Hi all!!
If you like southern food, or if you just like food, or if you like music, or if you like Western-style bars, or if you like bars in general, then Loretta’s Last Call is for you! So Loretta’s Last Call, a Southern BBQ joint near Fenway/Kenmore, hosted a bunch of foodies to try out their new menu. It was such a fun experience to meet the faces behind Boston’s biggest food accounts! However, the lighting in the restaurant, while great for a fun and lively date, perhaps, is not great for food bloggers who need optimal lighting 🙂 But it was even more fun to see what Loretta’s had in store.
I personally only consumed their Buttermilk Biscuits, their Pork Belly appetizer, and their House Made Andouille Sausage sandwich. A lot of people had Blackened Scallops or the Shrimp Po Boy (I have a possible shellfish allergy), or some variation of steak (not a huge steak fan), so therefore I cannot attest to those aspects of the menu. However, they received pretty great reception from the other foodies. I’ll provide pictures below of some of the meals around the table.
Buttermilk Biscuits: I’m obsessed with biscuits in general. Top 5 foods probably. I’m weirdly particular about them as well. Pillsbury crack and bake? No thanks. The first time I tried southern-style buttermilk biscuits was in the 10th grade, at Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama. According to Southern-natives around me, the ones we had were particularly dry but I loved them anyway and had them at every breakfast. I think this explains why I like my biscuits on the drier side today. So I LOVED Loretta’s biscuits. They were on the drier side and quite crumbly. I would give them an 8/10, since I love a good, fluffy biscuit, but I was disappointed that they only had regular butter. I don’t mean to be snobbish I guess but the biscuits were so savory and the butter rather flavorless so some foodies and I agreed that it would have been better to have Honey Butter to compliment the salty-taste of  the biscuit.
Crispy Pork Belly: Madison and I were super hesitant to try this once we learned that Pork Belly is, quite literally, the fat from a pig’s belly. I was initially attracted because I liked the sound of mushroom and grit cakes with a balsamic reduction, which accompanied the pork belly. Turns out, this was my favorite part of the whole meal! The pork belly was chewy and on the sweeter side because of the balsamic reduction, the perfect bite size, and the grit cakes were even tastier. 9/10!!
House Made Andouille Sausage sandwich: I didn’t actually know what Andouille sausage was. And frankly, I still don’t. But I figured it sounded pretty good. I would probably give this one a 6/10. It was alright… worth eating for sure. It was just a tad spicy, and I was not a fan of their choice of ciabatta. Not to mention the ciabatta was just…plain. Not baked or warmed up… etc. But the sausage was extremely flavorful so that was good. And the “dirty rice” on the side was FANTASTIC. It saved the dish, really. I’m not sure what they meant by dirty but it seemed like there may have been beans in the rice as well? Not sure but I mixed eating the sausage with the rice as opposed to the ciabatta and it was quite delicious actually. Why this did not receive a 7 was because the ciabatta and ancient grain mustard did not do the sausage a ton of justice.
That’s all I have for personal thoughts on food. To conclude my thoughts, Loretta’s Last Call offers a wide variety of southern comfort food and barbecue that made my heart skip a beat. They seem to have a kind of no-frills attitude which is kind of refreshing but also falls short in a few areas. Regardless, the drinks were also fabulous and the environment is spectacular. You feel like you’ve been teleported to the South, with their swing-dancing stage and acoustic country music, along with western/cowboy paraphernalia adorning every inch of the wall. Their new menu is both fun and fabulous. I’m definitely going back and you should too.
What’s your favorite kind of southern food? Let me know in the comments 🙂
xoxo T
Bee and Reed 