When a new restaurant opens near my office, I notice immediately. I am always looking for new places to take clients and vendors or to host celebration meals for coworker's birthdays, baby showers or wedding showers.
I was in a cab heading home from South Station a few weeks ago when I spotted Nebo. It's on Atlantic Ave in the space directly next to chef Jodi Adams' Trade.
I quickly typed the name of the restaurant into my phone so I could look it up when I get home.
This Atlantic Ave location is Nebo's second home. The restaurant originally opened by the TD Garden and with this space, has upgraded their seat count and their bar area tremendously.
I met a friend on Friday night to check it out. As I walked from my office on State Street to Atlantic Ave, I could see the space heaters on Nebo's patio glowing.
Despite the cooler temperatures as we transition to fall weather, Nebo still kept the patio open.
We had a reservation and were seated immediately. The hostess brought us to a table right in the front window and this was our view.
Not too shabby!
I was completely overwhelmed by the menu. In each category there were countless delicious choices. I love the lipstick red color of the Nebo logo and the menu section headers.
Unable to decide what to get, we opted to over order. We started with the baked eggplant appetizer, Timballo Di Melanza on the menu. This was hands down the best thing we ate all night. It was a simple dish - layers of eggplant (not breaded), tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese baked to ooey gooey perfection.
We scooped the eggplant onto our second dish, the grilled bread with olive oil and garlic. This appetizer, called Bruschetta Aglio E Olio on the menu, is just $2.50 and makes a huge difference! Each bite of eggplant was all the more decadent atop this bread.
Our third choice was the mushroom arancini drizzled with honey. I wanted to love this, as I normally love both arancini and anything mushroom, but it was just lackluster. The taste of the shell was too bland and a strange texture.
Since we went for broke on the appetizers we decided to share one entree for dinner. We requested the Pizza Con Patate (potato, gorgonzola and rosemary pizza) without the pancetta. Our waitress was very accommodating and said it was no problem to remove the meat from the pie.
You really can't go wrong with potato pizza and this version was quite good. It had a crispy crust, plenty of potato slices and lots of stinky gorgonzola cheese. I still think the best potato pizza is at Cambridge 1 in Harvard Square.
When it was time for the check, our waitress brought it over attached to a Nebo postcard. This is a move I first noticed at Eastern Standard years ago. It's nice for tourists to take the postcards with them.
I had no idea what to expect from Nebo and I was very pleasantly surprised. In the summer, that outdoor patio is going to be an excellent spot. Our dinner experience was great - star table, attentive waitress and delicious food. Absolutely order the baked eggplant.
For all the single ladies, I was shocked (and thrilled) to discover Nebo has an awesome post-work bar scene. There were groups of guys everywhere I turned! You're welcome.
Visit Nebo at 520 Atlantic Ave, Boston, MA 02210.
