Stoddard's Fine Food & Ale

Stoddard's Fine Food & Ale opens next month at 50 Temple Place in Boston’s Ladder District. Located in a 1868 building, painstakingly researched and rehabilitated for the past two years, Stoddard's contains enough artifacts, ephemera and ambiance to satisfy the most demanding history-architecture-mixology buffs.

Stoddard's gastropub menu, developed by local chef Mark Cina (who has worked at KO Prime, Central Kitchen, Ivy, Rendevous and Craigie Street Bistro) is designed to complement Baroque era cocktails, select wine list, five cask ales and 140 beers. Appetizers and entrees are seasonal and extensively house-made. Dinner will be served nightly Tuesday through Sunday from 5pm-1am and the bar will be open from 4pm-2am. Sunday Cask Ale Brunch will be served for $24 prix fixe

Their debut menu will include some of the following:

Appetizers such as: House Charcuterie Plate (housemade pates, terrines, and salami with pickles and toast); Smoked Trout & Endive Salad (pickled grapes, quince-almond vinaigrette), Aged Gouda & Cask Ale Pudding (English style cheese pudding made with local cask conditioned ale served with toasted brioche and housemade pretzel bites); Bergamot Glazed Veal Cheek (porcini-marrow sauce, pickled chanterelles) and Clams Casino (stuffed with shrimp and bacon, served with lemon remoulade).

Entrees such as: Stoddard's Burger (prime chuck and short rib burger, chiffonade lettuce, smoked tomato jam, fresh onion. B&B pickles); Ballotine of Vermont Rabbit (boneless rabbit stuffed with rabbit mousse and wrapped in prosciutto. Served with glazed salsify and stewed prunes); Mushroom Stuffed Quail (Calvados glaze, quail egg sausage, sage and chestnut bread pudding, apple brown-butter emulsion); Saddle of Roast Monkfish (pecan sauce, sweet potato gnocchi, cippolini onion, house made pancetta); and Grilled Hangar Steak over Braised Oxtail (pomme frites, three peppercorn aioli, brandy jus).

Sure to raise some eyebrows and controversy, there will also be a gentlemen-only Friday Club at Stoddard's, on the lower level with a private entry (by invitation only) reminiscent of a speakeasy. How long will it take before the protests start? It should be interesting.