The Blue Room
Where: 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge
Telephone: 617-494-9034
Prices: Appetizers $5-$10; entrees $17-$22; sides $4; desserts $5-$6.
Hours: Dinner Sun.-Thurs. 5:30-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5:30-10:30 p.m. (appetizers until 11 p.m.) Sunday brunch 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Credit Cards: All major cards.
Access: Restrooms not accessible.
Claremont Cafe
Where: 535 Columbus Ave, Boston
Telephone: 617-247-9001
Prices: Appetizers $5.95-$8.95; main courses $14.95-$21.95; desserts $6.
Hours: Breakfast and brunch Tues.-Fri. 7:30-11:30 a.m.; Sat. 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sun. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Lunch Tues.-Fri 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Dinner Tues.-Thurs. 5:30-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5:30-10:30 p.m.
Credit Cards: MasterCard, Visa, American Express.
Access: Restrooms not accessible.
Hamersley's Bistro
Where: 553 Tremont St. Boston
Telephone: 617-423-2700
Prices: Appetizers $9-$15; main courses $22-$29; dessert $8.50-$10
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 6-10 p.m.; Sat. 5:30-10:30 p.m.; Sun. 5:30-9:30 p.m.
Credit Cards: All major cards.
Access: Fully accessible.
Henrietta's Table
Where: The Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Harvard Square, Cambridge.
Telephone: 617-864-1200
Prices: Appetizers $4.25-$8; main courses $11.50-$14.50; side dishes $3.50; desserts $5.75.
Hours: Breakfast Mon.-Fri. 6:30-11 a.m.; Sat. 7-11:30 a.m.; Sun. 7-10:30 a.m. Lunch Mon.-Sun. 12-3 p.m. Dinner Sun.-Thurs. 5:30-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5:30-11 p.m.
Credit Cards: All major cards except Discover.
Access: Fully accessible.
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Restaurant reviewed 04/29/99 by Sheryl Julian
France's King Henri IV was the model of a monarch who cared. He took over a suffering nation ravaged by the Wars of Religion. "I hope to make France so prosperous that every peasant will have a chicken in his pot on Sundays," he told the people.
Does it matter that he didn't mean it literally? Who can resist images of kettles simmering with barnyard fowls, golden birds turning on spits all over the countryside?
The public bought it again 300 years later when the Republican party borrowed the French slogan, and "a chicken in every pot" won a 1928 election.
Today, when the prosperous can eat anything they like, an ordinary chicken still has a magical effect. But the bird is roasted now, its flesh moist, its skin crisp and golden.
It's not an easy dish to serve in a restaurant. When Gordon and Fiona Hamersley opened Hamersley's Bistro in 1987 with butcher John Dewar's free-range chicken on the menu, they proved it could be done. Hamersley's Bistro still sets the standard and because it's so popular, Gordon Hamersley can't take it off the menu.
His chicken is plain, very French, loaded with garlic, tangy from lemon slices, sitting in aromatic juices smothered in fresh herbs. This is as elegant as roast chicken gets. Hamersley figured out that he could roast the chickens early in the day, chill them, cut them up and partially bone them, and then slip individual orders under the broiler to crisp the skin again.
With the flesh of the chicken sitting in a thin, but intense sauce of poultry juices, he didn't worry that it would dry out in this second cooking.
My chicken arrived with the leg-thigh portion upside down, so the skin sat in the sauce. The underside of the leg is much plumper than the top, so at first I thought this was intentionally upside-down. The breast skin was crisp, and meat almost creamy, so tender it didn't seem to need a knife. Nubbins of roast garlic surrounded the dish, with spears of roast potato and golden lemon slices that were slightly caramelized at the edges, vaguely reminiscent of old-fashioned sour lemon candies.
Everything on this menu defines understatement. A fish chowder was hardly creamy and lightly smoky; duck confit was crisp and rich, with a little tartlet of cabbage beside it. A chocolate souffle was deeply chocolatey, soft enough so that it still wiggled, and beautiful with vanilla custard sauce poured into it. Hamersley's reminds me of France. The yellow walls make everyone look good, and the place still has a fresh and exciting feeling.
When Steve Johnson, chef and co-owner of The Blue Room, ended his six-year stint at Hamersley's to open his own place, he figured he had made about 100,000 chickens by the time he left. His version is bold and deeply fragrant. He uses a dozen spices in tiny amounts, so nothing stands out. Cinnamon and cumin are in the air, and they're wonderful on this dark, delicious skin.
The flesh has that creamy quality Hamersley also achieves. Both are using Bell & Evans birds, which seems to be the choice of most chefs around town.
Sauteed Swiss chard was perfect with the spices, and garlic mashed potatoes weren't overpowering. Both sat in concentrated chicken juices cooked with capers and sherry vinegar.
Roast chicken at Claremont Cafe tasted a lot like the roast chicken I sometimes buy (and then regret I did) at Bread & Circus. In both places they look beautiful, but there is a dark, sweet sticky quality to the skin that I don't happen to like. At Claremont that came from soy sauce, or maybe from onions that go into the marinade before roasting. They seem to coat the skin with a glaze, which is why it's popular. Still, the flesh of the bird was moist and just right. Long strips of carrot were draped over the plate, which looked nice, but turned out to be hard as crudites.
I found a wonderful roast chicken at Henrietta's Table in the Charles Hotel. This place seems so hokey with the produce bins out front and the studied New England farmhouse look. Peter Davis, the chef, uses a rotisserie to cook his chickens. He rubs them with whole grain mustard, maple syrup, and horseradish, and a lot of fresh herbs. The spit flatters the chicken like nothing else. Davis's roast chicken was so moist, the skin so beautiful, it seemed like he must have had a special bird (he uses Bell & Evans like the others). He made a dark, thin red wine sauce with bits of the mustard and horseradish in it.
Henrietta's offers a la carte produce, so the chicken arrives by itself, and you get to order what you like. I ate buttered beets, a plate of roasted root vegetables, including rutabaga and parsnips, and baby potatoes in yellow, blue, and red.
Henri IV would have rubbed his ample belly and smiled.
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