Alden & Harlow

Alden & Harlow is an acclaimed New American restaurant set in a below-street-level space on Brattle Street in the heart of Cambridge's Harvard Square, led by chef-owner Michael Scelfo. The kitchen is known for inventive, vegetable-forward small plates and a bustling, dimly lit dining room, and the bar program extends to a thoughtfully built rotating mocktail list for non-drinkers. Current zero-proof builds include "Soft Light" (ube coconut water, ginger, lime, pineapple soda), "Golden Smoke" (cold-smoked passionfruit, honey, lemon, tonic and soda), "Paris Sans Booze" (n/a gin, cranberry, lemon, n/a bubbles), and "Mocking Bird" (lapsang, n/a aperitif, mango, lime, demerara). These drinks change seasonally, and the program leans on fresh, scratch-made ingredients rather than a single packaged brand, with non-alcoholic spirits used selectively in a couple of builds. The restaurant has been a Harvard Square fixture and a regular fixture on local dining and dry-January roundups, including Time Out Boston, which has highlighted its mocktails. It also operates the adjacent Longfellow Bar upstairs in the same building.