Area Four’s so much more than just the wood-fired pizza it’s known for. Open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week, it’s a lot to many in Kendall Square, more welcoming than the buttoned-up Catalyst or Sulmona, and with a cafe section where you can get coffee and muffins all day long. (It was named for the neighborhood you’ll find it in on maps, which in 2015 was renamed The Port.) For bigger eats or a drink, swing about the corner to a meandering yet cozy bar top with split-level seating and a patio.
Area Four has a few lunchtime-only sandwiches – a caprese and a pork belly banh mi-styled stacker – and salads, including a winning crispy Thai rice salad with green onion and chili-lime vinaigrette, as well as some essential apps in its meatballs, famous garlic knots and wood-fired wings. The signature slate of common and eclectic ’zas (Sherry-Maple Bacon, Asbury Park Hawaiian and Taco are a few of the more colorful selections) are there for you day or night, described as a hybrid of New Haven and Neapolitan styles with a thin, chewy crust that comes from an aged, cultured sourdough. Come sundown there’s a rigatoni Bolognese, a pesto strozzapreti and a wood-roasted chicken.
When you think of a pizza shop, those appetizer chicken wings feel like a natural fit, but half a roast chicken as a main? Not so much. Then again, Area Four is not your average pizzeria, sitting between classic, hometown comfort and fine Italian, and the roasted chicken is a reason to go to Area Four just by its lonesome. It’s juicy, moist and flavorful through and through, with a lack of bland white meat in the middle that is testimony to an astute brining and a delicately crisp skin. I’d never before had a chicken this completely satiating from first bite to last leg morsel. What’s more, it comes atop a slightly soupy bed of chickpeas, crispy kale, petite button mushrooms, olives, perfectly roasted red onions, stewed tomato and fennel that’s dressed with a smoked paprika vinaigrette – you could pull your chicken off the bone and mix it with the base layer for an impromptu Mediterranean casserole.
A nice side to any nosh here is the housemade butter pickles, while for libations, Area Four has a decent selection of craft beers on tap, a slate of beer-adjacent cocktails and good sangria. On Saturdays throughout the summer and fall, Area Four hosts outdoor beer fests with guest brewers and live music.
Area Four, 500 Technology Square, Kendall Square, Cambridge
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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