As an athlete and health-conscious eater, it can sometimes be hard to find healthy meal options at the various sports bars around Boston. In a healthy and fit city such as Boston, you would think this wouldn’t be so hard. Insert Jerry Remy’s, one of the Fenway neighborhood’s great sports bars (I mean, you can see pretty much into Fenway Park from their roof deck!). They recently revamped their VVG menu (vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free) to include paleo dishes to cater to the health-conscious athlete in all of us. This past week I paid Jerry Remy’s a visit to taste the new athlete’s menu.
My best runner friend Stephanie and I got to sit down and chat with Paula, the VP of Marketing at Jerry Remy’s, all about health and wellness. When they were first launching the menu, they even held a workout in the bar for the staff to get them in the athlete spirit. I love that! Talk about actually practicing what you preach. Working out together and then eating healthy together.
Then we met Chef Eric who started us out with two vegan salads from the menu — the Roasted Beet Salad (which included hearts of palm, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted artichoke hearts, pine nuts, pomegranate, fennel, rosemary, cashew cheese & roasted vegetable vinaigrette)
and the Kale and Crisp Apple Salad (which included massaged kale, carrots, jicama, toasted almonds, cucumbers, avocado, celery, green onions, red peppers & lemon vinaigrette.
Chef Eric explained that he wanted to make food that you felt good about eating. No one wants to feel like they have to take a nap after eating. We want to eat food that makes us feel good and tastes delicious. Why can’t we have both? I love that attitude.
First off, both salads were delicious. The “cashew cheese” in the beet salad…incredible. Get this, it’s not cheese at all. He cooks the cashews down with water and different spices and it eventually turns into a sort of paste, very similar texture to goat cheese. So creative and something I would have never expected to see at a sports bar in the shadow of Fenway Park.
The beets were tender and the salad was simply dressed. I like kale, but I have a hard time enjoying huge pieces of kale in a salad. The kale salad included finely chopped kale instead of large pieces, which made eating it a lot easier to eat. The lemon vinaigrette was perfect, not overpowering and really fresh tasting.
After our salads, Chef Eric brought out two of the entrees from the menu – the Quinoa Taboulleh Wrap (which included black beans, hummus, fresh greens, carrots, cucumber, brown rice & tahini dressing)
and the paleo Flat Iron Grass-Fed Steak (which included churrasco marinated & grilled, served over a healthy bed of grilled vegetables & sauced with chimichurri.)
Let’s talk about the steak first. It was perfectly cooked and insanely tender. I also was really impressed that the steak was raised locally in Brimfield, MA by River Rock Farm, and is antibiotic and hormone free. It’s then dry-aged 28 days. All of that for a sports bar steak? Yes, and it’s so worth it. You can taste the difference. The vegetables were a delicious accompaniment. When I brought my leftovers home, Bernie gave it two big thumb up.
Steph and I loved the wrap. We split it in half and finished both of our halves before finishing anything else. I loved the combo of blackbeans, quinoa, and tahini. I thought it was a tad dry in the middle, but that’s hard with quinoa and rice. It was still really good regardless.
We finished our tasting meal stuffed to the brim. I love that Jerry Remy’s is offering healthier options with their Athlete’s Menu. Chef Eric’s commitment to healthy and delicious food is obvious once you try it. Thank you to Jerry Remy’s for having me — I will definitely be back!
You can find Jerry Remy’s at 1265 Boylston Street in Boston.
*I was invited to taste the Athlete’s Menu at Jerry Remy’s free of charge in exchange for a review. All opinions and views expressed and my own. *