The Meal that Stopped Us In Our Tracks
One of the best things about this business is that we have the opportunity to eat out. A lot. Usually a number of times a week. We’re also lucky to live in a place where we get to experience many very good meals, and even quite a few great ones. And every once in a while, we have a meal that stops us in our tracks.
That happened this week.
Majestic opened in late 2024 in the converted car rental building on the rotary in the South End. Earlier this year, James Beard-nominated chef Micah Tavelli took over the kitchen, bringing his creativity to a simple, focused concept: a neighborhood eatery with no reservations, no website, no phone number, and food that lets the ingredients do the talking.
We'd been to Majestic once before, and it was excellent. As the weeks went by, we'd heard the same thing over and over…that it's so busy and so hard to get into, and we just didn’t make the effort. But on Tuesday night, we decided to take a chance.
Nothing prepared us for the meal we had.
The first thing I noticed when we walked in and sat at the bar was the music…could that be Squeeze? Sure enough, behind the bar sat a turntable, and spinning on it was Singles…one of my all-time favorite albums from college, and one I hadn't listened to in probably thirty years. I asked the bartender, and she confirmed it. We sat down at the bar, and before a single dish had arrived, I knew it was going to be a good night.
It turned out to be far better than that.
It's rare that a dinner makes us say “Wow,” out loud, over and over, for an entire evening. This week at Majestic, we said it probably fifty times as we continued to order dishes, because we couldn’t seem to stop.
We started with Burlington's own Tremolo Bread, served with cultured butter pooled in good olive oil, along with the yellowfin tuna. That tuna was simply an explosion of flavor, as well as being beautiful to look at. Slices of gorgeous fish over a vivid base of green garlic, finished with salsa macha and preserved lemon, alive with brightness, depth and heat. Again…wow.
The beautiful yellowfin tuna
This turned us into asparagus people.
Then came the asparagus. We almost didn't order it, as we are not “asparagus people.” But the menu had us wanting to try everything, so in it went…and whatever chef Micah Tavelli does to that vegetable had us raving. Ricotta, green garlic, parmesan. Another flavor explosion, from a dish we never saw coming.
The beef tartare came next, on a swoosh of ramp purée, dotted with fermented carrots and dill flowers, as pretty as anything we've been served at a white-tablecloth restaurant and more delicious than most.
Then, lobster spaghetti. Butter, lemon, Calabrian chili, and a whole lot of lobster piled on a tangle of perfectly cooked pasta, finished with chives and a charred lemon half. More “Holy cows!” were uttered.
Lobster Spaghetti
Yes, that’s dessert.
We finished with the malt chocolate ice cream, and we'll be honest…when we read "potato anglaise and shoestring potato,” we weren't exactly sure what we were getting into. What arrived was a dark, almost black, glossy sphere of the silkiest ice cream, sitting in a pool of that potato anglaise and topped with a nest of crispy shoestring potato. It was incredible…the kind of dessert that makes you glad you made room even when you didn’t plan to.
There was also something about this spot that the food alone doesn't capture…the room was just incredibly fun. The three staff members working that night — tending bar, running food, keeping the whole place humming — were all incredibly engaging, warm, and happy people who made it a joy to sit at the bar. They mixed up an excellent “Everything’s Fine” cocktail (mezcal, lime, agave, Grand Marnier, tajin) for Mike, and cheerfully poured a glass of Schplink! Grüner Veltliner for me. And they followed Squeeze with Paul McCartney's greatest hits. We didn't really want to leave.
Majestic is an employee-owned neighborhood eatery with no website, no phone number, and no reservations…but they do ask that you be nice to each other, which is printed right there on the menu. Their hours have also evolved into something a little more traditional for a restaurant: they’re now open Monday through Saturday from 5 to 10. When they first opened, they were closed on weekends in the name of work-life balance for their staff. We respect the intention. But we're glad they came around.
Stop waiting. Get to Majestic.
