Winning Boston Magazine's "Best New Restaurant" and "Best Bartender," Improper Bostonian's "Best American Food," and Open Table's Top 10 "American Restaurant," Union Bar and Grille in Boston's South End is no stranger to accolades. And with good reason.

The Aquitaine Group, which proudly consists of three Aquitaine locations, Gaslight Brasserie, Metropolis Cafe, and Union Bar and Grille, points to Union as its signature fine dining destination, and believes that dinner at Union is "what going out to dinner used to be -- not a culinary education, just good food that you want to eat." Diners from all over agree and flock to the SoWa area of the South End to enjoy Union's menu, which shows a commitment to serving fresh, local, and sustainable ingredients.  

Excellent ingredients are just one of the keys to the success of any restaurant, or dish for that matter, but they must be cooked to perfection to complete the picture. Fortunately, Union has Chef de Cuisine, Keenan Langlois, on its team.

Sweet. Savory. Spicy. Tangy. There are many options when it comes to sauces and marinades, and, this summer, I encourage you to try the full range offered by husband and wife team Gregg and JoAnn Marsh. The couple’s Burnin’ Love Sauces, each unique in flavor,  are uniformly delicious, excite the palate, and come backed with over 30+ years of experience in the restaurant industry.  

I happened upon the Burnin’ Love Sauces booth at the Coolidge Corner Farmers’ Market, and happily spent about 15 minutes tasting the sauces and talking food with Gregg.

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There is nothing better than a meal that features fresh local ingredients prepared by a top-notch chef. That is until this meal is paired with local beer, local cheese, and the opportunity to hear from the people who put in the hours to produce it all.  Such was the case at the Farm to Table dinner I attended at The Biltmore Bar & Grille in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts earlier this month.

But I should really backtrack a bit. Before the dinner even began (I was a little early), I couldn't help but notice, immediately upon walking in, that the Biltmore had a feel to it.  I still can't put my finger on it, but something about the bar made me feel like a regular walking in, and I'd never stepped foot there before.  I sat at the bar, briefly perused the taps, and felt right at home. One of my favorite all-time beers, Gritty's Black Fly Stout (Portland, ME) was available on tap and, a moment later, my first sip transported me back to road trips to Portland from my college campus in Brunswick. Good times. 

The bar menu also grabbed my attention with items like housemade beef jerky, salt cod fritters, and local oysters just to name a few. With dinner ahead, and trying to demonstrate some restraint, I refrained in ordering anything, but I will return to sidle up to the bar and order up a few of the Chef Dan Lane's gems. Black Fly Stout down, it was time for dinner.

“Bread baking is something I always wanted to try,” Bill Malatesta tells me as we sit talking in Annarosa’s, the handcrafted bread and pastry bakery in Salisbury, Massachusetts that he now owns with partner Jane Kenny.  

It’s ten o’clock on a Saturday morning in late June, and Bill is winding up his workday after a shift of baking that began at 1 a.m.  The pastry cases present flaky croissants and glistening fruit jam-filled danish, the wicker display baskets almost burst with bread, the metal baker’s racks behind the counter hold more loaves ready for restocking as necessary, and Bill is done for the day, nicely dusted with flour from the neck of his tee shirt right down to the toes of his work boots.  Bread bakers everywhere would smile knowingly at Bill’s bread dough encrusted cuticles, proof that the work is indeed manual labor.