Rosebud American Kitchen & Bar, Somerville

Sometimes when I travel, I seek out the top restaurants in an area.  Sometimes I lean in to regional specialities, appreciating cuisine I don't get in San Francisco.  Usually, my meals and orders are well planned out and strategic.  But sometimes ... even I get drawn in by moments of random inspiration and impulse orders.

Which is what happened when I was recently in Boston, and ordered from Rosebud, a diner in nearby Somerville.  Why was Rosebud even on my radar?  I'm not sure.  It is a moderately well regarded classic diner, serving brunch and dinner everyday, with all the classics you'd expect, plus a bit more upscale cuisine at dinner time - alongside the expected burgers and chicken + waffles is an organic brown rice veggie bowl or seared salmon entree.  They also have several specials that change daily, and house made desserts.  

"Rosebud American Kitchen & Bar is a down-to-earth restaurant serving modern American fare. A definitive neighborhood joint in Davis Square, Rosebud offers a laid-back dining experience in a casual setting to guests from all walks of life. Honest food and honest drinks set the foundation of Rosebud’s menu. While dishes have roots from all four corners of the country, we carefully integrate a range of far-flung flavors from across the globe to keep palates guessing."

So, fairly straightforward "American" menu, diner style, that also happens to be open for dinner and serve cocktails.  Again, I was in Boston, city full of excellent seafood restaurants in particular (which I love), and yet, my mind kept drifting back to Rosebud, and their nightly seafood and dessert specials.  In particular, I was craving crab cakes, which yes, sooo many places in Boston offer, and I had a few top choices already picked out from high end seafood restaurants.  And then Rosebud had crab cakes as their nightly special, along with a decadent sounding pie from my childhood, AND a full cocktail list available for delivery, and ... impulse order it was.  Crab cakes, pie, and a cocktail, from a random diner in Somerville it was.

I ordered my delivery on DoorDash, which was quite easy.  

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My meal was prepared quickly, and arrived well packaged.  It was ... ok-ish, but certainly not great, and not somewhere I'd order from again.

Negroni. $13.

"New Amsterdam Gin, House Sweet Vermouth, Campari."

Well, this made me literally lol.  For context, the container is about 1/3 the size of a regular water bottle, and it is ... 25% full?  Um, really.  It looked ridiculous.  They do have an ice/no ice option, and I opted for without (so it wouldn't get diluted during delivery, I could add my own), so maybe it looks less ridiculous with ice, but, wow.

Ok, so, portion size aside, how was it?  Not great.  It honestly didn't taste like booze at all.  I could taste campari, and sweet vermouth, but it truly seemed like perhaps they forgot the gin.  I tasted nothing alcoholic about it.  

Clearly, a letdown, but at least an amusing one?  *+.

Crab Cakes Special.  $18.

"Panko, scallion, fennel apple salad, tartar sauce."

I ordered from Rosebud primarily for the crab cakes.  Yes, from a random diner, that has very little seafood on the menu in general, and certainly isn't known for it.  When I was in a city full of incredible seafood restaurants.  I know ... rookie move on my part.  And sadly, not one that paid off.

The cakes seemed to be a baked style.  They were made with entirely shredded crab meat, not a single lump to be found, and very, very finely shredded.  There seemed to be a lot of binding to it - potato maybe?  Lots panko?  Basically, not a lot of crab flavor, very soft and mushy, and the consistency was a bit odd.  There might have been other white fish in there too?  I'm really not sure.  They sorta seemed like the kind of crab cakes you might get at a cafeteria.  Or on a flight.  That said, they were well seasoned.

The tartar sauce with them was good, and there was plenty of it.  And Rosebud gets a point for including a lemon wedge to squeeze over.

Overall, not bad exactly, just, not the style I was looking for at all.  The portion of two small cakes for $18 was quite reasonable. ***.

Crab Cakes: fennel apple salad side. 

The crab cakes also came with a fennel-apple salad, that was nicely packaged on the side, and had the vinaigrette separate.  The mixed greens seemed fresh, the fennel I enjoyed, and the apple was also clearly fresh and crispy, but not really my kind of thing.  And I never care for vinaigrettes.  

I was impressed that they came with this though, particularly for the price. ***.

Fluffernutter Pie. $12.

"Chocolate ganache, peanut butter mousse, marshmallow fluff, chocolate covered pretzel."

Oh my.  While the portion of the cocktail was laughably small, this was most certainly not.  This was a gigantic slice of pie. Very rich pie.  Very sweet pie.  Wowzer.

So, to step back, for those who are not from the Northeast and are not familiar with a "fluffernutter", it is usually a sandwich.  A kid's sandwich.  A very popular kid's sandwich.  The ingredients?  Basic white bread, peanut butter, and marshmallow spread, Fluff brand.  Fluff + peanut butter.  Fluffernutter.  Very little nutritional value, tons of sugar, and yet ... at least where I grew up, a very, very common lunch for kids, far more than pb&j.

The Fluffernutter sandwich is the inspiration for this pie, which had a regular crust and a layer of chocolate ganache, and then the expected peanut butter component (mousse) and Fluff topping.  And chocolate covered pretzels to garnish, because, why not?

The crust was pretty average, just standard pie crust.  A pretzel crust might have been more interesting.  But plain and basic was perhaps needed to balance the rest.

The chocolate ganache was fairly firm, it was fine, light milk chocolate, and of course chocolate and peanut butter go great together, but, a real Fluffernutter has no chocolate component.  They took some liberties here.

The majority of the pie was the peanut butter mousse.  It was creamy.  It was rich.  It was oh so rich.  It was sweetened.  

But speaking of sweetened ... the topping was just pure Fluff, and, wow, I forgot how sweet that is!  Sugar, sugar, sugar.  It oozed Fluff everywhere.

This was good, and very decadent, but a few bites of this was really all you needed. Even for me, the girl who loves sweets and desserts.  So much richness, so much sweetness.  It was an overload really.  This slice could easily be shared with 4 people, just given the intensity of it.  I think it would have been better with perhaps a Fluff whipped cream, something a bit lighter, rather than pure Fluff.  

I'm glad I tried it, and the price was great for the portion, but, wow.  ***+.