Publican Quality Meats You’d be nuts to wish for the streets to be icy and snow-packed year-round—unless you’ve tried the deeply flavorful ribollita soup here. It’s a peasant dish given the utmost care, a food of such comfort it’s hard not to consider, for a moment, whether it would be worth it to sacrifice sun such that the conditions would be proper to eat it every day for eternity. A year-round winter? Probably my worst idea yet. But what about wasting away the entire afternoon? For the pleasure of having a draft beer with lunch, I’ll take it. And I’ll also have the tuna muffuletta, a champion of a sandwich, the main ingredient of which might be mayonnaise (also olive oil–poached tuna and soft-boiled eggs). There is a lot to be satisfied by at PQM, but there is even more to pine for: cured meats, loaves of fresh-baked breads, obscure “chef-made” vinegars, all of which almost—almost—let the restaurant match the frankly unmeetable expectations that come with being a “Paul Kahan restaurant."
By Julia Kramer