The AC Hotel Boston North at Medford was our base for the week while we were on business in Boston. It was a very well appointed hotel, the rooms were big and spacious and it was very comfortable.
Location wise it was pretty near to a whole bunch of restaurants at Assembly place. This was just a 5-10 minute walk over the Mystic River and as it was unseasonably warm on our visit for the time of year we made that walk a lot!
When we needed to rest up for a while we spent a little time checking out what the hotel bar had to offer, as you do.
I tried out most of the local beers that they had from the Bent Water Brewing Company and also some of the bar food.
What was the best stuff we ‘snacked on’? Well let me tell you 🙂
The Charcuterie Plate
The Charcuterie Plate was described as ‘Gourmet Cured Meats and Assorted Cheeses. It actually turned out to be the Cheese Plate with meat, so you got the Manchego, the Brie, Quince paste, and Fig Jam plus a load of other bits for just $5 more
It was great as a bar snacking station, the meats were great little items, tightly rolled up slices of proscuttio and maybe some sort of ham or salumi.
The cheese was really tasty and even though I am not a Blue cheese fan I actually quite enjoyed the Brie. I love Manchego and I would have been happier if someone had dropped a few crackers on the plate to add some contrast to my bite and to ease the cheese.
I know that there was some bread, but sadly that bread was smeared with all that paste and jam ‘stuff’. just give me some toast and stick that ‘stuff’ on the side please.
I really don’t know why there was a sliced strawberry on the tray, I suppose it made a nice pictorial presentation to go alongside that bit of wooden architecture featuring a pickled onion and a slug like gherkin.
Crispy Sea Salt Potatoes
I quite liked the tray of Crispy Sea Salt Potatoes which actually for once looked like what we call chips in the UK.
They were topped with a sprinkling of Smoked Paprika and came with a Roasted Garlic Aioli. That was really nice and went so well with these potato treats
The menu mentioned ‘EVOO’, which had me stumped for a while until I realised that was ‘Extra Virgin Olive Oil’ 🙂
Local Beer – Lady Vacay
The bar was offering four types of beer in cans from the Bent Water Brewing Company and lets be honest we all know that I did sample all four of them. I mean I like to conduct my food and drink research correctly, ‘Lady Vacay’, ‘Pearl‘, ‘Lynn Light’, and ‘Viskis‘ were the ones on offer.
One of the best tasting ones was called ‘Lady Vacay’ which they describe as a “Bourgie little blonde with a salty side. Brewed with Wheat and Sea Salt, this Summer Girl sips like a saint and swears like a sailor”
It was really refreshing and even though it was listed as being 5% ABV it did not seem to be too strong. That maybe perhaps because the cans were small and the beer was served real cold 🙂
Pearl Beer
The other beer that I really enjoyed at the Hotel Bar was the “Pearl’ which was an ‘American Wheat Ale’. The website described this well as a ‘Conservatively hopped and aggressively carbonated, Pearl allows a malted wheat backbone to shine through. Pearl is soft on the mouth with just a touch of hop bitterness’
That description was way better than the one that I wrote down! I found it to be one of those ‘easy drinking’ beers that hide a little hoppy secret backnote with every mouthful!
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The AC Marriott Boston North is located at 95 Station Landing, Medford, MA 02155
It is next to the Wellington Stop on the Orange Line