^{If you would like to do so, just click here!}

Menu for Mother’s Day Lunch:

Simple salad of mesclun greens with sherry-mustard seed vinaigrette 8
Warm asparagus salad with a poached Aracauna egg and truffle vinaigrette 11
Boston lettuce salad with sliced apples, cheddar cheese, spiced pecans and cider vinaigrette 12
Vegetable antipasto with roasted eggplant puree and muhammara 13
Ceviche of fresh Rhode Island fluke with lime, chilies and rooftop lovage 11
Maine crab cakes with Berber spices, mint and sweet pea puree 13
Grilled Portuguese sardines with shaved fennel vinaigrette, lemon and maras pepper 11
Bucatini with fresh peas, prosciutto, parmesan and toasted breadcrumbs 11
Spring vegetables soup with asparagus, peas, spinach and green garlic 8

Sauteed cod with spring vegetables and chervil butter sauce 19
Fisherman’s stew of lobster, haddock, squid and mussels with tomato and fennel 19
Bollito misto of spring vegetables wtih cream polenta and black truffle 18
Coq au Vin: braised chicken with foraged mushrooms, leeks and baby carrots 18
Grilled peppered skirt steak with roasted garlic butter and French fries 21
Rendezvous cheeseburger with cheddar cheese, bacon, chipotle ketchup and housemade pickles 16

Lemon-buttermilk pudding with huckleberry sauce 7
Strawberry-rhubarb shortcake with sweetened cream and mint 8
Warm chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and cinnamon cream 8

Later on in the day, from 5-9pm, we will be serving our special Sunday Night Prix Fixe menu as usual, available either à la carte or as a 3-course Prix Fixe for $38.

Reservations are recommended!  To reserve your table, call 617-576-1900, or click here to reserve online.

Nearly 36 years ago, in August of 1976, I arrived in Montpellier, France to begin my year abroad as a language and literature student at the university there.  In addition to my studies, I was hoping to broaden my life experiences and looking for adventure.  Having been born in the Midwest during the Eisenhower years, and then spending my entire youth in the South, I had experienced a typical post-war, baby-boomer, small town and suburban upbringing.  This included a diet and eating habits that were increasingly dominated by the increasingly popular culture of packaged and processed foods.

And then at age 19 upon my arrival in France — wham!  On the street where my first apartment was located I encountered all sorts of opportunities to sample many new and amazing foods.  At the top of the hill was a daily open-air market.  Among all the beautiful and delicious fruits and vegetables available, I developed a strong addiction to the sugary dates brought in from North Africa, which quickly became my new yummy snack of choice.  In short order I discovered which was the best bread bakery in the neighborhood and memorized their baking schedule.  Around the corner was a small, family butcher (goose rillettes!), and 4 doors up from there one of the finest little pastry shops in town.

But the store that cast the greatest spell over me was the cheese shop halfway up the hill.  It was there that I got my introduction to the fascinating and compelling tradition of French cheeses, in all its extraordinary variety and regional differences.  I would stand there, wide-eyed and paralyzed by wonder — while knowledgeable locals came and made their decisive purchases — wanting some of everything I saw.  Soon, however, I begin to develop special affinity for certain cheeses that the store owners themselves obviously held dear, mainly from the regions near my new home city –  small aged goat’s milk cheeses (crottins and pélardons) from the Cévennes mountains to the north, large format firm cow’s milk cheeses from the central highlands beyond, and the famous sheep’s milk blue from Aveyron, Roquefort.  Even after all these years, theses particular cheeses remain among my absolute favorites.

A few words about these cheeses

Ever since my first introduction, I have remained a big fan of goat’s milk cheeses — the intense aromas, the acidity, the textures.  In every open-air market in every town, one would encounter small producers, French hippies from the Cévennes or Ardèche with a few goats who would come down from the mountains to sell their wares.  I was so tempted by those lovely little individual format cheeses which would be sorted into three different baskets according to their ripeness.  They would progress from fresh and moist when young through “middle age” and then to firm and dry in the span of only a few short weeks during which time the flavor would mature and intensify.

My favorite cheese from the central highlands is Laguiole which is produced in the region of Auvergne.  It is made from raw cow’s milk, fashioned into large drums (up to 100 lbs) and aged for 6-12 months.  The flavor is deep and complex with a pleasant and lingering acid finish on the palate.  For my money, this is the best firm “table cheese” in all of France.

Roquefort is the blue-veined sheep’s milk cheese that is unique to the region in Aveyron.  Its richness, flavor and intensity are legendary, which long ago earned it the tag line, “The cheese of kings, and the king of cheeses”.  A visit to the excavated limestone caves in the hillsides where this cheese was originally (and still) produced is a fascinating and beautiful experience.

The version at Hamersley’s Bistro in the South End is justifiably famed, but it shouldn’t get all the roast chicken love . . . . -Devra First

And here’s a link to Luke O’Neil’s blog to read an interview with Scott and other influential Boston bartenders.

ALSO… Our Monday night Tapas Bar got a shout out this week in Stuff Magazine.

Our tapas menu selections change weekly.  Stop on by the bar this Monday for tasty bites like spicy bluefish cakes and beef-tongue salad.

“We’re gonna’ need a bigger bar!” – Steve Johnson, (Chef/Owner)

Rendezvous is delighted to welcome back the work of award-winning photographer and inveterate world traveler, Don Gurewitz.

This month, we are featuring Don’s photos from the Tibetan Kingdom of Bhutan.

Nestled in the Himalayas, sandwiched between India and China, Bhutan is one the least-known and least-visited countries in the world.  It is a Tibetan kingdom which is just opening to the outside, at the same time committed to preserving its ancient culture.

Stretching from the towering, snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas along the Tibetan border in the north, to the semitropical forests and grasslands along the border with India to the south, it is one of the most beautiful, and still largely pristine, natural environments in the world, filled with exotic flora and fauna.

Don’s images present a look at this breath-taking environment and the people who live there.  They bring to life the unique and striking villages and monasteries; the colorful masked dances and religious ceremonies; and the monks, lamas, merchants, farmers, herdsmen, and townspeople who make up the population of this fascinating kingdom.

Please stop on by for a chance to see these rarely seen people and landscapes.

Mark your calendar!  Artists Reception and Open House to be held on Saturday, March 24th from 1-3pm.  All are welcome!

50 best restaurants Boston Magazine

We’re thrilled to be on the list again this year!

And here’s a follow-up article

in Boston Magazine’s online edition about

our weekly  Monday Night Tapas Bar.