Best of Boston

This newly revamped neighborhood café is effortlessly sexy—no mood lighting or drippy molten chocolate cake. Instead, it offers cozy seating (especially at the prime table by the exposed kitchen) mixed with warm hospitality, plus shareable Italian-inflected plates from Rialto alum Brian Rae. Follow up the house-made pastas—rich buckwheat lasagna with sage pesto; chestnut-and-goat-cheese ravioli with squash and brioche crumbs—with a bottle of Italian wine and a plate of braised chicken thighs with pistachio-glazed pork belly.