The Swellesley Report

Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Beyond Wellesley—Dedham restaurants

Dedham restaurants we’ve tried out:

The Brickhouse Cafe
Cava
Horse Thieves Tavern—permanently closed, summer 2024
Oscar’s

The Brickhouse Cafe

107 Bridge St.
Dedham, MA 02026
(781) 326-1980

Sept. 2023 visit

Walking up to the Brickhouse Cafe feels like paying a visit to your Italian nonna, should you be so fortunate to have such a wonder. The cozy neighborhood spot is located on the first floor of a renovated two-story home, where Italian from-scratch comfort food comes out of the kitchen, served up by friendly and experienced wait staff. The bar delivers a variety of wine, whiskey, craft beer, and cocktails at this casual, lively pub-like spot.

Unlike with nonna, you’d better make reservations. The Brickhouse doesn’t mean to brag or anything, but their relatively few tables tend to fill up fast, and stay filled all night—that’s just how it is. The dining area has seating for about 20 at eight 8 tables and there are around 20 more seats available around the U-shaped oak bar, along with several 2- and 4-seat high tops in that area. 

The Brickhouse Cafe, Dedham
Red bell pepper app stuffed with scallops, shrimp, and Ritz crackers.

Our drinks were served along with a serving of rustic bread with olive oil dipping sauce that was topped with a fantastic and flavorful garlic spread. We followed that up with a generously sized starter of a red bell pepper stuffed with scallops, shrimp, and Ritz crackers ($14). Pretty much everything here is generously sized, with pricing that’s fair for the quality of food and the portions. Our app was satisfying and spoke of good things to come. Other starters included Pasta Fagiole, that Italian classic three bean soup; a vegetarian option of stuffed mushrooms; fried rice balls stuffed with provolone and peas (only reason we passed on that was the inclusion of peas. We’ve seen it done before, but why mess up the texture of Aroncini with peas?); and more.

Our Chicken Verdicchio entree ($24)—chicken medallions with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and white wine—was phenomenal. Tender chicken, wonderful melding of flavors, served on top of house-made fettuccini was the star choice of the evening for us. We hear the kitchen also gets raves for the pizza and the chicken parm, and for overall consistency of what they put out, which is good food, well prepared and piping hot.

Service was friendly and professional. Our server seemed like she enjoyed working there and answered our questions about the boxing decor with good grace. Turns out owner Vinny Marino was kind of a big thing in the ring back in the day.

Monday-Friday dinner, 4pm-9pm
Saturday & Sunday brunch, 10am-3pm
Saturday & Sunday dinner, 3pm-9pm 

More about Brickhouse Cafe:

  • About 25 minutes from Wellesley Square
  • Park across the street, don’t complain about it. You’re in a neighborhood, not at the mall.
  • Indoor seating around a U-shaped bar; high tops in the bar area; tables in the dining room
  • Outdoor seating seasonally available.
  • Reservations are highly recommended, and they don’t do them online. You have to call when the business is open.
  • Lots of boxing memorabilia on display, a nod to owner Vinny Marino’s career as a professional boxer in the 1970s.
  • Across the street from McGolf Driving Range. So good date-night material…hit a bucket of balls, get some dinner.

Cava

724 Legacy Place
Dedham, MA 02026
781-205-4766

March 2023 visit

Cava located in Legacy Place, the popular shopping and entertainment spot in Dedham, is a fast-casual restaurant that serves Mediterranean-inspired food featuring a wide selection of greens and grains in bowls, salads, and pitas. The restaurant is part of a chain, one of over 250 in the U.S., follows a format that Sweetgreen fans will find familiar. Customers move through a cafeteria-style line as crew members put together the ingredients for custom orders or Cava creations.

The three founders, who grew up together and fondly recall goofing off in their Greek church’s Sunday School class, pride Cava on three things in particular—their nutty-flavored pita, packed with nine sprouted grains; the simplicity of their hummus recipe (chickpeas blended with nutty tahini, fresh lemon, raw garlic, and kosher salt); and their skhug, described as a “good-on-everything Mediterranean essential made with jalapeño peppers, garlic, and cilantro” (pronounced schoo-g).

We tried out the flavorful spicy lamb meatball pita with hummus, tomato, cucumber, pickled onions, pickles, garlic dressing, and skhug. The staff let us try out a teaspoon of the green condiment before we committed—our heat-tolerance profile goes only up to medium. The jalapeño pepper was certainly present, but not overwhelmingly so. As promised, between the spicy lamb and the skhug, the pita meal packed a bit of a punch, cooled off slightly by the hummus. The pita was phenomenal, a warm hug of homemade flatbread.

The lentil avocado salad bowl, made with a generous half an avocado, was tossed with falafel, roasted seasonal vegetables, roasted eggplant, hummus, tabbouleh, spinach, other greens, and skhug. The salad was too heavy on the cabbage for our taste and a little light on the black lentils. But the essential draw a healthy fast-casual joint is fresh ingredients, and Cava does not allow a leaf in any stage of wilt to escape from the serving station. The only thing that can derail the customer experience at Cava would be a slowdown in the line. That didn’t happen while we were there. Staffing numbers were adequate, service was friendly, everything grooved along.

More about Cava:

  • About 20 minutes from Wellesley Square
  • Plenty of parking in its popular Legacy Place shopping area location
  • 40 indoor seats
  • 2 small outdoor tables overlooking the parking lot
  • They do a brisk online to-go business
  • Kids’ meal available—a mini version of their build-you-own pita, with a side of pita chips or carrots
    sticks. Choose milk or juice.
  • Fountain sodas, as well as creative fountain drinks such as a juice made with pineapple, apple cider, fresh mint, and lime. Also a selection of Spindrift seltzers

Horse Thieves Tavern—permanently closed, summer 2024

585 High Street, Dedham, MA
781-708-9185

Horse Thieves Tavern, Dedham

    • Our Valentine’s Day Dedham date, which included a stop at Horse Thieves Tavern.

      Oscar’s

      380 Washington Street, Dedham, MA
      781-686-9705

      June 2024 visit

      Oscar’s is a casual and cozy high-end pub serving lunch and dinner in historic Dedham Square. They just got their summer menu going, which includes their first try at Taco Tuesday. We had the fish version and can recommend it. At the time we were there, guacamole wasn’t included as part of the taco scene, but the chef made it special for me. Maybe they’ll add it to the options, because what’s a taco without guac?

    • Oscar’s was in the process of setting up their six-table patio area, so we’d like to go back and try that out. Staff says the patio is very popular.
    • Summer 2024 hours: Mon – Wed:  3pm – 11:30; Thu – Sun:  11am – 11:30
    • In general, you might want to make reservations Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; you definitely should make reservations Thursday-Sunday; and they take only walk-ins only on Friday and Saturday.
    • The menu also features comfort food like braised short ribs and mashed potatoes, fettucine alfredo, Irish beef stew, and more. Craft cocktails and craft beer are served up at the 12-seat bar and ten indoor tables (see if you can get a spot by the fireplace).Oscar's, DedhamWe can highly recommend the grapefruit and blood orange mule, a vodka-based craft cocktail made with ginger beer and lime juice. An appetizer of brussels sprouts with bacon lardons and ancho-chile sauce was generously portioned, but we could have done without the sweetness of the ancho-pepper based condiment, which distracted from the earthiness of the cruciferous veggie.Service was excellent. Friendly and just the right amount of attentive.

      Things about Oscar’s we liked:

      • the fish tacos
      • the sautéed shrimp with white wine-butter sauce served over a beautiful flat pasta
      • the under 20-minute drive from Wellesley Square
      • the fact that we could have caught a movie at the Dedham Community Theatre, in walking distance from Oscar’s
      • the Dedham Square vibe—we enjoyed a constitutional after our meal to aid digestion
      • easy on-street metered parking (free after 6pm)