Southern Proper’s Pulled Pork is ‘the Version to Beat’ in Boston

Properly Southern

Last week’s review in the Improper Bostonian from MC Slim JB offers a look at Southern Proper, which shows off chef Jason Cheek’s take on North Carolina Lowcountry cuisine. The menu offers good drinking food, Slim writes, including salt-and-vinegar pork rinds and creamy deviled eggs. The restaurant’s slow smoker “produces some terrific barbecue,” like the pulled pork, which Slim calls “really remarkable, and the version to beat in town.” The highlight of the veggie plates is an iron skillet of charred okra and smoked cauliflower, according to Slim, and when it comes to items out of the deep fryer, Southern Proper “does not falter.” He praises the “spectacular” fried chicken and the catfish and chips, and for dessert, he calls out the chocolate pie with whipped cream.

A Second Act as Good as the First

Marc Hurwitz visits Santarpio’s Pizza in Peabody for the Dig, checking in on the second location of a crowd favorite from East Boston. The location bucks the theory that second editions are never as good as the first: It “goes against conventional wisdom, as its pizza is very close if not equal in quality to the original in Eastie,” Hurwitz writes. The pizzas are made the same way, “with lots of rich tomato sauce and a mix of cheeses on a pliable, almost soggy crust with a good amount of corn meal on the bottom,” according to Hurwitz, who says the leftovers are good hot or cold the next day. Aside from pizza, much of the rest of the menu is also the same, including lamb skewers, steak tips, and house-made sausage. Of note: Peabody’s Santarpio’s does take credit cards, unlike its older sibling.

• Good and Proper [IB]
• Santarpio’s Pizza, Peabody [DigBoston]