What is the story about?
A stone’s throw from Harvard, Henrietta’s Table
, with hearty, home-style cooking and ingredients sourced from New England farms, has been the place to have breakfast for political movers and shakers for the three decades it has been open in the Bill Gates-backed Charles Hotel. President Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Al Roker, and more have been spotted dining there since it opened in 1995.Power breakfasting aside, the restaurant has stuck to a solid farm-to-table ethos.
What to order
- All of the breakfast egg orders (one egg for $12, two for $18) can be done in any style. All of the bread options are fantastic, but get the cranberry-walnut, which is lightly toasted, nutty, and packed with juicy local cranberries. It’s served with hashed potatoes and, for $3, you can add applewood-smoked bacon, sausage, or smoked ham. All are great, but we always get the ham.
- The warm grain bowl ($31) during Saturday brunch sits at that intersection of earthy and delicious. Veggies, arugula, grains, and miso-maple syrup are tossed together and topped with a fried farm egg, which we love.
- With all of the meats and cheeses sourced from New England, the charcuterie ($29) is always a treat with rich chicken liver pate, a rotating selection of rillettes, and pickles that demand parsing out to get the ideal pickle-cheese-meat ratio.
The vibe
The bright, open room really does feel as close to dining at someone’s country kitchen as a hotel restaurant can get. Floor-to-ceiling windows face the patio, and homey knickknacks are scattered about, including plenty of pigs, in honor of the restaurant’s namesake.
Insider tip
Henrietta’s makes
most of its pastries in-house, and the Danish ($7) is a must. Recently, we had the apple-berry-cheese, which was a round pastry brimming with tart apples and sweet berries that tasted like they’d been simmered in sugar for days.
