Some Final Summer Fun in the City

Finally, the humidity broke.  This past week has been brutal.  It hasn't been super hot but humidity levels have been pushing 80% so it's been hard to spend too much time out and about.  I was definitely all about taking advantage of the gorgeous weather!

For sure, that means starting my morning in Harvard Yard reading and enjoying an iced coffee.  Once again, I forgot that Harvard takes my tables away during the last week of August to make room for their "Back to School" events.  I was a little disappointed but I was able to relocate further into the Yard since they dumped all the chairs in the Quad.  The trees there offered ample shade and each morning I stayed longer than normal, just soaking in the peacefulness.  Even though there was some hustle and bustle with new students arriving it was still so relaxing.  Of all the great things about being on summer vacation, I think this morning ritual is the one I miss the most.  It's just such a perfect way to start the day- unlike how I spend my mornings during the school year, running around planning and setting up for the school day, while fielding tons of email and filling out countless forms.

On Friday night JO and I headed out to the Seaport as early as possible in hopes of enjoying a drink at The Lookout, the place our summer adventures started.  Unfortunately, the secret's out of the bag with this place and there was a 45 minute wait to get up.  We quickly regrouped and headed to The Daily Catch, a place we found last October on that gorgeous summer/fall day we had.  I was a little disappointed with the shift in plans, but the views at the Daily Catch, and the yummy blueberry beverage made up for it.

Our friend met us there and we decided it was time to find a place for dinner.  Eating outside seemed like the only reasonable choice we could make so we headed over to NeBo in hopes of getting a table on their patio.  It was our lucky night, because after only 20 minutes there we were sitting on a fabulous patio overlooking the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

This was our first time here at this location of NeBo.  The inside features high ceilings and an urban, loft style with exposed brick and pipes.  The bar and lounge area is large and the dining area is on the other side.  The atmosphere was great and everything smelled so good.  The patio is large, for this part of the city.  The tables are a bit close together but nothing that detracts from the experience.  I loved this place, and the food was delicious!

My original plan for the evening was to head home after dinner, but it was gorgeous out and JO suggested we walk up through Post Office Square since we never really explore that area.

I am so glad we did, since we discovered what I think is my new favorite place in Boston.  As I'm sure you know, I love hotel bars so when we walked past the Langham Hotel I couldn't resist peaking in to see what their lounge was like.  I wasn't planning on staying but Bond, the hotel lounge, had me at the first chandelier I spotted.

Bond has 20-30 foot high tres ceilings and that old world Boston charm that is a throwback to an age of elegance.  There is ample seating- tables, cozy curved booths, and couches and ottomans.  The colors are dark brown and red with lighter tans to brighten things up just a tad.  There is a large bar in the back with elegant lighting illuminating champagne bottles stacked to the ceiling.  The main design feature is, of course, the stunning chandeliers.  There is even a balcony area that can be rented out for parties (like my 40th birthday JO).  They were beautiful.  There was even live music.  I'm in love with this place.  It's just so beautiful and so perfect and has a great atmosphere.

We stayed for about an hour or so and even sampled the s'mores dessert which was scrumptious.  These are the kinds of nights that stick with you- great friends, great adventures, great memories!  I can't believe this is my life sometimes.

A Second Chance

After climbing this week JO and I decided to give Bukowski's a second chance.  The open garage doors/windows were too much to resist.  We got a table right next to the open windows but other than that, I was once again disappointed.

JO ordered a burger and I got the heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad.  The food didn't disappoint, just like last time.  The food is cooked well, although JO's side salad was so drenched in some kind of vinegar dressing that even I, who adores all things tangy and vinegary, had trouble with eating it.

The beer selection has become a bit limited, which is surprising for a bar that was known for it's crazy selection.  And the beers have gotten really expensive.  Now I know this is a problem around the city but this was a bit much.   Plus, just like the old version, it's really loud in there and we can't figure out why.  It wasn't crowded but it was still hard to hear each other.

Even with how loud it was, I was able to hear the people at the table next to us.  I quite enjoyed their conversation.  From what I could gather, three of the four people at the table had just moved to the area for grad school.  The fourth guy was their friend who already lived here and was acting like a tour guide.  I'm not quite sure how good he was at that because when the girl saw people walking by with ice cream (that was sure from Christina's next door) he mentioned Toscanini's in Central and he even convinced his friends to hit up the Beehive, which "was pretty close" as the next bar.  The Beehive is in the South End and isn't exactly nearby Inman, even via Uber.  I did love how excited this group was about living in Cambridge.  They kept talking about how many awesome things are around them and how they can't wait to try everything.  I totally know how they are feeling!

Ole

When my friend suggested we go out to dinner at Ole I was excited.  I had tried to go there for lunch the week before but they have summer hours and don't do lunch in August.  As a result, I was left craving some delicious Mexican food.

We tried to go here a really long time ago but got rejected when we said we didn't have reservations.  Since then I haven't had any problems getting in without a reservation.  So I was surprised when we showed up and the place was packed and the host didn't seem optimistic about us getting a table but we ended up getting lucky and got seated right away.

Of course the first thing we did was order the made to order guacamole and two margaritas!  I was really hoping for chicken enchiladas with a tomatillo sauce but unfortunately they didn't have that on their menu.  Their menu tends to change every few months, and although I tend to like the new dishes, I do miss old favorites.  I ended up ordering the New England quesadilla- lobster, chorizo, cheese, and corn served on a bed of arugula.  The quesadilla didn't resemble a traditional quesadilla.  Instead it was more shaped liked rangoons.  I loved it!  It was delicious and light, surprisingly.  Sometimes a lobster quesadilla can be too heavy and this one was perfect.

We enjoyed catching up with each other.  It had been a few weeks and so much had gone on.  Plus, while talking about my upcoming school year, my friend made me realize, "It's practically summer vacation again!"  If only :-)

A Perfect City Afternoon

One of my favorite "city people" was back in town this week and we planned on a little city adventure for Monday.

We started with lunch at Grotto.  Grotto is my favorite restaurant in the city.  Well, it might actually be tied with it's sister restaurant Marliave.  Both restaurants are fabulous and never disappoint.  Whenever someone asks for a Boston restaurant recommendation these two are always at the top of the list.  Grotto is a small, subterranean (basement) Italian restaurant on Beacon Hill with beautifully crafted dishes that compliment their lovely selection of wine.

My friend had never been to Grotto and I knew she would love it so I suggested we go there for lunch before wandering around Charles Street.  It's Restaurant Week so we were able to each get an appetizer and entree for $20.  We both loved our food, I of course, went with the short rib gnocchi dish.  The service was great and the waiter did a great job recommending a dish for my friend who couldn't make up her mind.  Grotto is a great place to enjoy a special lunch in the city.  I was reminiscing about the night, in the middle of the horrible winter last year, when JO planned a night out here because we had to get out of our neighborhood.

After lunch we wandered down Charles Street and then up Newbury Street.  Our plan was to go to City Table, as in the City Table I just ate at last week and loved, for bubbles.  Unfortunately, City Table and City Bar both are closed between 2:00 and 4:30.  We were totally stumped for a place to go.  Everywhere we thought of seemed to be closed.  Hawthorne, Wink and Nod, and a few others were all closed.  Who knew it was so hard to grab a drink during the afternoon in the city.  We ended up asking the Bell Boys if they had a suggestion, which was rough since I live here and she used to live on Comm Ave.  We should have been able to think of a place but we were drawing a blank.  The Bell Boy recommended Bar Boulud at the Mandarin Hotel so we headed over there.

Bar Boulud is an open, airy space.  One side is the bar and lounge and the other side is the dining room.  The bar has great, big comfy seats with a sturdy back.  I'm sick of sitting in stools or the almost backless chairs that a lot of bars feature now.  We were the only ones at the bar and the bartender spent some time explaining the difference between Cava and Prosecco to us before pouring our glasses.  We had a great time catching up and talking about how much had happened in the year in between her move and her visit.  You know you have a great friend when you can pick up right where you left off after an entire year.

I really enjoyed the day out in the city.  It was a great way to spend the Monday of my last week of vacation!  (In other news- I am so not ready to have a schedule again.  I'm not sure if I can do it.)

Ricardo's Ristorante and Carrie Nation Cocktail Club

Wow!  I can't believe I'm almost caught up with the blog....just in time to go back to school in a week.  I really have to push myself to be better about blogging in a timely fashion.  I love going back and looking at the posts from previous years but it's so easy to fall behind.  I'm really going to work on that this year.

Anyways, back to the present.  Last night we went out to celebrate a good friend's birthday.  His summer birthday has become a bit of a reunion for a group of friends that doesn't get to see each other nearly enough as we would like.  This year featured the East Coast return of one of the gang that had moved to Oregon last year.  It was nice to see her again and to be out in Boston with her like the old days.  She was always up for a city adventure and I've definitely missed having her around this past year.

The evening started at Ricardo's Ristorante in the North End.  The North End is always a fun place to explore and you're probably not going to get a bad plate of food ever. The food was definitely delicious but the atmosphere was definitely lacking.  We were a big party so they sat us upstairs in a room with a leaky ceiling, a big tv (which I don't like seeing in North End restaurants),  and zero personality.  Like I said though, the food was delicious and pretty reasonably priced.

After dinner we hiked over to Carrie Nation Cocktail Club in Beacon Hill.   I was looking forward to checking this place out.  I went once last summer when my friend from France was in town but I didn't get to try a cocktail.  We were supposed to go for Valentine's Day but the T was shut down due to a medical emergency and we missed our reservation so I was definitely happy to hear this was the post dinner location.

Carrie Nation has two parts:  the main dining room and lounge decorated in rich reds and creams and the back "speakeasy" room decorated in black, crushed velvet curtains, and purple lights.  The back room has a great vibe but it smelled like rotting fruit and was really loud so we staked out a spot in the main bar area.  I ordered the Hemingway Daiquiri and it was pretty good, not as good as the Old Cuban at Noir though.  It was good but I probably wouldn't order it again.  I ended the night with some prosecco but I was a bit disappointed to see that they use those split bottles.  They are almost never as good as a prosecco from a full bottle.

We had a great time catching up with a really great group of people and I liked that Carrie Nation had a lot of room for us to mingle and it wasn't loud so we could actually have a conversation.

City Table

A few years ago I had the chance to mentor a new teacher in my building.  It was a great experience and I ended up learning so much from her.  She's left our school but we've stayed in touch.  She totally understands my love of the city and recently moved to Somerville.  It had been way too long since we had seen each other.  Thankfully, Friday night we fixed that and met up at City Table at the Lennox Hotel for dinner.  I've been wanting to check this place out so I was excited when this was the restaurant she picked.  It also happened to be Restaurant Week which worked out perfectly.

I can't say enough great things about this place!  The restaurant isn't huge and it's split into three spaces:  the bar/lounge with hightop tables and two smaller dining room areas which seat about 15-20 people.  The restaurant features really high ceilings with a gold tin roof and lots of crown molding.  The restaurant is decorated in rich chocolate browns and tans.  It definitely passes the "you can hear each other talk" test that is becoming so vital as I get older (and not because my hearing is going but because I don't want to work so hard to hear the person I'm having dinner with.)

We went with the restaurant menu, but they also gave us the regular menu so I had a chance to take a look at it.  I was impressed with the variety of choices and price points.  You could easily come and have an expensive city meal.  There are lots of a apps, a couple pizza choices, sandwiches, and entrees.

I started with the chopped salad which had been plated using a salad mold, so it was a packed cylindrical shape.   It was stuffed with olives, feta, and tomatoes.  I enjoyed it but my friend got the duo of tacos and those looked amazing!  It was practically a meal in itself.  For my entree I went with the roasted chicken with truffle whipped potatoes and mushroom sauce with a touch of lemon.  This was one of the best chicken dishes I have had in the city!  The truffle was perfect in the potatoes and not overwhelming at all.  The mushrooms were earthy and the sauce went with the chicken perfectly.  For dessert I got the chocolate torte and my gosh was it decadent.  It was basically liquid chocolate fudge in a delicious crust with soft, light homemade cream on the top.

If all of that wasn't great, what sealed the deal for me with this place was the prosecco.  Anyone who knows me knows that I adore all things bubbles.  I don't pretend to know anything about types, brands, vintages, etc.  So what I'm about to say comes with no hint of authority but the prosecco I had at City Table was the best glass of prosecco in the city!  The funny thing was that I was torn between ordering a cocktail or a prosecco when I noticed the woman at the table next to me sipping her bubbles out of a beautiful champagne flute.  I'm a big stickler for bubbles being served in the right kind of glass.  I want elegance when I'm drinking my bubbles and I hate the stemless glasses at Brass Union and Highball Lounge, or the lowball glass they serve prosecco in at Parlor Sports (although in their defense, who orders prosecco there?)  They looked a bit like those pictured, but even better.  I texted JO on my way home and let him know we would be going back to get those bubbles again!

On our way out of the restaurant we exited out of the hotel entrance.  That's when I noticed City Bar, the bar inside the lobby.  It looks fabulous, uplighting and sleek, and I bet they serve the same prosecco in there, and I do have a slight obsession with hotel bars so we definitely have to come back.

It was great to catch up with a good friend at such a great spot in the city.

Casa Portugal

Speaking of our favorite restaurants, Casa Portugal is definitely on this list.  The prices are great, the atmosphere is great, and so is the food!  Last week we had our first condo association meeting and it lasted a lot longer than we thought it would.  We were both starving and Casa Portugal seemed like the right choice!

This place never disappoints and at this point the staff could probably place our order, minus entrees, upon our arrival.  We always get a salad to split, the littleneck clams, a half bottle of Cabriz wine, and the flan dessert.  Everything is so delicious!

We had fun debriefing about the meeting and thinking about how lucky we were to have been able to purchase our apartment.