‘Bar-centric’ Puritan Oyster opens in Inman Square

Eating places

“Nothing flashy, only a place individuals will cease in a few occasions every week for a chunk.”

The constructing subsequent door to Puritan & Co. in Inman Sq., which sat seemingly unused for over a decade, will open to the general public as Puritan Oyster Bar on Tuesday.

“We’ve been paying lease on all of it these years and utilizing it for storage and trash,” Puritan & Co. proprietor, chef Will Gilson informed Boston.com. “Round yr two or three of opening Puritan & Co., we thought, this is able to be nice for an oyster bar. Now it’s yr 10 and it’s lastly taking place.”

Gilson, who additionally owns Café Beatrice, Geppetto, and The Lexington at Cambridge Crossing, in addition to operating seasonal dinners and weddings at his mother and father’ Herb Lyceum herb farm in Groton, the place he grew up, had already transformed a part of the constructing into Puritan’s non-public eating room. 

“It’s very bar-centric,” he stated of the 30-seat Puritan Oyster. “We needed it to be a enjoyable place individuals drop in for super-fresh oysters whereas on their method someplace else,” he stated. “However we are able to use our non-public eating house for bigger events.”

The menu extends past oysters, which will likely be culled from the New England and Canadian coasts — “I like a superb kumamoto myself, however we occur to have a number of the greatest oysters proper right here.” Together with uncooked bar gadgets, there’s a scallop crudo with a brown butter, lemon, horseradish, and gooseberry marinade that has a touch of jalapeño; a lobster toast that entails steaming lobster-scallop mousse between slices of bread, then griddling it in butter; and a caviar cone, which relies on a caviar pie Gilson as soon as tried. 

“That is an ice cream sort cone stuffed egg salad flavored with miso, topped with bitter cream, after which caviar,” he described.

Gilson’s govt pastry chef Brian Mercury will present, “Two or three rotating sweets,” stated Gilson. “There’s a cake of the day and a sundae topped with caramel peanuts.” 

Gilson doesn’t need to name the menu small plates primarily based — “You’ll be able to’t say that now with out getting a watch roll,” he stated. “It’s sharable, or as we prefer to say, meant for 2, however positive for one.”

A specialty cocktail referred to as Glug Jug may also be sharable: “It’s a tiki-style rum punch served in a gurgling cod with straws,” Gilson added. 

Different cocktails will likely be mild and vivid, created to enhance fish dishes. “We’re not specializing in heavy whiskey-based drinks,” stated Gilson. 

Wines will equally be mild, vivid, and largely white. “I’ve by no means seen anybody order purple wine with oysters,” Gilson declared. Which isn’t to say whiskey and purple wine aren’t on the doorstep — proper subsequent door. Beers will likely be local-centric and, resulting from house constraints, in bottles or cans.

Gilson stated he needs prospects to really feel a transition between the 2 institutions, and never really feel like they’re in the identical place. What he doesn’t need is a sense of stepping out of the historically low-key neighborhood and right into a high-priced oyster bar.  

“I needed Puritan Oyster to really feel prefer it’s all the time been right here, prefer it’s related to the realm,” Gilson added. “Nothing flashy, only a place individuals will cease in a few occasions every week for a chunk.”

Puritan Oyster Bar is open seven nights every week from 5 to 10 p.m. at 1164 Cambridge St., Cambridge.