Restaurants: Redbones

Redbones is my favorite neighborhood hangout. The food is delicious and dirt cheap, and they are serious about their beer. The best time to go is definitely during lunch, in my opinion, as it can turn into kind of a madhouse at dinner. I also love sitting at the bar when possible.

They were actually open on Sunday during the hurricane, so we walked down there for lunch. We stuck to some of our favorites from their diverse beer list: Matt got a Brooklyn Brown and I got a Sixpoint Bengali Tiger.

We always order way too much food and can hardly ever make a dent, but I love getting a variety. The portions are just so big! This time, we started with the fried pickles and jalapenos, which were served with a homemade ranch dipping sauce. They’re always perfectly crunchy (which can be tricky with fried pickles) and well seasoned.

Matt is a vegetarian, so usually gets some assortment of sides and fried things. This time, he got the hushpuppies as part of his meal. They are basically puffy balls of delicious fried corn bread with scallions and garlic, served with a vinegar sauce.

He also got the corn fritters, which I always have to sneak a bite of. They taste like corn doughnuts and are served with real maple syrup. They could definitely pass as dessert.

We always get one of each of their sauces: sweet, hot, mild, and vinegar. My favorite is the sweet, but they’re all worth a try.

I often opt for their sliders rather than one big sandwich so I can have more variety. However, each slider is honestly enough for a meal. This time I got two (for the blog, of course): jerk beef (above) and pulled chicken (below). Each is served on a soft little bun with coleslaw and a pickle. The jerk beef just melts in your mouth and has a great kick. The tender beef with the soft bun, crunchy pickle, and creamy slaw is the perfect little bite.

The pulled chicken slider is similarly assembled, but the chicken is much sweeter. I like to put the sweet sauce on the jerk beef, and the spicy sauce on the sweet chicken.

I should mention that the ribs are also fantastic even though I didn't get any this time. The St. Louis style is my favorite, but you can’t go wrong with any of them.

Since the sliders don’t come with any sides, I ordered some potato salad. Their potato salad is one of my favorite things on the menu. It’s almost like a hybrid between potato salad and mashed potatoes – how can you go wrong with that? It’s creamy, but also tangy, and is downright addicting.

We often order a side of the atomic corn relish to go with everything. It stays true to its name – this stuff is seriously hot. I am a huge fan of anything spicy, and I can only tolerate the smallest bit of this relish on my food. However, it presents a nice challenge! It is also surprisingly flavorful, if you can tolerate the spice.

You have to save room for at least a bit of pecan pie at Redbones. They just have a really good, classic pecan pie with that sticky-sweet filling topped with the crunchy pecans.

It was the perfect end to another great meal at Redbones.

Redbones
55 Chester Street
Somerville, MA 02144