Best Boston-Area Food and Drink Subscriptions Gift Guide, 2021

Popular Boston seafood restaurant Saltie Girl offers a take-home meal package, complete with beverage pairings, each month for two ($85) or four ($165). Each month the package might be something like a lobster brunch with mimosa, seafood pizza and wine pairings, or a crudo box with sake pairings. Members also get recipes and other content from the Saltie Girl team, plus priority access to special events and dinners.

This subscription is available for local pickup only, but Saltie Girl fans should see the Meat and Seafood section below for two other options from the restaurant that can be shipped — a caviar subscription and a tinned seafood subscription.

Before Vincent’s was born out of the pandemic, the restaurant was known as Cafe du Pays, serving French-Canadian fare. Nowadays, the team is focusing on farm-to-table, vegetable-heavy fare. Subscribers can get a monthly meal by chef de cuisine Philip Nacron (a Craigie on Main alum), including an appetizer, entree, and dessert. Sample dishes include brandade tartine with tobiko aioli, grilled bread, pickled Fresno, radish, and confit leek; half chicken with chicken bratwurst, pot roasted vegetables, forked potatoes, and jus; and peach tarte tatin. The standard ($70) feeds one or two, while the large ($135) feeds three or four; add $50 for two bottles of wine. See another package from Vincent’s in the Boozy section below.

This package must be picked up at Vincent’s in Cambridge’s Kendall Square.

Local Italian restaurant Fiorella’s offers a monthly chef’s tasting for takeout for two ($85) or four ($165) with antipasti, salad, soup, breadsticks, an entree, and dessert. Sample items include meatballs, chicken parm, and peanut butter ice cream pie. Add a bottle ($25) or two ($55) of wine. Check the Accoutrements and Boozy sections below for more options from Fiorella’s.

This package must be picked up at Fiorella’s in either Newtonville or Concord Center.

Local Indian restaurant Shanti offers a monthly tasting menu — highlighting a different region of India each month — for two ($80) or four ($150) diners, with omnivore and vegan options available. The meals arrive ready to eat with just a few assembly steps. Subscribers also receive information on the culinary heritage of the highlighted region and one spice or spice mix from that area, as well as exclusive first access to various Shanti classes and events. Optionally add one or two bottles of wine ($25 or $50) to the subscription.

Subscribers can pick up the monthly meal at Shanti’s Dorchester or Roslindale location or get delivery within seven miles of either location.

There’s a caveat to this one: Somerville butcher M.F. Dulock doesn’t consider a new membership to its Meat Club program a good gift for an unsuspecting recipient as it requires a bit of a commitment on the recipient’s part to make the pickups; instead, the shop recommends gift cards, available in any denomination, which can be put toward Meat Club membership or anything at the shop.

However, if your friend already belongs to the Meat Club, you can treat them to a number of shares ($60 per month). Or, if you’re a meat lover who can make it to Somerville on a designated day once per month, you can give yourself the gift of meat. Each monthly share includes five pounds of meat, usually three to five different ingredients, possibly including one large roasting or braising cut, steak or chops, sausage or other ground meat, and something “uncommon.” Four times a year, one pound of the meat is replaced with three pounds of soup bones.

Memberships are set up in-store; call (617) 666‑1970 to ask any questions. (To purchase a gift card instead, simply click on the red button below.)

One of several subscriptions offered by Back Bay seafood gem Saltie Girl, this monthly package includes three seafood tins (such as spiced octopus or mussels escabeche); accoutrements, such as sauces and crackers; access to recipes and other relevant content; and priority access to special Saltie Girl events and dinners. A higher subscription tier ($82) includes four tins instead of three, and two of those are higher-end selections, like white tuna belly or baby eels.

Available for local pickup in Boston or free nationwide shipping.

In addition to its monthly meal and tinned seafood subscriptions, Saltie Girl also goes ultra-luxurious with four monthly caviar subscriptions, starting with “the Intro” at $155 (30-gram selection of standard caviar and 30-gram selection of premium caviar) up to “the Luxe” at $635 (two 125-gram selections of premium caviar). Each package comes with accoutrements and Saltie Girl’s potato chips, as well as recipes and priority access to the restaurant’s dinners and special events.

Other membership tiers are available at $299 and $409. All are available for local pickup in Boston or free nationwide shipping.

Cape Cod oyster lovers can try out this subscription from the Pheasant in Dennis (which also offers a wine subscription; see the Boozy section below.) This package includes a monthly rotation of local oysters (Wellfleet, Buzzards Bay, Duxbury Harbor, etc.), as well as a Pheasant-branded oyster knife, shucking gloves, and an oyster journal where you can record tasting notes. Get a dozen oysters for $35 or two dozen for $65, with an optional add-on of two bottles of wine for $50.

This package must be picked up at the Pheasant in Dennis.

Cambridge-based spice shop Curio Spice Co. offers a monthly spice club, with each shipment including one or two spices and recipes to make use of them. A past shipment, for example, included Aegean salt, alongside recipes such as a Greek-style salad dressing and an appetizer of Aegean-salted dates.

The subscription is $12, charged monthly; cancel anytime. Prefer a one-time gift? Curio offers a number of lovely gift sets. (Note that subscriptions can only be shipped, but all other Curio products can be picked up in-store if you’re local.)

Brookline cheese shop Curds & Co. ships a monthly subscription box of cheese and accoutrements around the United States for $49.95 a month (save a few bucks with three-, six-, and 12-month subscriptions.) Each box includes three cheeses with three specialty food pairings, plus a wine and pairing info card and access to a themed Spotify playlist and the Curdcast podcast. (Check out some past boxes here.)

Curdbox arrives on the third Wednesday or Thursday of the month, depending on your location. View the various subscription and gift options here.

For those who don’t want the full meal kit from Fiorella’s (see Full Meals above), there’s a monthly pantry provisions selection stuffed with items such as fresh pasta, imported oils, house-made Italian sauces, specialty condiments, and more. Add a bottle ($25) or two ($55) of wine if desired.

This package must be picked up at Fiorella’s in Newtonville or Concord Center.

Legendary Boston restaurant Eastern Standard is no more, but some of the team went on to launch a mail-order pretzels-and-more company (Belgian waffles were recently added to the product line.) For $29.99 a month, the monthly snack box subscription includes soft pretzels of various shapes and a variety of sauces, salts, sugars, and other toppings, as well as a recipe card.

Prepay for three, four, six, or twelve boxes to save a little money over the month-to-month plan; the twelve-month plan brings the price per box down to about $23.99. The first box ships one to three business days after the order is placed.

Joanne Chang’s Flour Bakery & Cafe chain offers a shippable subscription package where each month includes almost everything you need to bake a Flour treat, including ingredients, a recipe card, and a direct link to a video tutorial. Gift a four-month package ($150), six-month package ($200), eight-month package ($255), or a whole year ($380). Treats include sticky buns, Oreos, croissants, chocolate chip cookies, and much more, depending on the package, suitable for a variety of skill levels.

This Boston-based cookie company, which opened a Dorchester storefront in 2021, offers a cookie of the month subscription package — get a dozen cookies to your door. Flavors vary, but customers can note preferences like “no nuts” when subscribing. The company is known for flavors like Black & Golds (dark chocolate with peanut butter chips) and Boston Lager chocolate chip (made with Sam Adams beer).

Sign up for a month-to-month subscription ($16 plus shipping) or a three-, six-, or 12-month commitment, with the longer subscriptions saving you a few bucks.

Local chocolatier Petrova Chocolates ships out monthly boxes of beautiful bonbons in a variety of flavors; the classic subscription ($48) includes 16 pieces, while the gold subscription ($70) includes the 16-piece box as well as a chocolate bar and an extra item, such as a jar of caramel or holiday cocoa bombs.

Subscriptions auto-renew each month but can be canceled any time.

Earnest Drinks, the Cambridge sibling to Somerville’s Gracie’s Ice Cream, offers a subscription package for $70 per month that includes three bottles of wine (with a focus on “small production, low intervention, and extreme drinkability”) and three pints of ice cream. “Expect to try new things and get a little weird and be driven out of your comfort zone.”

Earnest Drinks’s subscription is available for pickup only (at the Cambridge restaurant).

Somerville restaurant Juliet’s wine club features three bottles of wine plus four tastings (which are equivalent to another bottle) for monthly pickup, followed by a Zoom tasting party. $110 covers the wines, access to the Zoom party (it’s recorded in case you can’t join live), and a special newsletter. Juliet co-owner and “wine commander” Katrina Jazayeri is behind each set of selections.

Wine pickup occurs on the first Thursday of each month, with the Zoom meeting taking place the following day.

The South End wine shop offers two tiers of monthly membership — $50 for the Urban Sampler (for those “new to wine and looking to explore”) or $100 for the Urban Connoisseur (“for wine lovers who are looking to vastly expand their palate and learn about new products.”) Each includes a seasonally appropriate assortment of four bottles. The December 2020 Urban Connoisseur, for example, included a “splendid selection of winter-worthy wines … focused on richer, fuller-bodied wines that pair with the hearty fare of holiday meals.”

Urban Grape delivers locally around the Greater Boston area and can ship wines via FedEx throughout Massachusetts.

A decades-old group of Boston-area liquor stores, Gordon’s, now offers its own monthly wine subscription box ($125) that includes four bottles, information (such as suggested pairings), and an invite to a virtual tasting. One past shipment was dubbed “the Endless Possibilities of Italy” and was aimed at showcasing some of the country’s unique and lesser-known grapes.

Local delivery — Boston and Metrowest — is also included in the price, but for those elsewhere, Crubox can ship to most states for an additional fee.

One of two packages from Vincent’s — see Full Meals section above for the other — the monthly Libations Club includes either a wine bundle ($26 for one bottle, $72 for three, or $109 for five) or a cocktail bundle ($48 for four four-ounce cocktails, $70 for six, $90 for eight, all pre-mixed). Each bundle also comes with a light treat from the Vincent’s kitchen, such as spices or condiments, but subscribers can add $10 for a more robust selection, such as house ferments or pickles.

This package must be picked up onsite at Vincent’s, which is in Cambridge’s Kendall Square neighborhood.

Cambridge restaurant Pagu offers a rotating mix of cocktails; subscribers can get two eight-ounce cocktails ($40), four ($60), or six ($80), plus an accompaniment from the Pagu bar, such as a syrup, garnish, or tonic. The package also includes educational material and tasting notes on the cocktail. Add-ons include sherry flights and whiskey flights.

This package must be picked up at Pagu in Cambridge’s Central Square.

Local Italian restaurant Fiorella’s — which also has a chef’s tasting package and a pantry provisions package; see above — offers a monthly wine bundle, which aims to educate subscribers about various Italian wine regions; get two, three, or six bottles for $55, $75, or $150 respectively. The wine comes with tasting notes and educational materials.

These packages must be picked up at Fiorella’s in Newtonville or Concord Center.

Chef and restaurateur Frank McClelland offers a wine club out of his Beverly restaurant, cafe, and market, Frank, with shipping available to select states. Subscriptions are available for a three-pack or six-pack of wines each month ($95 or $175) and feature wines that will pair well with the ingredients of the season. The Frank team promises a mix of “hard to find wines, great values, old favorites, or exciting new small producers that we’ve recently discovered.”

Those on the Cape may want to explore the wine subscription from the Pheasant in Dennis (or the oyster subscription in the Meat and Seafood section above). Starting at $39, the package includes two or four ($74) bottles of natural, organic, and/or biodynamic wines chosen by the Pheasant’s owners, Adam and Erica Dunn, who aim to highlight “interesting grapes by interesting people.” For a more “elevated deep dive” into harder-to-find wines, try the premium subscription — $68 for two bottles or $128 for four. Each order includes tasting notes and a wine tasting placemat full of tips and tricks.

This package must be picked up in Dennis on Cape Cod.

Intimate Somerville wine bar Rebel Rebel offers two wine clubs, although one of them — the Hot Tramp club — is currently at capacity. (Add yourself to the waitlist if you’d like.) As of publication time, though, wine lovers can still join the Special Sauce club, which is “designed to highlight the wines [Rebel Rebel’s] somms are crushing on the hardest.” That means wines that are special in a variety of ways — maybe new and hot, maybe rare, etc. Each package includes two bottles, the club newsletter, and a recipe “to keep the vibes right.”

Choose your subscription frequency: weekly, biweekly, or monthly ($100 each). The subscription is available for pickup at the Somerville bar or delivery within a five-mile radius.

This one’s not (necessarily) local, but Eater has its own wine club, featuring picks from different sommeliers each month. Somerville-based sommelier Lauren Friel of Rebel Rebel was previously featured, and other Boston-area sommeliers might be featured in future months.

Eater Wine Club offers subscriptions of two, four, or six bottles per month ($70, $110, or $150 respectively, shipping included); choose among “white-ish,” red, or a mixed selection. Some leftover bottles from past boxes are available for individual purchase here.

Raising the Bar founder Abbie Romanul, who is based near Boston, offers a monthly subscription box (starting at $48 before shipping, depending on the subscription length) shipped to your door, full of the ingredients to make a creative non-alcoholic cocktail at home. Each box includes ingredients for at least four servings of the drink of the month, as well as a recipe card and “a fun extra or two.” Here’s a look at the past “World on Fire” kit, for example, which included the ingredients for a smoky maple, fire cider, and ginger drink as well as reusable straws and a 2020 dumpster fire sticker.

Sign up for a recurring subscription (month-to-month or three-, six, or 12-month options available, with the longer ones saving you a few bucks per month) or make a one-time purchase.

Somerville-based Mem Tea offers a three-tea sampler that arrives monthly — three half-ounce bags of Mem’s “most popular blends, unique finds, or top-of-the-line single origin specialties.” It comes out to around 15 or 20 servings total.

Locals are welcome to pick up their subscription at the Davis Square shop, but shipping is available for an additional fee.

Best known for its beer, Night Shift Brewing has a growing coffee enterprise as well, and it offers subscription packages for most of its coffees, such as the Darkling espresso blend. Choose the size of the bag, the grind, and a delivery schedule (every two, four, or eight weeks).

Most options start around $14 (a 5% discount from one-off orders), and subscriptions can be canceled at any time.

Pavement Coffeehouse, which has eight locations around Boston and Cambridge, offers a few subscription packages for coffee lovers. The gift subscription is, as the name suggests, the best one for gifting, and it includes monthly shipments of two 12-ounce bags of coffee. Choose from whole beans or coarse, medium, or fine grind, and choose from medium roast blends, Pavement’s dark roast, or the single origin plan (light to medium roast).

Shipping is free, and the first box typically ships out within one or two business days of ordering, although you can contact Pavement in order to hold the first shipment for a specific date.

Gracenote, which has cafes in Boston and Cambridge and wholesale partners throughout the area, offers its coffee fans a subscription for monthly coffee — choose from Alpha, decaf, roaster’s choice drip (single origin, pick lighter or fuller), or roaster’s choice espresso (single origin). Subscribers can also pick bag size (12-ounce, two-pound, or five-pound) and number of bags (one to four).

Subscriptions start at $14 and can be canceled at any time.

Although Boston Common Coffee Co. closed its last remaining Boston cafe a few years back, the New Hampshire-based company is still going strong with online sales and wholesale accounts. Monthly coffee subscriptions are available in three-month increments for bags (two, three, or four per month) or boxes of single-serve cups (two, three, or four boxes per month). A couple different blends are included in each shipment, and subscribers can choose the grind type.

Prices, which include shipping, start at $59 for three months of the monthly box shipments and $89 for bags.

This Western Massachusetts-based coffee roastery keeps you caffeinated biweekly with shipments of one to three bags. Choose the grind and choose among several subscription types: dark roast, espresso, light and bright, or roaster’s selection.

Subscriptions start at $22 and can be canceled at any time.