Named Best New Restaurant in 2011 by the James Beard Foundation, ABC Kitchen perpetuates its newness through a seasonally changing menu of fresh, locally grown cuisine. Today’s Groupon Reserve bids you and a companion to sample the season’s inventions with a five-course tasting menu that includes:
- One item from the market table
- One appetizer
- One pasta dish
- One entree
- One dessert<p>
Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten adheres to a 70% local standard when devising recipes for ABC Kitchen, whose chic, chandelier-lit interior follows suit with sustainable décor such as salvaged-wood tables and porcelain dinnerware crafted by a regional artisan. At the start of five-course feasts, duos can dive deep into autumn flavors such as roasted squash with parmesan and lemon, and then float back to the surface with line-caught tuna sashimi dressed in crisp ginger and mint. Each house-made ricotta ravioli transports a blend of fresh herbs from ABC Kitchen’s rooftop garden to chintop teeth, preparing mouths for the rich, robust flavors of a roast suckling pig entree, flanked by plum-and-smoked-bacon marmalade and braised turnips. A sampling of warm donuts drizzled with vanilla cream and bacon-fudge brings dinner to a close with a touch of breakfast.
Booth Bay Whale Watch
For more than three decades, Booth Bay Whale Watch has escorted spectators fascinated by the sea's magnificent giants on three- to four-hour treks 15 miles off the Gloucester coast. Passengers on the 115-foot professionally piloted Hurricane II can witness the natural grace of humpback whales, finback whales, dolphins, and pirates disguised as mermaids cavorting in the depths. In the course of the approximately 60-mile circuit, a member of Planet Whale narrates excursions, illumining the sight of each water dweller by discussing why whales breach, how to recognize individual humpbacks, and various feeding styles.