state park

i'm pretty lucky to live within walking distance to hungry mother and its sister restaurant, state park. state park has more of a sports bar vibe with more casual food and beers, but you can still look for great southern food here. instead of the refined dishes at hungry mother, think sandwiches, fried chicken, and the likes. try the snappy's famous pork chop sandwich (chili, cole slaw, tomato, mustard, $12) for those who are not familiar, this refers to snappy lunch in mt airy, north carolina. the diner is famous for their pork chop sandwich where the boneless pork chop is covered in a sweet milk batter - yes, very much reminiscent of french toast. think french toast stuffed with pork chop, then made into a sandwich with chili and cole slaw... the pork chop itself is ridiculously tender! a wondrously messy sandwich worth digging into. another surprise for me was the memphis bbq spaghetti (pork shoulder, sarvecchio cheese, garlic bread, $12) who knew spaghetti would work so well with bbq sauce? it's just a bit saltier than bolognese, with a subtle kick. bold and sweet, served with fluffy, buttery garlic bread. this has become another favorite of mine. appetizers may include buffalo sweetbreads, hushpuppies, or baked anson mills grits with tasso ham. i think most guests drink beer here but they do have a small and seemingly simple cocktail menu, but the drinks can actually be quite intriguing, like this jamaica bay (rum, allspice, red wine, ginger beer, $10) the combination of wine, allspice, and ginger beer makes me think of mulled wine. cold, carbonated mulled wine! state park is open pretty late at night and has now started serving lunch on weekdays. it's a great place for me to hang out with friends since the food is great yet not too fussy for the friends who are not as much of a foodie, yet foodies will be happy to find intriguing dishes like the bbq spaghetti. state park 1 kendall square cambridge, ma 02139 (617) 848-4355 http://stateparkcambridge.com/

the brunch was tasty and well served. the waiters were super kind and open to adapting the menu to our custom requests. food took a long time to come, though, but as the place was quite crowded on a sunday, i would definitely try it again on another occasion.

10/30/16 -- state park in cambridge is located in one kendall square, one of many excellent restaurants that can be found here. luckily, permit parking only is suspended on sundays otherwise, parking would be impossible.

the state park has some very interesting food, for instance the foie gras toad in the hole was actually a fantastic combination. and ghost peppers on fried chicken is not something you can find just anywhere. state park is definitely worth a visit!

julia and i met in cambridge for an event and headed over to state park afterwards for dinner. state park is a new restaurant opened by the team behind hungry mother . state park is a drastic contrast to the more upscale hungry mother, just around the corner – some might even consider it a dive bar. you walk into a dark room filled with dark wood paneling, a pinball machine, a pool table and a jukebox. there is a greenhouse room off to the side and picnic tables outside. all tables are seat yourself. the service was a bit slow and we couldn’t figure out who our server was for most of our meal, but that was ok – we were busy catching up. we started with the fried cheese curds served with ranch dressing and bbq marinara. pretty darn delicious. i had the memphis bbq spaghetti with garlic bread ($11) which had a bit of a bite to it. the garlic bread was lightly toasted and had a generous amount of garlic – yum! julia had the catfish plate with greens and hush puppies.  she loved the hush p

fried pork chop sandwich based on the recommendation from the server. the pork chop was pretty outstanding: moist but crispy and topped off with a slaw, every bite had tons of flavor.i went with the fried chicken. it's not something i order often, but i figured"when in rome!" the batter was super tasty and had a great crisp to it. inside, the chicken was tender and juicy. i was so full, but i could not stop eating!

what a dive bar would look like, if real dive bars were filled with pretentious hipsters. this is to authentic dive bars what panda express is to chinese. not worth it.

from the team that brought you hungry mother, state park  is now open for business. serving up southern inspired bar food and tasty snacks perfect for a pre-movie treat (view the full menu here – including a lengthy beer selection, cocktail by glass and pitcher, and a selection of beverages sans-alcohol as well). added perk– like their sister restaurant around the corner, they’ll even pick up your movie tickets at the kendall theatre, and for a discount at just $8 a piece.  whipped cream cheese & pepper jelly  tobacco onions  fried chicken with tabasco & honey  pork sandwich - smoked, bbq’d & chopped  preacher cookies fried apple pie  

the ceilings are low and the noise levels are high. the room looks like a frathouse basement circa 1977, retro without being forced, and a beer sign (and beer menu) homage to the cheap brews of youth.

there's a short and somewhat withholding menu of southern food. it's a large space with tables of various sizes in a few different rooms, a bar, a pool table, a shuffleboard, and two pinball machines. just don't go with hungry mother quality expectations.