This weekend was a much needed weekend of not much more than having lots and lots of fun in the city. I didn't have much school work and we didn't have any appointments so it made for a lot of free time.
Saturday night I went to a good friend's bachelorette party in Boston. We ended up at the Bell in Hand and had a fabulous time dancing the night away. I really love the upstairs even though it feels like you are going to fall through the floor at any moment.
On Sunday I spent most of the day lounging around...something that has been seriously lacking from my weekends recently. Back in March I beat JO in our annual March Madness bracket challenge and Sunday night was the perfect time to cash in on my victory. I had been going back and forth between a bunch of different restaurants I wanted to go for dinner. I ended up settling on Scampo at the Liberty Hotel. What really drew me to this restaurant was the fact that it has a mozzarella bar. I had to check it out.
We went in around 5:00 and it was so nice to be heading out on a Sunday night instead of staying in and waiting for the end of the weekend. (I think we should do this more often since I didn't have any Sunday blues.) I don't think I ever realized how close the Liberty Hotel is to our place. We were there in about 20 minutes. We've gone to Alibi a lot but we haven't taken advantage of the other restaurants in the hotel. (That's going to change ASAP!)
Scampo has a very modern feel to it. There is a large rectangular bar and the matching mozzarella bar in the center. The tables are big and the seating is over-sized. The menu offers a little bit of everything....pizza, pasta, rice dishes. etc. Plus there is an entire section devoted to just the mozzarella! We decided that we had to try out the mozzarella and tomato salad and I couldn't resist the arugula salad since I have a serious weakness for anything arugula. My only complaint is that our waitress should have told us the tomato and mozzarella salad came with arugula on top. Besides that the salads definitely were delicious.
We both ended up getting pasta dishes and they were quite good. I think the bolognase sauce at Toscano is a bit better but Scampo's was really good too. We were both totally stuffed after dinner but neither of us wanted the evening to end. We went back and forth between having dessert at Scampo or heading upstairs to try one of the other restaurants for dessert and drinks. We decided we wanted to explore so we headed upstairs to the Liberty Bar.
We got a great bar seat overlooking Beacon Hill with the Prudential Center in the distance. The sun was setting and it was really lovely. We ordered a delicious chocolate torte and some drinks and enjoyed the rest of the evening. I really loved the atmosphere and the fact that it's so close to our house. We were saying that we need to frequent the hotel during the winter. We also talked about how when we're older we hope we still spend Sundays this way. It made the thought of the work week so much more bearable. We're already planning a return trip this spring (if it ever stops raining) to enjoy The Yard at the Liberty Hotel.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Wedding Weekend
This past weekend was spent on wedding stuff. But in true city living fashion much of it involved Cambridge!
Saturday afternoon we had our engagement pictures with a good friend of mine, Ria MacKenzie of Ria MacKenzie Photography. One of the reasons we picked Ria is that she doesn't do a lot of super posed pictures. She uses more of a documentary style which we prefer. We spent the afternoon wandering around Inman Square and Harvard Square stopping every so often to grab a shot or two. We even took advantage of one of the courtyards of the beautiful buildings on Harvard Street. I'm sure we made quite a scene since we were throwing Magnolia petals at each other. While we were on the footbridge we saw a proposal. It was really sweet and I think it was good luck :-) Click here to see a sneak peak... I love this picture since it's exactly what we were going for.
We got up early on Sunday morning to head to our cake tasting at Konditor Meister Bakery. Although Konditor Meister isn't a Cambridge bakery it does have a special connection to me since it's my dad's absolute favorite bakery. Whenever there is a special occasion he gets a cake from this bakery. By 10:30 we had 12 slices of cake in front of us and lots of choices to make. Since we liked so many flavors we decided to have each tier of our cake be a different flavor. There won't be any of that "freezing the top layer for your anniversary" stuff either since we want to enjoy all of the flavors that night.
Today we took a spontaneous trip in Harvard Square for some much needed ramen. This dreary, rainy, cold weather stinks and the ramen was just what we needed. We are so lucky to be able to just zip into the Square whenever we feel like it!
Saturday afternoon we had our engagement pictures with a good friend of mine, Ria MacKenzie of Ria MacKenzie Photography. One of the reasons we picked Ria is that she doesn't do a lot of super posed pictures. She uses more of a documentary style which we prefer. We spent the afternoon wandering around Inman Square and Harvard Square stopping every so often to grab a shot or two. We even took advantage of one of the courtyards of the beautiful buildings on Harvard Street. I'm sure we made quite a scene since we were throwing Magnolia petals at each other. While we were on the footbridge we saw a proposal. It was really sweet and I think it was good luck :-) Click here to see a sneak peak... I love this picture since it's exactly what we were going for.
We got up early on Sunday morning to head to our cake tasting at Konditor Meister Bakery. Although Konditor Meister isn't a Cambridge bakery it does have a special connection to me since it's my dad's absolute favorite bakery. Whenever there is a special occasion he gets a cake from this bakery. By 10:30 we had 12 slices of cake in front of us and lots of choices to make. Since we liked so many flavors we decided to have each tier of our cake be a different flavor. There won't be any of that "freezing the top layer for your anniversary" stuff either since we want to enjoy all of the flavors that night.
Today we took a spontaneous trip in Harvard Square for some much needed ramen. This dreary, rainy, cold weather stinks and the ramen was just what we needed. We are so lucky to be able to just zip into the Square whenever we feel like it!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Turn Right for Asian, Left for Irish, and Go Straight for a Great Bar
What a glorious weekend! I know I say this all the time, but I absolutely love where I live.
Friday night we headed over to the aptly named NuBar at the Sheraton Commander Hotel. The hotel recently renovated their hotel restaurant and we were eager to check it out. We hadn't been to the hotel since we picked it as the venue for our wedding. The bar is such an improvement over the old restaurant. It has a fancy but casual atmosphere. We had great service and really enjoyed our drinks. It's definitely a great addition to the Square, especially for the winter. The middle of the bar area has a wall mounted gas fireplace and lots of comfy seats in front. I can definitely see us enjoying NuBar in the winter.
Saturday afternoon we met our Inman friends for a spontaneous Bukowski's outing. Bukowski's is such a great place to meet up with friends on the weekend. It's super close, has great drinks, and a fun vibe. It's sad to think that in a few weeks our Inman friends won't be living right around the corner from us. The Square is definitely enhanced by having such great friends nearby.
Saturday night we headed to the House of Blues for the Guster concert. It brought me back to my college days, that's for sure. It was a really fun concert except for the super annoying people around us. There was the "constantly on her iphone" girl and "super bad dancer" guy. After the concert we popped into Cask 'n Flagon for a quick bite, and to catch the end of the Celtics game. It was a lot of fun to watch a big game with lots of people. It was also great that when we left we were just a ten minute cab ride from home.
This morning we got up early to clean in advance of JO's parents visiting our place for the first time. After the visit we all headed into Harvard Square for lunch at...wait for it....wait for it....wait for it...Daedalus. Although it was a touch too cold to eat on the roof deck we had a really enjoyable meal in the second floor dining room. I cannot say it enough. I love this restaurant. After lunch we walked around and ended up at Finale for dessert. We walked off our dessert with some window shopping before heading over to the Sheraton so JO's parents could see the hotel. The staff was nice enough to let us in the ballroom for a quick peak. We hadn't seen the ballroom since our first visit in October. It was even more beautiful than we remembered. I love the chandeliers and the whole feel of the room.
We walked through Cambridge Common and cut through Harvard Yard. I rarely walk through the Yard and maybe I should do it more often. It's so beautiful and right now the trees are all blooming. I hope those Harvard kids know how lucky they are!
On our way back to our apartment we were telling JO's parents all about the great restaurants. Basically, if we don't know what we want to eat we head to the intersection by our house. If we turn right we can have Asian, Portuguese, or southern food. If we take a left it's seafood, Irish pub food, or All-American. If we continue straight we're headed for bar food taken to the next level.
I repeat, I love my city!
Friday night we headed over to the aptly named NuBar at the Sheraton Commander Hotel. The hotel recently renovated their hotel restaurant and we were eager to check it out. We hadn't been to the hotel since we picked it as the venue for our wedding. The bar is such an improvement over the old restaurant. It has a fancy but casual atmosphere. We had great service and really enjoyed our drinks. It's definitely a great addition to the Square, especially for the winter. The middle of the bar area has a wall mounted gas fireplace and lots of comfy seats in front. I can definitely see us enjoying NuBar in the winter.
Saturday afternoon we met our Inman friends for a spontaneous Bukowski's outing. Bukowski's is such a great place to meet up with friends on the weekend. It's super close, has great drinks, and a fun vibe. It's sad to think that in a few weeks our Inman friends won't be living right around the corner from us. The Square is definitely enhanced by having such great friends nearby.
Saturday night we headed to the House of Blues for the Guster concert. It brought me back to my college days, that's for sure. It was a really fun concert except for the super annoying people around us. There was the "constantly on her iphone" girl and "super bad dancer" guy. After the concert we popped into Cask 'n Flagon for a quick bite, and to catch the end of the Celtics game. It was a lot of fun to watch a big game with lots of people. It was also great that when we left we were just a ten minute cab ride from home.
This morning we got up early to clean in advance of JO's parents visiting our place for the first time. After the visit we all headed into Harvard Square for lunch at...wait for it....wait for it....wait for it...Daedalus. Although it was a touch too cold to eat on the roof deck we had a really enjoyable meal in the second floor dining room. I cannot say it enough. I love this restaurant. After lunch we walked around and ended up at Finale for dessert. We walked off our dessert with some window shopping before heading over to the Sheraton so JO's parents could see the hotel. The staff was nice enough to let us in the ballroom for a quick peak. We hadn't seen the ballroom since our first visit in October. It was even more beautiful than we remembered. I love the chandeliers and the whole feel of the room.
We walked through Cambridge Common and cut through Harvard Yard. I rarely walk through the Yard and maybe I should do it more often. It's so beautiful and right now the trees are all blooming. I hope those Harvard kids know how lucky they are!
On our way back to our apartment we were telling JO's parents all about the great restaurants. Basically, if we don't know what we want to eat we head to the intersection by our house. If we turn right we can have Asian, Portuguese, or southern food. If we take a left it's seafood, Irish pub food, or All-American. If we continue straight we're headed for bar food taken to the next level.
I repeat, I love my city!
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