The Red Fox
If your ideal evening includes sipping martinis while twirling up some delicious pasta like Frank Sinatra used to, you don’t need a time machine, you just need to make a reservation at The Red Fox in Boston’s North End.
Set on Commercial Street, Red Fox offers guests a cocktail lounge experience, paired perfectly with classic Italian cuisine.
So really, it’s all about the retro Rack Pack vibe, according to Director of Operations Justin Power.
“So that old school vibe we’re talking about. You see these dark wood paneled walls, these red leather booths, dimly lit, kind of a place where you can get lost in.”
“You'll see big martinis, big portions of pasta. And we like to use fresh ingredients. We make all of our pasta in house fresh every day, we use the best ingredients we can get our hands on. So they're these familiar dishes that you've had a million times, but we think the way we do it is a little bit updated, and you taste the difference.”
And that difference starts with their appetizers.
Like the gold standard of any Italian spot, the meatball. At Red Fox, they’re using a Nonna style recipe… just ground beef, parsley, eggs, and pecorino cheese, rolled by hand and cooked to order.
Their arancini is made with Arborio Rice and stuffed with homemade tomato sauce, onions and mozzarella cheese, before being plated over more of that delicious red sauce, and sprinkled with a little bit of parmesan cheese for that crispy, warm, cheesy bite.
And then there’s the Strangolapreti. It looks like an arancini, it’s prepared like a dumpling, but Justin says…
“It's actually a pasta. It's from the Trento region of Italy.”
“It's mixed with greens bread crumbs, and it's plated with fried sage over a fonduta, which is a melted cheese. Just gives you a little bit to sop up that Strangolapreti with the cheese, and gives you kind of everything you want in a little small bite.”
Moving onto the main dishes, Red Fox has the classics like bolognese, prepared traditionally with ground beef, veal, and pork shoulder all cooked down for hours each morning, served over tagliatelle, and the wide noodle allows you to really sop up all that delicious sauce.
Red Fox adds a modern flair to some classic dishes. Just check out the lasagna, served in pinwheels instead of slices, and Justin says this dish is a must try.
“So instead of doing your traditional layered lasagna, we use the fresh pasta dough that we use in our other pastas,”
“We roll it out flat, fill it with our Bolognese with cheese, and then we spin them into pinwheels and lay them out across the baking dish.”
“And we use these round pinwheels because the bites are still the same, but the presentation is that much better.“
“It's hearty, it's warm, it's comforting, but it tastes a little bit more fresh than you’re probably used to.”
For a little more spice, you have to go with the Spicy Rigatoni a la Vodka. They cook the sauce to order, with a little bit of vodka, red chili flakes, garlic, tomato, and heavy cream, all simmered down into an addictively delicious pink sauce, rounded out with a fresh dollop of Stracciatella cheese on top.
But, Justin says the real must get on the menu is the Red Fox Chicken parm.
“We take a chicken cutlet, we pound it out paper thin, and then it's stuffed with prosciutto and fontina. It's breaded and lightly pan fried, so you get a little bit of that crispiness with the prosciutto and the fontina in the middle, topped with mozzarella and a little bit of marinara sauce, and then we finish it with arugula on top.”
“So it's a little bit of an elevated take, but it seems familiar. It seems like probably the best chicken parm you've ever tried.”
And, if you’re replicating an old school Italian meal, what are you pairing with your pasta? A martini of course. Red Fox has plenty to choose from and a well stocked, vintage bar straight out Las Vegas from the 1960’s.
For a traditional drink, go for the Freezer Door Martini. It's gin and vermouth, placed in the freezer for hours so by the time you order it, it’s ice cold.
And for a more savory sip, they can make you an Aglio e Pepe Martini.
“It's sort of like a meal in a glass.”
“So we use our freezer door Martini as a base. You grate fresh garlic over it, and then top it with little Parmesan cheese. It sounds crazy, but don't knock it till you try it.”
“We always say that the tagline for the Red Fox is pasta and Martinis, if nothing else. … That's what we do best. That's what people order when they come here.”
“Whether it's date night, a celebration, or you're with your family, there's something on the menu for everybody, but it's going to be prepared in a way that you never had before.”
“When you come here, it's private, it's intimate, it's sexy, it's romantic, it's fun, it's lively. It checks all the boxes."
