It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

 We finally learned our lesson and got our Christmas tree early.  Every year we wait too long, get too busy, and then barely get our tree in time.  Since we have this amazing bay window and stupid high ceilings we wanted to get a huge tree and deck it out.  I've been collecting new ornaments for the past month, all inspired by Leanne Ford's disco ball creations for Crate and Barrel.  The grandness of our living room really deserved a beautiful tree and I think we pulled it off.  (And of course we kept our tradition of getting our tree at Ricky's and walking home with it.)

Later that night we headed into Boston for dinner and to check out the trees at the Liberty Hotel.  The Charles Hotel wasn't doing their tree lighting this year (responsible but sad) so we had to do something in it's place.  I got reservations at one of JO's favorite restaurant's Bin 26.  It's on Charles Street which is the perfect street to walk down during the holidays in the city.  The shops have outdone themselves with their window displays and decorations.  It definitely felt festive!  Dinner was delicious, as always.  I was a little disappointed that they've gotten rid of some of their tapas items but everything we had was delicious and the wine never disappoints.

After dinner, we headed over to the Liberty Hotel to see their upside down trees.  Our plan was to also get a drink there but it was insanely crowded.  We enjoyed the trees and then headed over to the Whitney Hotel to enjoy drinks at the Peregrine.  We really enjoyed hanging out at this bar and in a "small world" twist, our bartender is headed over to Juliet in Union Square soon.  We had fun talking about Union Square with her.  

We made sure to get a picture with The Whitney's amazing real Christmas tree in their courtyard.  It's certainly the early contender for the winner of the Christmas Tree Challenge!  

Bar Enza at the Charles Hotel

 This past week was a bit challenging, health wise, and I was finally feeling better on Friday so we decided to check out the new restaurant at the Charles Hotel.  Bar Enza opened a month or so ago and the menu looked really good.  I feel like we were really lucky to be able to make a reservation for the same night.  (Getting dinner reservations are kind of like the Hunger Games right now.  Super hard to get, even weeks out.)

Bar Enza is a really calm space.  All of the colors are muted and the lighting is soft.  There's a lot of space inside the restaurant.  There are velvet booths and marble bistro tables.  I love, love, love that they have a Hugo on the cocktail list.  I fell in love with this drink in Switzerland and haven't been able to find it in the city.  JO got one of the fancy spritzes and it was delicious.  Also I'm a sucker for nice barware and these glasses were great.

The food menu isn't huge but has enough variety so it's not a problem.  We decided to sample some appetizers and split the gigantic meatball served on whipped potatoes with sauce.  The rice balls were out of this world.  They had a perfect crunch and were filled with delicious cheese.  The calamari, served with a lemon caper sauce, were cooked perfectly.  I could have eaten them all day.  The gigantic meatball was quite tasty and perfectly pared with the potatoes.

We've been trying to get out more, safely, and this place was great.  It was nice to feel like we were doing something totally normal.  I'm thinking we'll be back here sooner rather than later.

Drifting Away at Drifter's Tale

 On Wednesday night I got a rare night out with JO.  He usually meets up with his friends every Wednesday but the day before Thanksgiving traffic was too much so he stayed home.  We took the opportunity to visit Inman and have dinner at Ole.  When we finished dinner it was still early so we headed over to the new bar called Drifter's Tale that took over the Bukowski's space.  We had a surprisingly good time.  We were never huge fans of the old "new" Bukowski's but Drifter's Tale has some potential.  I wish the food menu was a little better but the cocktails were quite good and it was a good place to hang out. 

Zachariah Hickman's Power Outage Show

It's so nice to have live music to look forward to again.  (Well, at least for now.) Zachariah Hickman's Power Outage Show is one of the most unique shows at Passim each year.  Zach gets a bunch of his friends, from all styles of music, to join him for a night of acoustic music around a "campfire" in the dark at Passim.  This year he brought a string quartet with him for an added bonus.  JO and I left mesmerized and we both agreed that it was one of the best nights of music we've ever seen at Passim.  

Glennon Doyle's Get Untamed

 I'm sure we're all kind of over Zoom at this point, but recently I attended Glennon Doyle's unveiling of Get Untamed Zoom and it was fantastic!  I love that all of her fans got to experience this event all together.  The pandemic has sucked but these kinds of virtual events are a real bright side.  JO was nice enough to spend the evening downstairs so I could watch on the big screen!  I loved every word and am really trying hard to find my inner cheetah.

It's UConn Season

 I've always dreamed of being able to fly my UConn flag during big games!  JO hooked me up and I love it!  It's UConn season and we're ready to cheer on our Huskies!  (So far no one has complained about this banner 🤣). We have Paige and no one else does!

Van Gogh Immersive Experience

 At the end of the summer I saw an ad for the Van Gogh Immersive Experience and I grabbed some tickets.  Since it's an immersive experience I'll let the pictures doing the talking.  It was really fun to get out and do something unique and different.  

Feeling More at Home

 Moving out of Inman really took a toll on me.  Inman was our home for ten years.  We had our favorite spots with our favorite staff members.  It's hard to start over in a new neighborhood.  We've also been super busy and were both feeling like we weren't getting out and enjoying our new neighborhood.   So a few Mondays ago, even though I got home really late, we headed over to The Independent to enjoy dinner and drinks.   We don't eat inside often but we're trying to get back in the groove and The Independent was a great place to go.  We even lucked out because it was $1 oyster night!  We had fun chatting with our waitress and enjoying being out and about.  (Pro tip- this mocktail is phenomenal!)

Ellie Buckland at Passim

 I've raved about Lula Wiles and Ellie Buckland many times on this blog.  Tickets to Ellie's album release show were the first tickets I bought after Club Passim announced that they would be vaccine only.  This show did not disappoint.  Ellie played her entire album, with an awesome set of musicians backing her up.  This is the kind of show that Passim is made for- an artist following her dreams, playing delicate, beautiful music, for an enraptured audience.  I am so thankful that Passim went vaccine only, so that we could enjoy this beautiful night of music.

Monster Mash Streets

 After honestly what felt like ten days of rain, the sun came out just in time for Halloween.  I'm not a big Halloween fan but Union Square was having a Monster Mash SomerStreets Festival and we just had to get out and enjoy it!

Fire Pits Make Everything Better

 Have I mentioned how insane October was.  Like a combination of getting run over by a Mac Truck and watching a train wreck at the same time? It was long, it was stressful, and it seemed like the pile of insanity just grew and grew and grew.  

Thankfully, Bow Market has Fire Pits and during the week of two Nor'easters and insane rain we managed to enjoy a night at one.  It was perfect and lovely and the best part was that we got to walk home because we live here now!

The Bitties

 The Bitties have been enjoying exploring the new place.  

It took them a while to figure out the stairs...

And the whole "Humans on the Other Side" thing is still mystifying.

Union Square Donuts

 JO has been waiting forever for a Saturday morning that started with Union Square Donuts.  We made sure to check that off the list as soon as possible, because really, isn't this the reason to live in Union Square!

Neighborhood Living- Barra and Celeste

 Oh my goodness, how I have missed neighborhood living.  For 265 days we lived in the Fresh Pond area where there's a ton of apartments and barely any local shops and restaurants that you can walk to.  We actually only had one restaurant we could walk to (it was a Gran Gusto and it was quite good.) There were no coffee shops around, no local shops to visit, and it was really taking a toll on me.  The first week we lived in our new place, we made it a point to get out and enjoy walking around a neighborhood again.  

We checked out Barra, a small Mexican place on Bow Street.  I'm not sure how this place operates in the winter.  I think they have like five or six tables inside but they do have a small heated patio in the back and a small patio in the front.  The cocktail menu is super impressive and all the food we tried was delicious.  We sat on the patio kind of in awe of being in a neighborhood again.  It was such a nice feeling to be able to walk somewhere and enjoy neighborhood life again. I'll definitely come back here, although I felt like the portions were a bit small for the price.  The waitstaff was amazing and when we told them we were new to the neighborhood they gave us a tour of their interior and exterior seating options, even though they had a lot of customers to deal with.

After Barra, we walked up to the Prospect Tower to take in the views.  We could feel our city selves coming back and it felt great!

Later that week, we went to Celeste for dinner.  We've only heard amazing things about this place and I was definitely excited to try it out.  It's a Peruvian restaurant that specializes in a small menu and lots of pisco cocktails.  I was absolutely blown away by our experience here.  Again, this is a super small space so I'm not sure how it was functioning even before a pandemic but with the added (unheated) patio, there's ample seating.  The service is phenomenal.  We both got the pisco cocktails which was a bit of an adventure for me because it had egg whites in it.  (Ummm- I've been missing out because those were delicious!) We started with an arugula salad and it met my high standards for a salad- fresh, perfectly dressed, with just the right accouterments.  JO got the seafood risotto (he said it was quite good but lacked vegetables) and I got the Peruvian shrimp scampi, which I would say was one of the best meals I have ever had.  The dessert was a little lackluster but overall I can't believe this amazing restaurant is only a three minute walk from our new place.