Sunny Days by the River and New Restaurants

As I said before, I've been pretty preoccupied over the past few weeks due to extreme amounts of college basketball. Even though we watched a ton of basketball, we did manage to take advantage of the early spring in the city. And now that March Madness has come to an end, we have even more time to explore.

Last weekend it was about 85 degrees and sunny on Saturday. We knew there was no way we were going to get an outdoor table anywhere so we decided to enjoy a picnic in JFK Memorial Park. JFK Park is one of my favorite city parks. It is behind the Charles Hotel and overlooks the Charles River. Of course we weren't the only ones that wanted to enjoy the park but we were able to find a nice spot to enjoy our picnic burritos from Felipe's Taqueria. JO and I are what you would call burrito connoisseurs. Our favorites come from our local burrito shop Olecito but I love Felipe's too! I definitely felt like a "cool Cambridge couple" that afternoon. It was so relaxing we ended up spending about three hours there reading and people watching. The next day was gorgeous too and we couldn't resist going back to the Square for an early lunch at Tory Row. I love the city in the spring because there is so much energy! Everyone feels rejuvenated and ready to enjoy everything the city has to offer.

Last night we went out with our good friends to try out the newest restaurant in the Square Russell House Tavern. My friend and I have been following the restaurant's blog for a while now. It features some interesting qualities including: mostly locally grown ingredients, all domestic beer and wine menu, two floors with two distinct styles, wine on tap, and an instant messaging system for the hostess booth. It was only the second night the restaurant was open so there were some service mishaps that I'm going to forgive.

I really thought the instant messaging system was a nice touch. I liked how we were greeted on the first floor, directed downstairs, and then greeted by name at the bottom of the stairs. I also liked that the two floors had different vibes. Upstairs was a bit more energetic and downstairs was a bit more relaxing. The bar on the second floor was very large, and a great addition to the Square. I feel like we would be able to get seats there pretty easily. I also liked the variety in the menu- pizzas, small plates, and entrees. We really wanted to try the wine on tap because it was so intriguing but apparently it hadn't been installed yet. We ordered a merlot that was served to us in whisky glasses. I still can't decided if I liked that or not. I did like how the glass felt in my hand but I also missed the feel of a stemmed glass. We got the crab cakes as an appetizer which were really good. My only problem with it was that the sauce it was served with was delicious but there wasn't much of it. I got the steak frites for dinner and the steak was cooked perfectly and fries were delicious. I did not care for the "aioli" that was served with the fries... I thought it was very heavy tasting but the fries really didn't need a sauce so it was fine. It's not my favorite restaurant in the Square but I really enjoyed the experience and look forward to going back in a little while after they have everything straightened out.

We headed back to JFK Park today to enjoy the beautiful weather. I had a ton of work to catch up with since I've been putting a bunch of tasks on hold to watch basketball. Doing work on the weekends is a lot easier to deal with when your sitting in the Park looking at the Charles River!

I love the city!