A VISIT TO ROZZIE SQUARE

A couple of weeks ago the Dig wrote an article about restaurants in Roslindale. Now, I've never been to Roslindale, and though none of the restaurants really interested me, I started rooting around online and found that like almost all parts of Boston, Roslindale is gong through a revival (aka gentrification). But it still had lots of ethnic places, places to shop at, and I thought it'd be a nice place to walk around on a sunny afternoon.

When I first proposed the idea to Tom, he shot me down immediately. Having spent time living in West Roxbury and Hyde Park, he didn't have many fond memories of Roslindale Square. But after giving it some more thought, he relented and we headed out there. There were two main places I wanted to check out. The first was Fornax Bakery (well really, I wanted to take Tom, cause he's the bread fan) and the other was Roslidale Fish Market. Like many places in Boston, you never realize how close things are when you've got a car. It only took us 20 minutes to get to Roslindale, which is just past JP and the Arboretum. We parked our car a little outside the square and started to explore on foot.

I had told Leah I'd take pics of everything, but I had forgotten my camera at home. So we'll be using out imaginations today. The entire square is centered around a rotary. It's not very big, maybe 8 blocks, which makes it bigger than Huron Village, and it has lots of places where I'd like to shop. And the best part is that there was a lot of ethnic influence and cheaper prices. Our first stop was at Bob’s Pita Bakery. Apparently they used to just be a wholesale business, but now there's a grocery store up front, stocked with lots of Middle Eastern groceries and supplies. Things like bags of spices, tahini, feta, dried beans, etc. I pick up a two pound bag of bulgur, which I've wanted to try cooking for a while, a two pound bag of couscous, and Tom bought an enormous bag of freshly made pita. They also had some beautiful produce, but we had other places to visit and couldn't load up. Everything cost us only $8. I was already liking this place.

We rounded a corner and continued walking and quickly came upon the Boston Cheese Cellar. It was so cute that we had to go inside (plus Tom loves cheese). Though they don't carry as much cheese as Formaggio's (but who does?) or Whole Foods for that matter, they did seem to have a diverse selection. It's a super cute store with hardwood floors and other gourmet food selections (like chocolate- the buyer clearly goes to the Fancy Food Show every year.) One older woman was manning the store, and though she wasn't overly friendly, she did let Tom sample whatever cheese he wanted. He tried two blues and ended up getting some of both.

Next we were off to Fornax, and we found it pretty quickly. Inside we discovered a space with mismatched chairs and tables and a large selection of breads. It took Tom and me a little bit of time to figure out what we wanted, and while we thought about it, I also noticed that they serve sandwiches. We ended up getting one baguette, a butter croissant and a slice of carrot cake. Here's the baguette and butter croissant.For me, the butter croissant was far too buttery and heavy. The butter actually leaked out onto the paper bag as we carried it. I like flakier croissants. The baguette was passable, but we've truly been spoiled by Clear Flour and nothing really matches up. Lastly my carrot cake was disappointingly greasy and rather tasteless. I could've made a better carrot cake.

Our last stop was the Roslindale Fish Market. Run by a Greek couple, the grocery/fish market is totally cute. It's filled with imported Greek goods, most of which I wasn't familiar with. But you could get cans of sardines, and grape leaves and lots of fresh feta and olives. I went over to the fish counter, which wasn't packed with stuff, but I did see some gorgeous fresh red snapper. I got a 2 pounder. The husband gladly cleaned and scaled it for me and the entire fish cost $13. (It also cooked up wonderfully- great flavor and texture).They also had salt packed anchovies, probably the exact same ones as I'd gotten at Lionettes. But rather than being $26/pound, here they were $8. I didn't get any because I'm saving up to buy Spanish ones on our next trip to NY.

After an hour, we were loaded down with food and I was ready to go home and start cooking my fish. I had fun on my first trip to Roslindale. It does have its mix of more high end stores, a number of restaurants, a boat load of bakeries, but also things like a thrift store and an office for Head Start. It's clearly a changing neighborhood. I hope to take Leah sometime, cause I think she'd really like it there. And I'll certainly be back for the less expensive, fresh food and neighborhood atmosphere.