Pagu

Pagu is the Central Square restaurant of Tracy Chang, a Lexington native who cooked in Japan and Spain before opening in Cambridge, and who has since become one of the more publicly civic figures in Boston food — Pagu's menus carry a standing appeal for Project Restore Us, the grocery-delivery initiative Chang runs for food-insecure families. The restaurant holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and describes itself as values-driven and playful rather than fine dining; the food is tapas-style and shared, moving between Japanese, Spanish and Taiwanese registers on a single menu — squid ink bao, guchi's midnight ramen, green crab laksa, duck paella, jamon iberico, patatas bravas. The entire kitchen is nut-free, which is rare at this level, and the menu is annotated throughout for gluten-free and vegetarian diners. Boston Magazine has covered the bar's alcohol-free work in its guide to creative mocktails around Boston, and Meet Boston's January 2026 zero-proof guide noted that at Pagu, zero-proof and low-ABV drinks reflect the restaurant's adventurous approach to flavour.

The non-alcoholic block sits on the same page as the cocktails and is built from the same larder as the kitchen, which is why it reads as a chef's list rather than a bartender's afterthought. The Oolong-jito is $10 and combines mint and ginger with oolong tea in place of rum; G & H is $8, mixing guava, lime and hibiscus with club soda; Pomo Rojo is $9 and layers pomegranate, chocolate bitters, lemon, hibiscus and rose water over soda; and a house cranberry lemonade runs $5. Beyond the cocktails, Pagu bottles its own sparkling tea in rotating selections at $12 for a 187ml and $42 for a 750ml, and carries the Ama pet-nat teas from Sri Lanka and East Africa at $75 a bottle for the table. Athletic Brewing's Run Wild non-alcoholic IPA is $8. The tea and coffee list is a genuine part of the offer, covering Taiwanese oolong and black tea, Chinese chrysanthemum, Boston-made buckwheat tea and a Gracenote coffee americano.