We purchased tickets a month before the Boston trip, because a visit to Boston isn't complete unless you catch a game at the historic Fenway Park! Lots of food options around Fenway too so we planned a night around the area.
Rather than eating ballpark food on Yawkey or the Fenway Franks (hot dog between slice of white bread), we decided to stop by Sweet Cheeks before the game, and then Island Creek Oyster for some late night grubbing with Peggy. Sweet Cheeks is a Texas-style BBQ spot opened by Top Chef season one finalist, Tiffany Faison, and it was close enough for us to walk from there to the game!
Sweet Cheeks Q
1381 Boylston St
Between Park Dr & Kilmarnock St
Fenway
Boston, MA 02215
Menu. It's all about using top quality local ingredients for BBQ. We decided to get two trays and share so we can try a bit more of the menu.
Leinenkugel Summer Shandy draft.. Not summer yet but the it's a great beer for summer! Of course, served in mason jars.
No free biscuits so we had to order it. Kinda sucks for a BBQ spot, but damn these biscuits are amazing. For $10, you get a bucket of biscuit with their honey butter. The honey butter is crack.
Sauces. Texas-style original, Memphis-style vinegar based, and spicy habanero. I liked the original sauce a lot, with a few drops of the spicy one mixed in. When I first tried the habanero one, I didn't believe it was that spicy but damn it killed my taste buds for over 10 minutes haha.
Leinenkugel Summer Shandy draft.. Not summer yet but the it's a great beer for summer! Of course, served in mason jars.
No free biscuits so we had to order it. Kinda sucks for a BBQ spot, but damn these biscuits are amazing. For $10, you get a bucket of biscuit with their honey butter. The honey butter is crack.
Sauces. Texas-style original, Memphis-style vinegar based, and spicy habanero. I liked the original sauce a lot, with a few drops of the spicy one mixed in. When I first tried the habanero one, I didn't believe it was that spicy but damn it killed my taste buds for over 10 minutes haha.
I like brisket, so I choose the Great Northern Brisket with BBQ beans and potato salad.
Thick thick slabs of fatty, moist brisket! It actually is one of the best brisket I've had anywhere. Love the color of that smoke ring too.
Potato salad. The BBQ beans was actually better, but the picture of the beans was corrupted :[
Pickled cucumber and onions to give your taste buds a break from all the BBQ! Much needed refresher.
The Big Cheeks Tray (2 item combo) with Berkshire Pork Rib and Berkshire Pulled Pork, along with carrot salad and mac n' cheese.
Berkshire Pork Rib! Berkshire pork is a high quality breed of pork and you can tell from that first bite. While the ribs may not be as good as what I had in St. Louis, the ribs are juicy, meaty, and tender.
Pulled Pork. Sorry for the shaky hands, but pretty good too! Wish there were more of the outside pieces for the BBQ bark, but it is moist and very good with the BBQ sauce.
Carrot salad. Probably the best side! Very refreshing and the blue cheese works so well with the walnuts.
BBQ is probably forever ruined for me after Bogart's and Pappy's in St. Louis, but I gotta say, I did like Sweet Cheeks! Even though there's nothing in particular that really jumps out at me, everything was tasty. They definitely focus more on the quality of ingredients and it shows. I was just glad we were able to secure a table before the game cause it was pretty packed!
The Red Sox was playing Houston Astros (one of the worst team in MLB), and the starting pitching weren't that great either, so I wasn't too interested in the game, but it is Fenway! It was just fun walking around and taking in the atmosphere.
Near Gate D.
Yawkey Way, where the food vendors are at! They close off this alley next to Fenway Park so people can eat and relax before the game.
Vendors.
View of the field, walking from Gate D to the bleachers.
Astros batting.
Our seats in the bleachers! Not bad at all. Of course, the bleachers are the cheapest seats so you get an interesting mix of people. Definitely heard a lot of trash talking and foul language hahah. Behind us was a family and you can tell they were a bit uncomfortable with the language :P
Green Monster!
Green Monster at night.
This game was excruciating slow! 3 1/2 hours in and it wasn't even the 7th inning, so we actually left before the 7th inning stretch since we had to meet up with Peggy at Island Creek.
Island Creek Oyster is probably one of the most popular restaurants in Boston, and it is all about seafood here! Of course, they are known for the oysters here, as well as a few other items, but Diana and Jadson were still full from Sweet Cheeks, so only Peggy and I ate.
Island Creek Oyster
500 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02215
Bread. No idea what kind of bread it was, but it was pretty tasty haha.
Jadson ended up ordering a few beers. Brasserie D'Achouffe La Chouffe. Had a sip, very good. Definitely a Belgian Strong.
My Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace. I've been digging saison brews lately!
Halibut ceviche for starters.
My fish sandwich with Old Bay seasoned fries. Forgot what kind of fish it was, but the spicy tartar sauce was good!
Peggy's Lobster Roe Noodle. Braised short rib, grilled lobster, oyster mushrooms, Pecorino, and fresh egg noodle. Holy hell I had a bite of this and I immediately regretted my sandwich. Intensely savory. No wonder this is one of their most popular dish.
Day one, done! I originally wanted to go check out a few bars, but thanks to the red eye flight, we were beyond tired so we just went back to get a good night's rest!
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