Over the past few years, something interesting happened to the Church-Wellesley Village: the area stopped sucking as a dining destination. The Village is rammed with restaurants, but has never broken into foodie consciousness mainly because of an inconsistent line-up and club-district reputation. The evolution is still underway—really, three pizza chain franchises?—but from a hidden gem of a lunch to a boozy beverage worthy of a bucket list, we found five-a-half good cullinary reasons to celebrate Church Street.

Gilligan Island‘s Ginger was a movie star—a beautiful starlet with a husky voice, expensive tastes, and, allegedly, a thing for the professor. Toronto’s Ginger is a Vietnamese restaurant with outrageously cheap great food, with several locations around the city. And, uh, aside from being proper nouns, now they actually have something in common. The system [...]