Where to Get a Picnic in Boston This Summer

By Eric Twardzik
07/23/2020
Photo credit: Season To Go

With outdoor dining encouraged, now’s a good time to get reacquainted with the humblest yet most satisfying of al fresco setups: the picnic. We’ve scouted Boston to find the best readymade picnic packages, plus our favorite spots to fill a basket a la carte.

GreCo

top view of food from GreCo where you can get a Get a Picnic in Boston
Photo Credit: GreCo

Through Labor Day weekend, the Seaport location of this local Greek fast-casual chain is selling a feeds-four GreCo Picnic Box that includes pork and chicken gyro, two lamb chops, two bifteki (seasoned ground beef patties), two loukaniko (pork sausages), fries, and fixings that include pita, tomatoes, onion, tzatziki, and spicy feta, plus Horiatiki salad, loukoumas donuts, and a magnum of natural Greek wine. But its contents go beyond the edible: the GreCo-branded picnic basket it’s served in also includes a blanket, a deck of cards, and even sunscreen.

Vincent's Corner Grocery Store

Vincent's where you can Get a Picnic in Boston

During the pandemic the Kendall Square Quebecois restaurant has reinvented itself as Vincent’s Corner Grocery Store, a throwback corner store selling beer, wine, charcuterie, and snacks. You can easily build a picnic by ordering homemade French-Canadian delights, from Foie Gras Terrine to Crétons, along with mini wheels of Vermont goat cheese, bags of crostini, cornichons, and Dijon mustard or cranberry chutney. Beverage-wise, choose from French wines or a number of non-alcoholic drinks including Cucumber Limeade.

Formaggio Kitchen - Boston's Best Cheese Shops one of the Specialty Food Markets in Boston
Formaggio / Credit: Brian Samuels Photography

This local cheesemonger might not have a formal picnic basket offering, but each Formaggio Kitchen outpost holds a treasure trove of picnicking supplies. House-made duck pâté or pimento cheese, Spanish potato chips cooked in olive oil, Prosciutto di Parma, Pugliese crackers, German garlic mustard, and the city’s greatest cheese selection—you’ll have your work cut out for you.

top view of food from Puritan where you can get a picnic in Boston
Photo credit: Puritan & Company

From Wednesday through Sunday, Puritan is selling picnic baskets filled with cured meats, cheeses, Pea and Pistachio Hummus, pickles, olives, cookies, a can of wine, and four of the Cambridge restaurant’s famed Parker House Rolls with butter. For further sustenance, you can also pick up sandwiches including a buttered Lobster Roll on croissant or a BLT on a potato roll.

Season To Go

picnic food from Season To Go
Photo Credit: Season To Go

Season To Go—the takeout arm of locally focused caterer Season to Taste—is offering four distinct picnic baskets via delivery or takeout from its North Cambridge HQ. Options include “Hanging on the Seine in Paris,” packed with fresh goat cheese, house-made pork terrine, dry-cured sausage, baguette crostini, whole grain mustard, cornichons, and fruit preserves; or the “Alabama Getaway,” complete with thin-sliced ham, pimento cheese, cold fried chicken, pulled pork rillettes, bread and butter pickles, pepper jelly, black-eyed pea salad, and watermelon. Each can be ordered in portion sizes for one or two.

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