Izzy’s Restaurant served up empanadas and other Puerto Rican staples for more than 40 years from its cozy corner storefront at Harvard and Windsor streets in The Port. Until its closing in 2022, it was more than just a place where people went to eat, but where the neighborhood went to meet and interact. Where there is patience, there is reward; newly opened replacement Pollo 2Go is a Latin-inspired cantina that, as you can guess, specializes in chicken, but also serves up patty pies – pretty much empanadas with a few twists – and the Puerto Rican street food classics mofongo and trifongo. Not sure what I speak of? I’ll come back to that in a bit.
True to its name, all here is “2Go”; there are no tables or chairs at this sibling outpost of the Pollo Lounge and Grill, which has been serving similar fare and Dominican sandwiches in Dorchester since 2015. In a warming display case next to the counter are stacks of gorgeously done, crisp-skinned rotisserie chickens, spatchcock-style – splayed out with the backbone removed for even cooking – so if you get one for the family, the first part of the breakdown is done for you. In surrounding bins are buttermilk-fried breasts, fried pork belly, gilled plantains, chicken wings and those patties, which come with chicken, ham or steak filling all with or without cheese for just $2 to $4. You get a good deal at Pollo 2Go. Much of what’s on the menu are plates with a quarter- or half-chicken, one three-piece fried with sides; those fried plantains, rice, red and white beans, green beans, french fries and pigeon peas.
Those mofongos are essentially mounds of rice and fried and mashed plantains (mofongo uses the green; trifongo adds the sweet and green bananas or yuca) with a choice of proteins: rotisserie or creamy chicken, beef, grilled shrimp, pork belly or skirt steak. My order of mofongo came with some of that crispy pork belly as an accent and a quarter of that rotisserie chicken cut up into manageable pieces. The spice rub and slow roast process comes through in every bite, something that doesn’t always happen with rotisserie fare. The meat is right at that sweet spot where it’s lean, dry and juicy and comes off the bone easily. My favorite dish was the chicken stew, which had pieces of chicken in a dark, rich meaty broth not far from a coq au vin, with the meat just falling from the bone. My side of yellow rice filled with those meaty pigeon peas was the biggest revelation. It was so light yet rich that my sample taste had me halfway through the mound before I even turned my attention to the chicken.
The crew is still getting the locale up and running in what I’d call a soft opening, In time, one can see Pollo 2Go filling the soulful neighborhood shoes of Izzy’s. It’s a great place to grab an easy-to-serve meal for the family or buy in bulk if you’re having a backyard party and don’t want to fire up the grill.
Pollo 2Go, 169 Harvard St., The Port
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The 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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