Best of Boston

If the house-made charcuterie at Moody’s deli is art, its adjoining restaurant, the Backroom, is the gallery in which chef-owner Joshua Smith’s smoky, fatty, umami-rich masterpieces get their finest showcase. Spicy ‘nduja is blended into a ragu for strands of bucatini here; Iberico pork belly dots a clam flatbread there. In fact, the entire menu, from the slow-smoked chicken with crisp spaetzle to the melt-in-your-mouth Wagyu brisket, is a master class in meat—and the perfect syrah or sangiovese to pair with it.