The Boston-area restaurants to visit (or skip) this Halloween
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From left, the bathroom and dining room of Shore Leave in Boston. Photo: Steph Solis/Axios
Steph here. Halloween is as good an opportunity as any to draw new customers, but few Boston-area restaurants go all out.
The intrigue: Spooky season demands more than some orange streamers and a skeleton posted up at the host stand.
I sifted through countless influencer reels and pitch emails and found three that stood out:
💸 Silhouette Lounge: Biggest bang for your buck.
- The Allston institution is serving $10 specialty drinks this week like the Ghoul, a vodka drink with melon liqueur and pineapple.
- Feeling adventurous? The Ghost is a Kahlua, cola and Baileys float. (It tastes way better than it sounds.)
Yes, and: It wouldn't be the Silhouette without a hot dog special, a $10 Frank 'n Stein meal that pairs a hot dog with a pumpkin beer.
🕷️ Wusong Road: Best aesthetic.
- I debated whether to include Wusong Road. This Harvard Square Tiki bar went all out with elaborate craft cocktails named after Lovecraft Country references, costumed staff, massive spiders and other creepy decorations.
Yes, but: This is a case of the aesthetics outshining food and drinks.
- The $18 Serpent's Yig was mostly ice, and the duck confit on the Halloween menu was served cold. It was delicious, but not worth the $19.
🛸 Shore Leave: Best of both worlds.
- It's a shame Shore Leave is closing at the end of the year because the restaurant has one of the best Halloween makeovers in the city.
- The bloody handprints in the stairwell, tabloid-style menus paying homage to the UFO magazines that once graced grocery store checkout lines and the kooky cocktails made the experience worth it, even at $17 a drink.
If you go: Check out Phaeng & Phiu's menu there.
- Chef Leo Robert's Laotian pop-up runs in the space until the end of the year.