There are solid victuals and a crackle of festivity in the air at the Locke Bar in Kendall Square, where during warmer temperatures the long, spare space opens onto a patio on sleepy Broad Canal Way. It’s nearly a row-up bar, with its view of the waters where Community Rowing offers kayak and canoe rentals. Just dock and head on over to the Locke.
The folks behind the bar are no newbies: They’ve been running the popular Irish gastropub PJ Ryan’s in Somerville’s Teele Square for nearly 25 years. Their selections for this all-day menu are well balanced with mains, sandwiches and – the part of the menu offering the most fun – appetizers.
Given PJ Ryan’s origins, it’s no surprise fish and chips are on the big-plate slate here, along with the essential steak tips and more refined chicken Milanese. For filling up two hands there’s a double burger, salmon BLT and turkey club (though is not a turkey club essentially a turkey BLT?).
Salads abound too – a grain bowl and an iceberg wedge with blue cheese and bacon, which seems to be the trending rage these days – but then there’s that smaller fare that allows you to partake in many flavors without filling up. The wings are large and respectable, though I like my parts less caveman-sized and more fingertip manageable (if you get ’em, get ’em salt-and-pepper style); the chowder is creamy and rich, with smoky accents and homestyle comfort; and the crab wontons are superior, if you’re into fried crab and cream cheese. The latter are delicate, crispy and well-prepared. The duck sauce is a nice, sweet offset that works, but for me, the mixing of cheese and seafood, chowder excepted, is cause for culinary pause no matter how well done.
The big wins on the appetizer spread are the meze plate with whipped feta and red pepper hummus and most especially the chicken kofta, skewers of minced and spiced Middle Eastern chicken sausage served with curry basmati rice and chimichurri yogurt for the dipping. It’s a fantastic array of flavors and textures, and the clear menu champ. Every time I finish such a satisfying nosh, I seriously contemplate a second order. The finely ground meat is lean, moist and well spiced, and works well off the skewer. You can mix it in with the rice, where raisins abound, or dip it into the creamy yogurt, which is spicy and sweet.
Other things on the starters list that grab the eyes are the fried pickles and peppers with housemade dill chips, spicy shrimp skewers with couscous and a culinary peculiarity: lobster poutine. (A reason to return, though it’s hard to move on from the allure of those kofta skewers.) I can see the Locke Bar making for a good weekend outpost for sports, when things tend to be more quiet in Kendall, as well as a good early week spot to grab a glass of wine and an order of kofta as you work your way through that day’s final round of emails.
Locke Bar, 6 Broad Canal Way, Kendall Square, Cambridge
Tom Meek is a writer living in Cambridge. His reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in the WBUR ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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