Staycation at The Ritz, the Christmas Tree Challenge Continues, Ora Trattorizza, and Cultivar~ Oh My!

I had made it through report cards, parent conferences, and 3/4 of the December Crazies!  It was time to celebrate with a staycation in the city!  We did this last year and it was so fun we decided to do it again.

We booked a room at the Park Plaza which would give us a great location for checking off a lot of trees on the Christmas Tree Challenge.  After checking in we did a small loop of Back Bay with stops at the Taj, Four Seasons, drinks at Bistro du Midi, Lennox, and the Copley Fairmont Hotel!

We had dinner at Ora Trattorizza, a newish restaurant that opened on Boylston Street.  I'm super excited about this place because of it's location, super ambience, and yummy food!  I forget what used to be in this location before but I love the glass enclosed area at the front of the restaurant.  It's like a patio on the sidewalk.  The golds, whites, and exposed decorative beams that decorate the dining room make it feel really cozy but modern at the same time.  In reading an article for this post I realize why I like this place so much.  It's owned by the same people that own Piattini Wine Bar that I rave about all the time!  Since we had done some snacking already we opted to try a few of the sfizis~ we could a Caesar salad, the truffled ricotta pasta bags, and the arancini.  Those pasta bags were out of this world!  You should go there just for those!

After dinner we continued with the trees, making stops at Revere, the W, Ritz Carlton, Nine Zero, Omni Parker, Ames Hotel, Faneuil Hall and Christopher's Park!  We even timed it perfectly to catch Blink at Faneuil Hall which was really fun and a new must-do holiday city outing!

After the trees we wanted to extend the evening so we went back to the Ames to check out Cultivar.  It had looked really cool when we stopped in for the selfie with the tree and we were happy to find two seats at the bar for us.  Cultivar is know for it's fresh ingredients and gin cocktails!  The modern rustic thing is really working in this space with lots of wood and white counters and hints of blues and golds.  I'm in love with the interior of this place and views out the windows.  I'm also a bit of a snob when it comes to barware and this place has some great glasses!  I absolutely loved my South Side and the chocolate mousse we got for dessert.  Yes, those are mini meringues on the plate.

The next morning we capped off the staycation with breakfast at Tatte before heading home!  It was a great night in the city, seeing trees and trying new places!