The wine list at Con Sol is as inexpensive as the menu, with bottles of solid Portuguese reds and whites in the low to mid $20s. We went after sangria ($12/small carafe; $23/large carafe), which comes in red, white, and pink. The last is a novelty — we're not counting the watermelon-based pink sangria at Tupelo — and is made with rosé wine, peaches, and strawberries. Cappuccino ($4) and espresso ($3) are available, but there are no decaf versions of anything.
Although there are few desserts, they suit espresso drinks. A chocolate-mousse cake ($4), for instance, was all double-chocolate mousse, very little cake. Nothing wrong with that. Flan ($4) was a little stiff, with lots of caramel sauce. Not much to complain about there, either.
Ragged yellow, some iron work, quarry tiles, a trompe l'oeil window, and a rustic bar with horns, clocks, and decorated China make for an overall fun atmosphere. Even better since it's punctuated by Portuguese pop background music, not the old-school Fado with too much sadness to stimulate the appetite.
Eating our way out of recession
So, dear readers, it's time for another culinary-economy update. How are we doing, restaurant-wise? Really, better than I expected in the black-and-white measures of restaurants opening and closing.
Doubtless, everyone is tightening belts and budgets, but the new menus with more small plates have kept people going out. Boston tourism has perhaps replaced some foreign tourism, too.
While we've seen some chains occupy vacant spaces, a few locations stay empty, and other restaurants switch to less-expensive formats — haute-fusion to Thai, seafood or steak to red-sauce Italian — the impact has been less severe than the milder but more sudden recession at the end of the "Mass. Miracle," around 1990. As in that recession, established restaurants have had an easier time obtaining loans for second restaurants, but are placing them in under-served suburbs, rather than taking over indie spots in metro Boston.
In the city, it seems, ultra-luxe creativity has been canceled or postponed. For me, the lamentable closing is Persephone (upscale clothing-store/restaurant duets are going silent all over). The opening that may never happen is Barbara Lynch's idea of a destination restaurant off Fort Point channel. I guess the waterfront isn't going to be the new Back Bay for quite a while, but if rents drop, the existing storefronts could be a new entry-level dining district.
In the meantime, the lovely block of independent eateries on Peterborough Street has missed an entire baseball season, and repairs are still desultory. So I'll leave you with this happy note: family-run ethnic restaurants do comparatively better in recessions. We have some talented local immigrant cooks — dine with them and you won't even notice your slimming wallet.
Robert Nadeau can be reached atrobtnadeau@aol.com.
Correction: In a previous version of this article, the author incorrectly stated that chef Tony Amaral’s parents owned the old P.A. Seafood in Somerville, since sold, moved, and turned into a nightclub. Amaral’s father is still the proprietor of P.A.’s, which is now known as P.A.’s Lounge.
