Warmer weather means cool drinks and fun snacks, and when it comes to snacks, salsa is one of our go-tos. It’s fresh and easy and delicious and a simple thing to put out for a party.

But have you really taken the time to think about salsa? Maybe you have a go-to store-bought option or have dabbled in making your own, but Rick Martinez, a James Beard award-winning chef, author and TV host has done a deep dive into this sometimes spicy (and pretty much always delicious) sauce in his new book, Salsa Daddy: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking.

With Cinco de Mayo on the horizon, it seemed like the perfect time to sit down with Martinez and do a deep dive into all things salsa. As we suspected, he had some genius tips, tricks and recipe ideas to share with us. After chatting with him, we’re excited for a summer of salsas. Our biggest challenge? Knowing which recipe to make first. Read on for his advice on making stellar salsas at home.

Related: Shake Up Cocktail Hour With This Spicy Tropical Margarita

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Source: Photo by Alex Lau. Reprinted with permission from Salsa Daddy: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking by Rick Martínez, copyright © 2025. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Rick Martinez’s 9 Tips for Salsa Success

Looking to take your salsa up a notch (or seven)? Martinez has some thought to help you get there.

1. Embrace the salsa spectrum

When Martinez was working on the cookbook, he was very aware that many cooks think of their salsa options as red or green, but really, it’s more about the salsa spectrum. There are so many ingredients—vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, oils, cheese—that can go into a salsa. Once you think outside that red or green box, your salsa world will open up. “I really wanted to give people freedom and creative license with these salsas to be daring, brave and bold,” he says. “So that was really the point of this book.”

Martinez has seen this salsa creativity in Mexico, where he currently lives. “One of the things that has struck me living in Mexico for the last five years is that people are so free to create,” he says. “They use what they have, use what they like, use what’s in season, use what they can afford in their salsas and it’s really interesting.”

“One of the things that I’ve noticed going to family parties is that there’s a hierarchy within Mexican families that if your grandmother is making tamales, you don’t make tamales. If your older aunts or your mom are making the rice or the beans, you don’t make those things, which then leaves salsa for the younger folks to make.

“I’ve seen little kids—like 8, 9, 10, 11 years old—making these amazing salsas. And it’s low lift. It’s a low investment. You don’t need to have crazy culinary skills. You just need to have a basic understanding of flavor, what tastes good, what you like and maybe a blender—that’s pretty much it.

“And the reward is that you get to stand out among all of these culinary giants. If you make a salsa that everybody in the family loves, that everybody craves, then people ask for it at the next family party. You know, that is a pretty significant accomplishment.”

Related: You’ll Definitely Want To Steal This Shockingly Simple Trick for Keeping Guacamole Green

2. Taste the tomatoes

This might seem obvious, but not all tomatoes are delicious yearround. If you’re making a tomato-based salsa, remember that you have options.

“I recently was in L.A. and I made a pico de gallo with what looked to be really, really beautiful tomatoes, but they had not flavor,” says Martinez. “They were very showy and they were beautiful, but they had no substance. And so the only thing that I could taste was onion and cilantro. That’s why I encourage people to use different tomatoes—use what has the best flavor. So if it’s January, and the only thing that you have are grape tomatoes or Campari tomatoes, or even canned tomatoes, use those.”

La Haba Fresca salsa, a mix of stewed tomatillo, jalapeño and fresh favas.

3. Give it some time

You can eat salsa as soon as you make it, but Martinez has found that sometimes a little bit of time can transform a salsa into something extra special.

“I just love fermented salsas,” he says. “You can let any salsa—probably with the exception of anything with avocado or fruit in it—sit on the counter for a day or two (no more than than four days). It completely changes the salsa. I think you know day one salsas tend to be really aggressive, not only in their flavor, but in their heat. And a lot of the the ingredients are all kind of competing, but by day two and three, everything sort of mellowed. Everything is singing more harmoniously together. And then by day three and four, you start to get a little bit of tang. You start to get a little bit of funk that I personally enjoy and the umami builds as it sits.”

4. Check the crisper

You can absolutely got to the supermarket and pick up everything you need for a specific salsa, but salsa is also a great way to use up all those produce bits and bobs that you have in your crisper drawer—and a fun way to tap into your culinary creativity.

“What I’ve been doing recently is just using whatever is left in the crisper drawer,” says Martinez. “At the end of the week, I just turn into a salsa, and it’s an easy way to use up things, and also just, it’s just kind of fun because the flavor profiles are always different depending on what I’ve been cooking.

“It can really be anything—like, pineapple or papaya or strawberries. I think strawberries and chili árbol is a really good combination, with lime and a little bit of garlic. Add a little it of olive oil and it makes a really good salad dressing.

“This is also how the cucumber salsa in the book was born. I bought the cucumber thinking I was going to use it for something, and I didn’t. And I saw it in the crisper drawer, and I was like, I need to use this so I decided to see if I could make a salsa with a cucumer base. It was a very interesting flavor profile, very different than I think probably most Americans are used to, and even, probably most Mexicans. It was refreshing in the same way that spa water is refreshing—the coolness of the cucumber really tamed the heat of the chilies.”

Related: 46 Summer Recipes You’ll Want to Make on Repeat All Season Long

5. Watch your speed

Faster isn’t always better, and that idea apparently applies to salsa-making, which is something Martinez found out the hard way.

“If you’re using fruit or tomatillos or tomatoes, you never want to blend above medium or medium-low,” says Martinez. “You’ll incorporate a lot of air into the salsa, but even more horribly, you will activate the pectin, and you’ll basically have salsa Jell-O.

“It’s happened to me, and it’s happened to a lot of my followers They’re like, ‘Oh my God, how did this happen?’ You’ll make the salsa, and taste it and think, oh, wow, this is great. And then, you know, you’re having company over and the salsa sits on the counter for like half an hour, and then all of a sudden, it’s literally the texture of Jell-O.”

Rick Martinez making salsa in a molcajete. — Source: Photo by Alex Lau. Reprinted with permission from Salsa Daddy: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking by Rick Martínez, copyright © 2025. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

6. Think salsa first

The phrase “salsa first” jumped out to us when we read Salsa Daddy. Salsa is often seen as a component to a meal, but if you flip the script and start with the salsa you might think about your cooking in a different way. Martinez explains.

“I think when you start with the salsa first, you can go in a lot of different directions,” he says. “If you’re making a taco there might be a specific salsa that you would want to pair with that dish, but if you start with the salsa first you can put it on a hamburger, fried fish or fried chicken.

“I think when you start with the salsa and you taste it like, what is it? What do you want to put it on? Does it want to be on a vegetable on a piece of meat? Is it charred? Is it fried? Is it, is it baked?

“The other thing that’s become my favorite easy weeknight meal is using salsa to braise a chicken. I’ll buy a chicken, cut it in half, sear both sides in a little bit of lard, and then just dump, two cups of salsa in the pan. I’ll cover it, put it on low and let it cook for about 40 minutes until the chicken is falling apart. I serve it with rice or beans or in a taco and it’s just so easy and so fast. It takes 10 minutes to sear the chicken, and then you just dump whatever salsa is hanging out in the fridge.”

Related: How to Make Store-Bought Tortillas 10x Better, According to Celebrity Chef Pati Jinich

7. Consider the onion

Onions are a very common salsa ingredient, and after years of salsa-making, Martinez has some strong feelings about the best type of allium for the job—white onions. Can you use whatever you can find at your market? Absolutely, but Martinez makes a strong flavor case for the white onion.

“First of all, the white onion is the most common in Mexico, so people definitely use white onion more than anything else. Red onion is probably second, and there are very few yellow onions.

“I think, from a flavor perspective, the white onion is really great because it has an assertive flavor, but it has a very quick start and quick finish. So it kind of hits you, and then it goes away. I think yellow or Spanish onions, and certainly red onions, are very aggressive and they linger, which detracts a little from the flavor of the salsas. I would much rather have an onion that gives you just a burst of sort of flavor and then fades out, as opposed to something that’s just there throughout the entire bite.”

8. Sometimes you need to add fat

When you think of salsa, you probably don’t think about fat, but some of Martinez’s recipes call for frying the salsa. Here’s why.

“When I first started cooking in Mexico, I didn’t understand the idea of frying a liquid. Oftentimes, cooks will blend the salsa and then you fry it in lard or olive oil or neutral oil. And I didn’t understand what it did. But if you have a very hot oil, and you pour this liquid with a lot of suspended pieces of of chilies and vegetables, you’re caramelizing those and developing flavor.

“You’re taking out the water, you’re concentrating the flavor, you’re developing the sugars and you’re adding the caramelization. I don’t know the exact science behind it, but I do know that frying helps to emulsify the salsa and hold it together. Sometimes when you make a salsa and it sits you’ll get little puddles of water on the top. But when you fry it, it all comes together. And so you have moles that are this perfect consistency—thick and rich and creamy—and that happens because you’re frying them.”

9. Don’t forget the fruit

Many cooks lean into veggies when making salsa, but don’t forget about fruits. When we asked Martinez about some of his favorite surprising recipes in the book, his mind went right to fruit.

“I made a watermelon based salsa with chiles and that is really, really good,” he says. “You throw everything in a food processor and process it. It’s a really fun picnic/barbecue/cookout salsa. It’s summery and a little spicy and a little smoky.

“The peach and pecan salsa was another one that I didn’t know if it would work. I wanted to try it as an homage to my father because he grew pecan trees and and peach trees in Texas when I was growing up.

“I thought, ‘This is either going to be really horrible or really amazing.’ And it is so good. It’s one of my favorite salsas in the book. I think one thing that’s important when you’re using fruits to make salsa is that you need onion and garlic and chili, because it’s very easy for your brain to take fruit in a dessert direction. So the citrus, the garlic, the chilies, the onion, are going to move you into the salsa direction.”

On Monday evening, I entered the most chaotic grocery store in Manhattan armed with something I rarely, if ever, go shopping with: a list.

I needed garlic, red onion, scallions, limes, chiles. But something happens once I leave the produce department for the canned goods aisle: I experience what I can describe only as chickpea amnesia.

Wait, do I have chickpeas at home? I closed my eyes and envisioned my pantry. There are cans on that shelf, for sure. The labels on them, though, came through blurry, a mirage of indiscernible beans. So I did what I do practically every time I grocery shop, and I grabbed a single can of chickpeas, just in case. One can won’t be too heavy in my tote, and what’s $1.39 among friends (or shopper and megacorp)?

When I got home, I had to laugh. I had chickpeas, all right. Cans upon cans of them. “I do the exact same thing, and, weirdly, only with chickpeas!” exclaimed my colleague Becky Hughes, the mind behind our chickpea-topped vegan Caesar recipe. She calls it chickpea anxiety, always picking up a single insurance can. Its affordability — and the fact that a substantial weeknight meal can come from just one can — is justification enough.

Every now and then, poor time management leads me in a delightful direction. This happened on a recent vacation to San Juan, where I had to scramble for a last-minute dinner reservation. I settled on a wine bar, El Vino Crudo in Old San Juan, not even pausing for a beat to pore over the menu first, as I’m wont to do.

Upon my arrival, my eyes darted to the menu’s handful of vegetable dishes, and soon after, puffy ras el hanout-dusted cauliflower florets drizzled with two kinds of chutneys and a tamarind raita hit the table, followed closely by a platter of charred asparagus spears atop a layer of romesco, garnished with crunchy almonds and caper leaves that looked like eucalyptus.

With each bite, I thought about recreating a spread of shareable plates for myself. We have wine bar at home! (Required viewing: the “We have McDonald’s at home!” bit from Eddie Murphy’s 1987 stand-up special, “Raw,” which I won’t link to for language.)

In just three days, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Billie Eilish will hit the stage at Centre Videotron in Québec City, Canada, officially kicking off her highly anticipated Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour.

As part of her continued efforts to minimize the eco-footprint of her world tours, Eilish has partnered with Google Maps to help her millions of fans make sustainable travel choices when commuting to her concerts.

For fans who travel with the help of Google Maps, the app will automatically offer “walking or public transit options if they’re just as convenient and fast as driving.” Additionally, when fans seek out driving directions, Google Maps will show fuel-efficient routes—indicated by a leaf icon—to help minimize energy and fuel consumption. Since launching in 2021, the app’s fuel-efficient routes have helped reduce nearly 3 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses through the end of 2023, according to Google.

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In addition to providing sustainable travel routes and tips, Eilish’s partnership with Google Maps also provides fans with the singer’s 120 favorite vegan restaurants in multiple tour cities across the US, including Los Angeles, CA; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; and New York, NY.

Eating plant-based meals, Eilish notes, is another easy—and delicious—way to help reduce our impact on the planet. “I am so excited to see you all at my shows over the coming months, and for us to work together in reducing our collective footprint when it comes to transportation and what we eat,” Eilish said in a statement to The Keyword, Google’s official blog.

“Every action matters, no matter how big or small, and together we can truly begin to heal our beautiful planet,” the singer-songwriter continues. “Thanks to Google Maps, everyone will have easy access to resources that will help you make great sustainable choices when you come to my shows.”

To help fans decide on which plant-based restaurant to visit before they head to one of Eilish’s upcoming shows, we’re highlighting some of the singer’s most beloved picks in four major cities.

Must-try vegan restaurants in Philadelphia, according to Billie Eilish

On Saturday, October 5, Eilish will hit the stage at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA—the second night of her tour’s US leg. And while the City of Brotherly Love has just under 35 all-vegan restaurants according to HappyCow, Eilish recommends HipCityVeg, Bar Bombon, Luhv Vegan Deli, Vedge, and Charlie was a sinner.

Fans looking for a quick bite to eat should opt for HipCityVeg or Luhv Vegan Deli. The former serves up a menu of juicy vegan burgers, plant-powered sandwiches, satiating wraps, and refreshing salads alongside ice cream shakes, smoothies, and organic fruit drinks. Here, the maitake mushroom Philly Cheesesteak offers a vegan twist on a beloved classic. Pair it with hand-battered onion rings and an organic kale lemonade.

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And at Luhv Vegan Deli, whole-food bean burgers, Cubano seitan sandwiches, chicken salad wraps, Italian hoagies, soups, and salads will keep you fueled so you can jam out with Eilish all night long.

For the 21+ crowds looking for drinks and light bites before the show, Charlie was a sinner. and Bar Bombon can’t be missed. At Charlie was a sinner., signature cocktails, a selection of wines, and crisp beers all pair well with the bar’s bites, which span from potato croquettes served with chipotle aioli to eggplant bao buns, crab cake sliders, falafel salads, and molten chocolate cake. Coffee drinks and mocktails are also on offer for those who prefer to skip the alcohol.

Charlie was a sinner.

Bar Bombon offers a more robust food menu for those in search of drinks who prefer a heftier bite. Cheesy nachos, Impossible tacos, and smoky chorizo burgers are all must-trys. The drink menu, too, keeps in line with the restaurant’s Latin cuisine. Margaritas, spiked horchata, micheladas, and more provide a boozy fix. Aguas frescas, tea, and coffee are also available.

And for concertgoers looking to enjoy an upscale meal before the show, Vedge is the place to be. The restaurant’s dinner menu boasts selections such as spicy dan dan noodles, savory whipped turnip crêpe, smoked eggplant braciole, and more.

Billie Eilish loves these New York vegan restaurants

Madison Square Garden will be filled to the brim with Eilish fans starting October 16. The star will play at the world-famous venue for three consecutive nights.

Fans are truly spoiled for choice when it comes to vegan eats in the city. For quick and tasty grub, Jerrell’s BETR BRGR offers classic handhelds plus super stacked burgers with all the classic toppings plus vegan bacon, chili, and jalapeños. For an even wider selection of comfort food favorites, Vegan On the Fly’s expansive menu offers everything from Nashville hot chicken to chopped cheese sandwiches, BLTs, drumsticks, macaroni and cheese bowls, empanadas, and more.

Cadence

Another Eilish favorite, Chloe on Bleecker offers healthier vegan options. Butternut-cashew cheese nachos, truffle avocado toast, burgers featuring housemade mushroom walnut patties, and fresh salads are up for grabs. Vegan Szechuan restaurant Spicy Moon and soul food spot Cadence are other sit-down restaurants beloved by New Yorkers and Eilish alike. A stop by the all-vegan grocery store Orchard Grocer is another must if you’re looking for snacks or deli sandwiches to enjoy on your way into the venue.

But if you’re traveling into the city and are hoping to hit the most buzzed-about locales, make a reservation for the Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park—the only plant-based restaurant in the world to hold three of the coveted stars.

Billie Eilish’s favorite vegan restaurants in Los Angeles

Born and raised in the City of Angels, Eilish naturally has a large number of go-to vegan eateries in Los Angeles. The singer-songwriter will perform at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA for three nights starting December 15.

Among all of Eilish’s favorite Los Angeles restaurants, Stuff I Eat—the health-focused vegan eatery helmed by Chef Babette—is the closest to the Kia Forum. Here, you can’t go wrong with the organic soul food sampler plate, which features yams, macaroni and cheese, kale greens, black-eyed peas, potato salad, coleslaw, a cornbread muffin, and your choice of barbecue tofu or jackfruit.

James Michael Juarez | Hey Sunshine Kitchen

Fans traveling to the venue from different corners of the city can also find one of Eilish’s go-to restaurants in Los Angeles’ varied neighborhoods. In Highland Park, there’s Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher and Bakery—the city’s first official vegan butcher.

In Culver City, Yelp-favorite Hey, Sunshine Kitchen serves up a variety of bowls, sandwiches, tacos, and salads—with many items available for $15 or less. For exquisite Italian vegan fare, head to West Hollywood for Pura Vita, and if you have a craving for sushi, PLANTA Cocina in Marina del Rey offers satiating rolls and seaside views. And for a white tablecloth affair, head to Crossroads Kitchen in Beverly Grove for a celebrity-approved dining experience at the country’s Best Vegan Restaurants as voted by VegNews readers.

The roster blends local and national chefs ranging from Karen Akunowicz (Fox & the Knife; Bar Volpe) and Tiffani Faison (Sweet Cheeks) to cookbook authors Rick Martinez and Andy Baraghani.

Tourism organization Meet Boston co-sponsors the festival with support from local nonprofits — Community Servings to combat food insecurity and BAGLY (Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth) to provide visibility and support for Boston-area LGBTQIA+ youth programs — plus national advocacy group GLAAD. Tickets go on sale this week.

The Big Queer Food Fest graduates from a national pop-up series to an inaugural weeklong festival in Boston from April 28 until May 4, drawing chefs from across the country (check out the full agenda at www.bigqueerfoodfest.com ).

“We need to make sure to continue to hold and create space, and to keep speaking out and showing up and being our loud and vibrant selves, not just for each other but for an entire generation of folks who are coming up,” Akunowicz says.

Akunowicz, 46, and I chatted about the festival, reflected on Boston’s evolution as a food city, discussed her favorite hangout near her home in West Roxbury, and reminisced about our favorite college-era tacos.

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Why Boston?

[Founders] David Lewis and Chad Hahne started this as a series of pop-ups across the country, with queer chefs coming together in a very grassroots kind of way, as queer movements often do.

Last year, it was so well-received. We did the event at High Street Place. It sold out so quickly, and it was packed. I’d like to say that this a testament to the folks who live in the city and the folks who work in the city — not only queer folks, but the community that we have here.

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I think that, in talking to the City of Boston and Meet Boston about coming back, the city wholeheartedly came in 100 percent. BAGLY is part of it as well, as well as our national sponsor, which is GLAAD. I think that it just goes to show this is not just a welcoming city but a city that’s all in for its LGBTQIA community.

This year’s event is bigger and longer: What’s the plan?

It isn’t just one panel featuring LGBTQIA voices. It’s not a gathering on the sidelines. It’s an entire, four-day festival that’s dedicated to showcasing, amplifying, and uplifting queer voices. There are dinners, discussions, cooking demos, and immersive experiences that are going to highlight the depth and diversity of queer contributions to the culinary world. I think it’s about creating space for our stories to be front and center, not just an afterthought.

The culmination of the event is a huge dine-around at High Street Place. Leading up to that, we’re hosting a dinner with visiting guest chefs at Bar Volpe. There are other dinners, experiences, and panels. If you can’t join on the last day for the grand tasting, there are so many other events that you can come out and support.

Can we talk a bit about your evolution in Boston as a queer chef? What was your journey like?

I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 17 years old, which is 30 years now. I’ve been working in Boston for 20-plus years. When I was coming up, whether I was working front of the house or when I started cooking, I didn’t see folks like me in leadership roles.

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Restaurants, historically, have been places where those of us who have felt othered can find a home. It’s a place where we can feel like we fit, and there’s a lot of acceptance. However, we have not necessarily seen ownership and leadership by women, queer folks, or people of color in the past.

Little by little, that’s changing. The industry has historically been tough, hierarchical, male-dominated. Being a queer woman in the kitchen meant navigating spaces that weren’t necessarily built for me or built with me in mind.

Over time, you find your people. You find mentors, friends, and colleagues to support you, lift you up, and then you work to turn around and do the same for others. Change doesn’t come about quickly, and it often doesn’t come in leaps and bounds. It’s about making the small changes, walking forward, crawling forward, continuing to push forward, even when there are setbacks, even when it’s two steps forward and one step back.

The 2024 BQFF lineup at High Street Place. Drea Catalano

What’s the difference between when you started out versus now? How has Boston changed culturally and culinarily?

I think Boston is an amazing, vibrant food city: One of the things I always say is that Boston is a city of neighborhoods, and I think that you need to dive into different neighborhoods to experience all of the different restaurants, food, and culture that the city has to offer.

I remember somebody writing to me and saying — this was a few years ago — that they can’t believe they could walk down West Broadway in South Boston and see Fox & the Knife with LGBTQIA flags in the window, celebrating pride. They said, “I would have never seen this in South Boston 10 years ago.” The fact that our city is changing in this way is heartening and important.

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I think we’ve been a bit overlooked in the past. I think that little by little, nationally, we have begun to see more light shining on our food scene. Folks who wouldn’t necessarily have been able to open restaurants are opening restaurants that are amazing and are changing the food scene.

Really? Because I hear it from others: ‘It’s still so hard; the rents are too high.’

All of those things remain true. The rent is incredibly high. It’s a really high threshold to open a restaurant. … It’s an astronomical fee to get a liquor license to open a restaurant. It is not the easiest, but I think that there are folks who are continuously chipping away at it. Look at restaurants like Comfort Kitchen in Dorchester that have received national acclaim.

What was the turning point, and what has to happen to keep this momentum going?

I think what’s happening is that we’re releasing more affordable liquor licenses in different communities. I feel like I just read something that said there are more liquor licenses that have just been issued so parts of the city can continue to grow and become vibrant. I think restaurants are the fabric of our community, right? [We need to] create opportunities for more restaurants across the city and not just in places like the Seaport.

What’s new and amazing? Or where would you like to eat if you could?

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I think that Jamie Bissonnette’s new restaurant, Somaek, is an amazing addition to our culinary scene, as well as his Temple Records. I go to a lot of the same places that I’ve gone to for years. I think that one of the things that’s also important is that it’s not about the newest, brightest, and shiniest thing. It’s restaurants like Sarma that have been open for over a decade. They opened in a neighborhood [in Somerville] where there wasn’t much of anything else.

It’s [those] restaurants that I’m also so proud of and that I continue to go back to. We stand on the shoulders of folks like that.

What drew you to Boston?

I’m originally from New Jersey. I did my undergrad in social work at UMass Amherst. The summer before I graduated, I worked as an intern at the State House for Representative Ellen Story of Amherst. I lived here that summer, and I just became enamored with it. I loved how walkable the city was. I didn’t have a car. I took public transportation, and I walked everywhere.

I continue to live in Boston proper. I raise my family here. I live in West Roxbury, and then my restaurants are in South Boston as well as at Logan Airport. I’ve lived in Jamaica Plain, Allston, Brighton, Brookline, Bay Village, and Roslindale, all over 20 years.

I was at Mount Holyoke when you were in Amherst, and I really miss Cha Cha Cha in Northampton.

It was so good! And then it turned into a Bueno Y Sano — I loved the original Bueno Y Sano, the tiny little one in Amherst Center. I still remember my order. I used to get a chicken taco with yogurt and black beans.

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I always got the yogurt, never the sour cream.

Always the yogurt.

Last but not least: What’s your neighborhood hangout?

Porter Cafe in West Roxbury. I’ve known the guys who own it forever. It’s a great little bar. After having my daughter, I’m like: ‘OK, can we go to a restaurant? Can we take this tiny baby to a restaurant that’s not Fox & the Knife?’ Everyone was so kind. We walk there from our house. Everyone’s always welcoming and inviting. I don’t want to say it’s a dive bar, but it’s a hole in the wall spot that has been there for a long time, and it’s one of those places that make the neighborhood great.

Interview has been edited and condensed.

Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com. Follow her @kcbaskin.