Where to Peregrine, a Mediterranean-style restaurant off of the Whitney Hotel’s lobby, on Beacon Hill.
Why It’s the second creation from culinary power couple Joshua Lewin and Katrina Jazayeri, who run Juliet in Somerville’s Union Square. Juliet was named one of Bon Appétit magazine’s Best New Restaurants in 2016, so expectations were high for their follow-up endeavor.
The backstory Lewin built his career on Charles Street at the Beacon Hill Bistro, and so this address caught his eye; it’s a homecoming of sorts. “The combination of timing, necessity, nostalgia, and opportunity just really came together in the right way in the place that is now Peregrine,” he says, noting that he wanted to expand to be able to promote his staff.
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What to eat As a hotel restaurant, Peregrine serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But this isn’t your standard steamed-egg-and-flaccid-pancake hotel fare. Each menu makes you sit up a little straighter: At breakfast, smashed chickpeas on toast or buckwheat pancakes with dark chocolate and cultured butter. At lunch, one of the finest Sicilian-style pizzas I’ve ever had — an airy square painted with light, sweet tomato sauce and slivers of preserved lemons; pheasant terrine; a thin, tidy pecorino and dry-cured Spanish ham omelet with Dijon; a perfectly cooked burger (somewhat encumbered by too-toasty bread) dolloped with garlic aioli. At dinner, simple plates: tagliatelle and clams with chili oil; tomato salad with breadcrumbs and balsamic; hake in olive butter, with herbs, corn, and tomatoes. Prices match the neighborhood (dinner entrees are $29 and up). Happily, the quality matches the price.
What to drink There’s a small cocktail list; wines are the focus. They’re categorized as “rustic and sun-drenched”; “cheerful and bright”; “briny, racy, and fresh,” and so on.
The takeaway Talitha Getty meets Dominick Dunne. This is several cuts above a traditional hotel restaurant, somehow managing to ooze buttoned-up Beacon Hill class and Mediterranean mellowness — peregrine-blue walls, high white ceilings, slate gray bookshelves, golden mirrors. The place to go when meeting your beloved’s parents for the first time, if those parents just so happen to own a brownstone on Louisburg Square and want to look you over for inspection; when you’re at Mass General and craving a civilized meal; or, really, a destination in its own right.
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170 Charles St., Boston, 617-367-1866, www.whitneyhotelboston.com .
Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @kcbaskin.