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The Basics: Sonsie restaurant information

Sonsie

327 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02115
617-351-2500

Sonsie restaurant information
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A mainstay on swanky Newbury Street since 1993, Sonsie serves a menu of top-notch internationally-inspired fare. Full of fresh flavors and brilliant food combinations, the menu is a mélange of signature dishes, seasonal delicacies and nightly specials.

Open seven days a week for breakfast lunch and dinner, Sonsie boasts beautiful French doors that transform its ground floor dining room into an open sidewalk cafe (when the weather permits, of course). The mahogany bar, with its friendly staff and stiff drinks, offers a welcome place to cool down during the summer or get cozy during the winter.

The downstairs Wine Room has an elegant old world feel - as well as a state of the art, temperature-controlled walk-in wine cellar. Available for private parties the Wine Room is also an ideal spot in which to enjoy a bite to eat and a glass of wine from the more than two hundred bottle-deep list.

News and Events at Sonsie restaurant

The Dining Docket
April 16th - April 22nd
Monday may be all about the Marathon, but there's tons of other culinary excitement waiting ...

Sonsie Hosts Spring Wine Tasting
Spring is in the air on Newbury Street - especially at Sonsie where, on Tuesday, April 17th, they'll be pulling ...

The Dining Docket
January 23 - January 29
Kick your week into high culinary gear with any one of the fabulous events happening around ...

Bill Poirier

Chef at Sonsie

Chef Bill Poirier at Sonsie

A native Rhode Islander, chef Bill Poirier developed a keen interest in the culinary arts at a young age. Influenced by his Italian grandmother's holiday cooking and fresh vegetable garden, his passion for cooking increased over the years. Ultimately he continued to develop his culinary skills at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI.

Since 1976, Poirier has been working with some of New England's most prominent restaurants and culinary stars. Early career highlights include working as a variety of New England luxury hotels, as well as with nationally known chefs like Lydia Shire, Gordon Hamersley, and Jasper White. Poirier's culinary experience has brought him to Washington, D.C., Palm Beach, Florida, and Tokyo, Japan.

In 1993 Poirier opened Sonsie, an eclectic bistro on famed Newbury Street, with Patrick Lyons and Ed Sparks. Success was immediate, and Sonsie became Boston's culinary hot spot, as well as the see-and-be-seen restaurant, according to Boston Magazine. Nearly two decades later, Sonsie's creative, seasonal menu continues to achieve critical acclaim with Poirier at the helm.

Poirier has also acted as a consultant for the Good Life Restaurant in Boston and worked on numerous projects including Polcari's Restaurants, Game On Sports Bar at Fenway Park, Sonsie Restaurant in Atlantic City, and Rays New York Bagels. He continues to participate in various charitable benefits for the local community such as Boston Homeless, and the Dana Farber Cancer Center Foundation.

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Aïoli
1. noun A blend of ail (garlic) and oli (oil) in the parlance of the Provence region of southern France. Around here, we'd call it a garlic mayonnaise.
Brioche
1. noun A soft, yeasty French bread enriched with butter and eggs.
Carpaccio
1. noun Wafer-thin slices of raw beef served cold; named after the Renaissance Venetian painter.
Ceviche
1. noun Raw fish and/or shellfish in a citrus marinade.
Chantilly
1. noun Prepared or served with whipped cream.
Chorizo
1. noun Crumbly, spiced pork sausage.
Confit
1. noun Meat (usually goose, duck or pork) that is slowly cooked in its own fat and preserved with the fat packed around it as a seal.
Consommé
1. noun Meat or fish stock that has been clarified.
Cornichons
1. noun A gherkin in France.
Emulsion
1. noun The mixture of two liquids that cannot normally combine smoothly (e.g., oil and water). Mayonnaise and hollandaise are two familiar emulsions.
Foie gras
1. noun Expensive, silk-textured goose or duck liver that has been enlarged by a process you don't want to read about if you're going to eat this dish.
Frisée
1. noun A curly, mildly bitter member of the chicory family, eaten raw in salads.
Frisee
1. noun French for curly, but usually refers to curly endive, the bitter salad green of the chicory family.
Ganache
1. noun A rich mixture of chocolate and crème fraîche frequently used as a filling for cakes.
Haricot vert
1. noun A green string bean with French attitude.
Hummus
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Jus
1. noun French for juice, jus also refers to the unthickened juices from a piece of roasted meat.
Lemongrass
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Lovage
1. noun A celery-like vegetable.
Mâche
1. noun Dark, tangy greens used most often in salads.
Mirepoix
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Mousseline
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Oyster sauce
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Pesto
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Poivre
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Praline
1. noun A sweet made of almonds and sugar invented for the French Comte du Plessis-Praslin by his cook in the 1600s.
Quinoa
1. noun These small, round, pale-brown grains look similar to millet and have a mild taste and a firm texture. Quinoa is considered a complete protein because it contains all eight essential amino acids.
Ragu
1. noun Tomato and meat sauce from Bologna.
Risotto
1. noun Italian dish made from rice cooked by intermittently adding small amounts of stock or broth. Other ingredients are added as required.
Rocket
1. noun See "Arugula."
Somen
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Tomatillo
1. noun A diminutive green relative of the tomato.