Cuisine guaranteed to enchant you
Creative restaurant scene turns Witch City into a home for ghoulishly good delights
Salem. The name alone conjures spectres of skeletal tree branches stretching toward a misty, moonlit Massachusetts sky, menacing black-cloaked Puritans, and witches, ghosts and ghouls lurking around every brick-paved corner.
It’s true that Salem has earned and cultivated its spooky reputation as the Halloween capital of the world. Yet in recent years, the Witch City has also become a food city, dense with creative restaurants, cafés, patisseries, breweries, a distillery and, just like any selfrespecting foodie town, a food tour.
Tucked on a quiet side street in the heart of downtown is A&J King Artisan Bakers (ajkingbakery.com), where husband-and-wife team Andy and Jackie King craft a delicious array of breads, pastries and sweet treats made from locally sourced, seasonally available ingredients.
The cosy, rustic-industrial space is packed with locals sipping coffee, knitting, reading the newspaper and catching up with friends around small, copper-topped tables. Tuck into featured breakfast pastries such as the savoury mushroom croissant ($4.25 U.S.), redolent with oyster mushrooms, goat cheese, shallots and thyme, or the pain au raisin ($3.65) made with rum from Salem’s own Deacon Giles Distillery.
And everything — down to the caramel syrup swirled through cappuccinos, chai for lattes and chocolate ganache — is made on site.
Salem was one of America’s most important seaports for international trade in spices, tea, silks and other exotic goods during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. That maritime legacy means sampling seafood is de rigueur, and Sea Level Oyster Bar (sealeveloysterbar.com) offers the perfect spot, perched at the edge of Salem Harbor on Picker- ing Wharf and overlooking the Salem National Maritime Historic Site and Derby Wharf Light Station.
Alfresco dining on the deck is lovely during warm weather, but scenic views are guaranteed any time of year in the expansive, two-floor restaurant. As the name promises, the oysters (market price) at Sea Level’s raw bar play a starring role on the menu, but there are lots of New England classics for those who aren’t fans of the briny bivalves, including densely packed lobster rolls (market price); rich, buttery, crumbled-Ritz-cracker-topped seafood pie ($22); and creamy New England clam chowder ($7). If seafood isn’t your thing, you’re still in luck, thanks to options including sweet potato, kale and goat cheese pizza ($13). Bambolina ( bambolinarestaurant.com) is serious about its Neapolitan-style pizza without being even a little bit pretentious about it.
Shared plates are standouts and there are lots of options, such as Italian street corn ($6) — roasted corn on the cob loaded with a tangy mix of house Caesar dressing, ricotta salata and grana Padano cheeses, and a healthy dash of Espelette pepper powder — the garlicky, fireroasted Castelvetrano olives ($6), and the zucchini “ceviche,” a light salad of greens, zucchini ribbons, ricotta salata and lemon dressing. The charcuterie is another great shared option, whether you choose individual plates such as the rabbit and pork pâté ($11) and corned beef tongue ($8).
For dinner, it’s all about the pizza. For purists, there’s the Margherita ($13.50): crispy edges, soft interior, topped with tomato, pecorino and mozzarella and whole fresh basil leaves.
Then there’s the sweet, savoury and super-satisfying Beef & Blue ($16.50) with cured beef, gorgonzola cheese, caramelized pearl onions and the gentlest hint of honey. Wash it all down with wines by the glass or bottle, or craft beers, such as the Greenhead IPA, made just up the coast by Newburyport Brewing.