It’s really hard to say enough good things about pub food, but I’m about to say some more. Because for my last meal in Salem, I made my way to the Olde Main Street Pub in the hopes that this Irish place would have food fit for an unvegan. After a bunch of seafood, beef and pork, it was time to taste the what Salem had to offer from the poultry realm.

Thus, I ordered The Chicken O’Brady under the assumption that it was named for Tom Brady, the New England and Michigan Wolverine hero. This sandwich began with a grilled chicken breast and was topped with bacon, cheddar and honey mustard. It also came with fries. Unfortunately, even though I asked the waitress to keep any vegetables away not named in the menu, the sandwich still arrived with a bunch of veggies on one half of the bun. These were easily removed, but a total waste of precious vegetable life.

And really, this was one of the better chicken sandwiches I have ever had. The bacon was placed with such care that it was evenly dispersed across the sandwich instead of lackadaisically criss-crossed atop the chicken. The cheese was melted into delicious gooey oblivion and the fries were seasoned to perfection and fried in all the right ways. The only thing I could have asked more was more chicken, as the breast was kinda small.

This sandwich was a great way to close out the visit to Salem, and while it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, it was beyond what you should reasonably expect from an Irish Pub in a old New England touristy town.

Boston is definitely known as a melting pot of a city. But I didn’t know the same could be said for Salem, a town much better known for witches than food.. That was, of course, until I made my way to Village Tavern. I figured it would be like a typical village tavern, but this one had a little something hidden up its sleeve.

That little something took the form of Buffalo Chicken Rangoons. Granted, rangoons are kind of like a bastardized American version of a dumpling, but they still have an Asian flair that I hadn’t been expecting at such a place. Regardless, these were a pretty delicious way to start off the meal, along with a beer, of course.

For my main meal I had the Bacon Brie burger. This was topped with the aforementioned namesake ingredients (although the bacon was candied), as well as V-Tav whiskey bacon jam and vinegar onion straws. The burger was fine. Just fine. No, it was more than fine. At least the bacon and brie and jam were great, but the onion strings were not deeply fried enough for my liking and the patty itself was just okay.

I wasn’t expecting this burger to blow me away, and it did a fantastic job of meeting those expectations. Regardless, I left Village Tavern plenty satisfied and ready to take on any local witches.

Coffee shops have come a long way since the days of Friends and Seattle grunge. Now, they serve different teas, crazy concoctions and a bunch of quickie foods. And that’s just the chains. The indie spots take things a step further, like Brew Box in Salem, Massachusetts. And it’s not just hippy dippy and hipster stuff, they even had food fit for an unvegan like me.

The obvious choice was the Biscuit Egg Sandwich, which is made with a house-made biscuit, egg souffle (really a scrambled egg square) and white cheddar with the option to add bacon or sausage for $1. I tried both the bacon and the sausage, and the bacon was my preferred biscuit meat. Yet, despite the meat, the most amazing thing about the sandwich was the biscuit itself. It has an amazing crispy texture on the outside and was delightfully fluffy on the inside – just as a biscuit should be. It was also plenty moist, which is a word that I always like to use to describe pretty much anything.

And the best thing about the sandwich was that I was able to eat something “wich”y in Salem. I know you’re laughing. Fine, whatever. Don’t laugh. But do eat the Biscuit Egg Sandwich if you ever make your way to Salem and are in need of breakfast.

Some time in the ’90s it became cool (kewl?) to replace the letter “S” with the letter “Z.” Finz in Salem, Massachusetts arrived at the tail end (get it?!) of that decade, so they still get a pass. And while the ambiance could not be further from the divey lunch that day, the them was the same – seafood.

Thus, we started with Crab Irish Nachos, which is like the most Boston thing ever because it combines Irish and Seafoodish in one.The potato chips were housemade, the nacho sauce was spicy and the pico de gallo was…unnecessary. Yet, these were about as good as you could expect a combination of crab and fried potatoes to be.

We also started with an order of the Finz Crispy Calamari, which was said to be served Rhode Island style. As someone not from the northeast, I had no idea what that meant, but learned that it simply meant the squid was tossed with pickled banana peppers. Strange that that is all it takes to be called your “style,” but then Rhode Island is quite small. In the end, it tasted like…wait for it…calamari that just happened to have banana peppers nearby. So, you know, pretty good.

Now Finz is one of those places with tanks of lobsters just waiting to be grabbed and dropped into a boiling pot of water. This is not uncommon, but we were seated right by those doomed lobsters and this in no way prevented me from ordering the Lobster Mac and Cheese. It turned out that was really more like Lobster Penne and Cheese, but I still liked it. Plus, the truffled asiago bread crumbs added a nice crunchy texture to the dish. The centerpiece, though, was the lobster itself. It was quite plentiful and the chunks were massive. Pus, the cheese sauce tasted like it was made just for lobster.

In the more upscale side of the lobster world, Salem delivered the goods once again. There’s something about lobster done right that elevates it above the lesser foods from the sea. And when you’re in Massachusetts and don’t need to pay an arm and a leg (and a pincer) to get that crustacean in your belly it’s all the better.

Some people really like lobster rolls. I don’t get it. What’s the fun of chowing down on cold, slimy lobster loaded up with mayo? But then there’s lobster grilled cheese. See, that’s the good stuff, doing everything right with the lobsters. So, upon arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, we made our way to a divey spot called Longboards that allegedly knew what to do with lobster.

Thus, I ordered the lobster grilled cheese, along with a cup of clam chowder. The grilled cheese was everything it should have been. No attempt to make it fancy, just perfectly melty cheddar, lightly browned grill marks and the right about of lobster so as to maintain balance. Plus, the lemon for squeezing upon the sandwich was a nice touch.

The chowder was good as well, but not really anything special aside from a good way to warm up in the rainy winter weather.

As far as divey lobster sandwiches go in the cradle of witches, Longboards certainly delivered, setting the stage for more lobster to come.