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Dana’s Take on the Worcester Test Kitchen

Spiced Pork Spread From Niche Test Kitchen in Worcester

Spiced Pork Spread From Niche Test Kitchen in Worcester

Hidden in plain sight, right next to Mezcal, on the ground floor of a parking garage in Worcester is Niche Hospitality Group’s newest culinary destination, The Test Kitchen. This will be a place for the chefs to experiment with new or updated recipes and interact with the diners. It’s also a great chance for the patrons to interact with the chefs and ask them questions and give feedback, and they honestly want your honest feedback.

The chefs at Niche laid out a 6 course tasting menu for us titled Nose to Tail, with all the tastings, except for dessert, involving pork of some kind. This menu was absolutely delicious and featured something for pretty much everyone.

Pork Bratwurst with pickled vegetable relish: The bratwurst itself was fantastic. Firm and very flavorful with great texture. The pickled vegetable relish’s slightly acidic slant really worked well with the meat giving an overall pop of flavor that was excellent. The roll was soft and subtle, letting the meat take control.

Spiced Pork Spread: Pork pâté served with toasted baguette, pickled mustard seed and a couple local cheeses (goat and gouda). Served chilled, this reminded me more of a terrine than a pâté. The crisp, toasted bread was a great counterpoint to the soft, creamy pork, generating a great mix of textures and a pretty intense flavor. A little of this goes a long way, it’s packed with taste, but not overpowering when taken with the bread. The soft creamy goat cheese also provided a punch of flavor and held up very well with the pork providing an overall great taste.

Banh Mi Poutine: French fries with shredded port, pickled vegetables, soy mayo, sliced fresh jalapeño and cilantro. For this being a french fry plate, this was not heavy at all. The picked veggies and jalapeño gave this dish a great bite and refreshing feel rather than the dense heavy look it had. The rich taste of the pork was softened by the crisp pickled vegetables with the jalapeño giving this a decent amount of heat without being overpowering. Overall, this was a terrific mix of flavors and a great dish that should be on a menu somewhere.

Oaxacan Chorizo Tacos: Crumbled pork chorizo with a saffron corn salsa, creamy adobo sauce, fresh radish and cilantro, served on a housemade corn tortilla. Another great mix of textures and flavors. The chorizo was strong and flavorful and the adobo sauce complemented the chorizo perfectly, creating a delicious overall flavor. The cold corn salsa played against the hot meat perfectly and together this was a fantastic taco, both exploding with flavor while not being too heavy.

Sopecitos de Carnitas: Mini masa sopes topped with pork, avacado salsa, black beans, habanero oil and cotija cheese. This dish was yet another fantastic marriage of textures and flavors. The sope’s soft texture and mild flavor balanced the strong, smoky pork and sauce perfectly. Each solo was very good, but together both parts are elevated, making a truly excellent dish.

Porchetta con Pimenton: Slow roasted porchetta with pickled onions, shaved carrot salad and crushed marcona. My favorite dish of the evening. The skin was crunchy and exploding with flavor while the meat itself was juicy, tender and delicious. Each and every bite of this was a wonderful experience. This was so packed with flavor and so rich, I couldn’t eat a ton, but what I did was truly wonderful.

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Hot and spicy at The Fix Burger Bar

Hot and spicy at The Fix Burger Bar on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

Hot and spicy at The Fix Burger Bar on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

Are you like me and get excited when a new restaurant opens in Worcester? Even more so when someone introduces a new and refreshing concept? So when The Fix Burger Bar (part of Niche Hospitality Group) started teasing us with photos of their artisan burgers prior to opening it got me thinking I need to check this place out.

Just a short time after opening, Worcester Foodies made its way to The Fix. While it’s the former Mezcal location on Shrewsbury Street (Mezcal is now located on Major Taylor Boulevard in Worcester), The Fix now has more of a low key casual hang with friends feel – someplace where a burger and spiked shake would be comforting.

The Fix has a diverse enough menu that I am sure a group of friends each could find what they enjoyed the most – from beef, tuna or veggie burgers, a pretty good selection of “big fix” salads and even some main plates should you not want a burger. To get us started, we asked the waitress what were the favorites and the smile on our her face when she said tater tots told us we needed to order them. The blue cheese polenta tater tots were like soft pillows of polenta lightly crisped up to hold them together served with 2 complimentary dipping sauces- mild ranch or my preference buffalo spicy. The taters could have been more crisp to make it easier to enjoy the dipping sauces. But just enough taters to hold us over until the main dish.

Since The Fix opened, all I heard from friends who had already been here was get a burger, you won’t be disappointed. So burger it was going to be, but which one as there were 11 plus burgers (including create your own), I debated for a few minutes until I saw the “The Green Chili” burger and knew that was what I was having. Give me some spice and you made my day. My burger came loaded high with roasted poblano and jalapeno, softened and nicely ripe avocado, habanero cheddar cheese and rounding out the flavor some home made cilantro mayo – all served on a fresh sesame roll. Spicy with the kick I wanted but not overwhelming that I could not enjoy the burger. The burger alone was enough but it did come with a side of regular fries – normally I skip the fries but I went for it and swapped them out for veggie fries which were lightly battered and slightly crisp.

To round out my meal, I knew I could not leave without trying their speciality cocktail creations or “remedies” – my choice was the “Old Fashioned” Remedy, an adult root beer tasting treat kicked up with some whiskey and served over an ice snowball that melted so slowly allowing me to savor the flavors. Such a yummy taste that everyone wanted to try.

Niche Hospitality has another hit in the Worcester dining scene – if you are looking for a casual, low key place but with great food and creative drinks, The Fix is the spot! Get your friends out for burger night!