The April Hit List: Faccia a Faccia, Wig Shop, Cicada, and More

Faccia a Faccia marks the start of its first full spring season the only way the coastal Italian restaurant knows how: by serving verde vongole with green tagliatelle, Manila clams, razor clams, green crab oil, and vermouth cream. That is, of course, just a sampling of the new menu offerings, which also include grilled Scituate lobster with chile butter and Venetian lasagna made with duck and harissa tomato sauce.

After more than a half-year in operation, the Downtown cocktail lounge has dropped its first menu update. This should be received as good news if you’re the kind of person who’d enjoy a Grey Pearl made with gin, sake, jasmine tea, lemon, and egg white; and doubly so if you’d also consider the Buckle Up prepared with bourbon, blueberry, togarashi, and sesame oil.

Some restaurant names make their offerings a mystery: others broadcast the fare loud and clear. Matsunori proudly belongs to the latter camp. And should any doubts remain, the restaurant — which has softly opened steps from Fenway Park — is prepared to clear them up with hand rolls stuffed by the likes of shrimp tempura and mango salsa or A5 wagyu beef seasoned by truffle salt.

Walk-ins only.

You may know that the arty Vietnamese café has earned a following for its banh mi, noodle salads, and specialty coffee drinks like the Sea Saltshaker, prepared with Maine sea salt and sweetened condensed milk. What you may not know is that Cicada is now also hosting dinner service, for which you can make a Resy to enjoy heartier dishes like lemongrass oxtail stew.

10 years in, Cassie Piuma’s Winter Hill Turkish meyhane is the definition of going strong. Even after a decade, reservations still must be made weeks in advance. And if you don’t understand what all the fuss is about, a well-timed Resy and a few bites of brisket shawarma with pineapple hilbeh or scallop dolmades with miso avgolemono should bring you up to speed.

In a piece of good donut news (is there any other?) Back Door Donuts has expanded from Martha’s Vineyard to Fenway, with a new walk-up window location that may be found directly behind Loretta’s Last Call. And should you have any trouble locating it, just look for the line of pre- or post-Sox game attendees queuing on the corner for maple bacon donuts or oversized apple fritters.

Walk-ins only.

More than six months after its pandemic-era comeback, Wink & Nod has refreshed its drink menu. The newly ambitious cocktail list now promises the Bitter Exodus made with tallow-washed rye, Manzanilla sherry, Fernet Branca, and savory bitters; as well as a Pal O’Mine that mixes pea blossom-infused blanco Tequila beside grapefruit, agave, and lime. Its “culinary incubator” kitchen program, Sub Rosa, has also continued to innovate, with Korean fried turkey legs and lamb tartare taquitos.

More than 250 years after its fateful tea party, Boston is ready to welcome the English custom of afternoon tea back into its limits. Silver Dove is operated by Drink alums, who’ve created a set menu that provides sweet and savory treats such as cucumber sandwiches with lemon and herb cream cheese or Xocoatl mousse bombes alongside a pot of tea. And while you can enjoy a few cups of lemon verbena or lapsang souchong and call it a day, you also have the option of adding on an Aperol Spritz or a rainwater Madeira.

Call 781-203-1223 for reservations.

With all the buzz surrounding the just-opened Casa Giacomo’s, it’s worth checking on its South End sister establishment, Ilona. If you haven’t visited the Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in an age, you’ll find it just where you left it: serving braised spicy pork ribs with Calabrian honey and tzatziki or seafood risotto stocked with rice, shrimp, calamari, mussels, and octopus in a saffron broth.

Not every restaurant counts a rabbi among its co-founders; but Lehrhaus is not every restaurant. This softly opened new addition to Somerville posits itself as a “the world’s first Jewish Tavern and house of learning,” and serves a pescatarian food menu and cocktail list inspired by flavors of the global Jewish diaspora. What that means in practice are beet Reubens with sauerkraut and melted Swiss, fish and chips with s’chug aioli and Old Bay fries, and creative drams like the Dafina So Fine mixed with raisin rum, sweet potato, ras el hanout, and bitters.

Walk-ins only.