What’s trending for winter when it comes to North Shore restaurants? This year, it’s all about that special, small, and thoughtfully composed menu. For weekday meals, local restaurants are arranging offerings that appeal to guests of all stripes, with bespoke appetizers and entrees, fixed menus, and enticing delights that embrace the changing seasons.
Bernadette I Photograph by Anthony Tieuli
Bernadette, Salem
Last year, the team at Bernadette, in Salem, launched Bistro Wednesdays: The Butcher’s Cut. Inspired by Chef Aarons Chambers’ first trip to Paris, which he took when he was 18, the menu now offers a simple, approachable weekly ritual for locals. “It’s all served on a single plate,” says Shanna Chambers, the restaurant’s co-owner. Chef Chambers, Shanna Chambers says, serves the meal with a compound garlic butter and a dressed side salad and French fries. The perfect plate is $36. (Guests can add on an au poivre sauce for $5 extra, or a glass of a curated wine pairing for a little more than that, depending on the night.)
Bernadette I Photograph by Anthony Tieuli
The first pour, Shanna Chambers says, was a Crozes-Hermitage, an appellation in the Northern Rhône; it’s a classic, inky wine that’s primarily made from Syrah. “We wanted to do something different and special,” she says. “Something you couldn’t find on our by-the-glass list. Most of these wines, at cost, would be something we carry on the bottle list.” Each week, the restaurant brings a few bottles in specifically for the Bistro Wednesday program—wines that they feel will match particularly well with the steak frites. “It has been super fun bringing in new bottles to try,” she says. “People are really liking it.”
Sogno, Woburn
At Woburn’s Sogno, which opened in 2022, another type of menu concept has captured local attention. The restaurant launched a sagra series late last year, honoring a type of Italian food festival that focuses on regional, seasonal, or even religious food. “It’s an opportunity to celebrate the Italian food festivals, because they honor the deep, rooted culinary traditions throughout Italy,” says John Paul Martignetti, the restaurant’s co-owner. “They bring people together around seasonal, authentic flavors.”
Sogno I Photographs by Anthony Tieuli
Sogno’s sagras—essentially themed menus that focus on one central ingredient—change every month and have highlighted everything from lemons to mushrooms to chestnuts. In November, for instance, the sagra centered around the Italian crème de la crème: the white truffle. “This particular sagra is based in San Miniato, which is in Tuscany,” he says. “This is the season—as the cool weather sets in—that the white truffle becomes more prevalent. It is considered a delicacy.”
The series, which welcomed an incredible response in 2025, will re-launch following the Valentine’s Day holiday and Dine Out Boston, in March. Although the sagras are not currently set for 2026, Martignetti says that the restaurant is currently planning either primavera—or spring—themed sagra in March, which will likely be partnered with local farms to highlight emerging produce. Other forthcoming ideas, though not yet set in stone, include a carciofo (artichoke) sagra for April, focusing on the Rome region, and a risotto-themed sagra for May, with sights set on the Piedmonte region, in Italy’s north.
Tonno, Gloucester and Wakefield
At Tonno, in Gloucester, fall welcomed the reinstatement of the so-called Petite Portions menu, which continues through New England’s cozy winter, and on into spring. Available Mondays through Thursdays, this smaller—and more affordable—menu provides an option for guests who want smaller sizes. Dishes are appetizer-sized and the most expensive dish on the menu is $29 (sliced sirloin, with asparagus and roast potato, though not entrée-sized).
Tonno I Photographs By Brian DeMello
The Petite Portion menus first appeared—both in Wakefield and in Gloucester—in the fall of 2024. “Smaller dishes are trending in the restaurant industry,” says David Petrilli, Tonno’s operating partner, who developed the concept. “Many diners are becoming more mindful of their caloric intake and are finding that smaller, balanced portions allow them to savor the flavors without overeating.”
Guests, the restaurant finds, have enjoyed the flexibility of the menu, which enables them to sample a wider range of dishes and to explore different cuisines within a single meal. The plates may be smaller, but the options feel limitless, with menu items like a smaller version of the tonno tartare, with chives, lemon, and olive oil; stewed clams, with white beans, pancetta, and grilled bread; homemade orecchiette with tomato, broccoli rabe, sausage, and pecorino; grilled swordfish over fregola and enhanced with white wine, lemon, capers, and olives; and a show-stopping (but smaller) veal saltimbocca, with roasted potato, crispy prosciutto, and sage brown butter.
These menus are focused, delicious, and so good you should plan your week around them.
Dining and Cooking