In Wayland, A Duck Boat To The Rescue
By FRED THYS
Published March 31, 2010
WAYLAND, Mass. — An amphibious vehicle that normally takes quacking tourists around Boston is taking people to and from their homes along Pelham Island Road, in Wayland.
It’s a duck boat, painted in stars and stripes.
The neighborhood overlooks the Great Meadows National Wildlife refuge, which is home to the Concord River. When the refuge was flooded by the rainstorm that dumped more than seven inches of rain on some parts of the state earlier this week, waters engulfed Pelham Island Road.
So the duck boat came to the rescue.
Mike Murphy, who drives the boat, compared his duty of ferrying people to and from their temporary island to his regular job of cracking jokes for tourists.
“A lot’s similar. You’re riding around in circles,” Murphy said. “The people are very, very thankful, that we’re here to help them get back and forth to their houses.”
The duck boat was dispatched to Pelham Island Road, in Wayland, on Wednesday. (Fred Thys/WBUR)
Before the boat showed up, residents of Pelham Island Road had been warned they might be evacuated. That would have been a first for Roberta Wambolt.
“I’ve lived here for 52 years,” Wambolt says, “but as long as we have the duck boat, this is good. It’s too deep for the school bus anymore.”
Every Wednesday, Wambolt takes her brother, who has cancer, to the Dana Farber Institute. Last week, he was put on hospice care, so she used the duck boat to meet him for lunch.
Wambolt hopes the town keeps the duck boats for a while, but residents have been told they only get them until Thursday.
“And now they’re saying they have a big truck, but that’s a dump truck, and you have to go up and down the ladder, and that’s not very safe for little kids or older people,” Wambolt said.
Last Sunday, the road had finally dried up, after it flooded in the storm two weeks ago. By Tuesday, it was underwater again, and the waters are still rising. The river is expected to crest on Thursday.
One young resident, Elise Katz, saw an upside to the flooding as she took in the watery panorama from her duck boat commute.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Katz says. “We’ve seen muskrat and beavers and turtles. My school canoed home from school one day with friends.”
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Abe & Louie's is 28th highest grossing restaurant in U.S.
Grub Street Boston
Highest-Grossing Restaurants
Las Vegas's Tao, New York's now-shuttered Tavern on the Green, and Joe's Stone Crab in Miami top Restaurants & Institutions list of the 100 highest-grossing independent restaurants of 2010. New York restaurants comprise half of the top ten, (including Tavern on the Green which, despite closing, reported $27 million in sales last year) and 30 entries on the list overall, but Chicago comes in strong with six (including tenth top-selling spot Gibson's Steakhouse, which took in just under $20 million last year).
San Francisco's tops out with The Slanted Door at number 21 ($15.8 million) and Los Angeles and Philadelphia tie with three entries each. L.A.’s Gladstones Restaurant posted $13.7 million in sales last year and ranks 41st, while Philly's Parc captured the 66 slot with nearly $12 million in sales. Boston is solely represented by Abe & Louie's Steakhouse, which grossed nearly $15 million and ranked 28th. Who had the highest average dinner check in the land? That honor goes to Mario Batali's Del Posto in New York. Customers part with about $155 over dinner.
Top 100 Independent Restaurants of 2010 [Restaurants & Institutions] via Eater NY]
Highest-Grossing Restaurants
Las Vegas's Tao, New York's now-shuttered Tavern on the Green, and Joe's Stone Crab in Miami top Restaurants & Institutions list of the 100 highest-grossing independent restaurants of 2010. New York restaurants comprise half of the top ten, (including Tavern on the Green which, despite closing, reported $27 million in sales last year) and 30 entries on the list overall, but Chicago comes in strong with six (including tenth top-selling spot Gibson's Steakhouse, which took in just under $20 million last year).
San Francisco's tops out with The Slanted Door at number 21 ($15.8 million) and Los Angeles and Philadelphia tie with three entries each. L.A.’s Gladstones Restaurant posted $13.7 million in sales last year and ranks 41st, while Philly's Parc captured the 66 slot with nearly $12 million in sales. Boston is solely represented by Abe & Louie's Steakhouse, which grossed nearly $15 million and ranked 28th. Who had the highest average dinner check in the land? That honor goes to Mario Batali's Del Posto in New York. Customers part with about $155 over dinner.
Top 100 Independent Restaurants of 2010 [Restaurants & Institutions] via Eater NY]
East Cost Grill review
DINING OUT
Still smokin' after all these years
East Coast Grill marks a quarter-century of hot and hotter food with larger-than-life flavors
By Devra First, Globe Staff | March 31, 2010
This year, East Coast Grill celebrates its 25th anniversary. There is nothing subtle about its success, predicated on internal-organ-scorching hot sauces, smoke and flames, hunks of meat, and creatures pulled from the sea. It’s a restaurant a caveman or a polar bear could love.
But Boston loves it best. For a quarter-century, we’ve sat in turquoise vinyl booths beneath glass fishing floats and shell lamps. We’ve mixed our own Bloody Marys and rolled our own black ’n’ blue tuna tacos. We’ve gone to 99 Hell Nights, the Scoville scale-tipping events at which food comes in hot and hotter (the 100th takes place April 12-15, but it’s sold out). If allowed, we’ll probably keep doing it all for another 25. Unselfconscious, cheerfully kitschy, East Coast Grill is the jolly uncle of local restaurants — back-slapping, fun-loving, perhaps slightly embarrassing in certain company. It exists to make people happy, and it clearly does its job.
On a recent weeknight, there’s a 45-minute wait, nothing compared with what you might endure to get to Sunday brunch. A table of young men with mustaches and plaid flannel shirts (and their token cute girl) sit shoulder to shoulder, gnawing on ribs as their eyes glaze over with pleasure. A woman on the other side of the room is having a spicy moment, panting and smiling and saying, “Oh oh oh!’’
You’ve already had what she’s having. At East Coast Grill, nothing changes. The trio platter of ribs, brisket, and pork; the jerk grilled salmon; the black beans and grilled bananas; the Asian and island touches — these are the things you ate at East Coast Grill a decade ago or last week. If nothing else, this longevity proves that the city does actually like spicy food. Now, please, sir, can we have some more? (It also proves that this city likes flaming volcano drinks, and there we may be at our legal limit.)
Executive chef and general manager Eric Gburski and staff continue to carry out owner Chris Schlesinger’s original vision: larger-than-life flavors, friendlier-than-life service. (Even friendlier if you spring for the “kitchen beer appreciation special,’’ sending a six-pack of PBR to the folks cooking your dinner.)
Gulf white shrimp are fried and served Buffalo style, their sweet, delicate flesh slumming it in hot sauce and blue cheese dip. Plump mussels swim in a brown broth flavored with coconut milk, chili, and lime; it’s a crime that there’s nothing to sop it up with. Dumplings arrive looking manhandled in addition to pan-fried, but the smushed packages of ginger tuna and pork sausage are generically satisfying. They don’t taste particularly like tuna, but they are savory and come with a makes-anything-good soy-ginger sauce.
I can’t tell you how the Southern Thai-style crispy wings are. “2 Hot 4 U,’’ promises the menu, and the servers reiterate the message in less-Prince-like fashion. “No, I don’t think so. Bad idea,’’ says our waiter. “Don’t,’’ echoes our waitress on another visit. “They will kill you.’’ They both look a little scared. Are new staff members made to try these things in some sort of hazing ritual? It’s an interesting tactic, featuring a dish on the regular menu that servers are extremely reluctant to actually let you eat.
That menu is augmented by a long list of daily specials. One day we find a smoked pork ssam, a Korean dish where meat is wrapped in leaf vegetables. The pork itself is a bit gristly, but it comes with kimchi made from plums, an excellent condiment. We wrap the meat and kimchi in lettuce leaves with chili paste and mushrooms. It’s a good idea that would be great with better pork.
Xiao Jianming’s wetbones are frequently on the specials menu, and rightly so. These ribs are coated in delicious, Asian-inflected ginger-chili barbecue sauce, their tender meat clinging to the bone just a bit before yielding to frenzied gnawing. One could be happy here ordering nothing but a pile of wetbones and a half-dozen of the “special guest oysters’’ on offer recently. They come from oyster fisherman (and world champion shucker) William “Chopper’’ Young. They are Wellfleets and they are wonderful, sparklingly fresh.
For entrees, you’ll have to choose between barbecue and seafood. The former is oak-smoked, cooked low and slow. There are spare ribs, their thick, spice-rubbed crust giving way to tender, pink meat. These are Memphis-style, without sauce, and none is needed. That’s good, because the Texas-style brisket needs all the sauce it can get. It’s dry, short on flavor, and no fun to eat. Eastern North Carolina-style shredded pork is much better — juicy, smoky, and tangy with vinegar. A trio platter features some of each. There’s better barbecue in town, but East Coast Grill’s will satisfy your craving.
Some of the sides may leave you wanting, though. Baked beans have a pleasing molasses sweetness, but they’re undercooked. Coleslaw is a fine, middle-of-the-road version, creamy enough but without too much mayonnaise. The corn bread is heavy, anemic, and far too sweet — time for a new recipe. And I doubt many people eat the wan piece of watermelon. Why not just leave it off?
Seafood dishes are stronger. Mahi mahi is rubbed with coriander and cumin, grilled, and served with fried plantains, rice and beans, and an avocado half filled sloppily with pineapple salsa — East Coast Grill isn’t too finicky about plating. No matter. The flavors are good, and the fish is perfectly cooked.
White pepper-crusted tuna is seared on the outside, raw in the middle, and served with wasabi, soy sauce, and pickled ginger — sushi’s flavors super-sized. Similar flavors appear in a dish of seared shrimp and scallops, piled atop ginger-garlic noodles with sesame-chili spinach. It tastes good, but you can practically squeeze oil out of the noodles.
A cod special one night goes Southern, the fish crusted in cornmeal, served with tempura okra, mashed sweet potatoes, and remoulade. After all the sauces and spices of the other dish, it’s refreshingly simple. Same with the Portuguese Big Bowl o’ Seafood, an aptly named special. It features fried cod, mussels, shrimp, and scallops in plentiful quantity, cooked with chorizo in a fragrant broth of tomato and white wine.
A special of jerk grilled salmon is a disaster, however. Inner Beauty hot sauce can’t hide the fact that the fish is dry, and the plate looks like a mini-tornado landed in the middle of it, throwing beans and rice and tomato-tamarind jam and grilled pineapple into the air and letting them fall where they may.
Dessert is just as subtle as the rest of the meal. There’s a Jamaican banana split made with mango ice cream, grilled bananas, whipped cream, and strawberries, an indiscriminate heap of sweet, tropical flavors. There’s somewhat flavorless peanut butter mousse pie with too-crisp candied bacon. There’s serviceable Key lime pie and guava flan.
Or you could just drink an Erupting, Flaming Volcano. “Serves 2 . . . very potent . . . limit 2 per couple,’’ according to the menu, which may have the most fine print of any in town. This is a scorpion bowl-esque combination of five kinds of rum, gin, brandy, and tropical juices, lit on fire. Be careful not to burn a hole in your 2-foot-long neon straw.
There are also well-made margaritas, sangria, and beer selections from Harpoon IPA to Abita to Hoegaarden. A wine list is divided into categories such as “flexible and diplomatic’’ and “large and in charge.’’
That last is a reasonable description of East Coast Grill itself. The food isn’t always pretty to look at, and the flavors often hit you over the head with a cudgel. But that happened in every episode of “Tom and Jerry,’’ and they kept coming back for more, too. East Coast Grill is constant and genuine. It’s here to show us a good time. Twenty-five years later, that still hasn’t gotten old.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Still smokin' after all these years
East Coast Grill marks a quarter-century of hot and hotter food with larger-than-life flavors
By Devra First, Globe Staff | March 31, 2010
This year, East Coast Grill celebrates its 25th anniversary. There is nothing subtle about its success, predicated on internal-organ-scorching hot sauces, smoke and flames, hunks of meat, and creatures pulled from the sea. It’s a restaurant a caveman or a polar bear could love.
But Boston loves it best. For a quarter-century, we’ve sat in turquoise vinyl booths beneath glass fishing floats and shell lamps. We’ve mixed our own Bloody Marys and rolled our own black ’n’ blue tuna tacos. We’ve gone to 99 Hell Nights, the Scoville scale-tipping events at which food comes in hot and hotter (the 100th takes place April 12-15, but it’s sold out). If allowed, we’ll probably keep doing it all for another 25. Unselfconscious, cheerfully kitschy, East Coast Grill is the jolly uncle of local restaurants — back-slapping, fun-loving, perhaps slightly embarrassing in certain company. It exists to make people happy, and it clearly does its job.
On a recent weeknight, there’s a 45-minute wait, nothing compared with what you might endure to get to Sunday brunch. A table of young men with mustaches and plaid flannel shirts (and their token cute girl) sit shoulder to shoulder, gnawing on ribs as their eyes glaze over with pleasure. A woman on the other side of the room is having a spicy moment, panting and smiling and saying, “Oh oh oh!’’
You’ve already had what she’s having. At East Coast Grill, nothing changes. The trio platter of ribs, brisket, and pork; the jerk grilled salmon; the black beans and grilled bananas; the Asian and island touches — these are the things you ate at East Coast Grill a decade ago or last week. If nothing else, this longevity proves that the city does actually like spicy food. Now, please, sir, can we have some more? (It also proves that this city likes flaming volcano drinks, and there we may be at our legal limit.)
Executive chef and general manager Eric Gburski and staff continue to carry out owner Chris Schlesinger’s original vision: larger-than-life flavors, friendlier-than-life service. (Even friendlier if you spring for the “kitchen beer appreciation special,’’ sending a six-pack of PBR to the folks cooking your dinner.)
Gulf white shrimp are fried and served Buffalo style, their sweet, delicate flesh slumming it in hot sauce and blue cheese dip. Plump mussels swim in a brown broth flavored with coconut milk, chili, and lime; it’s a crime that there’s nothing to sop it up with. Dumplings arrive looking manhandled in addition to pan-fried, but the smushed packages of ginger tuna and pork sausage are generically satisfying. They don’t taste particularly like tuna, but they are savory and come with a makes-anything-good soy-ginger sauce.
I can’t tell you how the Southern Thai-style crispy wings are. “2 Hot 4 U,’’ promises the menu, and the servers reiterate the message in less-Prince-like fashion. “No, I don’t think so. Bad idea,’’ says our waiter. “Don’t,’’ echoes our waitress on another visit. “They will kill you.’’ They both look a little scared. Are new staff members made to try these things in some sort of hazing ritual? It’s an interesting tactic, featuring a dish on the regular menu that servers are extremely reluctant to actually let you eat.
That menu is augmented by a long list of daily specials. One day we find a smoked pork ssam, a Korean dish where meat is wrapped in leaf vegetables. The pork itself is a bit gristly, but it comes with kimchi made from plums, an excellent condiment. We wrap the meat and kimchi in lettuce leaves with chili paste and mushrooms. It’s a good idea that would be great with better pork.
Xiao Jianming’s wetbones are frequently on the specials menu, and rightly so. These ribs are coated in delicious, Asian-inflected ginger-chili barbecue sauce, their tender meat clinging to the bone just a bit before yielding to frenzied gnawing. One could be happy here ordering nothing but a pile of wetbones and a half-dozen of the “special guest oysters’’ on offer recently. They come from oyster fisherman (and world champion shucker) William “Chopper’’ Young. They are Wellfleets and they are wonderful, sparklingly fresh.
For entrees, you’ll have to choose between barbecue and seafood. The former is oak-smoked, cooked low and slow. There are spare ribs, their thick, spice-rubbed crust giving way to tender, pink meat. These are Memphis-style, without sauce, and none is needed. That’s good, because the Texas-style brisket needs all the sauce it can get. It’s dry, short on flavor, and no fun to eat. Eastern North Carolina-style shredded pork is much better — juicy, smoky, and tangy with vinegar. A trio platter features some of each. There’s better barbecue in town, but East Coast Grill’s will satisfy your craving.
Some of the sides may leave you wanting, though. Baked beans have a pleasing molasses sweetness, but they’re undercooked. Coleslaw is a fine, middle-of-the-road version, creamy enough but without too much mayonnaise. The corn bread is heavy, anemic, and far too sweet — time for a new recipe. And I doubt many people eat the wan piece of watermelon. Why not just leave it off?
Seafood dishes are stronger. Mahi mahi is rubbed with coriander and cumin, grilled, and served with fried plantains, rice and beans, and an avocado half filled sloppily with pineapple salsa — East Coast Grill isn’t too finicky about plating. No matter. The flavors are good, and the fish is perfectly cooked.
White pepper-crusted tuna is seared on the outside, raw in the middle, and served with wasabi, soy sauce, and pickled ginger — sushi’s flavors super-sized. Similar flavors appear in a dish of seared shrimp and scallops, piled atop ginger-garlic noodles with sesame-chili spinach. It tastes good, but you can practically squeeze oil out of the noodles.
A cod special one night goes Southern, the fish crusted in cornmeal, served with tempura okra, mashed sweet potatoes, and remoulade. After all the sauces and spices of the other dish, it’s refreshingly simple. Same with the Portuguese Big Bowl o’ Seafood, an aptly named special. It features fried cod, mussels, shrimp, and scallops in plentiful quantity, cooked with chorizo in a fragrant broth of tomato and white wine.
A special of jerk grilled salmon is a disaster, however. Inner Beauty hot sauce can’t hide the fact that the fish is dry, and the plate looks like a mini-tornado landed in the middle of it, throwing beans and rice and tomato-tamarind jam and grilled pineapple into the air and letting them fall where they may.
Dessert is just as subtle as the rest of the meal. There’s a Jamaican banana split made with mango ice cream, grilled bananas, whipped cream, and strawberries, an indiscriminate heap of sweet, tropical flavors. There’s somewhat flavorless peanut butter mousse pie with too-crisp candied bacon. There’s serviceable Key lime pie and guava flan.
Or you could just drink an Erupting, Flaming Volcano. “Serves 2 . . . very potent . . . limit 2 per couple,’’ according to the menu, which may have the most fine print of any in town. This is a scorpion bowl-esque combination of five kinds of rum, gin, brandy, and tropical juices, lit on fire. Be careful not to burn a hole in your 2-foot-long neon straw.
There are also well-made margaritas, sangria, and beer selections from Harpoon IPA to Abita to Hoegaarden. A wine list is divided into categories such as “flexible and diplomatic’’ and “large and in charge.’’
That last is a reasonable description of East Coast Grill itself. The food isn’t always pretty to look at, and the flavors often hit you over the head with a cudgel. But that happened in every episode of “Tom and Jerry,’’ and they kept coming back for more, too. East Coast Grill is constant and genuine. It’s here to show us a good time. Twenty-five years later, that still hasn’t gotten old.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Menton to open Saturday; Sonsie setting the standard on Newbury Street
Fast Food: Ultra fine dining
By Kerry J. Byrne | Wednesday, March 31, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Food & Recipes
The economic indicators say beer, pizza and jeans. Barbara Lynch’s brand-new Menton is betting on champagne, caviar and dinner jackets.
Lynch’s luxurious Fort Point restaurant opens Saturday with pricey French and Italian plates, fine porcelain china and delicate Zalto glassware. Guests will sip high-end bubbly from boutique vintners selected by Lynch’s longtime wine director, Cat Silirie.
“Menton will be a glamorous expression of fine dining,” said Lynch, the South Boston native who rose to foodie fame at No. 9 Park and now runs a local restaurant empire (B&G Oysters, The Butcher Shop, Drink, Sportello, Stir).
There are two dinner options: $95 for a four-course prix fixe; $145 for a seven-course tasting menu.
Got the bucks to book a seat? Menton began taking online reservations two weeks ago. But don’t sweat the jacket. They’re not required, merely suggested - itself a rarity in the ultracasual Boston dining scene.
(Menton, 354 Congress St. 617-737-0099, mentonboston.com)
A Newbury Street tradition
Sonsie was the trendiest spot in town when it opened in 1994 - a Parisian-style combination cafe, cocktail bar and restaurant that attracted celebrities and scenesters.
They sipped cappuccino and read the newspaper in soft leather seats, or quaffed cocktails by the French doors that opened up the entire front of the restaurant and made the bustling street scene a part of the experience. It was a novelty at the time.
Today, the Newbury Street eatery is a Back Bay institution. Food, naturally, has played a big role in its staying power. Several dishes have been served since day one, including mee krob (crispy Thai noodle stir fry), steak au poivre and chocolate bread pudding. About 85 percent of the menu changes each season. The spring menu was out last week.
“We were tagged with the celeb scene when we opened,” said chef and partner Bill Poirier. “Naysayers said it’d be here today, gone tomorrow. But here we are 16 years later and we’re kind of the standard for Newbury Street.”
By Kerry J. Byrne | Wednesday, March 31, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Food & Recipes
The economic indicators say beer, pizza and jeans. Barbara Lynch’s brand-new Menton is betting on champagne, caviar and dinner jackets.
Lynch’s luxurious Fort Point restaurant opens Saturday with pricey French and Italian plates, fine porcelain china and delicate Zalto glassware. Guests will sip high-end bubbly from boutique vintners selected by Lynch’s longtime wine director, Cat Silirie.
“Menton will be a glamorous expression of fine dining,” said Lynch, the South Boston native who rose to foodie fame at No. 9 Park and now runs a local restaurant empire (B&G Oysters, The Butcher Shop, Drink, Sportello, Stir).
There are two dinner options: $95 for a four-course prix fixe; $145 for a seven-course tasting menu.
Got the bucks to book a seat? Menton began taking online reservations two weeks ago. But don’t sweat the jacket. They’re not required, merely suggested - itself a rarity in the ultracasual Boston dining scene.
(Menton, 354 Congress St. 617-737-0099, mentonboston.com)
A Newbury Street tradition
Sonsie was the trendiest spot in town when it opened in 1994 - a Parisian-style combination cafe, cocktail bar and restaurant that attracted celebrities and scenesters.
They sipped cappuccino and read the newspaper in soft leather seats, or quaffed cocktails by the French doors that opened up the entire front of the restaurant and made the bustling street scene a part of the experience. It was a novelty at the time.
Today, the Newbury Street eatery is a Back Bay institution. Food, naturally, has played a big role in its staying power. Several dishes have been served since day one, including mee krob (crispy Thai noodle stir fry), steak au poivre and chocolate bread pudding. About 85 percent of the menu changes each season. The spring menu was out last week.
“We were tagged with the celeb scene when we opened,” said chef and partner Bill Poirier. “Naysayers said it’d be here today, gone tomorrow. But here we are 16 years later and we’re kind of the standard for Newbury Street.”
Red Sox fan facilitates face-value ticket resales
TixList matches Sox ticket sellers, buyers
His game plan? Fair play
By Darren Garnick / The Working Stiff | Wednesday, March 31, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
P
Christian Galvin wants to shatter a myth about his fellow Red Sox [team stats] season ticket holders: They are neither greedy nor delusional about the value of their seats. Most are even happy to unload their unwanted games at no profit.
Galvin, who lives within 200 yards of Fenway Park [map], knows this first hand. As the Sox gear up for Opening Day on Easter Sunday, he’s offering an old-fashioned matchmaking service for budget-conscious fans who don’t want to deal with scalpers.
It’s “old-fashioned” because there is no fancy software, auctions or animated graphics - just his daily “TixList” e-mail sharing the best seats at the best prices, most of them at face value.
“The perception out there is either you can’t find Red Sox tickets or that you need to take out a second mortgage on your house,” he says. “If you are looking to go to a Yankees game in July in the heat of the pennant race, then those perceptions are true. But if you set your standards a little lower, tickets are out there and available. It just takes a little time to find them.”
That’s where TixList comes into play. Galvin spends hours combing Craigslist and communicates with season ticket holders to dig up the best bargains of the day. His free service is sponsored by advertisers, who are featured in a chatty paragraph at the top of the e-mail.
TixList does not collect closing fees from either the seller or the buyer. Revenues are generated only from sponsors.
“This is direct marketing in its purest form. We have a motivated, opt-in audience in the Boston area specifically interested in sports,” says Galvin, who also lists Bruins [team stats], Celtics [team stats], Patriots [team stats] and concert tickets.
He claims his conversational-style ad links have a click-through rate of 16 percent vs. the industry average of 3 percent. Each day’s listing is limited to just 10 to 15 offerings.
“I’m the filter. There’s no value in opening my e-mail if you get inundated with noise. I weed through the outrageous stuff. The online ticket marketplace is turning into a cesspool of scams and scalpers,” he says, estimating that 80 percent of the Red Sox ads on Craigslist are from agencies posing as ordinary fans.
A former software salesman, Galvin launched TixList in December after seeing how thrilled friends, co-workers and fantasy baseball buddies were to gobble up his extra seats when he publicized them in a mass e-mail.
Because he does not earn commissions on each sale, Galvin is actually not competing with StubHub or Ace Ticket, the two companies with formalized business relationships with the Red Sox. Ace Ticket, which has seven stores in Massachusetts, recently sponsored some TixList e-mails and has contacted Galvin when there are seats for sale at face value.
So, if you want great seats for the Red Sox and don’t want to overpay, start convincing yourself about the intangible benefits of seeing the Texas Rangers on a cold Tuesday night. Galvin says that April and May weeknights have the highest no-show rates for season ticket holders.
And forget about those $165 Green Monster seats, which the Red Sox sometimes auction off in a “dynamic transaction environment that allows ticket buyers to determine the market value of tickets in real-time.”
Galvin rarely sees them reselling for anything close to their face value.
“Now that’s marketing in its highest form,” he says. “You’re basically getting glorified left field bleacher seats and paying more than field boxes!”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1243535
Related Articles:
His game plan? Fair play
By Darren Garnick / The Working Stiff | Wednesday, March 31, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
P
Christian Galvin wants to shatter a myth about his fellow Red Sox [team stats] season ticket holders: They are neither greedy nor delusional about the value of their seats. Most are even happy to unload their unwanted games at no profit.
Galvin, who lives within 200 yards of Fenway Park [map], knows this first hand. As the Sox gear up for Opening Day on Easter Sunday, he’s offering an old-fashioned matchmaking service for budget-conscious fans who don’t want to deal with scalpers.
It’s “old-fashioned” because there is no fancy software, auctions or animated graphics - just his daily “TixList” e-mail sharing the best seats at the best prices, most of them at face value.
“The perception out there is either you can’t find Red Sox tickets or that you need to take out a second mortgage on your house,” he says. “If you are looking to go to a Yankees game in July in the heat of the pennant race, then those perceptions are true. But if you set your standards a little lower, tickets are out there and available. It just takes a little time to find them.”
That’s where TixList comes into play. Galvin spends hours combing Craigslist and communicates with season ticket holders to dig up the best bargains of the day. His free service is sponsored by advertisers, who are featured in a chatty paragraph at the top of the e-mail.
TixList does not collect closing fees from either the seller or the buyer. Revenues are generated only from sponsors.
“This is direct marketing in its purest form. We have a motivated, opt-in audience in the Boston area specifically interested in sports,” says Galvin, who also lists Bruins [team stats], Celtics [team stats], Patriots [team stats] and concert tickets.
He claims his conversational-style ad links have a click-through rate of 16 percent vs. the industry average of 3 percent. Each day’s listing is limited to just 10 to 15 offerings.
“I’m the filter. There’s no value in opening my e-mail if you get inundated with noise. I weed through the outrageous stuff. The online ticket marketplace is turning into a cesspool of scams and scalpers,” he says, estimating that 80 percent of the Red Sox ads on Craigslist are from agencies posing as ordinary fans.
A former software salesman, Galvin launched TixList in December after seeing how thrilled friends, co-workers and fantasy baseball buddies were to gobble up his extra seats when he publicized them in a mass e-mail.
Because he does not earn commissions on each sale, Galvin is actually not competing with StubHub or Ace Ticket, the two companies with formalized business relationships with the Red Sox. Ace Ticket, which has seven stores in Massachusetts, recently sponsored some TixList e-mails and has contacted Galvin when there are seats for sale at face value.
So, if you want great seats for the Red Sox and don’t want to overpay, start convincing yourself about the intangible benefits of seeing the Texas Rangers on a cold Tuesday night. Galvin says that April and May weeknights have the highest no-show rates for season ticket holders.
And forget about those $165 Green Monster seats, which the Red Sox sometimes auction off in a “dynamic transaction environment that allows ticket buyers to determine the market value of tickets in real-time.”
Galvin rarely sees them reselling for anything close to their face value.
“Now that’s marketing in its highest form,” he says. “You’re basically getting glorified left field bleacher seats and paying more than field boxes!”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1243535
Related Articles:
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Hot Tomatoes closes North End location
Boston Restaurant Talk
Hot Tomatoes Closes Its North End Location
A dining spot known mostly for its pizza and sandwiches has closed one of its two Boston locations. A phone call placed to Hot Tomatoes has confirmed that their North Street location in the North End of the city has indeed closed. (The place had been closed since the beginning of 2010, but according to posters on various Boston-area sites, it was not known whether it was closed for renovations or permanently closed.)
The other location of Hot Tomatoes on Bedford Street in downtown Boston remains open.
Both the existing Hot Tomatoes and the now-closed North End location have offered pizza (including individual slices) with a variety of toppings, sandwiches such as sloppy joes, monte cristos, and Cubanos, daily pasta specials, and soups, salads, and sides.
The address for the remaining location of Hot Tomatoes is: Hot Tomatoes, 92 Bedford Street, Boston MA, 02111. The phone number is (617) 292-0233. The closed North End location was at 261 North Street in the North End of Boston.
posted by Marc at 10:03 AM |
Hot Tomatoes Closes Its North End Location
A dining spot known mostly for its pizza and sandwiches has closed one of its two Boston locations. A phone call placed to Hot Tomatoes has confirmed that their North Street location in the North End of the city has indeed closed. (The place had been closed since the beginning of 2010, but according to posters on various Boston-area sites, it was not known whether it was closed for renovations or permanently closed.)
The other location of Hot Tomatoes on Bedford Street in downtown Boston remains open.
Both the existing Hot Tomatoes and the now-closed North End location have offered pizza (including individual slices) with a variety of toppings, sandwiches such as sloppy joes, monte cristos, and Cubanos, daily pasta specials, and soups, salads, and sides.
The address for the remaining location of Hot Tomatoes is: Hot Tomatoes, 92 Bedford Street, Boston MA, 02111. The phone number is (617) 292-0233. The closed North End location was at 261 North Street in the North End of Boston.
posted by Marc at 10:03 AM |
Dionysos coming back to Cambridge hotel
Boston Restaurant Talk
Monday, March 29, 2010
Dionysos Is Returning to Cambridge
A Greek restaurant in Cambridge that closed approximately three years ago is reopening in the same spot, though within a different hotel this time. A call placed to Courtyard by Marriott on Memorial Drive has indicated that Dionysos is opening once again within the space, which also houses a Japanese restaurant called Bisuteki. Both Dionysos and Bisuteki were forced to close in 2007 when the Radisson Hotel in which they were housed shut their doors (Bisuteki reopened late last year).
The original incarnation of Dionysos was that of a slightly upscale but casual Greek dining spot with views of the Charles River from its spacious, comfortable dining room. Dishes at the old restaurant included moussaka, swordfish, lamb souvlaki, spanakopita, and pork kabobs.
The exact opening of Dionysos is up for debate right now, as the hotel states that the restaurant will open next Saturday, but a post on the GreekBoston.com Facebook page indicates that it actually may not open next Saturday because of Holy Week. As soon as we find out more on the exact opening date of Dionysos, we will post an update here.
The address for this soon-to-reopen restaurant in Cambridge will be: Dionysos, 777 Memorial Drive (Courtyard by Marriott), Cambridge, MA 02139. The main phone number for the hotel is (617) 492-7777.
posted by Marc at 4:25 PM
Monday, March 29, 2010
Dionysos Is Returning to Cambridge
A Greek restaurant in Cambridge that closed approximately three years ago is reopening in the same spot, though within a different hotel this time. A call placed to Courtyard by Marriott on Memorial Drive has indicated that Dionysos is opening once again within the space, which also houses a Japanese restaurant called Bisuteki. Both Dionysos and Bisuteki were forced to close in 2007 when the Radisson Hotel in which they were housed shut their doors (Bisuteki reopened late last year).
The original incarnation of Dionysos was that of a slightly upscale but casual Greek dining spot with views of the Charles River from its spacious, comfortable dining room. Dishes at the old restaurant included moussaka, swordfish, lamb souvlaki, spanakopita, and pork kabobs.
The exact opening of Dionysos is up for debate right now, as the hotel states that the restaurant will open next Saturday, but a post on the GreekBoston.com Facebook page indicates that it actually may not open next Saturday because of Holy Week. As soon as we find out more on the exact opening date of Dionysos, we will post an update here.
The address for this soon-to-reopen restaurant in Cambridge will be: Dionysos, 777 Memorial Drive (Courtyard by Marriott), Cambridge, MA 02139. The main phone number for the hotel is (617) 492-7777.
posted by Marc at 4:25 PM
Daisy Buchanan's faces hearing after underage drinking discovered
Universal Hub
Hey, kids: The police are onto the Thursdays at Daisy's thing
By adamg - 3/30/10 - 12:53 pm
The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday what to do about underage drinking at Daisy Buchanan's on Newbury Street.
At a hearing today, Boston Police Det. Kevin McGill said that, after receiving tips from local college police departments, he and another detective paid the club a visit on March 5 - and promptly found two underage BU sophomores, drinks in hand.
Owner Joe Cimino pleaded guilty, agreed that, in hindsight, he should have been more vigilant after noticing a recent surge of college students on Thursday nights.
Last week, the board voted to suspend Rumor's liquor license for two days after police found a trio of underage Babson students inside.
Hey, kids: The police are onto the Thursdays at Daisy's thing
By adamg - 3/30/10 - 12:53 pm
The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday what to do about underage drinking at Daisy Buchanan's on Newbury Street.
At a hearing today, Boston Police Det. Kevin McGill said that, after receiving tips from local college police departments, he and another detective paid the club a visit on March 5 - and promptly found two underage BU sophomores, drinks in hand.
Owner Joe Cimino pleaded guilty, agreed that, in hindsight, he should have been more vigilant after noticing a recent surge of college students on Thursday nights.
Last week, the board voted to suspend Rumor's liquor license for two days after police found a trio of underage Babson students inside.
Symphony area may be home to Ethiopian restaurant
Universal Hub
Symphony Hall area could get Ethiopian restaurant
By adamg - 3/30/10 - 4:57 pm
The Boston Licensing Board holds a hearing on April 7 on a proposal by Netsanet Woldesenbet to open Lucy Ethiopian Cafe and Restaurant at 334 Mass. Ave.
Ed. plaintive cry for help: What neighborhood would that be? I'm so confused these days.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Red Sox announce Fenway Park upgrades
Red Sox unveil upgrades to Fenway Park
By Herald staff | Monday, March 29, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
From improved left field and third base side seats to renovated bathrooms and concession areas and new menu items, the owners of the Red Sox [team stats] unveiled offseason improvements to Fenway Park [map] today as the team prepares for Sunday night’s home opener against the Yankees.
The team is in the ninth year of a 10-year plan to upgrade the ballpark in advance of its 100th anniversary in 2012.
The 2010 Fenway Park changes include the following:
The concrete in the lower left field seating bowl, originally constructed in 1933-34, has been repaired and waterproofed. As part of this project, the dugout seats, field box seats and loge box seats have been replaced with new seats and now contain cup-holders. All dugout seats and field box seats in these areas will also have cushioned seats.
In the left field grandstand area, the original blue wooden seats (the only wooden seats left in Major League Baseball) have been refurbished and fitted with self-rising mechanisms that enable the seat to retract automatically once a patron stands up. Additionally, a new row of grandstand seats has been added to the back of grandstand sections 29, 30, and 31.
The concession stand behind home plate at the top of the grandstand has been replaced by new expanded stands. Also, seven original archways, first built in 1912 and bricked over for many years, were re-opened and restored, which will improve air circulation in that area of the ballpark.
The restrooms that previously resided in this location on the grandstand concourse have been removed; and new, larger restrooms with additional fixtures for both men and women have been constructed on a mezzanine area positioned above Gate D, and are accessible via a new staircase that connects to the top of grandstand Section 19 (behind home plate).
A new staircase has been constructed to provide improved access to/from the Gate A concourse and the lower third base concourse.
“We are entering the last inning of improvements to Fenway Park, and this old ballpark has never looked better,” said Red Sox President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “This American icon that once was cramped and congested now has more seats and spaces, wide open concourses, new and improved facilities and many more food and beverage options for our fans. Leading up to its 100th Anniversary in 2012, our focus has been always to improve and expand the physical structure without disturbing the warmth, charm and authenticity that surrounds this ballpark.”
This year, Aramark and the Red Sox will introduce several new menu items, including double cheeseburgers, grilled chicken bistro sandwiches, stromboli, and chicken parmesan and Italian meatball subs.
There will be an expanded and completely renovated concession area behind home plate, featuring a newly installed brick oven for cooking freshly made pizza.
Aramark has substantially expanded Fenway Park’s vegetarian menu and added more options for fans with special dietary considerations. A new veggie burger, veggie dog, and spinach and mozzarella stromboli will join the lineup of existing vegetarian options like assorted salads, pizza, vegetarian burritos, hummus and fresh fruit cups. A growing list of gluten free items will include kettle corn, cookies, chips, and crackers.
The selection of family-oriented combination value meals has also been expanded to include pizza & soda, chicken tenders & fries, burger & fries, and soup & a sandwich. Kid-friendly novelty items such as funnel cakes, slush puppy frozen drinks, and milkshakes have been added to the menu.
Additionally, along Yawkey Way, the Boston BBQ stand will now feature a new pulled BBQ beef sandwich served with fries, and chicken tenders.
Fenway Park has undergone a series of annual renovations since the ownership group led by John Henry and Tom Werner purchased the team in February 2002. Most visible among them, for the fans, are the additions of the Dugout Seats and Yawkey Way Concourse in 2002; Green Monster Seats in 2003; the Right Field Roof Seats in 2004; the creation of the 3rd Base Concourse and the opening of “Game On” in the space occupied by the former “Players” Club and the old bowling alley in 2005; the EMC Club and State Street Pavilion in 2006; the Jordan’s Third Base Deck in 2007; and an expansion of the State Street Pavilion seating with the addition of more than 800 new seats and the unveiling of the new Coca-Cola Corner in 2008. Another new addition in 2008 was “The Bleacher Bar,” a restaurant located under the center field bleachers that gives patrons a view of centerfield from a special two-way glass paneled retractable door that remains open year-round. The improvements in 2009 were highlighted by the Right Field Roof repair, expansion, and new seats; concrete repair and waterproofing of the original 1912 seating bowl and new seats; and repairs to the Jeano Building, including the replacement of its roof and restoration of the windows and doors.
It is anticipated that 2011 will be the final year of major, annual improvements to the ballpark, completing a 10-year cycle.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1243169
By Herald staff | Monday, March 29, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
From improved left field and third base side seats to renovated bathrooms and concession areas and new menu items, the owners of the Red Sox [team stats] unveiled offseason improvements to Fenway Park [map] today as the team prepares for Sunday night’s home opener against the Yankees.
The team is in the ninth year of a 10-year plan to upgrade the ballpark in advance of its 100th anniversary in 2012.
The 2010 Fenway Park changes include the following:
The concrete in the lower left field seating bowl, originally constructed in 1933-34, has been repaired and waterproofed. As part of this project, the dugout seats, field box seats and loge box seats have been replaced with new seats and now contain cup-holders. All dugout seats and field box seats in these areas will also have cushioned seats.
In the left field grandstand area, the original blue wooden seats (the only wooden seats left in Major League Baseball) have been refurbished and fitted with self-rising mechanisms that enable the seat to retract automatically once a patron stands up. Additionally, a new row of grandstand seats has been added to the back of grandstand sections 29, 30, and 31.
The concession stand behind home plate at the top of the grandstand has been replaced by new expanded stands. Also, seven original archways, first built in 1912 and bricked over for many years, were re-opened and restored, which will improve air circulation in that area of the ballpark.
The restrooms that previously resided in this location on the grandstand concourse have been removed; and new, larger restrooms with additional fixtures for both men and women have been constructed on a mezzanine area positioned above Gate D, and are accessible via a new staircase that connects to the top of grandstand Section 19 (behind home plate).
A new staircase has been constructed to provide improved access to/from the Gate A concourse and the lower third base concourse.
“We are entering the last inning of improvements to Fenway Park, and this old ballpark has never looked better,” said Red Sox President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “This American icon that once was cramped and congested now has more seats and spaces, wide open concourses, new and improved facilities and many more food and beverage options for our fans. Leading up to its 100th Anniversary in 2012, our focus has been always to improve and expand the physical structure without disturbing the warmth, charm and authenticity that surrounds this ballpark.”
This year, Aramark and the Red Sox will introduce several new menu items, including double cheeseburgers, grilled chicken bistro sandwiches, stromboli, and chicken parmesan and Italian meatball subs.
There will be an expanded and completely renovated concession area behind home plate, featuring a newly installed brick oven for cooking freshly made pizza.
Aramark has substantially expanded Fenway Park’s vegetarian menu and added more options for fans with special dietary considerations. A new veggie burger, veggie dog, and spinach and mozzarella stromboli will join the lineup of existing vegetarian options like assorted salads, pizza, vegetarian burritos, hummus and fresh fruit cups. A growing list of gluten free items will include kettle corn, cookies, chips, and crackers.
The selection of family-oriented combination value meals has also been expanded to include pizza & soda, chicken tenders & fries, burger & fries, and soup & a sandwich. Kid-friendly novelty items such as funnel cakes, slush puppy frozen drinks, and milkshakes have been added to the menu.
Additionally, along Yawkey Way, the Boston BBQ stand will now feature a new pulled BBQ beef sandwich served with fries, and chicken tenders.
Fenway Park has undergone a series of annual renovations since the ownership group led by John Henry and Tom Werner purchased the team in February 2002. Most visible among them, for the fans, are the additions of the Dugout Seats and Yawkey Way Concourse in 2002; Green Monster Seats in 2003; the Right Field Roof Seats in 2004; the creation of the 3rd Base Concourse and the opening of “Game On” in the space occupied by the former “Players” Club and the old bowling alley in 2005; the EMC Club and State Street Pavilion in 2006; the Jordan’s Third Base Deck in 2007; and an expansion of the State Street Pavilion seating with the addition of more than 800 new seats and the unveiling of the new Coca-Cola Corner in 2008. Another new addition in 2008 was “The Bleacher Bar,” a restaurant located under the center field bleachers that gives patrons a view of centerfield from a special two-way glass paneled retractable door that remains open year-round. The improvements in 2009 were highlighted by the Right Field Roof repair, expansion, and new seats; concrete repair and waterproofing of the original 1912 seating bowl and new seats; and repairs to the Jeano Building, including the replacement of its roof and restoration of the windows and doors.
It is anticipated that 2011 will be the final year of major, annual improvements to the ballpark, completing a 10-year cycle.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1243169
Aerosmith may play at Fenway this summer; European soccer in the works
European soccer would be awesome at Fenway and a big boost to the economy as soccer fans, like baseball fans travel to see their teams. - Adam
Boston.com
Get your wings, Aerosmith may be coming to Fenway...with the J. Geils Band
Posted by Mark Shanahan March 29, 2010 08:30 PM
We're told the folks at Fenway are this close to signing Aerosmith to play two shows at the ballpark this summer. That's right, just when it looked like Steven Tyler and Joe Perry might go on permanent vacation, the Boston band is in talks to rock this way, performing at Fenway Aug. 13 and 14. (Nothing is official and the dates could change.) What's more, we're told that the J. Geils Band would open both nights, pairing two of Boston's biggest and most influential bands. Talk about a house party. Aerosmith, which looked like it might be kaput just a few months ago, had already announced plans to play a string of shows in Europe and South America this summer. It was thought that piano men Elton John and Billy Joel might carry on the Fenway concert series this summer, but Joel has since said he's taking the year off from touring. Past performers at Fenway include Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, the Police, Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews, and Neil Diamond. Meanwhile, soccer fans may also be in for a treat at Fenway this summer. We're told the ballpark is negotiating to host a match between a couple of big-time European soccer clubs.
Boston.com
Get your wings, Aerosmith may be coming to Fenway...with the J. Geils Band
Posted by Mark Shanahan March 29, 2010 08:30 PM
We're told the folks at Fenway are this close to signing Aerosmith to play two shows at the ballpark this summer. That's right, just when it looked like Steven Tyler and Joe Perry might go on permanent vacation, the Boston band is in talks to rock this way, performing at Fenway Aug. 13 and 14. (Nothing is official and the dates could change.) What's more, we're told that the J. Geils Band would open both nights, pairing two of Boston's biggest and most influential bands. Talk about a house party. Aerosmith, which looked like it might be kaput just a few months ago, had already announced plans to play a string of shows in Europe and South America this summer. It was thought that piano men Elton John and Billy Joel might carry on the Fenway concert series this summer, but Joel has since said he's taking the year off from touring. Past performers at Fenway include Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, the Police, Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews, and Neil Diamond. Meanwhile, soccer fans may also be in for a treat at Fenway this summer. We're told the ballpark is negotiating to host a match between a couple of big-time European soccer clubs.
PAX conference to move to BCEC next year
As PAX closes, gamers await bigger ’11 venue
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | March 29, 2010
The PAX East gaming conference, which wrapped up yesterday, was the biggest event of its kind ever hosted in Boston, but many of those who crowded into the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center said the venue wasn’t big enough.
“I don’t think this convention center was designed for a show of this size,’’ a PAX spokesman, Kris Straub, said yesterday. “I’m glad, for one, that it’s moving to a bigger center next year,’’ he said, referring to a plan to hold the conference at the huge Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in 2011, and again in 2012.
Tens of thousands of video game and board game players swarmed through the Hynes over the weekend. They came to play, to party, and to check out new products from about 70 hardware and software companies. Precise attendance numbers were not released yesterday, but a PAX event held in September in Seattle attracted about 60,000 gamers.
“They could definitely use a bigger venue,’’ said Dan Teasdale, senior designer for Harmonix Music Systems Inc. About 400 PAX guests filled a conference room to hear Teasdale and four other Harmonix designers talk about how they created the Cambridge company’s popular Rock Band video games.
“I think the city is a little bit taken aback by how big this is,’’ said Curt Schilling, former Red Sox pitcher and cofounder of the video game design company 38 Studios LLC of Maynard. “I don’t think they were expecting this.’’
Schilling, an avid gamer, said he attended PAX East mainly to have fun, but also to recruit designers for his company, which plans to hire about 350 people over the next few years.
Fans were annoyed by the crowded conditions, but otherwise pleased with the conference.
“You need to wait in line for hours,’’ said bank teller Julianne Gendrano, 24, of Somerville, adding that she welcomed the chance to spend an entire weekend in the company of fellow gamers. “This is the only place we really have in New England to get together.’’
It was also a rare opportunity for little-known companies to show off their latest efforts.
Atomic Games Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., came to town seeking to revive an ill-fated game about the battle of Fallujah during the Iraq War. The game’s distributor pulled out of the project because of its controversial subject after Atomic had spent millions to develop war gaming technology. Atomic has redesigned the game as an apolitical shoot-’em-up called Breach, which it plans to sell via Internet downloads.
Atomic’s president, Peter Tamte, said he is hoping PAX gamers who tried Breach enjoyed it and will tell their friends. “The PAX show brings exactly the kinds of people who are influential,’’ Tamte said. “If they like it, they’ll go out and tell everybody about it.’’
A much smaller company, Dejobaan Games of Watertown, was also trying to spread the word about its oddly named game, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
“It’s a game about falling and not dying,’’ said developer Dan Brainerd. Players plunge down the sides of virtual tall buildings, avoiding obstacles as they fall.
“Thousands of people have played our game in the past three days,’’ Brainerd said. “We’re hoping to get a lot of sales out of this.’’
Adam Mersky, spokesman for Turbine Inc., of Westwood, was happy with the crowds. “Our booth’s been full all weekend,’’ he said. The company makes Lord of the Rings Online and other Web-based role-playing games. Turbine did not introduce products at the show. Instead, developers spent time with fans, to get ideas and build customer loyalty.
“We can’t wait for next year,’’ Mersky said.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | March 29, 2010
The PAX East gaming conference, which wrapped up yesterday, was the biggest event of its kind ever hosted in Boston, but many of those who crowded into the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center said the venue wasn’t big enough.
“I don’t think this convention center was designed for a show of this size,’’ a PAX spokesman, Kris Straub, said yesterday. “I’m glad, for one, that it’s moving to a bigger center next year,’’ he said, referring to a plan to hold the conference at the huge Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in 2011, and again in 2012.
Tens of thousands of video game and board game players swarmed through the Hynes over the weekend. They came to play, to party, and to check out new products from about 70 hardware and software companies. Precise attendance numbers were not released yesterday, but a PAX event held in September in Seattle attracted about 60,000 gamers.
“They could definitely use a bigger venue,’’ said Dan Teasdale, senior designer for Harmonix Music Systems Inc. About 400 PAX guests filled a conference room to hear Teasdale and four other Harmonix designers talk about how they created the Cambridge company’s popular Rock Band video games.
“I think the city is a little bit taken aback by how big this is,’’ said Curt Schilling, former Red Sox pitcher and cofounder of the video game design company 38 Studios LLC of Maynard. “I don’t think they were expecting this.’’
Schilling, an avid gamer, said he attended PAX East mainly to have fun, but also to recruit designers for his company, which plans to hire about 350 people over the next few years.
Fans were annoyed by the crowded conditions, but otherwise pleased with the conference.
“You need to wait in line for hours,’’ said bank teller Julianne Gendrano, 24, of Somerville, adding that she welcomed the chance to spend an entire weekend in the company of fellow gamers. “This is the only place we really have in New England to get together.’’
It was also a rare opportunity for little-known companies to show off their latest efforts.
Atomic Games Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., came to town seeking to revive an ill-fated game about the battle of Fallujah during the Iraq War. The game’s distributor pulled out of the project because of its controversial subject after Atomic had spent millions to develop war gaming technology. Atomic has redesigned the game as an apolitical shoot-’em-up called Breach, which it plans to sell via Internet downloads.
Atomic’s president, Peter Tamte, said he is hoping PAX gamers who tried Breach enjoyed it and will tell their friends. “The PAX show brings exactly the kinds of people who are influential,’’ Tamte said. “If they like it, they’ll go out and tell everybody about it.’’
A much smaller company, Dejobaan Games of Watertown, was also trying to spread the word about its oddly named game, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
“It’s a game about falling and not dying,’’ said developer Dan Brainerd. Players plunge down the sides of virtual tall buildings, avoiding obstacles as they fall.
“Thousands of people have played our game in the past three days,’’ Brainerd said. “We’re hoping to get a lot of sales out of this.’’
Adam Mersky, spokesman for Turbine Inc., of Westwood, was happy with the crowds. “Our booth’s been full all weekend,’’ he said. The company makes Lord of the Rings Online and other Web-based role-playing games. Turbine did not introduce products at the show. Instead, developers spent time with fans, to get ideas and build customer loyalty.
“We can’t wait for next year,’’ Mersky said.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Game-changing technology released at Hub convention
Chip to add another dimension to gaming
By Paul Restuccia | Saturday, March 27, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Technology Coverage
Photo by Matthew Healey
Playing off the huge success of the blockbuster film “Avatar,” computer graphics card maker Nvidia used a Hub convention to introduce game-changing technology that will allow PC users to play games in 3-D.
“We’ve created an entirely new architecture for the next generation of gaming,” Nvidia general manager Drew Henry said at yesterday’s opening of the three-day PAX East gamer gathering at the Hynes Convention Center.
As the audience took in the 3-D spectacle with special glasses, Henry hit the technical high points of the processor than runs the new GTX 480 card. It’s price tag is expected to top $600.
Nvidia and partners such as Electronic Arts hope 3-D will revitalize PC gaming, which has fallen in popularity due to consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation.
Gamers from around the country descended on the city for a show that sold out long before the doors opened. They scored sneak peeks at the newest games, including a mini-theater preview of the strategy game “Civilization 5.”
“It’s a chance to get together with 60,000 people who all share the same hobby as you do,” said Aaron LaCluyze, who came to the convention from Lansing, Mich., with his wife, Jennifer. “For us this feels like home.”
For Nvidia, which is trying to reclaim the graphics-card crown from rival ATI, the PAX show - one of the only big video-gaming conventions geared toward fans - was a natural choice.
“It’s the people at this convention who give us honest feedback and challenge us to come up with something new, different and exciting,” Henry said.
Attendees were able to use Nvidia’s technology to play current PC games in 3-D, and opinions ranged from the ecstatic to the wait-and-see.
“This is an interesting step forward in gaming, much like the new 3-D TVs,” said David Boudreau of Dover, N.H. “You’re able to get panoramic views, which really add another dimension to playing, especially if you’re in a first-person shooter (game).”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view.bg?articleid=1242654
Related Articles:
By Paul Restuccia | Saturday, March 27, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Technology Coverage
Photo by Matthew Healey
Playing off the huge success of the blockbuster film “Avatar,” computer graphics card maker Nvidia used a Hub convention to introduce game-changing technology that will allow PC users to play games in 3-D.
“We’ve created an entirely new architecture for the next generation of gaming,” Nvidia general manager Drew Henry said at yesterday’s opening of the three-day PAX East gamer gathering at the Hynes Convention Center.
As the audience took in the 3-D spectacle with special glasses, Henry hit the technical high points of the processor than runs the new GTX 480 card. It’s price tag is expected to top $600.
Nvidia and partners such as Electronic Arts hope 3-D will revitalize PC gaming, which has fallen in popularity due to consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation.
Gamers from around the country descended on the city for a show that sold out long before the doors opened. They scored sneak peeks at the newest games, including a mini-theater preview of the strategy game “Civilization 5.”
“It’s a chance to get together with 60,000 people who all share the same hobby as you do,” said Aaron LaCluyze, who came to the convention from Lansing, Mich., with his wife, Jennifer. “For us this feels like home.”
For Nvidia, which is trying to reclaim the graphics-card crown from rival ATI, the PAX show - one of the only big video-gaming conventions geared toward fans - was a natural choice.
“It’s the people at this convention who give us honest feedback and challenge us to come up with something new, different and exciting,” Henry said.
Attendees were able to use Nvidia’s technology to play current PC games in 3-D, and opinions ranged from the ecstatic to the wait-and-see.
“This is an interesting step forward in gaming, much like the new 3-D TVs,” said David Boudreau of Dover, N.H. “You’re able to get panoramic views, which really add another dimension to playing, especially if you’re in a first-person shooter (game).”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view.bg?articleid=1242654
Related Articles:
Sheraton Boston to go dark to celebrate Earth Hour
The Ticker
By Staff and wire reports | Saturday, March 27, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Going dark
The Boston skyline will be absent one of its iconic signs today when the Sheraton Boston sign goes dark for an hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. in observance of Earth Hour, a global event organized by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about climate change.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1242655
By Staff and wire reports | Saturday, March 27, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Going dark
The Boston skyline will be absent one of its iconic signs today when the Sheraton Boston sign goes dark for an hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. in observance of Earth Hour, a global event organized by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about climate change.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1242655
Friday, March 26, 2010
Rocca gets "Top Chef" constestant as new head chef; Noche to open in South End
Bravo! South End gets ‘Top Chef’
Also, menus really light up at Da Vinci
By Donna Goodison / Turning the Tables | Friday, March 26, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Fans of Bravo’s “Top Chef” can now catch one of its stars in action in Boston’s South End.
Four years after finishing as runner-up in the reality show’s first season, Tiffani Faison has landed the executive chef position at Rocca Kitchen & Bar.
The new gig is another step in what Faison - who went on to win Bravo’s “4 Star All Stars” and a holiday special in 2007 - considers a still-ongoing journey to becoming a real top chef.
“The show was an incredible opportunity for exposure,” Faison said. “But the one thing that was really clear to me after it was that just being on television didn’t make me the chef I really wanted to be. I have been taking time to learn things that I needed to learn. It’s a constant process, and I don’t think I’ve arrived yet.”
Since “Top Chef,” Faison has worked at Nantucket’s Straight Wharf as an interim executive chef for former mentor Todd English, as the private chef for actor Will Smith and with Culinary Edge, a San Francisco consulting firm.
Most recently a sous chef for O Ya in Boston, Faison plans to showcase the bounty of Italy’s Ligurian coast with a revamped Rocca menu by May.
“It’s known for its seafood, just as New England is known for its seafood,” she said. “There are obvious parallels that we’re going to make very strong on the menu.”
The new menu will include a vegetable antipasti and small bites section, salads and a large selection of pasta made in-house, and entrees that are heavily skewed to seafood.
Dishes will include scallop crudo with grapefruit, olive oil “bubbles” and chives, and gnocchi di mare with charred lobster, uni and guanciale.
“We’re definitely going to beef up the program,” Faison said, adding that she plans to offer pizzette and takeout ice cream.
Rocca co-owner Michela Larson’s knowledge of the restaurant business was a big attraction for the 32-year-old Faison, she said.
“She really understands it from the top down,” she said. “In terms of partnering up with people and working on projects, I’ve been really careful. People have been coming out of the woodwork and offering what seem like really lovely things, but you have to vet them and make sure they’re people you want to work with.”
#
#
#
It’s kind of a pet peeve: At restaurants where it’s too dark to read the menu, you either have to hold it up to the small candle on the table or illuminate it with your cell phone.
But Da Vinci Ristorante in Boston has reconciled how to keep the lights dim for a romantic atmosphere and allow customers to order without a struggle - thanks to Florida’s Menu Designs.
Its new menus are backlit with LED lights in rechargeable covers that turn on when opened.
At $200 a pop, the 65 menus didn’t come cheap, but Da Vinci owner Wioletta Zywina believes they’re a great investment. “When we bring people the menu, we don’t tell them about it,” she said. “And when they open them, their reaction is, ‘This is great!’ Every table I walk by, they talk about the menus for a few minutes before they order.”
#
#
#
The difference between Noche and Icarus is like night and day.
Boston Nightlife Ventures plans a May 1 debut for Noche, a South End restaurant and lounge that’ll cater to late-nighters with a full new American menu until midnight and bar food until 1:30 a.m.
Noche is taking shape at the Appleton Street address that was home to Icarus for 31 years before it closed last July. The space was gutted for a $700,000 build-out.
Decked out in white contrasted with dark mahogany woodwork and accented with funky lighting and glass partition walls, it’s a look that Boston designer Stephen Sousa describes as a “contemporary urban oasis.”
The chef will be Reginald Collier, who comes to Boston by way of Disney’s corporate training and restaurants in Miami’s South Beach.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1242430
Also, menus really light up at Da Vinci
By Donna Goodison / Turning the Tables | Friday, March 26, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Fans of Bravo’s “Top Chef” can now catch one of its stars in action in Boston’s South End.
Four years after finishing as runner-up in the reality show’s first season, Tiffani Faison has landed the executive chef position at Rocca Kitchen & Bar.
The new gig is another step in what Faison - who went on to win Bravo’s “4 Star All Stars” and a holiday special in 2007 - considers a still-ongoing journey to becoming a real top chef.
“The show was an incredible opportunity for exposure,” Faison said. “But the one thing that was really clear to me after it was that just being on television didn’t make me the chef I really wanted to be. I have been taking time to learn things that I needed to learn. It’s a constant process, and I don’t think I’ve arrived yet.”
Since “Top Chef,” Faison has worked at Nantucket’s Straight Wharf as an interim executive chef for former mentor Todd English, as the private chef for actor Will Smith and with Culinary Edge, a San Francisco consulting firm.
Most recently a sous chef for O Ya in Boston, Faison plans to showcase the bounty of Italy’s Ligurian coast with a revamped Rocca menu by May.
“It’s known for its seafood, just as New England is known for its seafood,” she said. “There are obvious parallels that we’re going to make very strong on the menu.”
The new menu will include a vegetable antipasti and small bites section, salads and a large selection of pasta made in-house, and entrees that are heavily skewed to seafood.
Dishes will include scallop crudo with grapefruit, olive oil “bubbles” and chives, and gnocchi di mare with charred lobster, uni and guanciale.
“We’re definitely going to beef up the program,” Faison said, adding that she plans to offer pizzette and takeout ice cream.
Rocca co-owner Michela Larson’s knowledge of the restaurant business was a big attraction for the 32-year-old Faison, she said.
“She really understands it from the top down,” she said. “In terms of partnering up with people and working on projects, I’ve been really careful. People have been coming out of the woodwork and offering what seem like really lovely things, but you have to vet them and make sure they’re people you want to work with.”
#
#
#
It’s kind of a pet peeve: At restaurants where it’s too dark to read the menu, you either have to hold it up to the small candle on the table or illuminate it with your cell phone.
But Da Vinci Ristorante in Boston has reconciled how to keep the lights dim for a romantic atmosphere and allow customers to order without a struggle - thanks to Florida’s Menu Designs.
Its new menus are backlit with LED lights in rechargeable covers that turn on when opened.
At $200 a pop, the 65 menus didn’t come cheap, but Da Vinci owner Wioletta Zywina believes they’re a great investment. “When we bring people the menu, we don’t tell them about it,” she said. “And when they open them, their reaction is, ‘This is great!’ Every table I walk by, they talk about the menus for a few minutes before they order.”
#
#
#
The difference between Noche and Icarus is like night and day.
Boston Nightlife Ventures plans a May 1 debut for Noche, a South End restaurant and lounge that’ll cater to late-nighters with a full new American menu until midnight and bar food until 1:30 a.m.
Noche is taking shape at the Appleton Street address that was home to Icarus for 31 years before it closed last July. The space was gutted for a $700,000 build-out.
Decked out in white contrasted with dark mahogany woodwork and accented with funky lighting and glass partition walls, it’s a look that Boston designer Stephen Sousa describes as a “contemporary urban oasis.”
The chef will be Reginald Collier, who comes to Boston by way of Disney’s corporate training and restaurants in Miami’s South Beach.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1242430
Bombay Club review
Bombay Club joins flavor, location
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, March 26, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews
BOMBAY CLUB: B
When the history of Boston dining is written, Vinod and Shikha Kapoor will be prominently mentioned. The couple was instrumental in the popularization of Indian food in the Hub.
He managed a shoe store and she was a bank teller. They borrowed money from a relative and went into the restaurant biz in 1980 with the legendary Kebab-N-Kurry in the Back Bay. In 1991, they opened Bombay Club in Harvard Square - the area’s first upscale Indian eatery and the first to introduce Bostonians to Indian regional cuisines.
Multiple restaurants later (including critically acclaimed Masala Art in Needham), the Kapoors have relocated Bombay Club to the South End. The chef is Sridhar Periyasamy, from Bukhara restaurant at the toney ITC Maurya Hotel in New Delhi.
The menu is unnecessarily confusing to navigate (condiments such as raita, mango chutney and pickles aren’t even listed) but the fare is fab.
It features such delectably unusual items as fried spinach and cheese rolls ($6.50) of chopped spinach and chilies, wrapped in paneer cheese, and Bikaneri kebabs ($6.50) - pleasantly camphoric patties of mashed green beans, carrots, potatoes and peas, reminiscent of falafel.
Tandoori chicken tacos ($8) are Tostitos Scoops filled with minced tandoori chicken. You’ll enjoy the crunch and mild chili sting even if the attempt at cross-cultural fusion may have you rolling your eyes.
Periyasamy doesn’t need to resort to such gimmickry. His cooking is deftly delicious.
Try his gobhi gulistan ($15). It’s a head of steamed cauliflower bathed in a pale green sauce of yogurt, mint and cilantro and garnished with slivered almonds.
Shrimp patia ($19) is a Parsee (Persian) preparation of sauteed shrimp and strips of eggplant in spicy-sweet tomato sauce studded with julienned ginger. Sop up the sauce with fresh-baked garlic and cilantro naan ($3.25)
Order the Hyderabadi lamb biryani ($15), ofyogurt-marinated lamb steamed with basmati rice, cardamom, cinnamon and curry leaf. Our Hyderabadi waiter swears it’s fit for a Nizam - the former dynastic ruler of his homeland.
Bukhara restaurant in Delhi is famous for its tandoori grilled kebabs, served without cutlery to encourage guests to eat with their fingers.
At Bombay Club, you’re allowed to use a fork and knife to enjoy ajwaini chicken kebabs ($14). They’re marinated in yogurt with ajwain (carom) seeds, which impart a distinctive herbaceousness to the tender meat.
Baked stuffed zucchini ($18) filled with cheese and lentils rest on a savory potato pancake surrounded by creamy tomato sauce and pieces of charred, grilled eggplant and carrot. It’s a vegetarian delight.
Vegetarians will also enjoy lychee paneer ($14) - chunks of homemade cheese and fruity lychees simmered in sweet and spicy red curry.
The rawa dosa platter ($15) features a trio of South Indian snacks: lacy rawa (semolina) crepes rolled around potatoes, vada fried lentil and peppercorn fritters and idli rice cakes. Dip them into savory sambar lentil soup and tomato and mint-coconut chutneys.
Bombay Club’s wine and spirits program is, unquestionably, the best of any Indian restaurant in town. With cool cocktails like a mango-rum yogurt lassi ($9) and food-friendly vinos like a 2008 Yalumba Viognier ($27). A zippy, draft Harpoon Ginger Wheat ($7) was seemingly brewed for Indian cuisine.
Desserts are ultra-sweet, as preferred on the subcontinent. Among them:Gulab jamun ($6) milk dumplings in sticky rose water syrup and cardamom scented badjami kheer ($6) rice pudding.
The wait staff is nice and knowledgeable. The Kapoors stop by every table to say hello.
Bombay Club takes over the old Pho Republique space on Washington Street across from the Cathedral. A much-needed paint job has lightened up the perpetually dark room but Pho’s ornate bar, funky lamps and iconic gong remain.
1415 Washington St. (South End);
617-247-2500; bombayclub.com.
Price: $20-$40
Hours: Lunch, daily, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Dinner, daily, 5 p.m.-midnight.
Bar: Full
Credit: All
Recession Specials: No
Accessibility: Accessible
Parking: On street
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/reviews/view.bg?articleid=1242374
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, March 26, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews
BOMBAY CLUB: B
When the history of Boston dining is written, Vinod and Shikha Kapoor will be prominently mentioned. The couple was instrumental in the popularization of Indian food in the Hub.
He managed a shoe store and she was a bank teller. They borrowed money from a relative and went into the restaurant biz in 1980 with the legendary Kebab-N-Kurry in the Back Bay. In 1991, they opened Bombay Club in Harvard Square - the area’s first upscale Indian eatery and the first to introduce Bostonians to Indian regional cuisines.
Multiple restaurants later (including critically acclaimed Masala Art in Needham), the Kapoors have relocated Bombay Club to the South End. The chef is Sridhar Periyasamy, from Bukhara restaurant at the toney ITC Maurya Hotel in New Delhi.
The menu is unnecessarily confusing to navigate (condiments such as raita, mango chutney and pickles aren’t even listed) but the fare is fab.
It features such delectably unusual items as fried spinach and cheese rolls ($6.50) of chopped spinach and chilies, wrapped in paneer cheese, and Bikaneri kebabs ($6.50) - pleasantly camphoric patties of mashed green beans, carrots, potatoes and peas, reminiscent of falafel.
Tandoori chicken tacos ($8) are Tostitos Scoops filled with minced tandoori chicken. You’ll enjoy the crunch and mild chili sting even if the attempt at cross-cultural fusion may have you rolling your eyes.
Periyasamy doesn’t need to resort to such gimmickry. His cooking is deftly delicious.
Try his gobhi gulistan ($15). It’s a head of steamed cauliflower bathed in a pale green sauce of yogurt, mint and cilantro and garnished with slivered almonds.
Shrimp patia ($19) is a Parsee (Persian) preparation of sauteed shrimp and strips of eggplant in spicy-sweet tomato sauce studded with julienned ginger. Sop up the sauce with fresh-baked garlic and cilantro naan ($3.25)
Order the Hyderabadi lamb biryani ($15), ofyogurt-marinated lamb steamed with basmati rice, cardamom, cinnamon and curry leaf. Our Hyderabadi waiter swears it’s fit for a Nizam - the former dynastic ruler of his homeland.
Bukhara restaurant in Delhi is famous for its tandoori grilled kebabs, served without cutlery to encourage guests to eat with their fingers.
At Bombay Club, you’re allowed to use a fork and knife to enjoy ajwaini chicken kebabs ($14). They’re marinated in yogurt with ajwain (carom) seeds, which impart a distinctive herbaceousness to the tender meat.
Baked stuffed zucchini ($18) filled with cheese and lentils rest on a savory potato pancake surrounded by creamy tomato sauce and pieces of charred, grilled eggplant and carrot. It’s a vegetarian delight.
Vegetarians will also enjoy lychee paneer ($14) - chunks of homemade cheese and fruity lychees simmered in sweet and spicy red curry.
The rawa dosa platter ($15) features a trio of South Indian snacks: lacy rawa (semolina) crepes rolled around potatoes, vada fried lentil and peppercorn fritters and idli rice cakes. Dip them into savory sambar lentil soup and tomato and mint-coconut chutneys.
Bombay Club’s wine and spirits program is, unquestionably, the best of any Indian restaurant in town. With cool cocktails like a mango-rum yogurt lassi ($9) and food-friendly vinos like a 2008 Yalumba Viognier ($27). A zippy, draft Harpoon Ginger Wheat ($7) was seemingly brewed for Indian cuisine.
Desserts are ultra-sweet, as preferred on the subcontinent. Among them:Gulab jamun ($6) milk dumplings in sticky rose water syrup and cardamom scented badjami kheer ($6) rice pudding.
The wait staff is nice and knowledgeable. The Kapoors stop by every table to say hello.
Bombay Club takes over the old Pho Republique space on Washington Street across from the Cathedral. A much-needed paint job has lightened up the perpetually dark room but Pho’s ornate bar, funky lamps and iconic gong remain.
1415 Washington St. (South End);
617-247-2500; bombayclub.com.
Price: $20-$40
Hours: Lunch, daily, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Dinner, daily, 5 p.m.-midnight.
Bar: Full
Credit: All
Recession Specials: No
Accessibility: Accessible
Parking: On street
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/reviews/view.bg?articleid=1242374
Wideo-gaming conference one of largest ever at Hynes
Video game culture, lifestyle take center stage in Boston
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | March 26, 2010
Tens of thousands of video gamers, from Greater Boston and every corner of the United States, will flood the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center this weekend for PAX East, the first Boston edition of a wildly popular West Coast gaming convention. Founded in 2004 by a pair of Seattle-area comic strip artists, PAX is a three-day festival that celebrates the culture and lifestyle of hard-core gaming.
And not just the video versions. Besides the souped-up PC computers and game consoles, PAX East will make room for tabletop strategy fans and role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.
The convention features displays and demonstrations from technology giants like Microsoft Corp., Nintendo Co., Intel Corp., and Electronic Arts Inc. Game buffs will get free access to hundreds of consoles and high-powered PCs to hone their skills and battle newfound friends. They will also attend dozens of mini-conferences where leading game developers will discuss their newest projects and debate the state of the industry.
Last year’s Seattle gathering attracted 60,000 fans, and James Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, said this weekend’s fes tival could attract just as many. “I’m guessing it’s the largest show we’ve ever had at the Hynes,’’ Rooney said. “It’s definitely top five.’’
Mac Daniel, authority spokesman, said PAX East organizers chose the Hynes over the larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for its central location, with easy access to hotels and restaurants. “If it keeps on growing and it proves to be a successful event,’’ said Daniel, “they’ll have to think about moving to the BCEC.’’
PAX East has signed contracts to return to Boston in 2011 and 2012, and talks are underway about 2013.
Kris Straub, PAX East spokesman, said that when founders Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik decided to hold an East Coast event, they considered several locales, including New York. “Boston felt right because it had a sort of college-town vibe,’’ Straub said. “The youth culture in Boston felt like Seattle.’’
Straub said that Massachusetts’ rising profile as a hub for video game development also appealed to the organizers.
According to a 2009 survey by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, the state’s video game makers take in $2 billion in revenue per year. The state boasts big-name companies like Harmonix Music Systems Inc. in Cambridge, inventors of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, and Turbine Inc. of Westwood, maker of Lord of the Rings Online, as well as a host of smaller development houses.
In addition, Massachusetts has become a center for academic training in video game design. The Princeton Review last month listed the nation’s eight best colleges for video game training, and three are here: Becker College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, both in Worcester, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge.
Whatever the reason for bringing PAX to Boston, gamers are delighted.
“This is a huge event for Boston and presents a unique economic opportunity for the city,’’ said Peter Gray, 26, an information technology worker from Boston’s North End who plans to spend all weekend at the festival. “It also puts the strong nerd subculture in Boston to the forefront.’’
Video game tester Brandy Schaffer, 25, moved to Seattle last year. But she missed that city’s PAX event in September, and didn’t want to wait six months for the next one, so she has flown to Boston for the festivities. “I’m here in Boston with lots of my friends from the Seattle area,’’ Schaffer said. “PAX East also means I can see some of my friends from the East Coast.’’
PAX East is also a major business opportunity. Nvidia Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif., a leading maker of graphics processors for expensive gaming computers, will unveil new products at the convention. “If you’re in the gaming world, right now everybody’s looking at Boston and PAX,’’ said Rob Csongor, Nvidia’s vice president of corporate marketing.
Turbine will use the opportunity to get feedback from fans of its online role-playing games.
“There’s some people who don’t like a certain feature of the game and want to talk about it,’’ said Adam Mersky, spokesman for Turbine. “A lot of people show up in costume. We have people bring their children.’’ About 250 Turbine employees will attend, Mersky said.
“We’re a small studio that has a real problem getting visibility outside of Boston,’’ said Eitan Glinert, president of Fire Hose Games Inc., of Cambridge. Glinert’s company is about to introduce its first game, Slam Bolt Scrappers, and he is hoping for useful feedback from PAX East visitors. “We’re a little bit excited and a little bit nervous,’’ he said.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | March 26, 2010
Tens of thousands of video gamers, from Greater Boston and every corner of the United States, will flood the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center this weekend for PAX East, the first Boston edition of a wildly popular West Coast gaming convention. Founded in 2004 by a pair of Seattle-area comic strip artists, PAX is a three-day festival that celebrates the culture and lifestyle of hard-core gaming.
And not just the video versions. Besides the souped-up PC computers and game consoles, PAX East will make room for tabletop strategy fans and role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.
The convention features displays and demonstrations from technology giants like Microsoft Corp., Nintendo Co., Intel Corp., and Electronic Arts Inc. Game buffs will get free access to hundreds of consoles and high-powered PCs to hone their skills and battle newfound friends. They will also attend dozens of mini-conferences where leading game developers will discuss their newest projects and debate the state of the industry.
Last year’s Seattle gathering attracted 60,000 fans, and James Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, said this weekend’s fes tival could attract just as many. “I’m guessing it’s the largest show we’ve ever had at the Hynes,’’ Rooney said. “It’s definitely top five.’’
Mac Daniel, authority spokesman, said PAX East organizers chose the Hynes over the larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for its central location, with easy access to hotels and restaurants. “If it keeps on growing and it proves to be a successful event,’’ said Daniel, “they’ll have to think about moving to the BCEC.’’
PAX East has signed contracts to return to Boston in 2011 and 2012, and talks are underway about 2013.
Kris Straub, PAX East spokesman, said that when founders Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik decided to hold an East Coast event, they considered several locales, including New York. “Boston felt right because it had a sort of college-town vibe,’’ Straub said. “The youth culture in Boston felt like Seattle.’’
Straub said that Massachusetts’ rising profile as a hub for video game development also appealed to the organizers.
According to a 2009 survey by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, the state’s video game makers take in $2 billion in revenue per year. The state boasts big-name companies like Harmonix Music Systems Inc. in Cambridge, inventors of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, and Turbine Inc. of Westwood, maker of Lord of the Rings Online, as well as a host of smaller development houses.
In addition, Massachusetts has become a center for academic training in video game design. The Princeton Review last month listed the nation’s eight best colleges for video game training, and three are here: Becker College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, both in Worcester, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge.
Whatever the reason for bringing PAX to Boston, gamers are delighted.
“This is a huge event for Boston and presents a unique economic opportunity for the city,’’ said Peter Gray, 26, an information technology worker from Boston’s North End who plans to spend all weekend at the festival. “It also puts the strong nerd subculture in Boston to the forefront.’’
Video game tester Brandy Schaffer, 25, moved to Seattle last year. But she missed that city’s PAX event in September, and didn’t want to wait six months for the next one, so she has flown to Boston for the festivities. “I’m here in Boston with lots of my friends from the Seattle area,’’ Schaffer said. “PAX East also means I can see some of my friends from the East Coast.’’
PAX East is also a major business opportunity. Nvidia Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif., a leading maker of graphics processors for expensive gaming computers, will unveil new products at the convention. “If you’re in the gaming world, right now everybody’s looking at Boston and PAX,’’ said Rob Csongor, Nvidia’s vice president of corporate marketing.
Turbine will use the opportunity to get feedback from fans of its online role-playing games.
“There’s some people who don’t like a certain feature of the game and want to talk about it,’’ said Adam Mersky, spokesman for Turbine. “A lot of people show up in costume. We have people bring their children.’’ About 250 Turbine employees will attend, Mersky said.
“We’re a small studio that has a real problem getting visibility outside of Boston,’’ said Eitan Glinert, president of Fire Hose Games Inc., of Cambridge. Glinert’s company is about to introduce its first game, Slam Bolt Scrappers, and he is hoping for useful feedback from PAX East visitors. “We’re a little bit excited and a little bit nervous,’’ he said.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Video-Gaming convention to bring 60,000 to hub
Convention to draw 60,000 fans, yield $20M for Hub
Biggest game in town
By Paul Restuccia | Friday, March 26, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Boston’s latest convention hasn’t even opened yet, but it’s already being called a huge success that will pump nearly $20 million into the local economy.
The Penny Arcade company’s PAX East video-gaming convention, which starts today at the Hynes Convention Center, was expected to draw 30,000 people, but quickly sold out 60,000 spots to gaming enthusiasts. More than 12,000 hotel rooms in 11 Hub hotels have been booked for the three-day event.
“This show’s packing a powerful whallop, considering this is the first time it’s been held here in Boston,” said Pat Moscaritolo, chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, who estimates that PAX East will bring $16 million to $19 million into the local economy. “This is great news for our tourism industry, like Christmas in March.”
The popular show, which is contracted to be in the Hub for three years, is expected to move from the Hynes to the larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center next year.
Not bad for a convention developed by two Web video-gaming cartoonists that attracted just 4,500 to its first show in Seattle in 2004. Attendance has doubled every year since, and the event now draws some 70,000 gaming geeks to Seattle over Labor Day weekend every year.
Penny Arcade Inc. picked Boston over other Eastern cities to be the site of its first East Coast exhibition.
“We looked at New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, but Boston made the most compelling case as the best city,” said Robert Khoo, PAX East’s business development head and show director. “It’s a city with a lot of young people and lots of creative energy in video gaming.”
Khoo said Greater Boston boasts major video-game makers - such as Harmonix, maker of “Rock Band,” 2K Boston, creator of “Bioshock” and Turbine, which created “Lord of the Rings Online” and “Dungeons & Dragons Online.” Also, he said, the area has the Gambit Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and scores of indie game developers who will have their own showcase at the convention.
“This show is going to be a great chance to connect with all our fans right here in our own back yard,” said Adam Mersky, director of communications for Turbine, which will send 250 of its 320 Massachusetts employees to man its 1,000-square-foot show booth. “PAX is unique in that its focus is on players rather than industry types.”
Jason Schupbach, creative economy director for the Bay State, who helped PAX East set up shop here, said landing the convention shows the state’s growing importance in creating games.
“This is a huge opportunity for the Massachusetts video-game industry to raise its flag,” he said.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1242424
Biggest game in town
By Paul Restuccia | Friday, March 26, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Boston’s latest convention hasn’t even opened yet, but it’s already being called a huge success that will pump nearly $20 million into the local economy.
The Penny Arcade company’s PAX East video-gaming convention, which starts today at the Hynes Convention Center, was expected to draw 30,000 people, but quickly sold out 60,000 spots to gaming enthusiasts. More than 12,000 hotel rooms in 11 Hub hotels have been booked for the three-day event.
“This show’s packing a powerful whallop, considering this is the first time it’s been held here in Boston,” said Pat Moscaritolo, chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, who estimates that PAX East will bring $16 million to $19 million into the local economy. “This is great news for our tourism industry, like Christmas in March.”
The popular show, which is contracted to be in the Hub for three years, is expected to move from the Hynes to the larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center next year.
Not bad for a convention developed by two Web video-gaming cartoonists that attracted just 4,500 to its first show in Seattle in 2004. Attendance has doubled every year since, and the event now draws some 70,000 gaming geeks to Seattle over Labor Day weekend every year.
Penny Arcade Inc. picked Boston over other Eastern cities to be the site of its first East Coast exhibition.
“We looked at New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, but Boston made the most compelling case as the best city,” said Robert Khoo, PAX East’s business development head and show director. “It’s a city with a lot of young people and lots of creative energy in video gaming.”
Khoo said Greater Boston boasts major video-game makers - such as Harmonix, maker of “Rock Band,” 2K Boston, creator of “Bioshock” and Turbine, which created “Lord of the Rings Online” and “Dungeons & Dragons Online.” Also, he said, the area has the Gambit Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and scores of indie game developers who will have their own showcase at the convention.
“This show is going to be a great chance to connect with all our fans right here in our own back yard,” said Adam Mersky, director of communications for Turbine, which will send 250 of its 320 Massachusetts employees to man its 1,000-square-foot show booth. “PAX is unique in that its focus is on players rather than industry types.”
Jason Schupbach, creative economy director for the Bay State, who helped PAX East set up shop here, said landing the convention shows the state’s growing importance in creating games.
“This is a huge opportunity for the Massachusetts video-game industry to raise its flag,” he said.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1242424
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
New Barbara Lynch Restaurant to open April 3
Boston Restaurant Talk
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Barbara Lynch's Menton to Open in Boston's Fort Point Neighborhood
Award-winning chef Barbara Lynch is getting ready to open her latest restaurant, with this one being a high-end spot in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston. The restaurant, which will be called Menton, will be located on Congress Street in the same building that houses two of her other dining and drinking establishments--Sportello and Drink. According to the restaurant's website, Menton is looking to open on Saturday, April 3.
Menton will feature what looks to be a mix of French, Italian, and Mediterranean cuisine, with a four-course prix fixe meal costing $95 and a seven-course chef's tasting being $145. According to an article in the Boston Globe, the menu at Menton will probably change each week.
The address for this soon-to-open restaurant in the Fort Point district will be: Menton, 354 Congress Street, Boston, MA, 02210. The phone number will be (617) 737-0099. And the website can be found at: http://www.mentonboston.com/
For more information on Menton, please go to the Boston Globe link below:
Menton open for reservations
posted by Marc at 9:42 AM |
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Barbara Lynch's Menton to Open in Boston's Fort Point Neighborhood
Award-winning chef Barbara Lynch is getting ready to open her latest restaurant, with this one being a high-end spot in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston. The restaurant, which will be called Menton, will be located on Congress Street in the same building that houses two of her other dining and drinking establishments--Sportello and Drink. According to the restaurant's website, Menton is looking to open on Saturday, April 3.
Menton will feature what looks to be a mix of French, Italian, and Mediterranean cuisine, with a four-course prix fixe meal costing $95 and a seven-course chef's tasting being $145. According to an article in the Boston Globe, the menu at Menton will probably change each week.
The address for this soon-to-open restaurant in the Fort Point district will be: Menton, 354 Congress Street, Boston, MA, 02210. The phone number will be (617) 737-0099. And the website can be found at: http://www.mentonboston.com/
For more information on Menton, please go to the Boston Globe link below:
Menton open for reservations
posted by Marc at 9:42 AM |
Restaurant week review
DINING OUT
Where’s the generosity?
One of the attractions of Restaurant Week seems in irregular supply, and if the hosts skimp on creativity, too, you leave wondering what was special
By Devra First, Globe Staff | March 24, 2010
Restaurant Week (noun): 1. A twice-annual, two-week event featuring specially priced prix fixe menus: two-course lunches for $15.10, three-course lunches for $20.10, and three-course dinners for $33.10. 2. The Mason-Dixon line of restaurant-goers. Among those who like to eat out, few subjects divide so clearly. People either love it or they don’t.
The pro camp loves Restaurant Week for its value. It gets them to go out and try new places, places they’ve always wanted to go, places they can’t always afford. The con camp boycotts the event. It’s a mill, they argue: The restaurants bring you in and push you out as quickly as they can to maximize turnover and profits. The food is inferior, the menus limited.
Over the years, I’ve mostly fallen into the “avoid’’ camp. My perceptions of Restaurant Week largely date to its early years — the event kicked off in Boston in 2001. The local dining scene has changed just a little bit since then. Is Restaurant Week worth it? I wanted to find a current answer to that question.
To that end, I consumed a week’s worth of $33.10 dinners — six in total, as many places don’t offer the deal on Saturdays. I ate at varied restaurants in varied parts of town. Some were places I’d visit on my own. Others were places I’d probably never go. What did I find? Restaurant Week is worth it. Sometimes. In short, it’s a lot like eating out the rest of the year.
Meal No. 1: Mamma Maria
This romantic, two-story restaurant is like the North End version of the former L’Espalier. We’re seated in a porch-like side room that features bird murals on the wall and views of the rainy street. Because Mamma Maria’s Restaurant Week menu was not online, we have no idea what we’ll be eating. Presented with the menus, we are excited. All of Mamma Maria’s best dishes are here: The osso buco! The pappardelle with rabbit! Then we notice the tiny asterisks next to the dishes available at Restaurant Week prices: four appetizers, five entrees, and two desserts. No osso buco. No pappardelle.
Appetizers appear immediately. Arugula salad features red onions, a shower of hard cheese in fat shreds that appear pre-grated, and about two tangerine segments. It’s far from thrilling. A salumi plate features good, thin-sliced cold cuts in the prosciutto-and-salami vein.
Second courses are slower to arrive. There is an entire forest’s worth of fungi on the mushroom ravioli plate, but the pasta is gummy. Wild game agnolotti are more exciting, though “wild game’’ is used loosely. The dumplings are filled with oxtail, free-range wild boar, and lamb.
For dessert, pear tart is a giant mound of puff pastry that feels more like Vienna than Italy. Panna cotta has a bit too much gelatin, making it more stiff than wobbly, but it has good coffee flavor.
Mamma Maria’s Restaurant Week is worth it, if you’re in it for atmosphere. Your $33 includes a healthy serving of romantic decor and views. When it comes to food, I’d just as soon go a la carte and order fewer dishes.
Meal No. 2: B&G Oysters
The South End seafood spot is packed with neighborhood residents and budding captains of industry slurping up platters of oysters. Are we the only ones here for Restaurant Week?
If so, there are reasons. B&G isn’t about fine dining — it’s about a seat at the bar, a glass of wine, some super-fresh bivalves, maybe a lobster roll shared with a friend. Three courses aren’t a matter of course here. And they’re not a good deal: Restaurant Week choices are few, and portions are small (owner Barbara Lynch isn’t exactly known for gargantuan servings).
This menu, too, is not available online before we arrive, and again we’re presented with the regular menu. Restaurant Week is beginning to seem like a gambit, getting people in the door, then tempting them with better offerings. If we stick to the special menu, we won’t be having any oysters at B&G Oysters. Inevitably, we are tempted to order them a la carte. In a city full of oyster deals, you might think a place specializing in them would get in on the action.
Instead, for a first course, we’ve got a choice between black trumpet mushroom arancini and lobster bisque. The rice balls are overfried and need seasoning. When the bisque arrives, it’s very good, but it’s hard not to laugh: The tiny bowl is half full. I wonder what these dishes — made mainly from rice and available lobster parts — cost to make.
It’s possible to be frugal without seeming so. With the first course, B&G does not succeed.
The second course features swordfish saltimbocca and seafood gnocchi. The swordfish is a small piece, about the size of a deck of cards — a restaurant that actually follows dietary guidelines. It’s wrapped in prosciutto with sage leaves, then served with polenta and Brussels sprouts. The gnocchi are gummy, in a light, creamy sauce with a few clams and mussels wrested from their shells. It would look better and more generous if the shells were included.
For dessert, there’s panna cotta and a chocolate cake made with Harpoon Baltic Porter; a sprinkling of fleur de sel on the chocolate frosting is a nice touch.
Although our servers have been quite nice to us, we feel we lost out by trying this restaurant’s special menu. Participation in Restaurant Week isn’t mandatory. It feels like B&G’s heart isn’t in it.
Meal No. 3: Sibling Rivalry
Down the road from B&G, Sibling Rivalry is a world away. Its Restaurant Week menu feels very generous. And our waiter, possibly the friendliest man alive, is eager for us to be full: He keeps telling us which dishes are the biggest. The menu offers 13 appetizer choices, eight main courses, and six desserts. There are several off-menu specials, plus a Restaurant Week tasting of three wines for $18. Sibling Rivalry regularly does a $39.99 prix fixe, so it has practice.
We start with fried squid, which is served with a Vietnamese-style salad and a very fish sauce-y dipping sauce. The flavors could be sharper, but it’s quite good. Lamb brik, a version of the Tunisian dish, features a savory filling of ground meat with golden raisins and a poached egg. It’s in pastry unfortunately reminiscent of an egg roll skin. A special of roasted chicken in sherry cream sauce over egg noodles is super-tasty comfort food. Scallops are over-seared but still taste sweet and fresh. The accompaniment of a mashed potato-stuffed chili relleno is strange, however. Dessert is lackluster: lemon pound cake that’s more like 10-pound cake, served with blueberries that taste like the insides of frozen blintzes. Chocolate profiteroles are dry and hard.
Still, this is a lot of pretty good food for the money, served with genuine warmth. When we don’t finish everything on our plates, our waiter pouts like a worried grandma. “Is everything OK?’’ It is, and we don’t doubt that he really cares about the answer.
Meal No. 4: Sorellina
The food here doesn’t feel like Restaurant Week. (Perhaps that’s why our waiter, asked to recommend a bottle of wine that’s a good value, keeps suggesting $180 bottles.) There are four choices for appetizers and entrees, and three for desserts. Most of them sound like things we’d order if they were offered on a regular menu.
A standout appetizer combines tender grilled calamari, Sardinian couscous, and a bit of red pepper broth. It’s delicious. White bean soup tastes great, flavored with smoked pork shoulder, but the texture is gooey and uniform. Main courses include a giant piece of sirloin, grilled to perfect medium rare. No one would complain about this portion size. Pappardelle with braised lamb ragu is a great dish, with the pasta the star of the show. This dish is probably not terribly expensive to create, but it’s good enough that you don’t think about that as you eat.
For dessert, affogato (gelato with espresso) is a good option, coffee included. It’s creamy, rich, and luxurious, served with a little macaroon.
The food isn’t as compelling as Sorellina’s non-Restaurant Week offerings, but on ordinary nights you won’t get out of here for less than $40, and that’s without dessert.
Meal No. 5: Capital Grille
If you want to feel like you’re living the good life for less, this is the place to go. It feels special, with oil paintings, dark wood, velvet curtains, and plenty of nooks. Servers are courtly, with personal business cards and accents. Their motto appears to be: Whatever you want you shall have, for $33.10 or $310.
The Restaurant Week menu is more generous than those offered by other area steakhouses. For main courses, they offer what steakhouse diners want: clam chowder, Caesar salad. Entree choices are filet mignon, dry-aged sirloin, double-cut lamb rib chops, and salmon. The cuts of meat are only slightly smaller than those on the regular menu. The filet, for instance, is 8 ounces rather than 10.
The chowder is rich and full of clams. The Caesar has no visible anchovies, but it’s got great garlicky dressing and plenty of cheese. The filet mignon comes with a beautiful crust that makes all the difference with this super-tender, not-always-flavorful cut. And dry-aged sirloin tastes, well, like dry-aged sirloin. Very good creamed spinach and mashed potatoes are served family style.
Dessert features crowd pleasers: a brownie-like chocolate espresso cake, a classic creme brulee.
Oh, and the valet is complimentary.
Win!
Meal No. 6: Masona Grill
This quintessential neighborhood place is a good value on most nights. Restaurant Week is simply more of the same. There are seven first courses, eight second courses, and three desserts to choose from. Three of the main courses, however, involve surcharges of $3 or $5. C’mon, that’s cheating!
But the place is so cute, we forgive it. It’s done up in wood and warm colors, walls hung with chalkboards and paintings. The menu combines Latin flavors and comfort food, so you find the likes of black bean soup and Sicilian calamari salad, paella and chicken Milanese. Portions are hearty.
Shrimp ceviche is very good, featuring fresh shrimp, lime, cilantro, and sweet potatoes. Argentine steak is a giant serving, and it costs $5 extra. On Restaurant Week, with people showing up for low prices, it might be better to serve a smaller piece of meat without the surcharge. It’s cooked nicely and served with zippy chimichurri and really good fries. Paella is a good version with plenty of mussels, clams, shrimp, and chorizo; many people are ordering it. But the best entree is grilled pork tenderloin, tender and moist and served a bit pink. It’s accompanied by black beans in a bit of their muddy broth, sweet plantains, and garlicky sauteed greens. It’s really, really good.
So is dessert, which includes big slices of banana cake layered with chocolate frosting and tres leches cake. Not just a good deal, Masona Grill is a sweet one, too.
Establishments participating in Restaurant Week offer specially priced meals through Friday. For a complete list of restaurants, go to www.bostonusa.com/restaurantweek.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Where’s the generosity?
One of the attractions of Restaurant Week seems in irregular supply, and if the hosts skimp on creativity, too, you leave wondering what was special
By Devra First, Globe Staff | March 24, 2010
Restaurant Week (noun): 1. A twice-annual, two-week event featuring specially priced prix fixe menus: two-course lunches for $15.10, three-course lunches for $20.10, and three-course dinners for $33.10. 2. The Mason-Dixon line of restaurant-goers. Among those who like to eat out, few subjects divide so clearly. People either love it or they don’t.
The pro camp loves Restaurant Week for its value. It gets them to go out and try new places, places they’ve always wanted to go, places they can’t always afford. The con camp boycotts the event. It’s a mill, they argue: The restaurants bring you in and push you out as quickly as they can to maximize turnover and profits. The food is inferior, the menus limited.
Over the years, I’ve mostly fallen into the “avoid’’ camp. My perceptions of Restaurant Week largely date to its early years — the event kicked off in Boston in 2001. The local dining scene has changed just a little bit since then. Is Restaurant Week worth it? I wanted to find a current answer to that question.
To that end, I consumed a week’s worth of $33.10 dinners — six in total, as many places don’t offer the deal on Saturdays. I ate at varied restaurants in varied parts of town. Some were places I’d visit on my own. Others were places I’d probably never go. What did I find? Restaurant Week is worth it. Sometimes. In short, it’s a lot like eating out the rest of the year.
Meal No. 1: Mamma Maria
This romantic, two-story restaurant is like the North End version of the former L’Espalier. We’re seated in a porch-like side room that features bird murals on the wall and views of the rainy street. Because Mamma Maria’s Restaurant Week menu was not online, we have no idea what we’ll be eating. Presented with the menus, we are excited. All of Mamma Maria’s best dishes are here: The osso buco! The pappardelle with rabbit! Then we notice the tiny asterisks next to the dishes available at Restaurant Week prices: four appetizers, five entrees, and two desserts. No osso buco. No pappardelle.
Appetizers appear immediately. Arugula salad features red onions, a shower of hard cheese in fat shreds that appear pre-grated, and about two tangerine segments. It’s far from thrilling. A salumi plate features good, thin-sliced cold cuts in the prosciutto-and-salami vein.
Second courses are slower to arrive. There is an entire forest’s worth of fungi on the mushroom ravioli plate, but the pasta is gummy. Wild game agnolotti are more exciting, though “wild game’’ is used loosely. The dumplings are filled with oxtail, free-range wild boar, and lamb.
For dessert, pear tart is a giant mound of puff pastry that feels more like Vienna than Italy. Panna cotta has a bit too much gelatin, making it more stiff than wobbly, but it has good coffee flavor.
Mamma Maria’s Restaurant Week is worth it, if you’re in it for atmosphere. Your $33 includes a healthy serving of romantic decor and views. When it comes to food, I’d just as soon go a la carte and order fewer dishes.
Meal No. 2: B&G Oysters
The South End seafood spot is packed with neighborhood residents and budding captains of industry slurping up platters of oysters. Are we the only ones here for Restaurant Week?
If so, there are reasons. B&G isn’t about fine dining — it’s about a seat at the bar, a glass of wine, some super-fresh bivalves, maybe a lobster roll shared with a friend. Three courses aren’t a matter of course here. And they’re not a good deal: Restaurant Week choices are few, and portions are small (owner Barbara Lynch isn’t exactly known for gargantuan servings).
This menu, too, is not available online before we arrive, and again we’re presented with the regular menu. Restaurant Week is beginning to seem like a gambit, getting people in the door, then tempting them with better offerings. If we stick to the special menu, we won’t be having any oysters at B&G Oysters. Inevitably, we are tempted to order them a la carte. In a city full of oyster deals, you might think a place specializing in them would get in on the action.
Instead, for a first course, we’ve got a choice between black trumpet mushroom arancini and lobster bisque. The rice balls are overfried and need seasoning. When the bisque arrives, it’s very good, but it’s hard not to laugh: The tiny bowl is half full. I wonder what these dishes — made mainly from rice and available lobster parts — cost to make.
It’s possible to be frugal without seeming so. With the first course, B&G does not succeed.
The second course features swordfish saltimbocca and seafood gnocchi. The swordfish is a small piece, about the size of a deck of cards — a restaurant that actually follows dietary guidelines. It’s wrapped in prosciutto with sage leaves, then served with polenta and Brussels sprouts. The gnocchi are gummy, in a light, creamy sauce with a few clams and mussels wrested from their shells. It would look better and more generous if the shells were included.
For dessert, there’s panna cotta and a chocolate cake made with Harpoon Baltic Porter; a sprinkling of fleur de sel on the chocolate frosting is a nice touch.
Although our servers have been quite nice to us, we feel we lost out by trying this restaurant’s special menu. Participation in Restaurant Week isn’t mandatory. It feels like B&G’s heart isn’t in it.
Meal No. 3: Sibling Rivalry
Down the road from B&G, Sibling Rivalry is a world away. Its Restaurant Week menu feels very generous. And our waiter, possibly the friendliest man alive, is eager for us to be full: He keeps telling us which dishes are the biggest. The menu offers 13 appetizer choices, eight main courses, and six desserts. There are several off-menu specials, plus a Restaurant Week tasting of three wines for $18. Sibling Rivalry regularly does a $39.99 prix fixe, so it has practice.
We start with fried squid, which is served with a Vietnamese-style salad and a very fish sauce-y dipping sauce. The flavors could be sharper, but it’s quite good. Lamb brik, a version of the Tunisian dish, features a savory filling of ground meat with golden raisins and a poached egg. It’s in pastry unfortunately reminiscent of an egg roll skin. A special of roasted chicken in sherry cream sauce over egg noodles is super-tasty comfort food. Scallops are over-seared but still taste sweet and fresh. The accompaniment of a mashed potato-stuffed chili relleno is strange, however. Dessert is lackluster: lemon pound cake that’s more like 10-pound cake, served with blueberries that taste like the insides of frozen blintzes. Chocolate profiteroles are dry and hard.
Still, this is a lot of pretty good food for the money, served with genuine warmth. When we don’t finish everything on our plates, our waiter pouts like a worried grandma. “Is everything OK?’’ It is, and we don’t doubt that he really cares about the answer.
Meal No. 4: Sorellina
The food here doesn’t feel like Restaurant Week. (Perhaps that’s why our waiter, asked to recommend a bottle of wine that’s a good value, keeps suggesting $180 bottles.) There are four choices for appetizers and entrees, and three for desserts. Most of them sound like things we’d order if they were offered on a regular menu.
A standout appetizer combines tender grilled calamari, Sardinian couscous, and a bit of red pepper broth. It’s delicious. White bean soup tastes great, flavored with smoked pork shoulder, but the texture is gooey and uniform. Main courses include a giant piece of sirloin, grilled to perfect medium rare. No one would complain about this portion size. Pappardelle with braised lamb ragu is a great dish, with the pasta the star of the show. This dish is probably not terribly expensive to create, but it’s good enough that you don’t think about that as you eat.
For dessert, affogato (gelato with espresso) is a good option, coffee included. It’s creamy, rich, and luxurious, served with a little macaroon.
The food isn’t as compelling as Sorellina’s non-Restaurant Week offerings, but on ordinary nights you won’t get out of here for less than $40, and that’s without dessert.
Meal No. 5: Capital Grille
If you want to feel like you’re living the good life for less, this is the place to go. It feels special, with oil paintings, dark wood, velvet curtains, and plenty of nooks. Servers are courtly, with personal business cards and accents. Their motto appears to be: Whatever you want you shall have, for $33.10 or $310.
The Restaurant Week menu is more generous than those offered by other area steakhouses. For main courses, they offer what steakhouse diners want: clam chowder, Caesar salad. Entree choices are filet mignon, dry-aged sirloin, double-cut lamb rib chops, and salmon. The cuts of meat are only slightly smaller than those on the regular menu. The filet, for instance, is 8 ounces rather than 10.
The chowder is rich and full of clams. The Caesar has no visible anchovies, but it’s got great garlicky dressing and plenty of cheese. The filet mignon comes with a beautiful crust that makes all the difference with this super-tender, not-always-flavorful cut. And dry-aged sirloin tastes, well, like dry-aged sirloin. Very good creamed spinach and mashed potatoes are served family style.
Dessert features crowd pleasers: a brownie-like chocolate espresso cake, a classic creme brulee.
Oh, and the valet is complimentary.
Win!
Meal No. 6: Masona Grill
This quintessential neighborhood place is a good value on most nights. Restaurant Week is simply more of the same. There are seven first courses, eight second courses, and three desserts to choose from. Three of the main courses, however, involve surcharges of $3 or $5. C’mon, that’s cheating!
But the place is so cute, we forgive it. It’s done up in wood and warm colors, walls hung with chalkboards and paintings. The menu combines Latin flavors and comfort food, so you find the likes of black bean soup and Sicilian calamari salad, paella and chicken Milanese. Portions are hearty.
Shrimp ceviche is very good, featuring fresh shrimp, lime, cilantro, and sweet potatoes. Argentine steak is a giant serving, and it costs $5 extra. On Restaurant Week, with people showing up for low prices, it might be better to serve a smaller piece of meat without the surcharge. It’s cooked nicely and served with zippy chimichurri and really good fries. Paella is a good version with plenty of mussels, clams, shrimp, and chorizo; many people are ordering it. But the best entree is grilled pork tenderloin, tender and moist and served a bit pink. It’s accompanied by black beans in a bit of their muddy broth, sweet plantains, and garlicky sauteed greens. It’s really, really good.
So is dessert, which includes big slices of banana cake layered with chocolate frosting and tres leches cake. Not just a good deal, Masona Grill is a sweet one, too.
Establishments participating in Restaurant Week offer specially priced meals through Friday. For a complete list of restaurants, go to www.bostonusa.com/restaurantweek.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Cab driver fails to pick up wheelchair passenger, loses license
Universal Hub
Boston cab driver loses license for five days for failing to pick up person in wheelchair
By adamg - 3/24/10 - 8:26 pm
Boston Police report a sting yesterday netted a cabbie who picked up an able-bodied rider even though he'd been dispatched to pick up a wheelchair user on Berkeley Street.
As part of the sting, officers, acting in an undercover capacity, called the driver's dispatcher and made a specific request for a WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle) to respond to 154 Berkeley Street. In the process of making the call, officers asked for a specific cab, going as far as to describe the vehicle by its medallion number.
After the call was made, officers, operating an unmarked cruiser, trailed the cab as it made its way to the pre-arranged pick up location: 154 Berkeley Street. While en route to call, the cab driver observed an individual looking for a ride. When the individual motioned the driver to pull over, instead of continuing on to the pre-arranged pick up location, the driver pulled over and picked up the fare. Upon seeing this, officers activated their emergency equipment (lights & sirens) and stopped the cab. When asked to explain why he failed to pick up the pre-arranged fare, the cab driver was unable to provide a rational or reasonable explanation.
Boston cab driver loses license for five days for failing to pick up person in wheelchair
By adamg - 3/24/10 - 8:26 pm
Boston Police report a sting yesterday netted a cabbie who picked up an able-bodied rider even though he'd been dispatched to pick up a wheelchair user on Berkeley Street.
As part of the sting, officers, acting in an undercover capacity, called the driver's dispatcher and made a specific request for a WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle) to respond to 154 Berkeley Street. In the process of making the call, officers asked for a specific cab, going as far as to describe the vehicle by its medallion number.
After the call was made, officers, operating an unmarked cruiser, trailed the cab as it made its way to the pre-arranged pick up location: 154 Berkeley Street. While en route to call, the cab driver observed an individual looking for a ride. When the individual motioned the driver to pull over, instead of continuing on to the pre-arranged pick up location, the driver pulled over and picked up the fare. Upon seeing this, officers activated their emergency equipment (lights & sirens) and stopped the cab. When asked to explain why he failed to pick up the pre-arranged fare, the cab driver was unable to provide a rational or reasonable explanation.
Filene's Developer apologizes to Menino
Boston.com
The Boston Globe
AROUND THE REGION
Filene’s developer says he’s sorry
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | March 24, 2010
The New York real estate developer behind the stalled redevelopment of the Filene’s block in Boston has apologized to Mayor Thomas M. Menino for public comments that suggested he intentionally lets projects languish in order to get public officials to provide financial assistance, a city official said.
Steven Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, apologized during a meeting with Menino in Boston late last week, said Susan Elsbree, a city spokeswoman. She said Roth expressed a desire to resume construction on the $700 million Filene’s project, but a specific timetable was not agreed on.
During the meeting, Elsbree said, Menino reiterated his threat that the city will consider taking the property by eminent domain or revoking the project’s building permits if Vornado and its Boston partner, Gale International, do not restart construction soon. Work on the Downtown Crossing site has been stalled for nearly two years, leaving a gaping hole in the property.
Menino initially threatened to take control of the property after Roth told an audience of architecture students at Columbia University this month that he allowed redevelopment of the Alexander’s department store in New York to languish because he believed the delays would make public officials more willing to provide funding.
The mayor excoriated Roth in a letter March 8, calling his remarks “simply outrageous.’’ Menino has struggled to get Vornado and Gale to restart work on the Filene’s project, which was supposed to result in construction of a 39-story tower with a hotel, offices, stores, and more than 160 condominiums.
Elsbree said it is unclear whether work will resume soon. Neither Vornado nor Roth returned calls seeking comment.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
The Boston Globe
AROUND THE REGION
Filene’s developer says he’s sorry
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | March 24, 2010
The New York real estate developer behind the stalled redevelopment of the Filene’s block in Boston has apologized to Mayor Thomas M. Menino for public comments that suggested he intentionally lets projects languish in order to get public officials to provide financial assistance, a city official said.
Steven Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, apologized during a meeting with Menino in Boston late last week, said Susan Elsbree, a city spokeswoman. She said Roth expressed a desire to resume construction on the $700 million Filene’s project, but a specific timetable was not agreed on.
During the meeting, Elsbree said, Menino reiterated his threat that the city will consider taking the property by eminent domain or revoking the project’s building permits if Vornado and its Boston partner, Gale International, do not restart construction soon. Work on the Downtown Crossing site has been stalled for nearly two years, leaving a gaping hole in the property.
Menino initially threatened to take control of the property after Roth told an audience of architecture students at Columbia University this month that he allowed redevelopment of the Alexander’s department store in New York to languish because he believed the delays would make public officials more willing to provide funding.
The mayor excoriated Roth in a letter March 8, calling his remarks “simply outrageous.’’ Menino has struggled to get Vornado and Gale to restart work on the Filene’s project, which was supposed to result in construction of a 39-story tower with a hotel, offices, stores, and more than 160 condominiums.
Elsbree said it is unclear whether work will resume soon. Neither Vornado nor Roth returned calls seeking comment.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Segways could be banned from Greenway
Segway tour operator says he’ll defy potential Greenway ban
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | March 24, 2010
The saga of Segways in the North End took a twist yesterday when a defiant sightseeing entrepreneur vowed to continue to send rolling tourists onto the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway — even after being told to stop.
At the contentious conclusion to a City Council hearing, the tour operator, Allan Danley, rebuffed a request by the director of the Greenway to keep Segways out of the parks because of a prohibition against vehicles. That prompted Councilor Salvatore LaMattina to ask Danley whether he planned to stop.
“I’m not going to say yes or no right now,’’ Danley said. “Sal, what I am going to do is go back to my office, I’m going to speak to my attorney, and then I’ll provide an answer to this council.’’
The second-in-command of the Boston Police Department jumped in and answered for him.
“Councilor LaMattina, I can tell you that if the vehicles are in violation of park rules and regulations, we will conduct enforcement,’’ Superintendent in Chief Daniel P. Linskey said.
Enforcement could mean citations, Linskey said, for tour operators willfully violating park rules. In an extreme case, it could potentially lead to an arrest for trespassing.
Outside the hearing, Danley hardened his stance when asked whether he planned to stay off the Greenway.
“No, we’re not,’’ Danley said, adding that if Linskey’s officers start arresting tour operators or handing out tickets, “then he’ll get sued.’’
Danley operates Boston Gliders, which has clashed with its North End neighbors on Commercial Street. Critics complain that the company sends inexperienced Segway drivers barreling down narrow sidewalks on the upright two-wheeled devices.
Boston Gliders maintains that it operates safely. Last year, the company ran more than 8,000 Segway tours in Boston without a single crash or serious injury, Danley said.
The City Council called for yesterday’s hearing to discuss adopting regulations for Segways, which are not addressed by state or local law. That means there is no guidance about whether the machines should be used on streets or sidewalks.
Of all the people who testified at the hearing, only one came on a Segway and he was not a tourist. Paul Widmark, 41, leaned on crutches at the microphone because he broke his neck as a 15-year-old when he dove into shallow water. Widmark described being liberated when he discovered Segways.
“They really have changed my life,’’ he said.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | March 24, 2010
The saga of Segways in the North End took a twist yesterday when a defiant sightseeing entrepreneur vowed to continue to send rolling tourists onto the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway — even after being told to stop.
At the contentious conclusion to a City Council hearing, the tour operator, Allan Danley, rebuffed a request by the director of the Greenway to keep Segways out of the parks because of a prohibition against vehicles. That prompted Councilor Salvatore LaMattina to ask Danley whether he planned to stop.
“I’m not going to say yes or no right now,’’ Danley said. “Sal, what I am going to do is go back to my office, I’m going to speak to my attorney, and then I’ll provide an answer to this council.’’
The second-in-command of the Boston Police Department jumped in and answered for him.
“Councilor LaMattina, I can tell you that if the vehicles are in violation of park rules and regulations, we will conduct enforcement,’’ Superintendent in Chief Daniel P. Linskey said.
Enforcement could mean citations, Linskey said, for tour operators willfully violating park rules. In an extreme case, it could potentially lead to an arrest for trespassing.
Outside the hearing, Danley hardened his stance when asked whether he planned to stay off the Greenway.
“No, we’re not,’’ Danley said, adding that if Linskey’s officers start arresting tour operators or handing out tickets, “then he’ll get sued.’’
Danley operates Boston Gliders, which has clashed with its North End neighbors on Commercial Street. Critics complain that the company sends inexperienced Segway drivers barreling down narrow sidewalks on the upright two-wheeled devices.
Boston Gliders maintains that it operates safely. Last year, the company ran more than 8,000 Segway tours in Boston without a single crash or serious injury, Danley said.
The City Council called for yesterday’s hearing to discuss adopting regulations for Segways, which are not addressed by state or local law. That means there is no guidance about whether the machines should be used on streets or sidewalks.
Of all the people who testified at the hearing, only one came on a Segway and he was not a tourist. Paul Widmark, 41, leaned on crutches at the microphone because he broke his neck as a 15-year-old when he dove into shallow water. Widmark described being liberated when he discovered Segways.
“They really have changed my life,’’ he said.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Phantom Gourmet brothers to file legislation to lift Sunday ban on alcohol before noon
Sunday booze ban on the rocks
Bill to target law of the spirit
By Jessica Van Sack | Wednesday, March 24, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The Hub’s grub gurus at Phantom Gourmet have developed an appetite for politics, with plans to file legislation tomorrow that would lift a Sunday ban on serving alcohol in restaurants before noon and allow drinks to flow at 10 a.m.
“People come to visit and when they find out they can’t just have a Bellini with their pancakes, they’re like, ‘What?’ ” said Dave Andelman, 40, founder of the Phantom Gourmet food-rating empire. “It occurred to me that we’re getting in the way of business and commerce. (Restaurant owners) seem to get stomped on and seem to have no representation politically.”
Andelman and his cohorts plan to use their radio and television shows to promote the bill. They’ve commandeered two heavyweight co-sponsors, Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei (R-Wakefield) and Senate Ways and Means Chairman Steven C. Panagiotakos (D-Lowell), to file the proposal tomorrow.
“Bottom line is I think restaurants should have that call,” Panagiotakos said of the serving hours. “It would increase economic activity, there’s no doubt about that.”
The ban, a remnant of so-called Blue Laws that were designed to curb social ills on church day, exists statewide except in Suffolk county, where cities can make their own rules. Boston allows some restaurants to serve alcohol with brunch at 11 a.m., while others must wait until noon.
And precious profits are wasted, as far as restaurateurs are concerned.
“When you have visitors from out of state, they kind of look at you funny,” said George Cary, owner of Finz in Salem, who does a large Sunday brunch business. “There was a time and a place for it, but we’ve now separated church from state.”
Charlie Perkins of the Boston Restaurant Group agreed. “The state needs the tax money and the restaurants need the money,” he said.
Andelman hopes the bill can be passed by July 4. “If it doesn’t, I’ll be disappointed,” he said. “Maybe I’ll move to Texas.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1241957
Related Articles:
Bill to target law of the spirit
By Jessica Van Sack | Wednesday, March 24, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The Hub’s grub gurus at Phantom Gourmet have developed an appetite for politics, with plans to file legislation tomorrow that would lift a Sunday ban on serving alcohol in restaurants before noon and allow drinks to flow at 10 a.m.
“People come to visit and when they find out they can’t just have a Bellini with their pancakes, they’re like, ‘What?’ ” said Dave Andelman, 40, founder of the Phantom Gourmet food-rating empire. “It occurred to me that we’re getting in the way of business and commerce. (Restaurant owners) seem to get stomped on and seem to have no representation politically.”
Andelman and his cohorts plan to use their radio and television shows to promote the bill. They’ve commandeered two heavyweight co-sponsors, Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei (R-Wakefield) and Senate Ways and Means Chairman Steven C. Panagiotakos (D-Lowell), to file the proposal tomorrow.
“Bottom line is I think restaurants should have that call,” Panagiotakos said of the serving hours. “It would increase economic activity, there’s no doubt about that.”
The ban, a remnant of so-called Blue Laws that were designed to curb social ills on church day, exists statewide except in Suffolk county, where cities can make their own rules. Boston allows some restaurants to serve alcohol with brunch at 11 a.m., while others must wait until noon.
And precious profits are wasted, as far as restaurateurs are concerned.
“When you have visitors from out of state, they kind of look at you funny,” said George Cary, owner of Finz in Salem, who does a large Sunday brunch business. “There was a time and a place for it, but we’ve now separated church from state.”
Charlie Perkins of the Boston Restaurant Group agreed. “The state needs the tax money and the restaurants need the money,” he said.
Andelman hopes the bill can be passed by July 4. “If it doesn’t, I’ll be disappointed,” he said. “Maybe I’ll move to Texas.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1241957
Related Articles:
Comedy Connection company goes bankrupt
No joke: Longtime comedy club bankrupt
By Donna Goodison | Wednesday, March 24, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Faneuil Hall Comedy Inc., which operated as the Comedy Connection for nearly two decades at Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace until 2008, has filed for bankruptcy.
The Chapter 7 liquidation filing comes seven months after the company lost a lawsuit over past due rent and other charges and was ordered to pay more than $354,000 to its former landlord, a subsidiary of marketplace manager General Growth Properties.
Faneuil Hall Comedy listed $441,177 in debt in its bankruptcy filing yesterday. The bulk of it - $354,866 - is attributed to that still-uncollected Suffolk Superior Court judgment reached last August. The company reported no assets.
The Comedy Connection, which had operated on the second floor of the Quincy Market Building, ceased operations there when its lease was not renewed, according to majority owner Bill Blumenreich’s attorney, John Morrier.
“This Chapter 7 filing was precipitated by an ongoing lawsuit with its former landlord,” Morrier said.
The bankruptcy filing has nothing to do with any of Blumenreich’s other businesses, Blumenreich said by e-mail yesterday.
Blumenreich relocated the Comedy Connection to the much larger Wilbur Theatre in 2008, but later dropped the name as he brought in bigger-name acts. That business operates under a separate company, Associates and Leisure Activities LLC.
Faneuil Hall Comedy’s remaining debt includes $33,083 owed to the Internal Revenue Service for back taxes and $37,070 owed to Avaya, a telecommunications company, according to court documents.
The bankruptcy filing also makes notice of another pending Suffolk Superior lawsuit against Faneuil Hall Comedy. Comedian Steve Sweeney sued the company in 2009 for alleged breach of contract over a booking dispute.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1241939
By Donna Goodison | Wednesday, March 24, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Faneuil Hall Comedy Inc., which operated as the Comedy Connection for nearly two decades at Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace until 2008, has filed for bankruptcy.
The Chapter 7 liquidation filing comes seven months after the company lost a lawsuit over past due rent and other charges and was ordered to pay more than $354,000 to its former landlord, a subsidiary of marketplace manager General Growth Properties.
Faneuil Hall Comedy listed $441,177 in debt in its bankruptcy filing yesterday. The bulk of it - $354,866 - is attributed to that still-uncollected Suffolk Superior Court judgment reached last August. The company reported no assets.
The Comedy Connection, which had operated on the second floor of the Quincy Market Building, ceased operations there when its lease was not renewed, according to majority owner Bill Blumenreich’s attorney, John Morrier.
“This Chapter 7 filing was precipitated by an ongoing lawsuit with its former landlord,” Morrier said.
The bankruptcy filing has nothing to do with any of Blumenreich’s other businesses, Blumenreich said by e-mail yesterday.
Blumenreich relocated the Comedy Connection to the much larger Wilbur Theatre in 2008, but later dropped the name as he brought in bigger-name acts. That business operates under a separate company, Associates and Leisure Activities LLC.
Faneuil Hall Comedy’s remaining debt includes $33,083 owed to the Internal Revenue Service for back taxes and $37,070 owed to Avaya, a telecommunications company, according to court documents.
The bankruptcy filing also makes notice of another pending Suffolk Superior lawsuit against Faneuil Hall Comedy. Comedian Steve Sweeney sued the company in 2009 for alleged breach of contract over a booking dispute.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1241939
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Segway hearing in Boston could lead to regulations
Universal Hub
Contentious hearing could lead to Segway regulations in Boston
By adamg - 3/23/10 - 3:38 pm
Segway menace: Liz Flynn of City Square, Charlestown, gave officials several photos of pedestrians forced into the street by Urban Gliders.Segway menace: Liz Flynn of City Square, Charlestown, gave Council several photos of pedestrians forced into the street by Urban Gliders. Company says it's moving training area to Cambridge.
If it were up to City Councilor Bill Linehan, only Paul Blart would be allowed to ride a Segway in the Boston area.
At a hearing on Segway use in Boston today, the South Boston councilor said Boston is too old and its streets and sidewalks simply too narrow to allow widespread Segway use. He said he would only favor their use in "large malls." He was joined in his concern by the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Faneuil Hall Marketplace, whose representatives call them a menace to pedestrians - and, in the case of the marketplace, even its elevators. Last year, a marketplace official said, a five-year-old was hit by a Segway and had to be taken to the hospital.
After an owner of Boston Gliders, which runs Segway tours, refused to commit to keep his vehicles off the Greenway at a hearing today, Police Superintendent-in-Chief Daniel Linskey said the matter was pretty simple: He will direct police to escort any Segway riders off the Greenway - and possibly issue them trespassing citations. This came after a Greenway official said Boston Gliders tour operators have refused to stop for uniformed Greenway personnel trying to get them out.
Even still, Linskey and other city officials said they would be willing to work with Segway to figure out a way to allow Segways on city streets - but strongly opposed the idea of letting them onto Boston sidewalks, except for use by people with mobility problems like Paul Widmark of Dorchester, paralyzed in a diving accident as a kid, who rode his Segway into the hearing room. He said Segways "really have changed my life," and have allowed him to go places with far greater ease.
"It staggers me" that Segway hasn't performed federal safety tests or compiled stats on Segway safety, said Boston Transportation Commissioner Tom Tinlin - who once deliberately rammed current City Councilor Sal LaMattina with one of the vehicles.
Matt Dailida, a Segway consultant, blamed all the Segway perception problems in Boston on Boston Gliders, which he said is in no way associated with Segway. "The fact he is the face of Segway in the city of Boston is one we hope to change, starting today." Later, he called Boston Gliders' operation "appalling."
He said Cambridge - home of the state's only authorized Segway tour operator - has regulated Segways since 2000 with no problems, and said Boston had no problems either, until Boston Gliders started up. Dailida said Segway supports a proposed law that would call for regulation and licensing of Segway operators.
LaMattina said the issue pre-dates Boston Gliders - to a Segway crash in Charlestown last year caused by a distracted Segway rider waving at friends.
Meanwhile, Boston Segway, based in Cambridge, said it is looking at starting its own Segway tour operation in Boston - but only in cooperation with city officials.
Residents of City Square in Charlestown complained about Boston Gliders using their streets and sidewalks for storage and rider training. Liz Flynn said she's particularly concerned about Henley Street. "Henley Street is a one-block street, so people coming whipping around," Flynn said. "Someone is going to get hurt and I fear it's going to be a child."
Boston Glider said it is moving its Charlestown operation to Cambridge - but opening up a bike-tour place at the same location. It said it's being discriminated against - bike and foot-tour operators don't face the same level of scrutiny.
Boston Parks Commissioner Anontonia Pollak said park rangers in downtown parks are getting complaints from pedestrians. "Pedestrians are feeling enormously intimidated by them," especially when they ride in a clump and take over the sidewalks, rather than riding single file, she said.
LaMattina, who called for the hearing, said he's actually ridden a Segway twice: "I personally think that Segways are cool and kind of fun." But, he said, he is concerned about pedestrian safety. He said senior citizens in the North End have told them "they are afraid to walk on the sidewalk, because they're afraid they're going to be hit by a Segway.
Wendy Landman, executive director of WalkBoston said her group has opposed Segways on Boston sidewalks since 2004, and remains opposed to them as a potential safety issue. Imagine, she said, the Esplanade full of Segways.
Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, which has already baned bike riding on the linear park, said Segways don't belong on the Greenway, either. She said she's personally seen way too many Segway operators who are "very unsteady and very unfamilar with the vehicles they are operating."
"And they are too quiet," she said. "One cannot hear them coming. People cannot get out of the way fast enough. If they have a dog on an extended leash, it gets very interesting."
Steve Spinetto, commissioner for persons with disabilities, said Segways "are actually an incredible boon for people with disabilities" - if they ride them.. But they're a potential threat to the handicapped who don't ride them because they might move more slowly - or be unable to see or hear them. Spinnetto said vehicles that move at 12 mph can cause serious harm to pedestrians. "That's an accident waiting to happen."
Linskey said police are already having enough problems with "a distracted public" consisting of BlackBerry and cell-phone user who are not paying enough attention to their surroundings and getting plowed into by cars. Throwing Segways into the mix could cause even more problems, he said, adding, however, that he is confident the city could come up with regulations to allow safe Segway use - by people above a certain age. "We would not allow 14-, 12-, 10-year olds out in traffic to drive a moped," he said.
"We do believe that sidewalks are for pedestrians, Tinlin said, adding that would also include people with mobility issues who need a Segway to get around.
"One thing you don't want to do is have government snuff out all ideas," Tinlin said. He pointed to pedicabs as an example of a novel vehicle the city was willing to allow. "We don't want to be so restrictive that everyone is afraid to come to the city," he said. So there might be a place for Segways - but in the street, not on the sidewalk, he said, and with regulation of such issues as routing, location and helmet use.
Contentious hearing could lead to Segway regulations in Boston
By adamg - 3/23/10 - 3:38 pm
Segway menace: Liz Flynn of City Square, Charlestown, gave officials several photos of pedestrians forced into the street by Urban Gliders.Segway menace: Liz Flynn of City Square, Charlestown, gave Council several photos of pedestrians forced into the street by Urban Gliders. Company says it's moving training area to Cambridge.
If it were up to City Councilor Bill Linehan, only Paul Blart would be allowed to ride a Segway in the Boston area.
At a hearing on Segway use in Boston today, the South Boston councilor said Boston is too old and its streets and sidewalks simply too narrow to allow widespread Segway use. He said he would only favor their use in "large malls." He was joined in his concern by the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Faneuil Hall Marketplace, whose representatives call them a menace to pedestrians - and, in the case of the marketplace, even its elevators. Last year, a marketplace official said, a five-year-old was hit by a Segway and had to be taken to the hospital.
After an owner of Boston Gliders, which runs Segway tours, refused to commit to keep his vehicles off the Greenway at a hearing today, Police Superintendent-in-Chief Daniel Linskey said the matter was pretty simple: He will direct police to escort any Segway riders off the Greenway - and possibly issue them trespassing citations. This came after a Greenway official said Boston Gliders tour operators have refused to stop for uniformed Greenway personnel trying to get them out.
Even still, Linskey and other city officials said they would be willing to work with Segway to figure out a way to allow Segways on city streets - but strongly opposed the idea of letting them onto Boston sidewalks, except for use by people with mobility problems like Paul Widmark of Dorchester, paralyzed in a diving accident as a kid, who rode his Segway into the hearing room. He said Segways "really have changed my life," and have allowed him to go places with far greater ease.
"It staggers me" that Segway hasn't performed federal safety tests or compiled stats on Segway safety, said Boston Transportation Commissioner Tom Tinlin - who once deliberately rammed current City Councilor Sal LaMattina with one of the vehicles.
Matt Dailida, a Segway consultant, blamed all the Segway perception problems in Boston on Boston Gliders, which he said is in no way associated with Segway. "The fact he is the face of Segway in the city of Boston is one we hope to change, starting today." Later, he called Boston Gliders' operation "appalling."
He said Cambridge - home of the state's only authorized Segway tour operator - has regulated Segways since 2000 with no problems, and said Boston had no problems either, until Boston Gliders started up. Dailida said Segway supports a proposed law that would call for regulation and licensing of Segway operators.
LaMattina said the issue pre-dates Boston Gliders - to a Segway crash in Charlestown last year caused by a distracted Segway rider waving at friends.
Meanwhile, Boston Segway, based in Cambridge, said it is looking at starting its own Segway tour operation in Boston - but only in cooperation with city officials.
Residents of City Square in Charlestown complained about Boston Gliders using their streets and sidewalks for storage and rider training. Liz Flynn said she's particularly concerned about Henley Street. "Henley Street is a one-block street, so people coming whipping around," Flynn said. "Someone is going to get hurt and I fear it's going to be a child."
Boston Glider said it is moving its Charlestown operation to Cambridge - but opening up a bike-tour place at the same location. It said it's being discriminated against - bike and foot-tour operators don't face the same level of scrutiny.
Boston Parks Commissioner Anontonia Pollak said park rangers in downtown parks are getting complaints from pedestrians. "Pedestrians are feeling enormously intimidated by them," especially when they ride in a clump and take over the sidewalks, rather than riding single file, she said.
LaMattina, who called for the hearing, said he's actually ridden a Segway twice: "I personally think that Segways are cool and kind of fun." But, he said, he is concerned about pedestrian safety. He said senior citizens in the North End have told them "they are afraid to walk on the sidewalk, because they're afraid they're going to be hit by a Segway.
Wendy Landman, executive director of WalkBoston said her group has opposed Segways on Boston sidewalks since 2004, and remains opposed to them as a potential safety issue. Imagine, she said, the Esplanade full of Segways.
Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, which has already baned bike riding on the linear park, said Segways don't belong on the Greenway, either. She said she's personally seen way too many Segway operators who are "very unsteady and very unfamilar with the vehicles they are operating."
"And they are too quiet," she said. "One cannot hear them coming. People cannot get out of the way fast enough. If they have a dog on an extended leash, it gets very interesting."
Steve Spinetto, commissioner for persons with disabilities, said Segways "are actually an incredible boon for people with disabilities" - if they ride them.. But they're a potential threat to the handicapped who don't ride them because they might move more slowly - or be unable to see or hear them. Spinnetto said vehicles that move at 12 mph can cause serious harm to pedestrians. "That's an accident waiting to happen."
Linskey said police are already having enough problems with "a distracted public" consisting of BlackBerry and cell-phone user who are not paying enough attention to their surroundings and getting plowed into by cars. Throwing Segways into the mix could cause even more problems, he said, adding, however, that he is confident the city could come up with regulations to allow safe Segway use - by people above a certain age. "We would not allow 14-, 12-, 10-year olds out in traffic to drive a moped," he said.
"We do believe that sidewalks are for pedestrians, Tinlin said, adding that would also include people with mobility issues who need a Segway to get around.
"One thing you don't want to do is have government snuff out all ideas," Tinlin said. He pointed to pedicabs as an example of a novel vehicle the city was willing to allow. "We don't want to be so restrictive that everyone is afraid to come to the city," he said. So there might be a place for Segways - but in the street, not on the sidewalk, he said, and with regulation of such issues as routing, location and helmet use.
Rumor may be cited for fights and underage drinking
Universal Hub
Hell hath no fury like a drunken woman who has to pee
By adamg - 3/23/10 - 12:25 pm
A fight that started with one patron at Rumor cutting in front of another to get into the women's room on Feb. 10 spiraled into a roving brawl across Stuart Street that left one woman with a sliced forehead, another punched repeatedly in the face and a third with a fingernail ripped completely off.
Before the melee was over, police from as far away as Charlestown were responding to quell the violence and arrest people who simply refused to stop fighting even when ordered to by men in uniforms with guns.
Oh, yes, and there was also underage drinking by college students let in by a doorman on the take - whose friendliness toward the pre-21 crowd had become so well known BU police tipped off Boston police that night.
The Boston Licensing Board will decide on Thursday what to do about a series of incidents at the Warrenton Street club. Potential penalties could range from revocation of the club license (Ed. note: Unlikely) to simply "filing" the complaints in a file somewhere. However, board Chairman Daniel Pokaski warned that if the board suspects the club has become a place to go "for a beer and a beating, we're going to stop it."
Police and club officials said the early-Wednesday melee started with a group of 10-15 friends. When one of the women in the group cut in front of the waiting masses at the women's room, her friend objected. They started arguing. The put-out woman gave up and started up the stairs - when her friend ran up to her and smacked her in the forehead with her shoe. The sliced-up woman, with blood streaming down her face, ran upstairs, where the fighting continued, despite the presence of 26 club bouncers and at least one Boston police officer on detail.
Club officials say they tried to break things up - but the battlin' betties kept at it, eventually spilling out into the street, where police found three woman punching and scratching each other in front of the New England School of Law and more outside the W Hotel. Police say one of the women by the law school simply ignored police and kept jumping into the fray, at least, until officers managed to get her on the ground and in handcuffs.
The club's head of security told the licensing board breaking up fights among women is particularly difficult for his largely male staff because women tend to object to men grabbing them.
"It becomes very difficult restraining them," he said. "You put your hands on a girl, there might be serious consequences." He said the club is looking to recruit more female bouncers.
Separately, but earlier that evening, Boston Police detectives, responding to a tip from BU police, found three underaged Babson students, one male and two female, in the bar. "I got an odor of alcohol off the breath of the females," Det. Kevin McGill told the board, adding that when he asked them how they had gotten in, they told him "they had friends at the door."
Tom Montgomery, owner of the club, said it turned out one of the doormen was supplementing his income by letting in people without proof of age. "The employee was a trusted employee, we relied on him to do the right thing," he said.
The club now employs a camera system to check up on doormen. Montgomery said he personally checks IDs of people he thinks are too young, but "they all look young to me" and he's never actually found an underage drinker that way. Roving bouncers also check IDs on the club floor.
But Pokaski said Montgomery has to do more. If the club has such a reputation that police at Boston University know it's letting in the pre-21 set, there's a serious problem, he said. "Come on, come on, come on."
The board also heard a report on a third incident that night, involving a man who claimed he was stabbed in the club lobby. However, board members indicated they were inclined to believe that, while the man may have been stabbed, it wasn't at Rumor. After his initial report, the man refused to cooperate with police. Also, his initial story, about getting stabbed and then having two unknown women drive him to Boston Medical Center was suspect because the club is right near Tufts Medical Center and there were several police cruisers and at least two ambulances on the scene because of the earlier brawling.
Hell hath no fury like a drunken woman who has to pee
By adamg - 3/23/10 - 12:25 pm
A fight that started with one patron at Rumor cutting in front of another to get into the women's room on Feb. 10 spiraled into a roving brawl across Stuart Street that left one woman with a sliced forehead, another punched repeatedly in the face and a third with a fingernail ripped completely off.
Before the melee was over, police from as far away as Charlestown were responding to quell the violence and arrest people who simply refused to stop fighting even when ordered to by men in uniforms with guns.
Oh, yes, and there was also underage drinking by college students let in by a doorman on the take - whose friendliness toward the pre-21 crowd had become so well known BU police tipped off Boston police that night.
The Boston Licensing Board will decide on Thursday what to do about a series of incidents at the Warrenton Street club. Potential penalties could range from revocation of the club license (Ed. note: Unlikely) to simply "filing" the complaints in a file somewhere. However, board Chairman Daniel Pokaski warned that if the board suspects the club has become a place to go "for a beer and a beating, we're going to stop it."
Police and club officials said the early-Wednesday melee started with a group of 10-15 friends. When one of the women in the group cut in front of the waiting masses at the women's room, her friend objected. They started arguing. The put-out woman gave up and started up the stairs - when her friend ran up to her and smacked her in the forehead with her shoe. The sliced-up woman, with blood streaming down her face, ran upstairs, where the fighting continued, despite the presence of 26 club bouncers and at least one Boston police officer on detail.
Club officials say they tried to break things up - but the battlin' betties kept at it, eventually spilling out into the street, where police found three woman punching and scratching each other in front of the New England School of Law and more outside the W Hotel. Police say one of the women by the law school simply ignored police and kept jumping into the fray, at least, until officers managed to get her on the ground and in handcuffs.
The club's head of security told the licensing board breaking up fights among women is particularly difficult for his largely male staff because women tend to object to men grabbing them.
"It becomes very difficult restraining them," he said. "You put your hands on a girl, there might be serious consequences." He said the club is looking to recruit more female bouncers.
Separately, but earlier that evening, Boston Police detectives, responding to a tip from BU police, found three underaged Babson students, one male and two female, in the bar. "I got an odor of alcohol off the breath of the females," Det. Kevin McGill told the board, adding that when he asked them how they had gotten in, they told him "they had friends at the door."
Tom Montgomery, owner of the club, said it turned out one of the doormen was supplementing his income by letting in people without proof of age. "The employee was a trusted employee, we relied on him to do the right thing," he said.
The club now employs a camera system to check up on doormen. Montgomery said he personally checks IDs of people he thinks are too young, but "they all look young to me" and he's never actually found an underage drinker that way. Roving bouncers also check IDs on the club floor.
But Pokaski said Montgomery has to do more. If the club has such a reputation that police at Boston University know it's letting in the pre-21 set, there's a serious problem, he said. "Come on, come on, come on."
The board also heard a report on a third incident that night, involving a man who claimed he was stabbed in the club lobby. However, board members indicated they were inclined to believe that, while the man may have been stabbed, it wasn't at Rumor. After his initial report, the man refused to cooperate with police. Also, his initial story, about getting stabbed and then having two unknown women drive him to Boston Medical Center was suspect because the club is right near Tufts Medical Center and there were several police cruisers and at least two ambulances on the scene because of the earlier brawling.
Noche to open in South End in former Icarus sport
Boston Restaurant Talk
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Noche to Open in the South End in May
An upscale restaurant and lounge is coming to the South End, moving into the space where a popular dining spot had been for more than 30 years. According to a job posting on the Craigslist site, Noche is looking at a May opening on Appleton Street, and is aiming to be a "fine dining restaurant and bar, [catering] to the affluent late night crowd." Noche will reside in the spot where the New American restaurant Icarus resided from 1978 until last year, when it closed.
Boston Nightlife Ventures, the group behind Noche, mentions on their website that the new restaurant will focus on eclectic American fare, with their full menu being offered until midnight. The group is also behind The Tap on Union Street near Faneuil Hall and The Federal on Cambridge Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
The address for this upcoming restaurant and lounge in the South End will be: Noche, 3 Appleton Street, Boston, MA 02116.
posted by Marc at 12:36 PM |
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Noche to Open in the South End in May
An upscale restaurant and lounge is coming to the South End, moving into the space where a popular dining spot had been for more than 30 years. According to a job posting on the Craigslist site, Noche is looking at a May opening on Appleton Street, and is aiming to be a "fine dining restaurant and bar, [catering] to the affluent late night crowd." Noche will reside in the spot where the New American restaurant Icarus resided from 1978 until last year, when it closed.
Boston Nightlife Ventures, the group behind Noche, mentions on their website that the new restaurant will focus on eclectic American fare, with their full menu being offered until midnight. The group is also behind The Tap on Union Street near Faneuil Hall and The Federal on Cambridge Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
The address for this upcoming restaurant and lounge in the South End will be: Noche, 3 Appleton Street, Boston, MA 02116.
posted by Marc at 12:36 PM |
Noche to open in South End in former Icarus sport
Boston Restaurant Talk
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Noche to Open in the South End in May
An upscale restaurant and lounge is coming to the South End, moving into the space where a popular dining spot had been for more than 30 years. According to a job posting on the Craigslist site, Noche is looking at a May opening on Appleton Street, and is aiming to be a "fine dining restaurant and bar, [catering] to the affluent late night crowd." Noche will reside in the spot where the New American restaurant Icarus resided from 1978 until last year, when it closed.
Boston Nightlife Ventures, the group behind Noche, mentions on their website that the new restaurant will focus on eclectic American fare, with their full menu being offered until midnight. The group is also behind The Tap on Union Street near Faneuil Hall and The Federal on Cambridge Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
The address for this upcoming restaurant and lounge in the South End will be: Noche, 3 Appleton Street, Boston, MA 02116.
posted by Marc at 12:36 PM |
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Noche to Open in the South End in May
An upscale restaurant and lounge is coming to the South End, moving into the space where a popular dining spot had been for more than 30 years. According to a job posting on the Craigslist site, Noche is looking at a May opening on Appleton Street, and is aiming to be a "fine dining restaurant and bar, [catering] to the affluent late night crowd." Noche will reside in the spot where the New American restaurant Icarus resided from 1978 until last year, when it closed.
Boston Nightlife Ventures, the group behind Noche, mentions on their website that the new restaurant will focus on eclectic American fare, with their full menu being offered until midnight. The group is also behind The Tap on Union Street near Faneuil Hall and The Federal on Cambridge Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
The address for this upcoming restaurant and lounge in the South End will be: Noche, 3 Appleton Street, Boston, MA 02116.
posted by Marc at 12:36 PM |
Hyatt Regency Boston sold for $112 million
Hyatt sells Boston hotel for $112M
By Donna Goodison | Friday, March 19, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The Hyatt Regency Boston has changed hands.
Chesapeake Lodging Trust, a lodging real estate investment trust, has acquired the 498-room hotel from Hyatt Hotels Corp. for $112 million, or approximately $225,000 a room.
Chesapeake said it plans to invest additional money to renovate the 21-story Downtown Crossing hotel, which will continue to be managed by Hyatt under a long-term agreement and will remain under the Hyatt Regency flag.
“We are very excited that our first acquisition is located in the central business district of a strong gateway market like Boston,” James L. Francis, Chesapeake’s CEO, said in a statement.
The Fairfield, N.J.-based Chesapeake, which organized last June, has a sourcing agreement with Hyatt.
The Chicago-based Hyatt had purchased the former Swissotel in 2003 with the intention of selling it to a strategic partner and securing a long-term management agreement, according to Steve Haggerty, global head of Hyatt.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1240923
By Donna Goodison | Friday, March 19, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The Hyatt Regency Boston has changed hands.
Chesapeake Lodging Trust, a lodging real estate investment trust, has acquired the 498-room hotel from Hyatt Hotels Corp. for $112 million, or approximately $225,000 a room.
Chesapeake said it plans to invest additional money to renovate the 21-story Downtown Crossing hotel, which will continue to be managed by Hyatt under a long-term agreement and will remain under the Hyatt Regency flag.
“We are very excited that our first acquisition is located in the central business district of a strong gateway market like Boston,” James L. Francis, Chesapeake’s CEO, said in a statement.
The Fairfield, N.J.-based Chesapeake, which organized last June, has a sourcing agreement with Hyatt.
The Chicago-based Hyatt had purchased the former Swissotel in 2003 with the intention of selling it to a strategic partner and securing a long-term management agreement, according to Steve Haggerty, global head of Hyatt.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1240923
Marriott Courtyard in South Boston to be sold at auction
S. Boston Marriott Heads To Auction Block
By Paul McMorrow
Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer
Yesterday
The Courtyard by Marriott in South Boston is set to hit the auction block, after the hotel's Brockton-based managers defaulted on a $16.2 million mortgage.
The six-story, 164-room hotel sits adjacent to the Southeast Expressway, near Dorchester's South Bay shopping center. The auction, scheduled for April 13, is being conducted by JJ Manning Auctioneers. According to an auction listing, the property also includes an unfinished 6,300-square-foot restaurant with a full liquor license.
The property is also encumbered with roughly $120,000 in unpaid municipal taxes.
Nationwide, hotel revenues have declined by roughly 20 percent since 2008, according to the ratings agency Fitch Ratings. Property values have tumbled by as much as 50 percent from their 2007 peak.
For full article click on this link http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news137486.html
Banker & Tradesman ©2010 All Rights Reserved
By Paul McMorrow
Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer
Yesterday
The Courtyard by Marriott in South Boston is set to hit the auction block, after the hotel's Brockton-based managers defaulted on a $16.2 million mortgage.
The six-story, 164-room hotel sits adjacent to the Southeast Expressway, near Dorchester's South Bay shopping center. The auction, scheduled for April 13, is being conducted by JJ Manning Auctioneers. According to an auction listing, the property also includes an unfinished 6,300-square-foot restaurant with a full liquor license.
The property is also encumbered with roughly $120,000 in unpaid municipal taxes.
Nationwide, hotel revenues have declined by roughly 20 percent since 2008, according to the ratings agency Fitch Ratings. Property values have tumbled by as much as 50 percent from their 2007 peak.
For full article click on this link http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news137486.html
Banker & Tradesman ©2010 All Rights Reserved
House of Blues closed for 2nd time in a month
Boston club cited 2nd time in a month
By Laurel J. Sweet | Monday, March 22, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The popular House of Blues and a lot of fans were singing the blues Friday night after Boston Fire Department inspectors briefly closed the club for the second time in a month.
Fire officials said they found clubgoers clogging exits and trash barrels and beer kegs impeding fire escapes.
“The bottom line is the fact that inspectors cited them more than once in a short period time indicates this needs to be addressed now,” Boston Fire spokesman Steve MacDonald said yesterday.
The Lansdowne Street venue was allowed to reopen Saturday, but not in time to save Friday’s performance by the trippy Philadelphia jam band Disco Biscuits before 2,300 fans.
Neither promoter Live Nation nor a House of Blues manager could be reached for comment.
MacDonald said the club was fined $200 on Feb. 19 for blocked aisles and exits.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1241455
By Laurel J. Sweet | Monday, March 22, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The popular House of Blues and a lot of fans were singing the blues Friday night after Boston Fire Department inspectors briefly closed the club for the second time in a month.
Fire officials said they found clubgoers clogging exits and trash barrels and beer kegs impeding fire escapes.
“The bottom line is the fact that inspectors cited them more than once in a short period time indicates this needs to be addressed now,” Boston Fire spokesman Steve MacDonald said yesterday.
The Lansdowne Street venue was allowed to reopen Saturday, but not in time to save Friday’s performance by the trippy Philadelphia jam band Disco Biscuits before 2,300 fans.
Neither promoter Live Nation nor a House of Blues manager could be reached for comment.
MacDonald said the club was fined $200 on Feb. 19 for blocked aisles and exits.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1241455
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Fewer people using regional airports, opting for Logan
Living in the shadow of Logan
Fewer travelers using region’s other airports as discount competition in Hub intensifies
By Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | March 21, 2010
When Mary Ellen Rose was in college in Texas in the late 1970s, she flew into Logan International Airport to visit her family in Gloucester. But after she discovered lower fares and no “nasty’’ Big Dig traffic tie-ups at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in the mid-’90s, she switched. Now that Southwest Airlines is flying out of Boston and construction is over, Rose is back on the Logan bandwagon.
“I feel bad for Manchester because they are a cute little airport,’’ said Rose, 48, a professor at American University in Washington.
Rose isn’t the only traveler who’s come back to Logan after defecting to Manchester in New Hampshire or T.F. Green Airport near Providence, both about an hour’s drive away from Boston. Recent traffic patterns at the three airports are reflecting the trend.
In 2002 and 2003, 28 percent of the total passengers at the three area airports flew out of T.F. Green and Manchester, according to Department of Transportation data compiled by the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan. Last year, T.F. Green and Manchester’s share of passengers had shrunk to 23 percent. While Logan finished 2009 with 2.3 percent fewer passengers than the year before, the number of passengers at T.F. Green and Manchester fell 7.7 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively. (Nationwide, passenger volume was down 6 per cent in 2009 compared to the year before.)
More recently, the contrast has become even starker. Year-over-year passenger numbers at Logan have risen or remained steady for seven consecutive months, hitting the first double-digit increase in more than five years in January. Meanwhile, traffic at Manchester and T.F. Green has slid in the opposite direction, with 16.3 and 12.2 percent declines in January, respectively.
The biggest factor is lower ticket prices at Logan, brought on by a growth spurt of low-cost carriers at the airport. Last March, the average fare at Logan was an average $15 to $27 cheaper than at Manchester or T.F. Green, according to FareCompare.com; this March, Logan travelers saved $45 to $68. Four new airlines started flying out of Logan last year alone — Southwest, Virgin America, Sun Country Airlines, and Porter Airlines — driving down prices on existing carriers and spurring them to add new flights. Discount carrier JetBlue Airways, for instance, said that it was boosting flights out of Boston by more than 30 percent, making it the top carrier at Logan.
Massport chief executive Thomas J. Kinton said that the end of Big Dig traffic snarls getting to the airport and $4.5 billion worth of improvements at Logan — including a new Terminal A, an expanded Terminal E, and a new road system — also have passengers seeing Logan in a new light.
“We were actually bleeding out of this catchment area during those times,’’ Kinton said. “I just think the market is correcting itself.’’
Indeed, Logan was faring worse than its smaller neighbors not that long ago. Logan finished 2008 with nearly 2 million fewer passengers, down 7.1 percent, than it had in 2007. Manchester lost just 4.5 percent, or 176,000 fewer passengers, during that time period, and Providence dipped 6.5 percent, or 326,000 passengers.
One game-changer has been Southwest. In the mid-’90s, Manchester and T.F. Green were the only airports in New England with Southwest service, and both airports grew steadily as the low-cost Dallas carrier became their dominant airline. Recently, though, Southwest has pulled back service in Manchester and Providence, a change the airline said has no direct relation to its entry into Logan.
“We entered Logan because our research showed that we were not tapping into the central Boston market,’’ said Southwest spokesman Paul Flaningan. “People north of Boston were driving to Manchester, and people south were driving to Providence.
But J. Brian O’Neill, deputy airport director at Manchester, said available seat capacity there has declined by almost half in the past five years as airlines focus on Boston. “Sometimes that comes at the expense of service out of Manchester,’’ he said.
Even without the increased competition from Logan, though, Manchester and T.F. Green might not be going gangbusters. Smaller airports have been hit hard during the downturn as airlines cut back and concentrate service at their hubs, said Pamela Keidel-Adams, director of aviation planning for the consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates. Still, Manchester and Green are essential to Logan’s survival, she said.
Logan is already the busiest airport in the country for its size, and as the economy picks up, it won’t have room for much more traffic. Too much growth could lead to congestion and flight delays.
“If you’re too successful, you lose the success,’’ said Matthew Coogan, director of the New England Transportation Institute.
T.F. Green chief executive Kevin Dillon is confident that the increased competition between low-cost carriers will spread throughout New England. “It bodes well for the other airports in the region,’’ he said.
Scott Laurence, vice president of route planning for JetBlue, said the airline was interested in Providence and Manchester, and AirTran spokesman Christopher White said the carrier was always looking for “overpriced, underserved’’ markets but had no imminent plans with the two airports.
As for sinking passenger numbers, Dillon thinks T.F. Green has hit bottom, citing additional capacity from airlines such as United Airlines, which added 200 seats this month. Manchester will also be getting an increase in capacity this spring, said spokesman Tom Malafronte.
T.F. Green and Manchester are both doing what they can to attract new business. The Rhode Island airport is opening a consolidated transportation facility in September that will house rental cars with bus and MBTA Commuter Rail service, connected to the terminal by a walkway, a feature that Dillon said could attract the Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair. A planned runway extension would allow Green to offer nonstop service to the West Coast.
Both Green and Manchester offer incentives for new airlines and new markets, waiving landing fees and terminal rental charges, as well as kicking in money to help market the new service. Manchester also has a $1-million-a-year ad campaign in the Boston and northern Massachusetts market highlighting the easy access, predictability, and inexpensive parking at the regional airport, O’Neill said.
But for most passengers, it boils down to the lowest airfare, and they’re finding much better deals at Logan than they used to.
Jayme Simes, president of the Concord, N.H., marketing firm Louis Karno & Company Communications, is partial to flying out of Manchester but has started driving the extra half-hour to Logan more often as prices have fallen.
“My first choice is always going to be Manchester,’’ he said. “But when you’re flying on business you have to look at your budget.’’
Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Fewer travelers using region’s other airports as discount competition in Hub intensifies
By Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | March 21, 2010
When Mary Ellen Rose was in college in Texas in the late 1970s, she flew into Logan International Airport to visit her family in Gloucester. But after she discovered lower fares and no “nasty’’ Big Dig traffic tie-ups at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in the mid-’90s, she switched. Now that Southwest Airlines is flying out of Boston and construction is over, Rose is back on the Logan bandwagon.
“I feel bad for Manchester because they are a cute little airport,’’ said Rose, 48, a professor at American University in Washington.
Rose isn’t the only traveler who’s come back to Logan after defecting to Manchester in New Hampshire or T.F. Green Airport near Providence, both about an hour’s drive away from Boston. Recent traffic patterns at the three airports are reflecting the trend.
In 2002 and 2003, 28 percent of the total passengers at the three area airports flew out of T.F. Green and Manchester, according to Department of Transportation data compiled by the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan. Last year, T.F. Green and Manchester’s share of passengers had shrunk to 23 percent. While Logan finished 2009 with 2.3 percent fewer passengers than the year before, the number of passengers at T.F. Green and Manchester fell 7.7 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively. (Nationwide, passenger volume was down 6 per cent in 2009 compared to the year before.)
More recently, the contrast has become even starker. Year-over-year passenger numbers at Logan have risen or remained steady for seven consecutive months, hitting the first double-digit increase in more than five years in January. Meanwhile, traffic at Manchester and T.F. Green has slid in the opposite direction, with 16.3 and 12.2 percent declines in January, respectively.
The biggest factor is lower ticket prices at Logan, brought on by a growth spurt of low-cost carriers at the airport. Last March, the average fare at Logan was an average $15 to $27 cheaper than at Manchester or T.F. Green, according to FareCompare.com; this March, Logan travelers saved $45 to $68. Four new airlines started flying out of Logan last year alone — Southwest, Virgin America, Sun Country Airlines, and Porter Airlines — driving down prices on existing carriers and spurring them to add new flights. Discount carrier JetBlue Airways, for instance, said that it was boosting flights out of Boston by more than 30 percent, making it the top carrier at Logan.
Massport chief executive Thomas J. Kinton said that the end of Big Dig traffic snarls getting to the airport and $4.5 billion worth of improvements at Logan — including a new Terminal A, an expanded Terminal E, and a new road system — also have passengers seeing Logan in a new light.
“We were actually bleeding out of this catchment area during those times,’’ Kinton said. “I just think the market is correcting itself.’’
Indeed, Logan was faring worse than its smaller neighbors not that long ago. Logan finished 2008 with nearly 2 million fewer passengers, down 7.1 percent, than it had in 2007. Manchester lost just 4.5 percent, or 176,000 fewer passengers, during that time period, and Providence dipped 6.5 percent, or 326,000 passengers.
One game-changer has been Southwest. In the mid-’90s, Manchester and T.F. Green were the only airports in New England with Southwest service, and both airports grew steadily as the low-cost Dallas carrier became their dominant airline. Recently, though, Southwest has pulled back service in Manchester and Providence, a change the airline said has no direct relation to its entry into Logan.
“We entered Logan because our research showed that we were not tapping into the central Boston market,’’ said Southwest spokesman Paul Flaningan. “People north of Boston were driving to Manchester, and people south were driving to Providence.
But J. Brian O’Neill, deputy airport director at Manchester, said available seat capacity there has declined by almost half in the past five years as airlines focus on Boston. “Sometimes that comes at the expense of service out of Manchester,’’ he said.
Even without the increased competition from Logan, though, Manchester and T.F. Green might not be going gangbusters. Smaller airports have been hit hard during the downturn as airlines cut back and concentrate service at their hubs, said Pamela Keidel-Adams, director of aviation planning for the consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates. Still, Manchester and Green are essential to Logan’s survival, she said.
Logan is already the busiest airport in the country for its size, and as the economy picks up, it won’t have room for much more traffic. Too much growth could lead to congestion and flight delays.
“If you’re too successful, you lose the success,’’ said Matthew Coogan, director of the New England Transportation Institute.
T.F. Green chief executive Kevin Dillon is confident that the increased competition between low-cost carriers will spread throughout New England. “It bodes well for the other airports in the region,’’ he said.
Scott Laurence, vice president of route planning for JetBlue, said the airline was interested in Providence and Manchester, and AirTran spokesman Christopher White said the carrier was always looking for “overpriced, underserved’’ markets but had no imminent plans with the two airports.
As for sinking passenger numbers, Dillon thinks T.F. Green has hit bottom, citing additional capacity from airlines such as United Airlines, which added 200 seats this month. Manchester will also be getting an increase in capacity this spring, said spokesman Tom Malafronte.
T.F. Green and Manchester are both doing what they can to attract new business. The Rhode Island airport is opening a consolidated transportation facility in September that will house rental cars with bus and MBTA Commuter Rail service, connected to the terminal by a walkway, a feature that Dillon said could attract the Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair. A planned runway extension would allow Green to offer nonstop service to the West Coast.
Both Green and Manchester offer incentives for new airlines and new markets, waiving landing fees and terminal rental charges, as well as kicking in money to help market the new service. Manchester also has a $1-million-a-year ad campaign in the Boston and northern Massachusetts market highlighting the easy access, predictability, and inexpensive parking at the regional airport, O’Neill said.
But for most passengers, it boils down to the lowest airfare, and they’re finding much better deals at Logan than they used to.
Jayme Simes, president of the Concord, N.H., marketing firm Louis Karno & Company Communications, is partial to flying out of Manchester but has started driving the extra half-hour to Logan more often as prices have fallen.
“My first choice is always going to be Manchester,’’ he said. “But when you’re flying on business you have to look at your budget.’’
Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)