Common Ground
A few weeks ago (I’m playing catch up on this here little blog – please bear with me!), I attended blogger lunch at Common Ground in Allston. When I went to Boston University, Common Ground was a popular late-night bar place, not really well known for great food so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Truth be told, late-night partying wasn’t really my thing, so this was my first visit to Common Ground! Since my college days, Common Ground came under new ownership, got a menu makeover, and wanted to share that with some bloggers who would appreciate their new eats.
The lunch was hosted on their back patio – a wonderful little escape behind the restaurant that I never even knew was there. It’s got plenty of tables, and is protected from the street so it’s nice and quiet and cozy. We were immediately greeted with glasses of refreshing freshly-brewed iced tea – perfect for the hot day that it was.
After we’d had some time to greet eat other, we sat down to munch on some menu items picked out by new owner Bob O’Guin. Bob spent plenty of time with us throughout the course of our meal, telling us about the chef, the new menu, and all about their made-in-house goodies like tasty thick-cut bacon and ice cream. As we chatted, new dishes kept coming out!
We started with a cheese plate, that had a variety of different cheeses, meat, and house-made jams. Yum!
Next came some very creamy deviled eggs, with very thick-cut house made bacon. I ate the bacon separately, because Bob spoke highly of it, and found it to be pretty flavorful but a bit dry. The deviled eggs, however, were so rich and creamy.
Since I had just started following my restricted diet, Bob was kind enough to bring out this caprese salad for me -with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, balsamic and olive oil over mixed greens. Light, refreshing, and flavorful – I was very grateful for this offering!
We also got to try chicken skewers – which I had sans-sauce, and they were well seasoned, if a bit on the drier side.
Also some pan-seared scallops and bacon – the scallops were cooked perfectly, and complimented nicely by the salty bacon.
The grilled cheese I didn’t try, but man I wanted too! Look at all that oozing cheese… and buttery bread,it was mighty tempting.
The last dish I tried was this duck confit salad, with blue cheese, apples and dried cranberries. The duck was quite flavorful, and all of the flavors played nciely together – creamy cheese, crunchy apples, sweet and chewy dried cranberries. I’d recommend trying this if you go!
There were also veggie burgers which I heard were great, some homemade vanilla ice cream, and also some milkshakes which are allegedly a specialty. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this meal – much better than what I’d have expected from this old college hangout!
And before we left, the gracious hosts handed out baby basil plants and some chocolate truffles – very thoughtful, and my my gardeners soul happy. Thanks to Common Ground Allston for hosting and for the lovely (complimentary) meal! I’ll be back for a trivia night, no doubt.
