The Bowery Bar
Kung Pao Chicken Wings and Crab Rangoon Dip. Awesome burgers with jumbo homemade tater tots. And creamy Mac and Cheese studded with fresh lobster. It's the kind of food that puts you in an eating mood, and it's what they serve at The Bowery Bar.
Located in the Lower Mills section of Dorchester, The Bowery Bar is one of those great neighborhood restaurants every neighborhood needs. Pat Dillon is one of the owners, and he and his partners knew that comfort food, served in a comfortable space, can keep customers coming back.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "The idea was to create a place where people would be comfortable coming to eat few times a week. We try to do locally sourced really good ingredients in our food and drinks, and make it a very very comfortable approachable place to go for the neighborhood."
The Bowery Bar is only a year old, but it feels like it's been a part of the neighborhood for years, because the dining room is designed to let the natural beauty of the building shine.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "It's an old building. So we figured run with it, our goal was to just make it feel kind of classic and old and comfortable. Where there was old exposed brick, we left it, and that was really the idea was to kind of go for an old classic feel."
With its rustic charm and big bar, the dining room is a great place to enjoy a meal, but when the weather is nice, head to the back of The Bowery Bar, and you'll discover one of Boston's biggest and best patios.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "The patio is awesome. It's huge. It's pretty much bigger than the restaurant itself. It's a big open space with nice trees, you don't necessarily feel like you're in the city when you're on the patio which it what we're going for. All beautiful landscape nice flowers, plants, my mother actually does all the flowers out there and just try to make it a really comfortable space to come and hang out for the day."
The patio has room for well over a hundred people and boasts its own bar, comfortable couches, and fun games. When customers first discover it, they're always blown away.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "They just don't believe it. It's definitely an overwhelming thing to walk back there and see it all, and there's a whole separate side to it you don't even see it first, but with the bar and all the tables and the elevated space and the landscape and the trees, the whole thing comes together and it's a really awesome place to hang out for the summer."
The food coming out of the kitchen at The Bowery Bar is awesome, with appetizers that put a delicious twist on foods you're familiar with, like Kung Pao Chicken Wings with a kick of sweet heat, Crispy Cauliflower with toasted nuts and pickled chilies, and the inventive and addictive Crab Rangoon Dip with Fried Wontons.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "Crab Rangoon dip is one of my favorites on the menu. So we were selling crab Rangoons and people love them, so we figured it would be cool to just kind of decompose them and make it a dip which is exactly what we did. So we take our filling for our Crab Rangoons and we take the wontons that we wrap them in and we just fry them, filling goes into a pan gets nice and hot, and you get fried Rangoon chips. So it's like a decomposed Crab Rangoon. You just take the wontons, just scoop a big thing of crab dip with it, eat it, it's delicious."
If you're in a Mac and Cheese mood, this version is a must order. Made with oversized shells, a four cheese blend, and topped with toasted breadcrumbs, it's a true comfort food classic, and it gets even better when your order the Lobstah Mac and Cheese, absolutely packed with sweet meat.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "We do three to four ounces of fresh Maine lobster mixed in with our Mac and Cheese. You got almost as much lobster as you do macaroni which makes it a really awesome dish to eat for dinner."
Other awesome dinner options include a big portion of beer battered Fish and Chips, and decadent Steak Frites.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "Steak Frites is a great dish. It's just a great piece of meat to start with, seasoned really well, grilled, and sliced on a bias. But most importantly the chef makes an unbelievable bordelaise sauce, drizzles that right over the top with the fries, it's almost like eating poutine and steak frites at the same time, it's so good."
A great burger is a must for any neighborhood restaurant, and the ones here definitely deliver, like the classic Burger Deluxe that's great on its own, and even better with jumbo Tater Tots that are golden and crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. Then there's the Steakhouse Burger, topped with melted cheddar, crispy onion strings, and horseradish crema.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "You get the crunchiness from the crispy onions, and you get the kind of cool creamy texture from the horseradish crema which is great, and we use a really good aged cheddar that adds to the flavor a lot. It's a very very good flavor profile for a burger."
Other tasty handheld options include "The Sangweech" stacking crispy prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, juicy tomatoes, and peppery arugula on a ciabatta roll, the Hot Bird made with spicy fried chicken, dill pickles, and creamy slaw on a potato roll, and the classic New England Lobstah Roll.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "We want people to come sit on the patio and get a great lobster roll. So we wanted to go big with it, we wanted to make it a really really awesome lobster roll that you can get in the city. And I think we accomplished that. It's all fresh Maine lobster, a little bit of lemon aioli and some herbs in there, and it's a great lobster roll."
And whether you enjoy it on the patio, or in the dining room, The Bowery Bar is the perfect neighborhood spot no matter the season or reason.
Pat Dillon - Partner, The Bowery Bar: "The food, the atmosphere, the cocktails, everything about, it's a very comfortable place. You can feel comfortable coming with the family, you can feel comfortable coming with your friends to watch a game, obviously the patio plays a huge piece, but even when it's not patio season, the restaurant itself is really comfortable. It's a great spot."
