Everything You Need To Eat This Summer - The Infatuation (2024)

Team Infatuation

June 24, 2024

Acadia Lobster Cruise

If you’ve been longing for lobster or watched way too many lobster-Tok videos over the winter, book the real thing with a tour on Maine’s coastline. Your guide will zoom you around Acadia National Park in a vintage lobster boat, and you’ll haul up his traps before he cooks a traditional steamed feast with a pot of seawater. Save room for the blueberry pie.

Desert Door Texas Sotol

Texas’ Hill Country is home to plenty of breweries, distilleries, and patches of sotol, a wild plant that’s made into a smooth, tequila-like liquor. Desert Door Distillery not only has a beautiful (and air-conditioned) space for you to try a variety of sotol, but also refreshing co*cktails like a boozy cherry limeade with rhubarb bitters.

Madison Kitchen

Going to the beach in Seattle usually means you’re lying on a water-adjacent grassy hill or pulling barnacles out of your butt, which is why docks come in handy. The one at Madison Park is ideal for rolling out a blanket obscured with snacks from Madison Kitchen, like refreshing sesame noodles and smoked turkey sandwiches.

The Golden Tiki

Dole soft serve spiked with pineapple rum, tater tot-stuffed breakfast burritos, and flaming co*cktails—there’s a long menu to keep you plenty busy at this 24-hour Vegas tiki bar. Just don’t ask what time it is. The last time we were there, we lost track of the day after a few rounds of the Piranha Punch.

Alleyway Ice Cream

If you’re trying to find Alleyway Ice Cream in Saugerties, just look for the crowds hovering around a semi-hidden service window for dense, creamy scoops. Classics like vanilla and fresh mint chip are flawless, but inventive flavors like ube Heath bar crunch and thai tea cookies and cream are what you’ll be dreaming about long after they’ve closed for the season.

The Oyster Bar

Flo’s Clam Shack

This Rhode Island seafood specialty is as fun to say as it is to eat, and there’s no better place to have one than Flo’s Clam Shack in Newport. Each clam is stuffed with spicy breadcrumbs, and peeling off the attached rubber band before cracking one open is as entertaining as imagining a fictional insurance saleswoman working the fryer.

Trillium Brewing

There are more breweries in Boston than there are Paul Revere impersonators (don’t fact-check us on that one). So after you do the whole Freedom Trail thing, go drink some interesting beer outside. Trillium in the Seaport is a good place to start. Then, head to Mighty Squirrel Brewing in Fenway for a crushable New England-style IPA, and finish up on the rooftop at Dorchester Brewing for the best views of the city.

Kopp’s Frozen Custard

Kopp’s is a Milwaukee institution, and the rich custard and large burgers make up a core Midwestern summer food group. There are three locations around town, but at their Greenfield address, you can post up at the outdoor dining area near a makeshift waterfall. This is peak Wisconsin summer—all that’s missing are the cheese curds, but you can always stop at Culver’s.

Scott's Kitchen

Kansas City is obviously known for its BBQ, andScott’s Kitchen, which is right by the airport, adds their saucy and appropriately charred burnt ends into a breakfast burrito. They open at 7am, in case you need that burrito—or even a combo platter—after a red eye.

The Coco Club

Tranquil rooftop bars in Santa Monica are as rare as an actual surfer on Ocean Avenue. The Coco Club is here to change that, at least until the rest of the Westside finds out about these prime views. Palm fronds line the railings, a mellow crowd sips gimlets under string lights, and DJs spin soft house beats.

Gilligans Poke Shop

You biked over the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito—and triumphed over the crosswinds. Congrats, your prize is a raw fish fuel up. The poke lunch counter is hidden in the back of a mini-mart on Caledonia Street (the city’s “real downtown,” for those in the know), and serves the freshest limu ahi, which pairs great with seaweed salad.

Heidrun Meadery

Loungy afternoons call for enjoying a glass of sparkling mead and your favorite chip-dip combo under the curly willow. The bucolic Point Reyes setting, with picnic tables, valley views, and grassy paths for strolling, might just inspire you to take up beekeeping.

Gracie's Apizza

The tomato pie from Gracie’s Apizza in Portland is summer in wood-fired dough form—the aromatic sauce will make you feel like you rolled around in a bountiful tomato bed. It’s peak simplicity, topped with just olive oil, oregano, pecorino romano, and a garlic confit that lingers.

L&B Spumoni Gardens

On summer Saturdays, The Brooklyn Cyclones offer a very special all-you-can-drink ticket option. Things get rowdy—and to add to the madness, some nights are themed (Margaritaville, Harry Potter, and Seinfeld are on the lineup). After the ninth inning, take a ride on the Wonder Wheel and feast on the vodka sauce square slice at .

Two Tides Brewing

A good smashburger is best enjoyed with a crisp beer. But a great smash burger is paired with a beer slushie from Two Tides. The weekend’s slushie specials can be found on the second-floor taproom, but stop by the food trailer first to get your order going. The outdoor picnic tables may seem like a good idea, but remember—you’re in the South, and it’s the summer.

Volo

Along with burgers, hot dogs, and BBQ, a balanced summer diet should include oysters, especially if they’re from Volo. They’re sweet, refreshing, and from 4-6pm nightly, this Roscoe Village bar serves the tasty bivalves for just a buck each. With dollar oysters, good wine, and a secluded patio with cabanas and cushioned benches, we understand if you struggle finding motivation to do anything else this summer.

Larsen’s Fish Market

Larsen’s Fish Market is a seafood counter in Menemsha, Martha’s Vineyard, that keeps their crustacean creations refreshingly simple: butter- or mayo-drenched chunks of the freshest lobster on a soft bun. Gobble it down at the beach or on an oil-stained wood slab out front.

Kill Devil Dogs

Few combos embody summer more than a day at the beach and a plump hot dog piled high with toppings. Kill Devil Dogs is a stone’s throw away from the Outer Banks’ sandy shoreline, and regional specialties like the spicy, cheesy Kill Devil dog are exactly what you’ll want after surfing or riding your beach cruiser all afternoon.

Coda Bakery

The Vietnamese sandwich experts at Coda are turning out forearm-length bánh mì starring homemade rolls and slabs of the most luscious fried tofu ever. Order one at the counter, and at least two or three baguettes, plus a sesame roll to-go like everyone else.

S.S. Gai

Forget hot chicken. This summer is all about the Thai fried chicken from S.S. Gai in Nashville. First, it’s located in The Wash, a refurbished car wash with a lovely outdoor dining area. And second, the chicken is packed with flavor, thanks to a healthy dose of tamarind fish sauce, bits of crackly skin, and an absolute mountain of fried shallots. Always get the fried sticky mango rice for dessert.

Comal

Life is too short not to eat braised meat in a park that’s also an open-air art gallery. Head to Denver’s Comal, a fast-casual spot that’s basically inside Rino Art Park, for co*ke-braised carnitas tacos, and have yourself a picnic while looking at some sculptures. We also love that Comal doubles as a social enterprise by providing culinary training and funding for immigrant and refugee women.

The Ordinary

When temperatures in Charleston start creeping toward triple digits, cool off with a frozen limonada at The Ordinary before continuing on your King Street bar crawl. There are no flimsy paper straws here—only an extra-wide bamboo straw that makes for an ideal sipping experience (just watch out for brain freeze).

Bob & Barbara’s co*cktail Lounge

Drag night at Bob & Barb’s is a Philly rite of passage. The South Street dive created the $5 Citywide Special, so you may as well have a few too many with the strangers who are now friends, judge drag night with Miss Lisa Lisa, and dance until they kick you out. If you can, snag a rez at Illata first—you’re gonna need a hearty base.

All American Hamburger Drive-In

A milkshake so thick you can’t suck it through a straw. A quarter-pound burger smeared with ketchup and diced onion. Freshly cut fries, deeply salty and golden brown. You can get all that for roughly $10 at this Massapequa institution. It’s the perfect pit stop after a trip to Jones Beach.