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 Finding food that's good and good for you can be a challenge. But b.good on Dartmouth Street in Boston, is making things a little easier. On a normal day, this bright, airy, 50-seat dining room is filled with hungry customers looking to be good to their tastebuds and their waistlines.
Jon Olinto - Co-owner, b.good: "We take the food everybody loves, so we try to take a traditional fast food menu, stuff that everybody likes, everybody can relate to, burgers, fries, chicken sandwiches, and just take the time to make them as healthy as possible."
Anthony Ackil - Co-owner, b.good: "So we use the leanest ingredients, we use the freshest ingredients, and we cook things right. We don't fry anything, we bake and we grill and everything is made with the best ingredients."
Best friends since fifth grade, Jon and Anthony always wanted to open a restaurant together. Growing up on the South Shore, the boys were treated to wholesome, homemade meals cooked by Anthony's uncle Faris. And it is his philosophy on food, and life that is the inspiration for b.good.
Anthony Ackil - Co-owner, b.good: "Growing up with Uncle Faris, he's a crazy guy, he says all kinds of weird stuff. One of the things he always used to say is 'beware of the woman who limps.' We couldn't call the restaurant 'beware of the woman who limps', so another thing he always said was 'be good'."
Jon Olinto - Co-owner, b.good: "... b.good. He says it all the time, had a good ring to it, it's catchy, we went with it."
And customers are going with it too. The b.good burger is the most popular item on the menu. It's 93-percent lean, seasoned ground beef with caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms and garlicky greens on a toasted Portuguese sweet roll. And no burger would be complete without a side of fries. But at b.good, they're baked, not fried, and topped with a secret spice blend. With just 3-and-a-half grams of fat and 140 calories per serving, you won't have to feel guilty about digging in.
Sandwich selections sell for under six bucks, with choices like Honey Mustard, or Buffalo Chicken. b.good does as much business at dinner as they do for lunch, and it's no surprise why with piled high platters like sesame noodles and chicken served with a side of crisp veggies, or grilled spice-rubbed sirloin steak with spicy black beans and rice.
There are even milkshakes, whipped up with non-fat frozen yogurt and skim milk. Obviously, this food is good, and it's not fast food, it's not health food, it's real food.
Jon Olinto - Co-owner, b.good: "When I think of health food I think of tasteless granola, tofu, soy cheese, you won't find any of that here."
Anthony Ackil - Co-owner, b.good: "We're not trying to force feed health food down people's throats, all we're trying to do is take real food, wholesome food, and serve it to the masses."
And while food can bring people together, it almost tore these two life-long friends apart.
Anthony Ackil - Co-owner, b.good: "I think it was pretty tough at first a little bit. You're best friends and you're actually starting to argue about things that you feel really strongly about, like chicken parm sandwiches and whether or not to toast the bread, stuff like that..."
Jon Olinto - Co-owner, b.good: "These stupid pieces of food have like -- they owned us. We hated each other over things like Chicken Parm. I hated him because of Chicken Parm."
But their friendship has survived, even though the dynamic is a little different these days.
Anthony Ackil - Co-owner, b.good: "The extent of our conversations now is 'Hey what do you think about the toasted bread?' or like 'What do you think about the new foccacia?" And Jon is like, 'I think it's great.' and I'm like 'I think it sucks.' That's our conversations now, it's no longer about 'you want to go out this weekend?'."
Jon Olinto - Co-owner, b.good: "Back when we used to talk about really important stuff. (laugh)"
So the next time you want to be good to yourself, stop by b.good, a Phantom Gourmet... Hidden Jewel.
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Review Date:
3/13/2004 |
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