Here’s the Menu at Saltie Girl, Opening Tomorrow
Fried Clams at Saltie Girl. / Photo provided
Saltie Girl, a sliver of a raw bar and restaurant in Back Bay, opens for dinner on Wednesday, June 1, with one of the largest tinned seafood menus in New England.
The latest venture from the MET Restaurant Group and president and culinarian Kathy Sidell, Saltie Girl’s menu is built on sustainably-sourced seafood. Beyond the house-smoked and imported potted offerings, chef Kyle McClelland’s menu has shellfish towers and crudos, like salmon belly with avocado, cucumber, green apple, and miso; New England clam chowder, Burgundy snails with garlic butter, a Gloucester lobster roll, served hot or cold; fried, whole-belly Ipswich clams, and more. Check it out below.
“Being a New Englander is almost synonymous with the briny taste of steamed clams, the salty ocean taste of lobsters perfectly cooked, the creaminess of a local oyster and the natural sweetness of a Nantucket bay scallop. We are blessed to have such amazing seafood locally,” Sidell says in a press release. “I have long been fascinated by the many ways to enjoy these morsels of the sea. Hence, ‘Saltie Girl’—reflecting a way of life and a passion for eating nature’s bounty.”
Before signing on with Saltie Girl, McClelland spent time in New York at the restaurant of high-end importer Caviar Russe, as well as the Wauwinet on Nantucket. He previously worked in the Boston area at the Federalist, Ten Tables, Clio, and others. David Daniels, a longtime MET Restaurant Group chef, is also in the kitchen at Saltie Girl.
Saltie Girl, in the works for more than a year, takes over a former private events space next door to Sidell’s MET Back Bay. The small restaurant has 16 dining seats, plus a 12-seat, full bar and shucking station. It won’t take reservations. It will be open nightly for dinner, with a late-night lineup of tins from 10 p.m.-1 a.m.
It’s turning out to be the summer of tinned seafood: Haley Fortier, formerly of Sportello, is hiring for her debut, Haley.Henry Wine Bar, in Downtown Crossing. The 25-seat spot will eschew an open-fire kitchen and offer an array of seafood conservas, mainly imported from Portugal and Spain.
Saltie Girl, 281 Dartmouth St., Back Bay, Boston, 617-267-0691, saltiegirl.com.
