Salem pub serves up atypical, affordable fare
In a Pig's Eye
148 Derby St., Salem
978-741-4436; www.inapigseye.com
Hours: Monday through Saturday, lunch served 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner 6-10 p.m.; Sunday, lunch or brunch 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Visa, MC, AE, and Diners Club accepted
Not accessible to the handicapped
A musician friend told us about In a Pig's Eye, a funky, affordable pub on the Salem waterfront. It's one pub where instead of nachos and chili you can order marinated lamb sirloin or scallops in a peppercorn cream sauce on spinach fettuccine. These and all other entrees, which come with salad and two side dishes, cost just $13. Several nights a week, if you stick around, you get live music, too.
On Monday (open-mike night) and Tuesday, the menu is limited to Mexican food and a few other items. "We call it New England Mexican," says Jenny Reardon, who's owned the pub with her guitar-playing husband, Jon, since 1986. "It's not authentic Mexican, but it's really good and it's really, really cheap. You can get two big burritos and two 16-ounce margaritas, and with the tip you're still under $25."
We stopped in at In a Pig's Eye on a cool, rainy Wednesday evening and sat at a slightly wobbly table by a window facing the street. (The pub's name is an expression meaning "you're putting me on." According to the menu, the phrase was coined in 1876 by one Petroleum V. Nasby. Sure it was.) The room - brick walls, an old tin ceiling painted barn-red, smallish tables packed close together, art and knickknacks on the walls and behind the bar - had a lively feel, even though it was only half full at 7:30 p.m.
After we ordered a pair of Heinekens, our waitress returned to say there was only a single bottle left. We didn't mind, but it struck us as odd. A pub that runs out of a popular beer?
All in all, we liked our food, especially since we didn't arrive with high expectations. The menu was varied and unusual. An appetizer of breaded, deep-fried artichoke hearts ($6) was new to us. They arrived crisp, steaming hot, and lightly drizzled with what tasted like a tangy raspberry sauce; on the side was a small tub of horseradish dipping sauce.
The house salad accompanying the entrees ($4 if ordered separately) used iceberg lettuce. Some in our party of three associate iceberg with cafeteria meals, while others of us appreciate its juicy crunch. We left alone the complimentary bread, which was dried out.
The steak quesadilla, a $7 appetizer, following a small Greek salad ($6), pleased our normally ravenous 16-year-old. In fact, it was more than he could eat, coming as it did with a heap of tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream.
From among the "Pig's Eye Favorites" on the menu, we picked the house specialty: grilled shrimp in a pistachio-pesto cream sauce over spinach fettuccini with sugar-snap peas ($13). It was nicely prepared and flavorful, neither gloppy nor supersized.
We also tried an old favorite, Boston baked scrod ($13). We couldn't tell if the fish was fresh or frozen, but it wasn't dried out or overcooked, and we liked the crunchy bread-crumb topping. The fish came with herbed green beans and baked red-potato halves. It was simple fare, but satisfyingly so.
Even though we devoured our meals, we had to try the Kentucky pie, which was pecan with chocolate chips, and the key lime pie ($5 each). We split them among the three of us and only with effort resisted a war of dueling forks. Yes, we'd come again. Next time we'll try it with live music.
COCO McCABE
AND DOUG STEWART 