In Woburn, The Fox Den is the ideal winter refuge for pierogis and more
Where to The Fox Den
Why For Polish and Portuguese comfort food — especially pierogi — plus weekly trivia nights and live music.
The backstory The Fox Den is the first full-service restaurant from brothers Adam and Ryan Dziki and Adam’s wife, Julie Dziki, the trio behind popular pierogi pop-up Wild Fox. The family launched the business five years ago, drawing a following at breweries such as Lamplighter and Night Shift. For years, they worked out of Foundation Kitchen, a commissary in Somerville. The restaurant launched in November.
The low-lit 72-seat restaurant has all the cozy warmth of a den, and this is a larger venue for the family to showcase their not-quite-fusion, but definitely creative, recipes.
“Dziki translates to ‘wild,’ and my maiden name, Raposo, translates to ‘fox.’ We thought it was cute and fun. And foxes live in a den,” Julie Dziki explains.
What to eat Warming Polish and Portuguese staples with a contemporary twist. Before the pop-up, chef Ryan cooked at Cambridge’s Puritan & Company and Salem’s Bit Bar. Adam, who works behind the scenes, is a software engineer for restaurant management software platform Toast — and both brothers, who are Polish, grew up working in Merrimack Valley pizzerias.
Julie, who’s from the New Bedford area, is a longtime bartender. She’s half Polish and half Portuguese.
“We’re all third-generation. We didn’t want to make traditional food and have someone say, ‘Oh, my babcia’s food wasn’t like this!’ We didn’t want to dishonor any of that,” she says.
And so their pierogi, a Polish dumpling, is bigger and less doughy than traditional versions, with an emphasis on fillings: potato-cheddar-scallion; spicy Buffalo chicken; mushroom marsala; veggie pot pie; pulled pork marinated in mango habanero sauce; and a seasonal “Bunnicula” made with carrots, parsnips, and curried potato. Haluski mac and cheese repurposes pierogi dough and tops it with cheddar, Monterey Jack, and mozzarella.
On the (slightly) lighter side, there’s a sunset-orange Portuguese fried rice, bathed in saffron, Sazon, and Aleppo pepper swirled with soft onions, linguica, and chorizo, tossed with a biting peri-peri vinegar sauce. There’s also a thick, magenta chlodnik, or Polish cold beet soup, topped with an angel egg.
“Angel eggs are deviled eggs, but not spicy,” she says.
There are also plenty of bar staples with a Polish-Portuguese spin: thincrust pizzas smeared with irresistibly sweet tomato sauce, topped with clams, potatoes, kielbasa, kale, or even saltroasted beets. Grilled cheeses are stuffed with kielbasa, horseradish, and sauerkraut, or linguica with sauteed peppers. Save room for a trio of malasadas — Portuguese fried dough balls, rolled in white sugar — which is a Fox Den specialty.
“This is an eggier fried dough,” she explains. “When you’d go to Portuguese festivals, at the church I grew up in as a kid, the ladies’ guild made them as a fund-raiser. They were the size of your head. Ours are a little smaller.”
Not by much. Get them with a side of chocolate ganache.
What to drink The Fox Den has a creative cocktail program, overseen by Julie Dziki. The Beetini is a point of pride, a brew of Polish Luksusowa vodka and homemade salt-roasted-beet juice with apple and ginger puree. (The bar stocks other Polish vodkas, too.) She also recommends the Fire Fox, a rumbased concoction made with ginger brandy and brown sugar syrup, with a Togarashi spice rim. For something truly warming, try the Port Wine Manhattan, made with bourbon, red port, and maple syrup. Spirits are procured locally whenever possible, with a spotlight on Everett’s Short Path gin, a pop-up partner.
The takeaway Just the place to seek refuge from a wild New England winter, with hearty recipes, bracing drinks, and friendly service.
482 Main St., Woburn. 781-3053869, www.thefoxdenwoburn.com