The December Hit List: Bar Volpe, Orfano, Yvonne’s, and More

Located just a few blocks from her name-making Modenese restaurant Fox & The Knife, chef Karen Akunowicz’s second venture retains the focus on freshly made pasta but switches its gaze to Southern Italy and wood-fired cooking. What that translates to is plates of tangy lemon spaghetti with Jonah crab and breadcrumbs, or thin sheets of handkerchief pasta folded into braised chicken, Tuscan kale, and chanterelles in a rich Marsala sauce. It all goes down in a sleek, wood-filled space that looks like it could have been the first-class dining car on the Rome-to-Milan route circa 1963.

Tiffani Faison’s gleefully over-the-top Italian-American steakhouse has fully reopened for the first time since the spring of 2020. You’ll find the plush velvet banquettes and golden chandeliers exactly where you left them, alongside lobster bucatini in a brown butter sauce, 16-ounce veal porterhouse steaks served with garlic and shallot bone marrow butter, and a decadent shellfish cioppino that counts king crab and a whole lobster among its frutti di mare. As always, a roving martini cart will be on hand to quench all cravings for ice-cold gin cocktails tableside.

The Charles Hotel’s newest occupant has opened just as the drop in temperature has us craving Italian cooking at its most comforting. To that end, Bar Enza steps up with mezze rigatoni in a Tuscan-style meat ragu, “Shake & Bake” hake with garlic breadcrumbs and lemon butter, or a pork, beef and veal “meatball gigante” with tomato sugo and potato puree. The sides, including rosemary fried tots and pumpkin polenta, are just as stick-to-your-ribs nourishing.

After falling fallow for close to four months due to repairs, Boston’s premier cocktail bar is back — along with its first-ever menu, focused on classics and house originals. So, on your next visit, you might opt for a Cognac-based French 75, a Kingston Negroni spruced up by Jamaican rum, or a Fort Point made with rye, Benedictine and Punt e Mes. Or for old time’s sake, you can always leave it to the bartender and see what happens.

Walk-ins only.

December brings two pieces of important lunch-related news to the little DTX natural wine bar. Firstly, haley.henry has resumed its Saturday lunch, affording diners the chance to pair beef sliders with fried shallots and horseradish aioli with a Georgian saperavi before the sun has even set. And during every Friday of this month, haley.henry will be serving a prix fixe holiday lunch menu that includes hamachi mille feuille, burrata with vanilla quince and pomegranate seeds, stuffed quail with black garlic jus, and a brown butter cake with preserved lemon cream.

In other lunch developments, Michael Serpa’s South End tapas bar has decided to get in on the midday meal. A daytime visit to its airy dining room might yield sandwiches like a pressed Cubano with mojo pork or the hamburguesa with salsa brava, a fried egg, and pickled onions, in addition to lighter tapas like brussels sprouts with caramelized shallot jam or salt cod croquettes with squid ink aioli.

For reservations, call the restaurant at 857-233-2898.

Maccabee Bar has returned for another bite at the latke, and the boozy Hanukkah pop-up will again be hosted by Variety Bar at Bow Market through December 12th. While that second-floor venue is where you’ll be sitting down to Latke Sours and Everything Bagel Martinis, other Bow Market vendors are getting in on the fun: Saus will fry up latkes, Hooked will provide house-cured lox, and Lionheart Confections will tender jelly-filled donuts.

Yvonne’s will receive a visit from the Ghost of Restaurants Past each Friday this month, as it revives the celebrated holiday lunch of its predecessor Locke-Ober. The fare is old-school Yankee decadence from top to bottom, with clubby dishes including lobster and Gruyere-stuffed colossal shrimp, black truffle roast chicken with duck fat potatoes and Madeira gravy, and sticky toffee pudding or Baked Alaska for dessert.

For reservations, call the restaurant at 617-267-0047.

After skipping a year, Shore Leave has again decked its subterranean halls in high Christmas-kitsch for another installment of Sippin’ Santa. Through December 31st, you’ll find a new menu of tropical yuletide drams like the Regifter made with rhum agricole and pineapple-garam masala syrup; the Azul Navidad with tequila, mezcal, cream of coconut, and hazelnut liqueur; or a served-hot Yule Log Grog with gin, falernum, and cranberry syrup. In addition, Shore Leave will be serving a special menu of Old-Fashioneds prepared with their own proprietary rums.

In even further lunch news, Time Out Market has tweaked its hours to begin serving at 11:30 a.m. every weekday. This should prove a welcome development to anyone who craves a Cusser’s hot lobster roll with beurre rogue or chicken curry and waffle fries from Ms. Cluck’s Deluxe pre-supper. It’s also worth noting that the venue’s other Tim and Nancy Cushman concept, Gogo Ya, has returned after its hiatus to again sell crispy nori tacos filled with torched hamachi and truffled jalapeno butter or spicy tuna with yuzu kosho-ponzu mayo.