For anyone who’s lived within a three-block radius of Cambridge’s Miracle of Science (I’ve been a member of that lucky group for 10 years now), it’s hard not to be a fan and follower of co-owners Chris Lutes and Matthew Curtis. With each of their new locations — first Harvard Square’s grilled-pizza joint Cambridge 1 (there’s now a second Cambridge 1 in the Fenway) and then Central’s lounge Middlesex — I waited with bated breath until their minimalist doors opened. But oddly, I’d never made the trek to their 12-year-old Boston outpost Audubon Circle until this past year — and it wasn’t until this past week that I discovered the best food-and-drink pairing of the summer.
“We wanted to create a man’s man’s summer cocktail,” says Lutes of Audubon’s housemade habanero-infused guava margarita ($10), which gives firewater a whole new meaning. They start with the world’s hottest peppers and let them soak in white tequila for three days until a mere whiff puts tears in your eyes. Add to that a splash of Cointreau, a good dose of guava nectar, a refreshing spritz of lime juice, a handful of muddled cilantro leaves, and sweeten the deal with brown-sugar syrup; what you end up with is an inferno — albeit a very tasty one — in a glass. It looks like a girlie drink, but it’ll put more hair on your chest than a flaming shot of 151.
Now, normally you eat some spicy food and then you need an ice-cold drink to cool the flames. But at Audubon, it’s the reverse: make sure you have an order of grilled shrimp with citrus dipping sauce ($9) waiting on the table before you take your first sip of the margarita. Eat one of the marinated and perfectly charred plump shrimp and the sweet-savory sauce (it’s a smooth purée with apricot, pineapple, and orange) covers your mouth with a sugar coating that gets you ready for your next sip of fire. Hell never tasted so good.
Available at Audubon Circle, 838 Beacon Street, in Boston. Call 617.421.1910.
Related:
Centre Street Café, 2005 Boston Restaurant Awards, Whole Foods on the cheap?, More 
- Centre Street Café
At five minutes to nine, hungry patrons were already snaking around the block.
- 2005 Boston Restaurant Awards
Once again we reach year’s end, and I pass out some awards to summarize the year in restaurant reviews.
- Whole Foods on the cheap?
I recently had nightmares of losing my twenty spot the moment I enter the store.
- The Pump House
Perched next to Rocky Brook Pond, the stone-walled Pump House restaurant — a retired pumping station for South Kingstown — has been an attractive eatery for three decades.
- 9 Tastes
If the crowd of eager diners spilling into every open crevice of 9 Tastes’s foyer was any indication of a promising meal, we had come to the right place.
- Street beat: Maria Razza
MacIntosh apples, to bake them and make cake and muffins.
- Old South Tomolives
If you’re one of those people who really just orders a Bloody Mary for the olives, you might want to reconsider.
- Zoe’s Gourmet Chinese Cuisine (Brookline)
There were extreme reactions to the news that Zoe’s, which has another location in Somerville, was taking over Shalom Beijing (formerly Shalom Hunan).
- Rincon Limeño
I’ve often called East Boston our city’s most overlooked cheap-eats destination.
- Anise
Be careful what you wish for. I have been asking Chinese restaurants to upscale their service, shorten their menus, make clear what the chef’s specialties really are, and offer the more-authentic dishes on the English-language menu.
- Yuppie food stamp
I’ve got twenty dollars and not much time. It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be good; small plates are king.
- Less
Topics:
Hot Plate
, Culture and Lifestyle, Beverages, Food and Cooking, More
, Culture and Lifestyle, Beverages, Food and Cooking, Foods, Fruits and Vegetables, Cocktails, Matthew Curtis, Less
