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Pho Republique

This was the sort of place that made a fun Sat. night stop. Boston's weird,
or maybe I just didn't have any inside scoops. It's totally Ally McBeal.
Like everyone's in khakis or else they're Irish obsessed ruffians. The only
places that seemed remotely hip or interesting ended up being predominantly
gay. Are there no moderately cool people in their 20s in the entire city?
Everything's upscale or college-ish. I just wanted an unpretentious place
where culinary savvy youngsters could get a little dressed up, have a nice
cocktail and the like. Well, this was it pretty much.

We had shrimp spring rolls, which had a green (spinach?) and cream
cheese in the filling, served with a tangy/sweet dipping sauce. The
creaminess of the cheese was a nice contrast to the crisp eggroll skin. And
it's nice to see dairy in Asian food every now and then. For an entre I
tried the salmon and mussels with a coconut milk, tomato, saffron and bacon
sauce. Wow, this was really tasty, albeit rich (though not heavy). I ordered
a coconut martini and later a monkey bite. Whoo, both were strong. I'm a
sucker for foofy drinks with tropical fruit. By the time we finished dinner,
the bar scene was jumping so we headed to that half of the restaurant.

The amusing part was the "theme" or whatever you want to call it. The
waiters all wore camouflage in some form (shirts, shorts) and dog tags, and
James even got winked at (not that I should be surprised. He seems to get
more attention from men than I do. And it's not like he's some hot number
[though of course, I like him] he just has this gay aura. I thought he was
queer when I first met him). Vietnam War chic? Who knew. I also found the
clientele amusing. The men (which predominated) were typical, but the women
were all straight out of some bad '80s Hollywood movie art gallery scene,
complete with shaved, spiky, colored hair and zany geometric patterned
blousey shirts. Weird. And believe me, they weren't being new wave retro.
Most were in the late 30 to 40 age range and were certainly not trying to
pull some newfangled fashion coup. I was highly freaked out by the 4 ft.
nothing tan woman with the blue bangs and numerous piercings who sat next to
us as we were leaving. She probably had on a Swatch, but I didn't look. All
I know is that if I were a lesbian, Boston would be at the bottom of my
list.


PhoRepublique * 1415
Washingon St., Boston,MA

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