Nathan Tavares
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Articles by Nathan Tavares
Why Chefs Can't Get Enough of This Buttery, Briny Johnnycake Original
At Neptune Oyster, a 37-seat seafood destination in Boston, the Neptune johnnycake ($21) involves a warm cornmeal pancake topped with silky honey butter and a mini-tower of smoked bluefish, crème fraiche, and sturgeon caviar. It’s a delicious spectacle that’s well worth a wait. And you will have to wait, as people have lined up outside the restaurant basically since it opened in 2004.
Why Chefs Can't Get Enough of This Buttery, Briny Johnnycake
Credit: Courtesy of Neptune Oyster At Neptune Oyster, a 37-seat seafood destination in Boston, the Neptune johnnycake ($21) involves a warm cornmeal pancake topped with silky honey butter and a mini-tower of smoked bluefish, crème fraiche, and sturgeon caviar. It’s a delicious spectacle that’s well worth a wait. And you will have to wait, as people have lined up outside the restaurant basically since it opened in 2004.
Why Chefs Can't Get Enough of This Buttery, Briny Johnnycake
At Neptune Oyster, a 37-seat seafood destination in Boston, the Neptune johnnycake ($21) involves a warm cornmeal pancake topped with silky honey butter and a mini-tower of smoked bluefish, crème fraiche, and sturgeon caviar. It’s a delicious spectacle that’s well worth a wait. And you will have to wait, as people have lined up outside the restaurant basically since it opened in 2004.
Linger Over Skewers and Spritzes Served in a Glass Purse at This New Boston Restaurant Original
Credit: Photo by Emily Kan for La Tavernetta 2020 F&W Best New Chef Douglass Williams knows upscale dining. Williams, along with business partner Seth Gerber, has grown Mida, the sunny Italian restaurant in Boston’s South End, into a mini-empire over the past decade. It now boasts four locations around the city. La Tavernetta, which means “tavern” in Italian, is what happens when an upscale team imagines a Southern Italian tavern alongside the East Boston waterfront.
On Buffy, “Helpless,” and Feeling Helpless - Reactor
Buffy is not weak. Nearly twenty-five years after the end of the cult seven-season 144-episode show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar—itself spun off from a quirky 1992 movie starring Kristy Swanson—certain moments that embody the physical and emotional strength of the ass-kicking vampire slayer are still burned into the collective consciousness of pop culture.
How ‘Pillion’ Perfected the Sub/Dom Rom-Com
Pillion knows how to play with pain and pleasure. We’re not just talking about the transgressive sex scenes in writer-director Harry Lighton’s new BDSM rom-com, though the film features plenty of those—a back-alley blowjob, a wrestling match as foreplay, group sex out in nature.
Keeping Provincetown Queer Original
Gifford House, the historic 33-room hotel in Provincetown on the tip of Massachusetts' Cape Cod, was purchased in 2023 by Steve Azar, a 44 year-old innkeeper with an infectious laugh and the look of a lumberjack who likes his martinis neat. Azar found the task of rehabbing the neglected Gifford unglamorous: resealing crumbling plaster walls, ripping up carpets, painting everything.
A new fast-casual restaurant brings specialty seafood to Allston
A new fast-casual restaurant brings specialty seafood to Allston Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from WBUR's weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here. As we stare down a few dark and chilly months, I’m absolutely hungry for summer trips to the beach and slipping on flip-flops to wander to a casual clam shack for some grub.
For the Portuguese Community, Southern Massachusetts Is a Hub of Festas, Food, and Family
All products and listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. In a new series, Place at the Table, we look at diasporic enclaves around the world through their cuisines—and the people who, in trying to re-create a taste of home, have forged exciting food scenes that invite others in.
Gay Sports Bar Cathedral Station Is Still Here
Boston Restaurant News Once plagued by rumors of its demise, the South End icon is standing strong Jun 11, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC Patrons at Cathedral Station in Boston’s South End. Cathedral Station Rob Mannke hears a question often when he’s hanging out with his rescue dog, Bates, at Peter’s Park, the park across the street from Cathedral Station, where he’s worked for about eight years.
I Flew on JetBlue’s First Flight From Boston to Edinburgh—Here's What It's Like Original
Aerial view of Victoria Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. Credit: Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure JetBlue launched its new flight from Boston to Edinburgh, Scotland. The overnight flight is best experienced in the airline's cozy Mint business class, which offers lie-flat seats, Tuft & Needle bedding, and in-flight meals from top New York restaurants. The new seasonal route will run through Oct. 25.
For the First Time, a Week-Long Queer Food Festival Lands in Boston
After a one-day stint in Boston last April, the Big Queer Food Fest is expanding into a week-long celebration of food and community, with tons of free and ticketed events running from April 28 to May 4. Think: course after course of tastings, dinners, soirees, and panels, all leading up to a grand tasting at downtown Boston food hall High Street Place.
Sun-Kissed Beaches, Mykonos Vibes: Boston’s Top Greek Restaurant Group Explores the Aegean Coast at Kaia
There’s an almost divine duality at Kaia, the latest restaurant from Xenia Greek Hospitality, the hit-making team behind Greek hot spots Bar Vlaha and Krasi, which opens in the South End on Friday, November 22. Seafood from afar, seasonal produce from around the corner. Here, fresh-caught fish and go-with-the flow plates find a home next to dishes dashed with wild sauces that took months to make.
Spy Bar Sneaks into Back Bay on October 2
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Infiltrate the lower level of the Revolution Hotel in Back Bay for drinks and small plates at Spy Bar. The new listening lounge — as in music, not wiretaps — is the latest venture from Wildlife Hospitality, the folks behind the Beehive restaurant and live music hotspot, and Mexican restaurant Cósmica, also within the Revolution.
Four Meals Worth a Road Trip This Fall
Carley Rudd Photography Hungry for a road trip? On the menu: four meals that are more than worth the mileage from Boston. Whether you’re looking to savor leaf-peeping with a side of pancakes or want to (finally!) sneak into some restaurants that were seemingly booked up all summer, grab your flannel, queue up a podcast, gas up and get some grub.
Dumpling Daughter Delights at the Boston Public Library’s Map Room
Nathan Tavares/Eater Boston The Boston Public Library’s Map Room Lounge, the restaurant within the central branch in Copley Square, is currently co-authoring a restaurant takeover with Dumpling Daughter. Pop into the restaurant (which is operated by the Catered Affair, also behind recently opened Folio) to check out Dumpling Daughter’s authentic Chinese cuisine and sip on craft cocktails. The event is part of the Catered Affair’s Community Table Initiative, and runs through October 6.
An Acclaimed Chef is Bringing Irish Cuisine to Dorchester
McGonagle’s Dorchester will soon have another reason to lift a glass of perfectly poured Guinness. This November, McGonagle’s Pub & Restaurant will welcome diners for both classic Irish dishes and more modern meals that celebrate the cuisine found in Dublin today.
This Small & Affordable California Community Is A Dupe For Joshua Tree And Palm Springs
Overflowing with otherworldly beauty, it’s no surprise that the deserts of southern California attract a lot of travellers. But if you’re looking to beat the crowds in Joshua Tree and Palm Springs — not to mention the hundreds of thousands that flock to nearby Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival each year — there’s a different destination to consider. Meet Twentynine Palms — a small community that offers a more local-minded and affordable jaunt into the high desert.
Dunkin’s Coffee Isn’t Great. Here’s Why We Love It Anyway.
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Dunkin’s Coffee Isn’t Great. Here’s Why We Love It Anyway.
Dunkin’ — née Donuts, until the brand adopted its mononym in 2019 — is as Boston as the Red Sox, as the Marathon, as clam chowder. Most of us who grew up in Massachusetts feel a personal connection to the brand, which was founded in 1950 in Quincy and has since expanded across this country and into around 40 others. To me, Dunkin’ tastes like that first hint of independence.
This Small California Community Is a Dupe for Joshua Tree and Palm Springs — and It's Far Less Crowded and More Affordable
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This Small California Community Is a Dupe for Joshua Tree and Palm Springs — It's Less Crowded and More Affordable Original
Photo: Wirestock/Getty Images Overflowing with otherworldly beauty, it’s no surprise that the deserts of southern California attract a lot of travelers. But if you’re looking to beat the crowds in Joshua Tree and Palm Springs — not to mention the hundreds of thousands that flock to nearby Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival each year — there's a different destination to consider.
Meet the Man Putting the Sex into Queer Sex Ed
Sixteen years ago, Davey Wavey uploaded his first vlog to a relatively new website called YouTube, a short clip of him in his new apartment in Toronto. Back in those early days, when rough, slightly awkward videos felt like unscripted glimpses into the lives of actual people, then-twenty-something Davey talked about things other vloggers weren’t. He uploaded chats about when he knew when he was gay, and dished out advice on topics like coming out, dating, and surviving being gay and Catholic.
xena: warrior princess
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A Work of Artiphys: The Crowning Glory of Xena’s Campiest, Queerest Episode
No offense to the absolutely fabulous performers death-dropping everywhere from local bars to the world’s largest stages right now, but one drag queen reigned first. All hail Miss Artiphys, the breakout star of a 1997 episode of Xena: Warrior Princess called “Here She Comes… Miss Amphipolis.” A character with wit, warmth, and humor—played by an actual queer person living with AIDS.
Trixie Mattel Is Here to Fix Her Home, Not Your Life
In the first episode of Trixie Motel: Drag Me Home, famed drag queen and multi-hyphenate artist Trixie Mattel begins demoing the kitchen of the $3 million historic Hollywood home she’s just bought with her partner of eight years, producer David Silver.
The Last Gay Erotica Store
By the cash register at AutoErotica in San Francisco’s historic Castro gayborhood, a little sign sticks out from a plastic container of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Have One, it reads, written in pink marker. You’d expect to see the chocolates when visiting your favorite uncle, not in a store packed with so many male bodies on display. The gold foil wrappers gleam against a framed 1970s ad for poppers—a white bottle blasting off through space—and a 1978 poster for a Chicago bathhouse bash.
The Best Restaurants in Provincetown
A selection of bites from the Canteen in Provincetown. Brian Samuels Photography. Savor seafood, fresh pastas, and other top bites on the tip of the Cape View as Map A selection of bites from the Canteen in Provincetown. | Brian Samuels Photography. The ferry is already running. Summer’s almost here. And that can mean only one thing: It’s time to hit up Provincetown.
Hell Yeah Burgers and a ‘Big-Ass Seafood Platter’: The Quiet Few Debuts Its Second Act
Sure, it’s right there in the name, but there’s nothing “small” about Small Victories, the bar and restaurant that opens in South Boston’s Andrew Square in the middle of next week from the team behind East Boston’s the Quiet Few. Expect larger-than-life flavors within a generous 2,550 square-foot layout in a new mixed-use building just steps away from the Andrew Square T stop. Then there’s the oversized plates. Like, “bring an empty belly and a few friends” big.
For author Eric LaRocca, horror is a form of healing
You can try reading “This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances” in the daylight. But even sunshine won’t be able to banish the deep-body chills and that pit-in-your stomach creepiness summoned by the four thematically linked stories in the volume. Sure there’s blood and brutality. Brushes with Lovecraftian cosmic horror. Physical pain portrayed as a thrilling new joy for characters, who seem to opt in to troves of trauma.
Dear Diary: Intimate journals of Ross Terrill bring queer past to vivid present
[This article appears in the March/April 2024 print issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.] Right now, the queer past is soaking up the spotlight. From buzzy Showtime series “Fellow Travelers”—the romantic political pulse-pounder set during the Lavender Scare of the 1950s—to FX’s recent “Pose,” set during the ’80s and ’90s in New York. Call it a much-welcomed response to historical erasure.
Irregardless Biscuit Co. Finds a Permanent Providence Home
Nathan Tavares/Eater Boston Yesterday, a chilly and gray Sunday morning, a line was already forming half an hour before Irregardless Biscuit Co. even opened for the third day of service at its new permanent home at 94 Carpenter Street in Providence’s West End. Like the two days prior, Irregardless sold out its supply of around 300 biscuits by noon — three hours ahead of the planned closing time — with people gladly waiting up to an hour in a line that trailed down the block.
Baleia, a Modern Portuguese Seafood Restaurant, Sails Into the South End
Baleia At Baleia, which opens at 264 East Berkeley Street in the Troy Boston apartment building in the South End on Wednesday, March 6, the only cut corners you’re likely to notice are found in the architecture. Literally, as archways and alcoves in the modern Portuguese seafood spot from the Coda Group (the team behind the recently opened modern Italian restaurant, Gufo, in East Cambridge, plus SRV and the Salty Pig) feature rounded edges.
Suffering and Bliss: The Fountain and Putting in Work on the Road to Awe
For a film that flows through different eras, it’s pretty perfect that The Fountain unlocks in me a specific kind of time travel. I can close my eyes and warp back to December 2006 when I’m on winter break from college, a couple weeks past the November release date of the movie, and I’m sitting in a now-abandoned movie theater where I once worked as a morning janitor. My sneakers stick to the dried puddles of soda on the floor.
Chef Mario Bailote Brings ‘Pizza With a Portuguese Twist’ to Jamaica Plain
Mario’s The holidays might be over, but they brought a gift that diners in Jamaica Plain are still savoring: the hand-tossed, New York-style pizzas from new takeout spot Mario’s, a reboot of a popular Roxbury pizzeria that closed about two years ago.
Weekend Recommendations: It’s Holiday Time at Time Out Market
Brian Samuels Photography/Time Out Market Boston Welcome to Eater’s periodic roundup of weekend food and drink events worth checking out around town. Want to let us know about an upcoming Boston-area event? Get in touch at boston@eater.com. December 15 to 18 Sleigh Belles Mark your calendars for a double-dose of holiday happenings at Time Out Market Boston this weekend. On Saturday from noon to 5 p.m., Boston Women’s Market and Time Out Market Boston team up for the Fenway Holiday Market.
Weekend Recommendations: A Greek Party in the South End and Black Friday Beer Bashes
Ilona Welcome to Eater’s periodic roundup of weekend food and drink events worth checking out around town. Want to let us know about an upcoming Boston-area event? Get in touch at boston@eater.com. Greek Feast By Saturday, you’re probably sick of Thanksgiving leftovers. Skip the reheated turkey and head to Ilona in the South End for its monthly non-ticketed Greek Night on November 25 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m for your fill of Hellenic cuisine and entertainment.
A Spell to Captivate Queers: The Covenant’s Magical Bros and the Reboot We Need
Picture an illuminated grimoire page detailing the spell “to captivate queers” and you basically have all the ingredients that add up to the 2006 supernatural horror flick, The Covenant, now on Hulu. Start with a high school coven of male witches, who happen to all be impossibly hot (all played by actors in their twenties, in the long Hollywood tradition). Add a pact of secrecy. Bro-y hijinks. Maybe some homoeroticism shrouded in competitiveness. Don’t forget a gratuitous swim team practice scene.
Weekend Recommendations: A Halloween Dinner, a Secret Milkshake, and Drag Brunch
Harvest Welcome to Eater’s periodic roundup of weekend food and drink events worth checking out around town. Want to let us know about an upcoming Boston-area event? Get in touch at boston@eater.com. Dinner to Die For For those of us who want to stop dipping into that bowl of candy we swore was just for the trick-o-treaters, Harvest is offering a Halloween dinner that leans more luxe.
Weekend Recommendations: Apple Edition Original
Short Path Distillery Welcome to Eater’s periodic roundup of weekend food and drink events worth checking out around town. Want to let us know about an upcoming Boston-area event? Get in touch at boston@eater.com. Ah, October. That magical time of the year when you whip out the flannel, go apple picking, and more often than not end up with a two-pound bag of leftover apples on your counter after you make a single batch of apple crisp.
Boston Public Market Opens Its First Full-Service Bakery
Boston Public Market The best baked goods are like a bear hug of cozy feelings. Now, Hearth & Hug Bakery is open at the Boston Public Market for when you need to wrap yourself in a blanket of carb-y goodness. You can thank Natalie Hug — a California Bay Area native recently turned Bostonian — for whipping up dreamy traditional and innovative pastries, breads, cakes, and pies that bring a surprising smile with that first bite.
A Michelin-Starred Chef Reimagines Portuguese Fine Dining in Boston
“You can see Portugal from here, straight out that way,” chef George Mendes jokes from the giant windows of his latest modern Portuguese fine-dining restaurant, Amar. Not quite. But from the seventeenth floor of Raffles Boston — the 35-story hotel opening in Back Bay on September 15 — you can drink in almost unreal views of Boston, Cambridge, and Copley Square, awash in gold at night. “It’s refined rusticity,” Mendes says. “It’s also meant to perk your eyebrows a bit, or question it.
Amar, a Portuguese Fine Dining Restaurant From Chef George Mendes, Opens in Boston Original
“You can see Portugal from here, straight out that way,” chef George Mendes jokes from the giant windows of his latest modern Portuguese fine-dining restaurant, Amar. Not quite. But from the seventeenth floor of Raffles Boston — the 35-story hotel opening in Back Bay on September 15 — you can drink in almost unreal views of Boston, Cambridge, and Copley Square, awash in gold at night.
Boston Food and Drink Happenings to Check Out This Weekend
Harpoon Welcome to Eater’s periodic roundup of weekend food and drink events worth checking out around town. Want to let us know about an upcoming Boston-area event? Get in touch at boston@eater.com. CAMBRIDGE — Pumped for pumpkin season? Lamplighter Brewing Co. hosts a free pumpkin popup from 7 to 11 p.m., with pumpkin ice cream from Honeycomb Creamery, squash tacos by Thiccy’s Club, and fall cupcakes from Silver Whisk.
Boston Food and Drink Happenings to Check out this Weekend
Everybody’s Gotta Eat Welcome to Eater’s periodic roundup of weekend food and drink events worth checking out around town. Want to let us know about an upcoming Boston-area event? Get in touch at boston@eater.com. BOSTON — Starting at noon on Friday and lasting through Sunday evening, mangia all weekend during the feasts of Saint Anthony and Saint Lucy. The festival, featuring plenty of Italian fare, takes place on Endicott, Thacher and North Margin Streets in the historic North End.
Boston Food and Drink Happenings to Check Out This Weekend
NEWPORT World Resorts has opened up "A World of Opportunities," an engaging and immersive career fair on July 18 at the Sheraton Manila Hotel's COL|LAB where hundreds of fresh graduates, graduating students and job-seeking professionals discovered a bigger world of career options. The on-ground event set up not only a helping hand for first-time seekers, but also a fun and thrilling experience for all. The fair was split into morning (8 a.m. to 12 noon) and afternoon (1 to 5 p.m.) sessions.
Sugar Skulls Brings Cool Sweets to High Street Place and Other News Original
Brian Samuels Photography It’s hot in Boston. There — no sugar-coating it. But speaking of sugar, here are some sweet ways to cool off with some desserts around town. Consider it a second-helping of these frozen treats to try around town. Sugar Skulls is now open at High Street Place Sugar Skulls, a dessert shop slinging ice cream, floats (with or without booze), frozen cocktails, and more opened up at downtown’s High Street Place food hall on July 17.
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