Restaurants in Beverly Cove

Spices from West Africa and steaks from Portugal unite at Bossa Nova Steakhouse, where chefs celebrate Brazilian cuisine’s variegated influences with colorful buffets and 15 kinds of meat. Diners can signal roving waiters to sidle up to tables and slice off choice cuts from swords bearing top sirloin, pork sausage, or chicken wrapped in bacon. Occasional live music lends a festive air to the dining room, whose colorful posters evoke the grandeur of the soaring mountains and cerulean harbors of Brazil. In another corner, diners savor their meaty feasts beneath a colorful wall of old bossa nova records which, with an ear placed against them, curiously sound like late-century hip-hop.

Referencing a revolving menu of bistro fare, the chefs at Melissa's Main Street Bistro carefully plate grilled seafood and meats with seasonal vegetables and sauces. They braise short ribs and pair them with a choice of starch, vegetable, and sauce, and help linguine win games of hide-and-seek by burying the noodles in the seafood fra diavolo's cornucopia of haddock, calamari, salmon, shrimp, mussels, and lobster. Armed with ladles and small plates, they dole out daily soups and tapas that accent the savory meals. The bar offers glimpses into the kitchen, and the eatery's large windows funnel sunlight from outside, where a maroon awning hovers over flower boxes that pepper the sidewalk as gracefully as a hopscotch course leading to etiquette school.

Dinner at Brazilian Steakhouse is a prix-fixe feast: all-you-can-eat portions of bacon-wrapped filet mignon, leg of lamb, and parmesan pork loin reside next to broccoli rabe sautéed with shallots and white wine. More than 70 wines complement these massive meals, including champagnes that sparkle in the light from the dining room's patterned window screens. Diners can ask for wine recommendations from the restaurant's attentive waiters, whose excellent service garnered the steak house a Diners' Choice Award in 2012 and a high-five from Transylvanians who made special requests because of their garlic "allergies."

Growing up in a village outside of Palermo, Italy, owner and head chef Vito Santangelo heard the word "gioia," Italian for "joy," whenever one of his aunts or uncles pinched his cheeks, according to a 2006 feature in The Boston Globe. In addition to inspiring his restaurant's name, such memories of family and community inspired his menu's dedication to comforting, homestyle Italian food. The chefs blanch handmade pastas, bake their own breads, and painstakingly roll meatballs into perfect replicas of Earth's secret moon.

In the restaurant's two dining rooms, leafy plants and vines adorn the Tuscan-yellow and burnt-sienna walls while gentle candlelight on each table encourages diners to recreate scenes from The Aeneid with shadow puppets.

From house-made pasta to fish sliced and hauled from less than a mile away, the chefs at North End Café draw upon locally sourced ingredients as frequently as possible. Their menu allows patrons to mastermind their own meals by selecting a meat, seafood, or eggplant centerpiece for a variety of dishes. For the putanesca, chefs coat chicken, shrimp, calamari, haddock, or scallops in tomato sauce, and parmigiana dishes center on eggplant, chicken, or veal. Head chef David Ventola helps patrons bolster palates or check in on a grape they released into the wild at wine dinners. During the dinners, David and connoisseurs from Our Glass Wine Company match entrees with compatible beverages, fueling a chorus of clinking glasses and sated sighs.

Trattoria Bella Mia's historic Cabot Street location bespeaks a rich and cultured dining experience. The neat brick exterior gives way to a warm restaurant setting where creatively tweaked Italian classics thrive—patrons can savor pork tenderloin at tables or compose sonnets to beef carpaccio at the bar, whose overhanging lanterns cast down just enough light to read minds by. Diners are reminded of the fun of feasting by the nightly shrimp-juggling competitions and regularly scheduled live music. House favorites NightCap play the songs of yesterday and today, with vocals contributed by Katie O'Brien and chords from Steve Coffill's ticklish keyboards.