I was at the diner. My cell phone rang. It was Laura.
"So where are you going to dinner again?"
"I already told you."
"Yeah, but I can't remember."
"Shazz," I whispered.
"What?"
"Jesus, don't make me say it out loud in public."
"Just tell me the name, Jay."
"Shazz," I said a little bit louder.
"Shazz?"
"Yeah."
"Seriously?" she asked, laughing. "Oh my god..."
Shazz: Stupid name, great restaurant. And to think I almost skipped eating here simply because I couldn't stand the handle or the weird philosophizing on the website. And after I walked in the door of this new place on Lowell Boulevard, the culinary agitprop on the floor gave me more cause to be nervous.
But my first meal at Shazz made it clear that one thing mattered above all: The food was excellent, prepared by a talented kitchen working off a menu that wouldn't have worked at all had it not been executed with such careful expertise.
Just goes to show, I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover.
Or a restaurant by its name, as this week's review of Shazz makes clear. And I expound further on the rules of reviewing in this week's Bite Me, which also includes an interview with Noel Cunningham about his new chef at Strings.
