Progressive Blogger Dinner Part 1: Bel Ari

          Last week I had the chance to try out two amazing restaurants in Boston's leather district: Les Zygomates and Bel Ari as part of a progressive dinner. We started in Italy at Bel Ari, and then walked next door to finish in France (and enjoy some live jazz) at Les Zygomates.

          Bel Ari is a modern upscale Italian restaurant, with a beautiful private dining space where we enjoyed our meal.  We started with glasses of prosecco and shared some whipped ricotta with honey, pistachio, and toasted cranberry bread. The ricotta was a perfect texture, and paired with the honey could have been just as enjoyable as a dessert!

           Next were the goat cheese arancini balls served with sweet onion marmalade. The goat cheese and onion were both a surprising combination with the fried risotto, but they worked really well together!

          We had our choice of two pasta dishes, and I opted for the lobster and shrimp gnocchi with lobster cream sauce. I absolutely loved this dish, the gnocchi was slightly toasted and the sauce rich but tossed very lightly so it didn't overwhelm the seafood or feel too heavy.

          We we headed next door to Les Zygomates for the second part of our meal. Check back soon to read all about it!