual Massachusetts vacation, because we're an unwieldy group of about 18 or so. We spent many years doing our week-long vacation on Chappaquiddick, and when people ask me what some of my favorite places to go on Martha's Vineyard are...uhhh...the back deck of our rental house? But we had to make an exception this year and try out Evan's new place of employment.
The restaurant is gorgeous, it has a very clean, simple look and has a lot of natural light. I sound like I'm trying to sell an apartment. That picture above is what you see when you walk in the front door, and this is the main dining room which we had all to ourselves.
Because we had the whole dining room, the restaurant did some special hors d'oeuvres for us. We walked in to find this beautiful cheese plate of parmesan (which I think I ate about half a pound of, it was addictive), goat cheese coated with herbs, some sort of blue, and salami which I overheard came from Paris. And as you can see, two dishes of olives.
The next addition to the table - grilled asparagus with truffle oil and more of that amazing parmesan. Later they brought out some marinated peppers, and bread slices. There was so much food I just couldn't get pictures of all of it!
There were also passed hors d'oeuvres. I only got a photo of the fried artichokes, but there were also chicken skewers with a dipping sauce, thinly-sliced beef tenderloin on little toasts, and some sort of amazing contraption of salty baked potato stuffed with salmon. I hope I'm not leaving any out.
We had a menu set up for us with three choices for the appetizer course, and four for the main course. Ahem, VIPs.
I had the corn chowder, as did everyone I was sitting near, so that's the only appetizer I got a photo of. This was not, as my sister says, "small food stacked high". The bowl of chowder was the size of my head. I so badly wanted to finish it but I knew I would immediately go into a food coma, need to be horizontal, and not be able to eat my main course.
Oh, hello there delicious clam. The soup was amazing. Very creamy, and lots of corn kernels, bacon, and clams. What more could you ask for?
For the main course I had the orechiette. If you know me, you know if orechiette is on the menu that's what I'll always order. Orechiette is my favorite pasta shape, and it's usually served with some kind of sausage or ragu which is perfect because it sticks inside the little "ears".
To my right, my dad had the striped bass:
And to my left, Peter had the steak:
Those fries were so good. Everything was so good. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly take another bite of anything, these guys showed up:
The first one is a goat cheese cheesecake with raspberry sorbet and a strawberry rhubarb compote, and the second is lemon thyme creme brulee with a shortbread cookie. I hope I got all that right. They were both fantastic, nice and light summer desserts.
That's Evan with Robin King, the owner and head chef. Robin and his wife Jill opened Oro together. They made the whole night for my family incredible. The food, the service...everything was perfect. And with that,this is now my longest and best post to date. Whew, I need another vacation!
Oro
162 Front St., Scituate MA 02066
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