The Breakdown: Little Donkey’s Plateaux de Fruits de Mer
Photograph by Nina Gallant
TIER 1
• King crab with Louis dressing
• Percebes (a.k.a. goose barnacles) in Old Bay mayo
• Live uni
• Razor clams meunière
TIER 2
• A blend of ikura (salmon roe), wasabi, and garlic soy sauce
• Mexican shrimp cocktail
• Snow crab basted in drawn butter
• Tuna poke studded with bean sprouts and Fresno chilies
• Live scallop dressed with white soy and Chinese chive blossom
TIER 3
• Local oysters and littleneck clams on the half shell
For their latest restaurant, Little Donkey, Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette (Toro, Coppa) let the neighborhood dictate the concept. “We love the ethnic diversity of Central Square,” Oringer says. “You have people here from everywhere. There’s a Korean market next to an Indian market next to a farmers’ market. Just walking the streets motivated what we wanted to do.”
That multiculti mishmash inspired Oringer and Bissonnette to whip up a global goulash where nothing is off-limits, whether it’s ramen with matzo balls, biryani paired with monkfish, or a New England clam roll reinvented as a Baja-style torta.
But it’s not just seafood or international flavors they’re banking on: Named after the unheralded “workhorse” of the animal kingdom, Little Donkey caters to all demographics passing through Central Square—offering everything from Jersey pork-roll sandwiches for early-morning commuters to plateaux de fruits de mer for corporate power lunchers.
505 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-945-1008.
