Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff
The back dining area at Kitchen.
KITCHEN
Kitchen occupies prime real estate on Tremont Street in the South End, but it sure is hard to find on the Google machine. A search pulls up just about every restaurant in town you aren’t looking for. Maybe that’s appropriate. Kitchen, opened in June, preserves history. “Time Honored Cookery” is its motto. A place with a menu that includes dishes from as far back as 879 (a cheese plate) can hardly be expected to be concerned with SEO.
This is a project from Scott Herritt, who is behind Grotto and Marliave, a restored 1885 restaurant that also harks to the Boston of yore. Kitchen is in the space that was formerly Pops.
The cheese doesn’t stand alone — dates for each dish are included on the menu. Next, it takes a great leap forward to 1638, with the Grand Sallet — greens, capers, figs, currants, candied orange, hard-boiled egg, and more, with sherry vinaigrette. Kitchen’s time machine also takes diners to 1832 with pork and beans, 1860 with mock turtle soup and doughnuts (not together), 1890 with frog legs (in a distinctly modern preparation with blue cheese, slaw, and house-made hot sauce), and 1948 with Julia Child’s beloved sole, the most recent dish in the house. Cocktails also have historical roots.
The past tastes awfully current, doesn’t it?