visiting BOSTON

So that means don't try to drive anywhere & the red line on the T is going to be awfully cramped. I miss Boston in October, though, it's my favorite month there. Um, go to a Toscanini's store and have some really good ice cream:

http://www.tosci.com/

So many good clubs. TT The Bears, Johnny D's... those are my two favorites, but there are tons. The Roxy in Boston proper is a huge old theater, really ornate.
Walk around Beacon Hill and the North End.

go to Twisted Village in harvard square. it's a record store dealing in psych and strange music.

do the "heart of the" Freedom Trail with the official tour or on your own, then walk through the plaza at Quincy Market to the waterfront park and the end of the pier
take a boat trip to Little Brewster Island (probably a bit cold right now) (Thompson sounds interesting too)
stop inside Old South and check out the exhibits (and visit the bookstore in the basement)
walk around Beacon Hill, including Louisburg Sq and Acorn St, in late afternoon/early evening
after dark, follow North St. up to North Sq. in the North End, wander around, including through the Prado, and eat/graze
on a nice day, explore Harvard Square, including the Brattle Theatre complex, then walk along the Charles
visit Frank Gehry's Stata Center at MIT?
walk along the Charles by the Hatch Shell?
visit the swans in the public garden?
do an architectural tour of Back Bay churches, esp. Henry Hobson Richardson's Trinity Church
wander/dinner/theatre in the South End?
have brunch at Upstairs on the Square
have lunch at Summer Shack and/or Durgin-Park
have dinner at East Coast Grill and/or at the bar/cafe at No. 9 Park

Grab both the Weekly Dig and the Boston Phoenix and smear your hands up real dirty with the promise of things to do.

Cafe Algiers, above the brattle in harvard sq., is also beautiful. They used to have great arabic coffee, though last time I was there it was crap. Maybe that was an anamoly.

Eat in the north end.

The MFA is nice also, but expensive. Although it's HUGE so expensive is kind of OK, you can spend 6 hours in there exploring.

this is the most urgent & key of all the recommendations.

- Government Center is worth walking through to behold its brutal magnificence.
- Isabelle Stewart Gardner museum is wonderful, even if you ignored all the art.
- The section of Mass Ave between Porter and Harvard squares tends to have an interesting selection of shopping. Simon's Coffee (at about the halfway mark) is quite good.

These are all absolutely OTM. Actually everything on this thread is OTM.

If you want to spend some dough on a good-ass meal, check out Kingfish in Quincy Center; it's a Todd English restaurant and it's got some bomb-ass food although it's also a little pricey.

If you're looking for the drunk, it speaks truth. I second the Inman Square suggestion...Bukowskis is cool and the Zietgeist usually has something at least vaguely good going on.

If you're gonna do mushrooms, I'd go for the Arboretum and not Harvard, personally. Or the swan boats!

http://www.mountauburn.org/

find the tower and climb to the top.

Planet Records in Kenmore Square
Nuggets in Kenmore Square and Coolidge Corner
Second Coming (halfway between Central and Harvard Squares)
Looney Toones (2 spots-near Berklee and near Central Square), Cheapos in Central Square (this and twisted are my top picks)
CD Spins (upper Newbury Street) decent.
Mystery Train (Harvard Square)
In Your Ear (Comm Ave in Allston)
Stereo Jack's (midway between Porter and Harvard
Squares on Mass Ave), which specializes in jazz and blues
20% off sales at the Harvard Coop.

scorpion bowl at Honk Kongs on Mass Ave/cambridge. full of booze!

Haha, in 1998/1999 I used to work for IBM in the Lotus building, and did most of my classes in the Media Lab and Sloan buildings, and had 6 of my friends working at a startup in the same building at the Marriott (curl). I think I *lived* in Kendall those 2 years. It has Rebecca's Cafe, and Quantum books! But I'm a big geek, I didn't really care that it was probably the most boring corner of Cambridge, I was walking around with problem sets and work coming out of my ears.

I have this great memory of walking down Amherst St at about 3 AM with my little sister and my best friend, barefoot in Feb or March- we'd gone out wearing heels, and they were hurting all our feet, so we took them off. The pavement was so freezing it actually felt good on our feet. There was no one around at that hour, so we were just walking down the center of the road, in fancy black-tie clothes, carrying our dress shoes.

Twisted Village/Diskovery seconded; there's also the new undergroundhiphop.com store on Huntington near Northeastern and a bunch of random hip-hop/reggaeton stores in the outer neighborhoods - Franklin's CDs in Jamaica Plain and Vibes in Dorchester are shockingly great for their size.

If you're in Allston, you can eat well for cheap practically anywhere - Grasshopper (vegan pan-Asian), Rangoli (great cheap Indian), Spike's (hot dogs), that Lebanese place I can't remember the name of, the Super 88 Asian food court, all those Brazilian BBQs. In JP I can't say enough about La Pupusa Guanaca in Hyde Square; the Cuban restaurant a block away from it was truly exemplary until it was firebombed a couple of months ago. Lately I've been eating a lot of tacos - at the venerable El Pelon in the Fenway, but also Tacos Lupita in Somerville (which might actually be the best taqueria in town).

Grab a copy of the Phoenix or Dig when you're here and check out the nightlife listings - the Enormous Room and Middlesex are better-than-average clubs in Cambridge, with none of the Lansdowne riff-raff and really good DJs (including sometime-ILXoR Er1k Pe4rson on Fridays at Enormous). River Gods tends to be packed to the point of suffocation on weekends lately.

Friend got me a ticket to the Yankees v. Sox in late August. Probably arrive Thursday and leave Monday. I know nothing about the city.

Priceline's areas around Fenway are "Cambridge" and "Copley Square - Theater District" - best shots for staying somewhere that's good for wandering around?

Ha - what a game to go to! Copley Sqaure and the Theater District are both good for wandering around. Cambridge is great but not really that close to Fenway. What hotels are they recommending specifically? I might know something about them.

Boston -- Classic or Dirty Water?

Gonna be there for work next week.

welcome in advance!

I wish the Red Sox would be in town, but they're gonna be in Baltimore. I need to check the Boston threads for restaurant suggestions.

I'm visiting BOSTON in two months, is there so much fun stuff to do???

might be in Cambridge and Somerville.

Considering going in May for my 20th college reunion.

Boston Calling happens at the end of May. it's become a pretty big deal, as far as music festivals go. It take place outside the Harvard football stadium.

Mayfair in Harvard Square is always kinda fun. May 6.

I'm visiting BOSTON in two months, is there so much fun stuff to do???

i think East Arlington? I'm going to visit my bestie from college and another friend and hopefully meet some ilxors but mostly like just hang out w/ cool ppl, not so much specifically to "see things in Boston"

i am visiting BOSTON the first week of august!!

east arlington, the gateway to north cambridge!

yeah, you'll be near a lot of cool neighborhoods for hanging out.

and near me

let's remember what is important here

This is all exciting though. Maybe people visiting will be the kick in the ass we need to finally FAP again.

yeah i'm in tho i can no longer in good conscience say i am a boston resident

you never know, I could be in Boston the 1st weekend in August (again)

http://www.saberseminar.com/

I’d be up for a FAP too.

I will be in Aug 3-5 for the baseball thing.. staying in NEWTON (thx Hotwire blind booking). Very little free time but Sat night the 4th looks best.

(happily I have found a convenient bus route between hotel and BU)

I will be blowing in next Friday eve and leaving Sunday at 6pm; only downtime looks like Saturday after 5pm, if anyone is free to meet up.

(also I am staying in bloody Newton, but i have the necessary info on the bus routes)

If anyone calls you "mush", take it as a term of endearment

Does that translate as "nitwit whose last two posts, 7 weeks apart, were nearly identical"?

I don't suppose anyone knows about gay sports bars, but lacking anything else I may repair to one called Cathedral Station to watch some of the BOS-NYY game on Saturday night.

Haaa, no, it really lies just what I said. Kind of Newtonian for bro. It's the only fun fact I know about Newton.

I don't know of gay sports bars off hand, but my parents who live in Boston's South End may be able to recommend something. I'll ask.

Oh duh, Cathedral Station is in the South End about a block from their building. If you run into my parents, say hi.

Warning: not a lot of Mets love around there.

Oh, and my previous post should read "it really is just what I said"

i won't mention Bill Buckner's name, thx

trophy room:

https://trophyroomboston.com/about-us/

i do remember when that place was Fritz!

i am tied up on saturday; sorry to miss u!

What time will you be arriving on Saturday — and how are you getting here?

Taking the bus, arriving Friday eve, at a baseball seminar at BU 9-5 on Sat & Sun. Gone Sun at 6.

Trophy Room is the kinda gay sports bar where i'm the only one watching da sports. Cathedral Station had Pirates-Cards and Brewers-Rockies on when i walked in, more credible. Anyway, i stomped around the Back Bay and South End til i got tired (around 9:30 on Sat night; i always sleep badly in hotels).

What is with all the Boston ppl wearing UnderArmour-branded stuff? way more than in NYC.

Is Jamaica Plain worth spending an afternoon in? Or should I do Cambridge or Somerville? Or somewhere else easily accessible by metro?

depends what you're looking for but Cambridge has the most Stuff in it out of those three. JP and somerville are mostly just places people live, with some pockets of good food

I was surprised at how much was going on in Davis Square, Somerville last time I was there.

davis is great but its mostly just food & a independent movie theater

i don't get over there much but i think it'd be easy to kill an afternoon in jp. if it's nice out you can go check out the pond and whatnot for a changeup from the city.

jp rules, we lived close by in west rox for 5 years. a walk around the pond then a bite to eat on centre st was one of our favorite things to do. lots of good food on centre just east of the pond and also further up past the whole foods. ethiopian, cuban, indian, tapas, mexican.

beautiful Victorians and other old houses and triple deckers throughout, walking around there is so nice, wander into the arboretum if you there on a nice day

Cambridge has the most happening tho yea

Does Boston have Chinatown or other Asian neighborhoods?

yea it has a p cool Chinatown with lots of good food, nothing like nyc or sf of course but i remember it being way more actual Chinese and Asian places than say, DC’s Chinatown

my boyf livese in Malden and every time I go visit we just kinda hang out in Malden and sooooometimes Boston proper, but rarely anywhere else. I've been to Cambridge a few times and it's cute, I THINK I've been to Somerville but I'm not certain, and I've def never been to JP.

We're also thinking abt day tripping to Salem?

xp Boston's Chinatown was p impressive and is def an above-average Chinatown imo

IIRC DC's Chinatown is just a big arch and then tons of regular-ass retail chains and does not feel remotely enclavey or distinct from its surroundings

salem is an enjoyable day trip, definitely would recommend. the peabody essex museum is the best small art museum in new england.

The more I read about Salem the more awesome it sounds, but if we went we'd have to leave by 4 or so so I think we're gonna go another time when we can stay later (or even maybe do an overnight trip)

so back to either JP or Cambridge

xp re DC, yea for sure. it felt like a real if somewhat small Chinatown when I first moved to DC in 2002 but by the time i left in 2008 it had completely transformed

my boyf livese in Malden and every time I go visit we just kinda hang out in Malden and sooooometimes Boston proper, but rarely anywhere else

lol steve replace "malden" with "medford" (which, close enough) and you basically have my long distance relationship from 2015

it's weird, Boston is so weird

it’s very weird

Are there any Boston ilxors by chance?? I’m visiting family in Norwell but very very much want to go see Kraftwerk on Saturday, would love to hang with someone

Boston :-(

maura lives in boston!

Unlike NYC, it’s one of those places where if a friend moves there, I assume I will never see them as long as they’re there. All of the hegemony, none of the charm.