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Type: American
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Good choices: Meat loaf, fishcakes, the Bloody Mary.
Credit cards: None accepted.
Access: Street-level entry; bathroom not wheelchair-accessible.
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CAFE BIBLIOTECA
194 L Street, South Boston
(617) 269-4529
Restaurant reviewed 07/16/98 by Linda Matchan
No longer is South Boston's L Street Tavern, which rose to fame in the movie "Good Will Hunting," the only attraction on the corner of L and East 8th streets. Across the street, there's Cafe Biblioteca, which joined the neighborhood six months ago. (Too late, alas, for Robin Williams's patronage.) Owner Christine Bellino points out that her cafe will make its cinematic debut soon, too. Scenes from the forthcoming movie "Southie," starring Donnie Wahlberg, were filmed on the Biblioteca property, albeit before Bellino took it over.
As the restaurant's name implies, Cafe Biblioteca - a small, unassuming kind of place that was formerly Blackie's deli and before that a liquor store - uses a library motif as its backdrop. It has a clean, antique look to it, with oak tables and spindled chairs and shelves of hard-cover books, which diners are encouraged to read. However, you probably won't find Nietzsche or Schopenhauer here. Biblioteca's holdings are more like garage-sale finds, with rows of The Reader's Digest Condensed Books, old Danielle Steele novels, textbooks like "Third Year Latin" and "Health Care Economics," and Encyclopedia Books of the Year, circa 1949.
But Biblioteca is there to serve meals, not bestsellers, and at this it excels. The menu is simple, but varied; no liquor is available. The large selection of deli sandwiches (all $3.99) includes roast turkey, homemade meatball, sausage, corned beef, pastrami, Reuben, and egg salad. Specialty items include a delicious and filling hummus and cucumber sandwich served in pita ($2.95); the Bloody Mary, a huge sandwich on a French roll with spicy Santa Fe turkey and horseradish mayonnaise ($4.50); and the Blarney, a roll filled - no, stuffed - with corned beef, roast turkey, and Swiss cheese, with Russian dressing ($4.95). Other variations on this theme are the $4.95 Castle Island, a sandwich with roast turkey, roast beef, and Swiss cheese; and the $4.50 "Plimouth Rock," which is turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce.
In addition to salads and entrees available after 3 p.m., such as steak tips ($6.95), barbecued chicken breasts ($5.95), and chicken parmigiana ($6.25), there are daily blue plate specials that are quite wonderful and available all day. Monday is the roast turkey dinner ($5.25), Tuesday is corned beef and cabbage ($5.50), Wednesday is shrimp scampi ($5.95), Thursday is meat loaf ($5.25), and Friday fishcakes and beans ($4.95). We ate at Biblioteca on Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and will vouch for those days' specials. The large portions of turkey were very tender, and the fishcakes were hot and crispy and thick (definitely worthy of being served on other days of the week.) The meatloaf was a huge wedge of meat lightly covered in gravy, not smothered a la American diner. The accompanying potatoes were fluffy with the requisite lumps. A dish of chicken with bow-tie pasta ($5.50) and sauteed vegetables was an adequate portion, but could have used more zip (garlic perhaps, or Parmesan cheese.)
Undoubtedly, Biblioteca would have pleased Donnie Wahlberg, had he been in Southie at the right time.
Tips & hits
