Best of Boston

Alex Pineda grew up in mom Lydia Shire’s restaurants. Now he’s a star in his own right: Having apprenticed under Wolfgang Puck and Heston Blumenthal, he recently unveiled a breezy new Latin-American hot spot that’s enlivening downtown Beverly with a bubbly bar scene (including a killer spicy margarita); light and bright shareables (ceviche; sweet corn arepas); and surprising but not entirely unexpected twists (his mom’s sherry-laced lobster stew).