The website for Bailey and Sage (www.baileyandsage.com) is not ready yet, but the restaurant is open at 103 State Street serving salads, sandwiches, and wraps for around $10.
Hoping to get a chance to go, but in the meantime pictures of the menu are located below since their menu seemingly cannot be found anywhere else.
Recently opened on Devonshire Street is D'Guru, a lunchtime spot for Indian food. Prior cravings for Indian food were only partially satisfied by trips to Indian Entrees at the Corner Mall or Bombay Club in Faneuil Hall, with perhaps an occasional trip to the fancier Mantra.
At D'Guru, entree combos are 6.95 for vegetarian, 7.95 for chicken, 8.95 for lamb, and 9.95 for seafood. Samosas are 1.50. Combos come with a veggie side, rice, and bread.
This is primarily a takeout place, as there are only a couple of tables and some high top seats. Given the limited space, the owners of Guru the Caterer had planned to cook the food at their Somerville location before bringing it downtown. This may or may not be the case, but the food seems to confirm transport. Overall the food is quite good - full flavored and some decent heat. But the chicken is a bit overcooked, perhaps sitting in the high temperature sauce for too long, and the naan is a bit thicker and less puffy than normal.
So while the food tastes better than that of Indian Entrees or Bombay Club in the food courts, there are fewer menu options and some drawbacks of their kitchen being located elsewhere. Nevertheless, D'Guru is a great place to work into the lunchtime rotation.
Pictured: Chicken Tikka Masala Combo
Recently opened downtown on Devonshire St (next to the closed Grassroots Deli location), is Boston Wine Exchange.
If seeing the beautiful shelves of wine and liquor and refrigerators of beer isn't enough to entice you, maybe their tasting events and wine tasting machine will do the trick.
The hours are convenient, but seem to be tailored to the downtown area office schedules (Mon-Sat 9 to 9, Sun 12 noon to 6). And to make the store even more convenient, there is curbside pickup and delivery options available!
All that's left is convincing work to do beer Fridays!
Yesterday Pressed Sandwiches announced that they are temporarily closing their doors - signs to lease their Oliver St location are already in the window. No specific reason has been mentioned yet for their closing.
In the meantime, a new sandwich place, Theo's Sandwich Shop, opened a couple doors down a few weeks ago. Theo's is in a very small location (takeout) and focuses on cheap and large portions.
In contrast is Aristo Cafe, which we blogged about back in December. Aristo Cafe's sandwiches are priced higher for smaller portions than Theo's, but the quality of the ingredients seem better and the sandwiches are light and delicious.
For more thoughts on these restaurants ....
A photo of the menu from Theo's:
I've only had the chicken parm there, which was pretty good. On the plus side, they use breaded chicken cutlets as opposed to a lot of delis in the area that just used grilled chicken. The portion size for a large was ... quite large and at a low price. The downside is that the sauce was fairly plain. Definitely worth a trip back to try out some other options.
I've been to Aristo Cafe three times now - once shortly after they opened and a couple times since then. Aristo has definitely succeeded in creating a European-style dining option. The contents of the cold sandwiches are displayed in a case, and upon ordering the tray of ingredients is taken out and transfered onto fresh baked bread. 
The Di Parma is highly recommended, with the subtle addition of melon complementing the prosciutto nicely. The Egg Salad is good with the egg not being overwhelmed by the mayonnaise. The hot sandwich Croque Monsieur is a bit disappointing - the taste of gruyere is lost somewhere along the way. So while Aristo is higher priced, the sandwiches are light and refreshing and are quite fulfilling.
One last personal note on Pressed Sandwiches, I would frequently go there for breakfast sandwiches until about a year ago due to several reasons:
- they stopped doing breakfast specials - this would help lure you in hoping for the prosciutto, fontina, and egg sandwich, and even when it wasn't that special, you would usually get a breakfast sandwich anyway. For me, the Bagel Press.
- for a rather basic breakfast sandwich, the price was a bit high.
- there was a lot of staff turnover
I tried lunches there too but never became a fan.
Aristo Cafe has recently opened downtown at 92 State Street.
Hours are Monday - Saturday 7am to 6pm. The hopes are to add Sunday hours in the future. Coffee, baked goods, and lunch items are served. Breakfast sandwiches will be available starting this Thursday.
This is the old Finagle-a-Bagel location on Merchants Row, which sadly closed earlier this year (Sandra, Iris, and Lulu are deeply missed).
For more information, call them at (617) 391-0478 or stop by for a visit. Hopefully we'll get a review for you in a couple of days once they have a chance to settle in more.
The sushi options downtown just increased by one with the opening of Exotic Sushi and Tapas. Signs for this restaurant covered windows at the downtown location and at a location next to the Lowes Boston Common theater for many months.
Exotic Sushi and Tapas is located at 184 High St and just recently opened (so the usual disclaimers about trying a new restaurant in its first couple of weeks still apply here).
I have not had a chance to walk by the Boston Common location to see if that one has opened. If anyone has information about that location, please let us know through comments!
On beautiful days like today, there's always a desire to grab some adult beverages outdoors after work. With Puma City having left town, it's time to return to the old favorites.
Hopefully there's enough options in downtown Boston that I won't be fighting you guys off in the future for that last outside table. If you have your own favorite spots, please let us know through comments!!
Click on the 'read more' link for the list ... see you out painting the town red.
In order of this blogger's favorite to least favorite places:
The Living Room
The Intercontinental Hotel
Houstons
Bond (at the Langham, patio is brand NEW, opens on Tuesday May 26!)
Brandy Pete's
The Times
Faneuil Hall places (Ames Plow, McCormick & Schmick's, Salty Dog)
The Kinsale
The Landing
Tias
Note: Some of these places require the purchase of food to be seated outside
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