The July Hit List: Nightshade Noodle Bar, Pagu, Vincent’s, and More

Chef Rachel Miller may not have walked away with the James Beard Award last month, but her finalist status for the outstanding chef category is a recognition worth celebrating. And naturally, there’s no better venue for commending the laurel than Miller’s French-and-Vietnamese-inspired tasting menu restaurant, which is delighting taste buds this summer with the likes of Viet-Cajun crawfish, Peruvian uni brûlée, and smoked vanilla lobster glacé.

Pagu — which was nominated in the Beards’ outstanding restaurant category — also happens to have one of the more generous patios in all of Cambridge. As ever, it’ll serve as your alfresco backdrop to alternatively Asian- and Spanish-inspired tapas like black cod croquets in Thai chile aioli, squid ink oyster bao, and a large-format suckling pig served with hot sauce and bao buns.

Roxbury newcomer Nubian Markets serves as a market, halal butcher, and a restaurant and café — and through all of these functions, highlights flavors from Africa and the African diaspora. On the ready-to-eat-front, that focus manifests in dishes like jerk chicken with coconut sticky rice, harissa lamb sandwiches on housemade golden pita, and a “butcher’s burger” made with berbere citrus mayo and bacon tomato jam.

Walk-ins only. Find more info here.

We don’t need to remind you that the period in which you can comfortably dine on an outdoor deck facing the Charlestown Navy Yard are painfully brief. With that in mind, you may wish to maximize that given window with a long lunch at Pier 6 Boston Waterfront that begins with shrimp and scallop ceviche and ends with blackened swordfish tacos, or alternatively, a just-going-for-it dinner consisting of a grand shellfish tower complete with a pound-and-a-half lobster and seafood fra diavolo to follow.

Our present fair weather has also significantly expanded the capacity of Castle Island Brewing’s South Boston location. With the patio in full swing, you can enjoy one of the South Shore-style bar pies from house kitchen Bardo’s Pizza — like the Cluckin’ Hot with smoked hot sauce and garlic-roasted chicken or the BBQ Pit & Pickle topped by citrus-chipotle pork, pickles, and bacon — out in the fresh air with a watermelon-hibiscus tart ale.

You’ll want to make yourself available on the first Tuesday of each month. Because that’s when Vincent’s transitions to a special “fajita night” menu that offers up chicken, spaghetti squash, or octopus-and-pork-belly iterations that come with a kitchen-sink of accoutrements including flour tortillas, shredded cheese, and roja and verde salsas. And if you don’t make it on that designated evening, you can swing by Vincent’s anytime to partake in duck-stuffed rabbit cassoulet or sesame and herb-crusted flounder.

Michael Scelfo of Alden & Harlow, Waypoint, and Longfellow fame has expanded the borders of his culinary empire to Somerville with the opening of Josephine at the Cambria Hotel. This time the focus is squarely on pizza, a concentration that yields wood-fired, thin-crust pies like a white clam with garlic and pecorino or mushroom with vinegar-roasted onions and fontina, as well as saucy deep-dish pies layered with pork-and-fennel sausage or crispy pepperoni cups. That’s not to say it’s all pizza, all the time — you can also sit down to a plate of spaghetti with spring pea pesto or a dry-aged burger on focaccia with onion jam, aioli, and Muenster cheese.

Call 617-764-3035 for reservations.

Still working on those 4th of July plans? Here’s one: a table at Smoke Shop BBQ’s freedom-sized Assembly Row location, with all of the prize-winning, St. Louis-style pork ribs, Texas brisket, and pork belly burnt ends our Independence Day demands. And lest we forget, the Smoke Shop has a sizable library of those other great American inventions — bourbon and rye — to the tune of over 250 whiskeys.

More evidence that the Seaport is turning into Nantucket-with-parking: among the recent openings is a mainland location of Stubbys, the Grey Lady sandwich counter famous for dispensing waffle fries, Buffalo wings, and mini cheeseburgers to late-night crowds. The Boston outpost will not have quite the same night-owl hours as the original — it will close at 11 p.m. nightly rather than 2 a.m. — but it will also reward early risers with sausage-egg-and-cheese sandwiches and breakfast burritos.

Walk-ins only. Find more info here.

As with Seaport views, the number of nights that can be comfortably spent on a Boston rooftop are also brief — so  get yourself (and a few friends) to a venue such as Six West post-haste. There, under the late-evening sun or stars, you might find yourself surrounded by sweet chile sticky ribs, yuzu-dressed tuna crudo, and double smashburgers with bacon and sriracha on brioche. Meanwhile, the menu’s potable portion promises gin-based Southie Slushies with Italicus and calamansi shrub as well a Tropical Nor’ Easter created with a house rum blend and passion fruit liqueur.