The Quiet Few
Big bold flavors. A busy bustling kitchen. And an enthusiastic crowd. There is NOTHING quiet about The Quiet Few.
Located in the Jefferies Point area of East Boston, The Quiet Few is the type of place you want to have in your own neighborhood. Owner Josh Weinstein wanted to give Eastie a place where locals could feel comfortable- not only with the atmosphere, but also with the pocket-friendly prices.
"The bar is a cornerstone of a neighborhood. This is where you come to commemorate commiserate, celebrate whatever it is. And I don't think it's weird that somebody would come into a bar three, four times a week, but they can't do that if the prices aren't approachable."
So he enlisted chef and friend Scott Jensen to develop a menu lined with all of your favorites.
"That guy's a mad man. He's just awesome. It was really important to me that somebody could come in here, get a burger, two beers and it'd be $20. and he's just crushed it."
"We are bar but our food isn't the star of the show. It's the entirety. We really wanted to take...classics that we all love and give them a touch more you know nuance if you want to use a you know a fancy word for it but they're just it's just done it's good food done well."
The space will make you feel at home.
"We just wanted a neighborhood cozy vibe. We've got TV, that brick, dark colors just making it feel like it's been here for 20 years."
"It's that kind of rustic bare bones divey kind of feeling but just slightly elevated. "Top shelf lowbrow" is very much what runs through our veins."
The menu is lined with childhood favorites amped up. There are trays of wings slathered in sauces like honey mustard, roo tbeer boubon barbecue and buffalo. Or get your buffalo and your veggies together by way of their roasted cauliflower.
"I'actually a raging carnivore. And it's one of my favorite things in the menu."
There are big bowls of bacon served with bourbon maple syrup, house made ranch and hot sauce. And a fried pickle appetizer they playfully call "Grillos in the Misto".
"We use Grillo's pickles which is a local pickle here in Boston. So it's kind of a spin on an....old school classic of frito mixto. About 50% of people get the reference the other half for like, I'll have the gorillas? the mixto? the fried pickles? I want the fried pickles."
When coming up with a burger, Scott went with his favorite style, smashed.
"There's nothing better than a classic Smash. Ours are five ounces. We smash them hard and the flattop. And as the crust develops, the cheese melts into it. And you could taste all the love it goes into that burger. It's like you don't want to put it down. Sometimes I'll be surprised how fast I'll eat the burger and be like, Oh, well, I guess I'm done."
Another handheld Scott's a fan of is his Porchetta.
"I love a good porchetta. It's a wonderful big slab of pork belly, Italian salsa verde all slowly roasted for about five hours. We serve it...as a sandwich. So we've got some wonderful mozzarella, some garlicky broccoli rabe, some caramelized onions and then we take all the skins and make our homemade chicharrons, which kind of go on top. And then a little fancy truffle mayo sauce because truffle makes everything better."
And for these guys, cheese also makes everything better. Particular when making their mac and cheese. But not everyone agrees.
It's got a lot of cheese.
We've got one review that it was complaint that it was so cheesy, which I think is a fantastic thing.
When picking a pasta, this chef was adamant it had be shells.
"It's not mac and cheese unless it's shells. ....Elbows, get all the praise, but the shells the actual star the show....and you can kind of add what you want to it..our suggestion is making it dirty, which is our Cajun chopped beef and pickle jalapenos, and it's pretty outstanding."
For a nostalgic treat from the west coast, get yourself a Frito Pie.
"It's literally a bag of Fritos. You can either pick it right up out of the bag, or you can dump it in and kind of make a mess out of if you want to. It's supposed to be playful.”
The old school hits keep coming right into the dessert menu, with options like Hostess Cupcakes and Choco Tacos.
"We we don't want to take ourselves too seriously. We not pastry chefs. They're not made fresh every day. t's just fun."
On the weekends, you can find The team at The Quiet Few having fun serving what they call Anti-brunch.
"We don't want to use the B word here. Okay? But we are here in offering some brunchy like things. The Rise and Shine sandwich...is basically an egg sandwich that would make for my wife and myself at home our hangover burger...It's a juicy lucy style so it's with stuffed full of our homemade cheese sauce and on Texas toast and bacon and egg and basically anything that would soak up the booze the night before. And the chicken waffle fries was actually a funny joke. We tried it and all of us were like, all right this has to be a thing."
And whether you're there for brunch, dinner or just a quick cocktail, you'll feel MUCH love from the Quiet Few.
"I want them to feel like they are in their living room and just leave all their issues and problems outside and just have a smile on their face."
“They should feel love in the door and they walk in and love on the way out. We're not making customers, we're making guests and we're making friends and that's really the thing we're striving for."
