As you know I was a frequent diner at the Farragut House in Southie.  I would head over there for a cozy dinner at least once a week and sometimes more when I needed a home cooked meal.  I could walk there in my sweats with my Southie girls, hang out and drink cheap wine. I never needed to look at the menu as I knew every single item on it!

Although I do miss the F-House very much, I was so excited for Local 149 to open.  Even more so because Southie is in desperate need of something more than a sports bar.  A bit sad because I am not sure my sweats are appropriate for this place.

I have been to Local a few times but refrained from writing a review until I felt it had settled in a little bit.  On previous occasions the service was not great but I could not fault the food one single bit.

Local looks a little out of place in our neighborhood, but I think that it is because we are just not used to seeing something like this in Southie.  Is this a welcome change?  I actually think so and I welcome it!

I met my friends, Kristen and Marcella around 7pm.  The place was absolutely packed and there was no where for us to sit at a table.  When it was the F-House, I was such a regular that I never had a problem with being seated at a table immediately.  Sadly, I am a nobody at Local L.  I may need to try and change that!  We ended up sitting at the bar on low seats (high seats one side and low on the other).  The restaurant surrounds a large bar in the middle.  Lots of casual dining areas from two seat chalk board tables, quite fun for those that want to do a little drawing or play hangman, to a cozy sofa area, to larger booths, to high-top long wooden table that seats about 12 people.  It is surrounded by large windows, fun paintings and has an interesting wall of colorful bottles.  I could not work out if there was a theme but I still loved the buzz of the place, the fun people watching and the friendly staff. 

After ordering a glass of Sauvignon Blanc we looked at the menu, heard the specials and personally I was at a loss on what to order as everything looked so good.  If you are looking for chicken drumsticks and hamburgers, you are in the wrong place, however, duck drumsticks and corn fed burgers, and you could find exactly what you are looking for.  By the way for beer drinkers the menu looked pretty good – lots of option and unusual beers to choose from. 

We started with sharing Fried Brussels Sprouts.  I am not a sprout lover, bad memories from childhood, however, Kristen suggested I try them again and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  Large deep fried, crispy sprouts with a spicy dipping sauce.  I did like them but thought the sprouts could be cooked just a little more.  I loved the crunchiness of them, but they were a little hard to bite into.  I would try them again.

I decided on the “Spicy Seared Yellow Fin Tuna” special.  It was spectacular.  The tuna was rare and tasty, the broth was perfectly spicy.  Each mouthful brought a new surprise of shiitake mushrooms, seaweed and an interesting side of tofu tempura.  I never eat tofu – it’s a nothing food to me, but I loved this.  I was delighted with my dish,

Kristen ordered the short ribs and was very happy with her choice and Marcella ordered the “Ham & Cheese Sandwich with seaweed fried.”  I ordered this last time and it is soooo good.  This is no ordinary ham and cheese sandwich; it is prosciutto, thinly sliced and stacked high and a tangy house-made mustard, and the seaweed fries – ohh heaven.  (As a side note, their website is not up yet so I couldn’t get the full description of their menu choices and of course I didn’t write them down). 

For a Wednesday evening this was a great night out.  That was a bit of a problem for me as it felt like a Saturday night and I did drink wine as though it was a Saturday night – whoops.  Ben our waiter looked after us a little too well with checking on our empty wine glasses and very convincingly getting us to order refills.

Yay – I have a new Local.

Tracey