At first blush, the expansive, shimmering Woods Hill Pier 4—opening this week on the footprint of a bygone Boston dining destination—might feel like any glass-walled restaurant anchoring a new, luxury tower in the Seaport District. But Woods Hill Pier 4, the Boston debut for MetroWest restaurateur Kristin Canty, brings soulful, farm-fresh fine dining to a neighborhood now typified by modern steel-and-glass towers, employing a hyperlocal ethos that informs everything from the food to the familial spirit.
Woods Hill Pier 4 opens for dinner on Tuesday, Nov. The Pier 4 location offers small and large plates meant for sharing in the citified space, rather than more traditional appetizers and entrees. Along with farm-fresh herbs, fruits, and sweeteners, the full bar uses local spirits when available. The beer and cider list is entirely New England-sourced. Canty, who produced and directed a documentary called Farmaggeddon about government control of farming, also owns Adelita , a taqueria and tequila bar in West Concord.
The seat, waterfront restaurant has a nautical theme seen beyond the panoramic views of Boston Harbor. Find it at Pier Four Blvd. For Canty, it all comes back to the principles of ancestral foods, which she credits with curing one of her children of a life plagued with severe allergies.
Nose-to-tail cooking is another important piece of the Woods Hill ethos. The drinks, too, follow the theme, with the selection featuring small-batch, local distillers such as Bully Boy and Privateer; organic and biodynamic wines; and the like. The beer list — which is entirely local Barewolf, Night Shift, etc. The Seaport District as a whole is rapidly changing, with skyscrapers sprouting up on every available parcel of land on the once-desolate waterfront.
The patio space — once weather permits — seems poised to be one of the nicest outdoor dining areas in the neighborhood. The next night, Greece. The mob caps on the waitresses, the puffy sleeves on the waiters, the dimpled amber glass of the tumblers — they were all ersatz New England.
The restaurant was decorated with symbols that every diner could read instantly and without error. This was olde Boston, presented with clarity and comfort. I have no memory of eating any fish at Pier 4, but I will never forget the steam rising from a newly opened popover, this mysterious food object that neither my parents nor I had ever seen anywhere else. In the months between Pier 4 visits, my parents would recall this delicacy with relish and with some amusement, laughing as they pronounced the word unknowingly incorrectly: pop-OH-ver.
To us, the popover was no simple New England carbohydrate. Opened by Anthony Athanas in on what was then a utilitarian stretch of Boston waterfront, Pier 4 quickly became the prime spot for important events. When you needed or wanted to impress people, whether they were business associates, political adversaries or future in-laws, you brought them to Pier 4.
When Anthony came to the table, my parents would speak to him in Greek. But he offered this information as a sort of apology.
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