East Coast Grill & Raw Bar

His is not the only local restaurant serving whole pigs. Citizen Public House & Oyster Bar, tapas bar Estragon, and the just-opened Remick’s in Quincy are among the establishments offering them by special request. (The cost is usually about $40 per person with a 10-person minimum.) Estragon also serves just the head, as does Craigie on Main. East Coast Grill prepares a smoked pig in a different style each Sunday night.

This year, East Coast Grill celebrates its 25th anniversary. There is nothing subtle about its success, predicated on internal-organ-scorching hot sauces, smoke and flames, hunks of meat, and creatures pulled from the sea. It’s a restaurant a caveman or a polar bear could love.

East Coast Grill ignores tradition. Its fish taco appetizer features squares of tuna seared at the edges, crusted in cumin, cayenne, and other spices, and drizzled with orange-chipotle glaze.

When it's cold outside, a fire in the fireplace is a lovely way to warm up, but it's just not that filling. It's much more satisfying to combat the cold by lighting a fire in the belly. In other words, frigid temperatures are a great excuse to gorge on spicy food. Head to one of these restaurants and you'll be sweating soon enough.

Despite the words ''Welcome to Hell. Enter at your own risk" spray-painted in orange on the windows, despite the festoons of caution tape, despite the decorative plastic skulls topped with mini firefighter's helmets, here we are. It's East Coast Grill's Hell Night, a cult three-day gathering hosted three times a year in celebration of what the restaurant calls ''pure atomic cuisine."