Travelogue for Boston
Boston
DAY 1&2 - came up for a business meeting set in the Waterfront/Seaport District, which is pretty nice. For lunch, I ate at Flour Bakery, which is delicious. I stayed at the Westin, which is a gorgeous hotel, and ate at Legal Harborside (part of the Legal Sea Foods family). I got crispy fried scallops and boston cream pie, both of which were quite delicious.
DAY 3 - I woke up bright and early thanks to my confused internal clock to visit the Museum of Science, which was easy to get to via the T and pretty excellent. I stopped by the Butterfly Garden and got to see a Corpse Flower, a plant I've been fascinated by for a while now since it blooms only once very few years and smells like an incredibly pungent pile of rotting flesh (hence the name) in order to attract flies, beetles, etc as its pollinators. It wasn't blooming, but it was the first time I've seen it in person. Nature is so wild sometimes.
COPLEY SQUARE - I'm staying in the Boston Park Plaza in the Back Bay area, which is a historic old hotel in a location that can't be beat. It's clearly seen better days, but I got an insanely good deal on Priceline for it so I don't mind the tiny room (European sized, let's say) and limited amenities.
It's very close to various attractions including Copley Square, Trinity Church (an unusual example of Romanesque architecture in the US), the Old South Church (a pretty Moorish Revival style building), the Boston Public Library, and the Copley Fairmont (pretty hotel I wouldn't mind staying in). I also walked along Newbury Street and looked at some shops, and ended up in the Copley Place mall, which is massive and pretty nice.
I met up with a friend for dinner at a restaurant called Atlantic Fish, which had a fantastic New England Clam chowder in a bread bowl with serious chunks of lobster claw and other seafood in it. Delicious. Then we went to the Salty Pig, which is more of a fun and hip place serving cheese boards and charcuterie. I got the Valdeon blue cheese. They also had good Manchego and creamy Brie style cheeses as well.
Lastly, in my long day of touring around Boston, I went to see the Boston Pops perform their Holiday Pops performance. It was a very fun show, conducted by an energetic young maestro, Sarah Hicks.
DAY 4 - Beacon Hill & Back Bay Food Tour
Decided to stay in during the morning to write and relax due to the sub-freezing weather. Had some coffee from the Keurig in my room, ate a meal bar, and waited till my tour of Beacon Hill & Back Bay.
The tour, run by Boston Foodie Tours, is fabulous. It's a small group, which I always prefer (less waiting around) and the guide, Audrey, is both knowledgable and passionate about food.
We meet up at the Liberty Hotel, which is one of the few remaining examples of the Boston Granite Style (most buildings in that style have long since burned down). It's a building that was built as a jail, was shut down due to inhumane living conditions, and was revived as a four diamond hotel. The lobby is spectacular (as the former giant pen for all the prisoners, with all the old catwalks on the various floors visible) and the whole space is very cool overall.
There are quite a few stops. The first is the restaurant inside the hotel, Scampo, run by Chef Lydia Shire. We have a delicious tomato and basil salad to start, along with some white truffle & fig pizza. Afterwards, we move on to Savenor's, a food market with exotic meats where we sample some artisan chocolate, JP Lick's, a local ice cream chain where I get salty caramel ice cream (the red velvet was delicious too), and then Beacon Hill chocolate where we sample some salty caramel wrapped in milk chocolate along with dark chocolate in ganache.
In the Back Bay part of the tour, we go to Bacco's Wine & Cheese and sample not only wine & cheese, but also various artisan products like mustard, sliced meat, macaroons, and a green tea flavored white chocolate I really enjoy. Afterwards, we head to another Flour Bakery location, and then lastly to the original location of Legal Seafoods where I get the fish chowder. After the tour, I emerge with a bar of milk chocolate from the Beacon Hill chocolatiers & a sticky bun from Flour Bakery (which apparently won the Bobby Flay throwdown).
To wrap up the night, I got dinner with an old college friend & his wife at Lolita, a Mexican restaurant/bar with an amusing gothic vampire in a basement theme. The food is pretty good, as we get a grapefruit sorbet with tequila amuse-bouche over dry ice to start, along with chips & a salsa flight. We order the guacamole sampler (bacon, picante, and lobster) and I get the garlic ribeye tacos that are nicely medium rare. Despite the intense snowstorm, it's a nice night catching up, and a good day full of delicious food.
DAY 5 - return to NYC
I arrange for late check out, and, once again, wake up super early. The snow has stopped, thankfully, but has accumulated and frozen to quite a bit of a ice. I brave the arctic tundra conditions for breakfast at Paramount. The potatos and toast are nothing to write home about, but the bacon, blue cheese & spinache omelet is chock full of blue cheese, and pretty tasty.
Overall, it was a good trip to Boston. It's a nice city, filled with good food and an easy to use (if old) subway system. I saw most of the sights I wanted to see in this trip, had a good food tour, and caught up with some friends. Despite the inclement weather (or perhaps because of, as it forced me to stay in my hotel room more than I'd usually be inclined to do), it was rather relaxing on the whole.
After several weeks of being away, I have to say that I was ready to head back home and recover. I needed to do laundry, and was actually looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and being able to use the internet freely.
DAY 1&2 - came up for a business meeting set in the Waterfront/Seaport District, which is pretty nice. For lunch, I ate at Flour Bakery, which is delicious. I stayed at the Westin, which is a gorgeous hotel, and ate at Legal Harborside (part of the Legal Sea Foods family). I got crispy fried scallops and boston cream pie, both of which were quite delicious.
DAY 3 - I woke up bright and early thanks to my confused internal clock to visit the Museum of Science, which was easy to get to via the T and pretty excellent. I stopped by the Butterfly Garden and got to see a Corpse Flower, a plant I've been fascinated by for a while now since it blooms only once very few years and smells like an incredibly pungent pile of rotting flesh (hence the name) in order to attract flies, beetles, etc as its pollinators. It wasn't blooming, but it was the first time I've seen it in person. Nature is so wild sometimes.
COPLEY SQUARE - I'm staying in the Boston Park Plaza in the Back Bay area, which is a historic old hotel in a location that can't be beat. It's clearly seen better days, but I got an insanely good deal on Priceline for it so I don't mind the tiny room (European sized, let's say) and limited amenities.
It's very close to various attractions including Copley Square, Trinity Church (an unusual example of Romanesque architecture in the US), the Old South Church (a pretty Moorish Revival style building), the Boston Public Library, and the Copley Fairmont (pretty hotel I wouldn't mind staying in). I also walked along Newbury Street and looked at some shops, and ended up in the Copley Place mall, which is massive and pretty nice.
I met up with a friend for dinner at a restaurant called Atlantic Fish, which had a fantastic New England Clam chowder in a bread bowl with serious chunks of lobster claw and other seafood in it. Delicious. Then we went to the Salty Pig, which is more of a fun and hip place serving cheese boards and charcuterie. I got the Valdeon blue cheese. They also had good Manchego and creamy Brie style cheeses as well.
Lastly, in my long day of touring around Boston, I went to see the Boston Pops perform their Holiday Pops performance. It was a very fun show, conducted by an energetic young maestro, Sarah Hicks.
DAY 4 - Beacon Hill & Back Bay Food Tour
Decided to stay in during the morning to write and relax due to the sub-freezing weather. Had some coffee from the Keurig in my room, ate a meal bar, and waited till my tour of Beacon Hill & Back Bay.
The tour, run by Boston Foodie Tours, is fabulous. It's a small group, which I always prefer (less waiting around) and the guide, Audrey, is both knowledgable and passionate about food.
We meet up at the Liberty Hotel, which is one of the few remaining examples of the Boston Granite Style (most buildings in that style have long since burned down). It's a building that was built as a jail, was shut down due to inhumane living conditions, and was revived as a four diamond hotel. The lobby is spectacular (as the former giant pen for all the prisoners, with all the old catwalks on the various floors visible) and the whole space is very cool overall.
There are quite a few stops. The first is the restaurant inside the hotel, Scampo, run by Chef Lydia Shire. We have a delicious tomato and basil salad to start, along with some white truffle & fig pizza. Afterwards, we move on to Savenor's, a food market with exotic meats where we sample some artisan chocolate, JP Lick's, a local ice cream chain where I get salty caramel ice cream (the red velvet was delicious too), and then Beacon Hill chocolate where we sample some salty caramel wrapped in milk chocolate along with dark chocolate in ganache.
In the Back Bay part of the tour, we go to Bacco's Wine & Cheese and sample not only wine & cheese, but also various artisan products like mustard, sliced meat, macaroons, and a green tea flavored white chocolate I really enjoy. Afterwards, we head to another Flour Bakery location, and then lastly to the original location of Legal Seafoods where I get the fish chowder. After the tour, I emerge with a bar of milk chocolate from the Beacon Hill chocolatiers & a sticky bun from Flour Bakery (which apparently won the Bobby Flay throwdown).
To wrap up the night, I got dinner with an old college friend & his wife at Lolita, a Mexican restaurant/bar with an amusing gothic vampire in a basement theme. The food is pretty good, as we get a grapefruit sorbet with tequila amuse-bouche over dry ice to start, along with chips & a salsa flight. We order the guacamole sampler (bacon, picante, and lobster) and I get the garlic ribeye tacos that are nicely medium rare. Despite the intense snowstorm, it's a nice night catching up, and a good day full of delicious food.
DAY 5 - return to NYC
I arrange for late check out, and, once again, wake up super early. The snow has stopped, thankfully, but has accumulated and frozen to quite a bit of a ice. I brave the arctic tundra conditions for breakfast at Paramount. The potatos and toast are nothing to write home about, but the bacon, blue cheese & spinache omelet is chock full of blue cheese, and pretty tasty.
Overall, it was a good trip to Boston. It's a nice city, filled with good food and an easy to use (if old) subway system. I saw most of the sights I wanted to see in this trip, had a good food tour, and caught up with some friends. Despite the inclement weather (or perhaps because of, as it forced me to stay in my hotel room more than I'd usually be inclined to do), it was rather relaxing on the whole.
After several weeks of being away, I have to say that I was ready to head back home and recover. I needed to do laundry, and was actually looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and being able to use the internet freely.