Here Are Three Awesome Boston Dining Deals to Brighten Your Week

Including a new, $35 prix-fixe menu at Tasting Counter.


Can’t wait for the weekend to catch up with friends over snacks and drinks? There’s no need to wait with these enticing new weekday specials in Boston, Salem, and Somerville.

Garlic-Parmesan knots, pizzas, “pretzel dogs,” and more are in the rotation at Harpoon Beer Hall. / Photo provided

At Harpoon Beer Hall, the typical lineup of pretzels and house-made sauces is newly bolstered with craveable, daily specials, beginning tonight. The Seaport brewery is now serving shareable pretzel “bites” every weekday, in addition to its menu-staple, full-size, spent-grain pretzels. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it will also offer garlic-Parmesan knots (yesssss). A rotating pizza is on the menu every Thursday, with pretzel-dough crust; and Friday will be the time to try new pretzel-wrapped hot dogs. On Sundays, Harpoon will serve everything, onion, and plain bagels. Boiled in Harpoon IPA and baked in-house, the spent grain dough-bagels will come with topping options like scallion cream cheese and honey butter.

“We’ve always tried to hone in on the German style with our communal tables and pretzel offerings to highlight the beer,” says beer hall and kitchen manager Felicia Ruano. “But we’re trying to break the mold a little bit, and we’re starting with what we know best.”

The Harpoon Boston Beer Hall is open daily from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), with the last beers poured 20 minutes before close.

306 Northern Ave., Boston, 617-456-2322, harpoonbrewery.com.

Country fried chicken strips from the new bar menu at Ledger

Country fried chicken strips from the new bar menu at Ledger. / Photo provided

Head north to Ledger, where tonight executive chef Daniel Gursha debuts an affordable new bar menu (including half-priced oysters). The new snacks are nostalgic, satisfying drinking food: Think chips with house-made sour cream and onion dip; salt-and-pepper calamari with pickled baby bell peppers and black aioli; pork belly and lobster fried rice; and country-friend chicken strips with smoky honey-mustard sauce. The new bar menu is now available from 4-6 p.m. every Tuesday-Friday, and from 2-6 p.m. on weekends at the Salem restaurant’s bar.

125 Washington St., Salem, 978-594-1908, ledgersalem.com.

Tasting Counter wine bar dish

King crab risotto at Tasting Counter Wine Bar. / Photo provided

And finally, a version of the area’s best tasting menu is now in your weekly dining-out budget. Tasting Counter has started serving a $35, three-course menu at its wine bar every Tuesday evening, and after dinner Wednesday-Saturday. At the idiosyncratic, Somerville fine-dining restaurant, located in the back of Aeronaut Brewing Co., chef-owner Peter Ungár and his team typically serve up revelatory, three-course lunches and nine-course dinner menus, requiring advance purchase of tickets for $70-$225. For nearly two years, Tasting Counter has opened up on Tuesdays with a la carte options and natural wines-by-the-glass, which it also serves after dinner most nights. But this is the first time Ungár has offered a no-reservations-required, coursed-menu version of his plates at Tasting Counter.

Guests can choose from a seasonally changing selection of savory and sweet dishes, ranging from elevated bar food (like spice sweet potato fries with a fermented chili emulsion) to plates inspired by the tasting menu, such as tamari-glazed sablefish belly with red curry broth. Dessert might be black pepper pavlova with tarragon ice cream; or almond brown butter cake with toasted cinnamon sherbet. Check out tonight’s menu below as a sample of what to expect.

An optional wine pairing is available for $30. Tasting Counter will continue to offer its a la carte food menu and wines-by-the-glass on Tuesdays from 5 p.m.-1 a.m., and Wednesday-Saturday from 10 p.m.-1 a.m.

14 Tyler St., Somerville, 617-299-6362, tastingcounter.com.