ADRIAN WALKER
Hub jewel to shine again
By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist | August 30, 2010
Friends have told Beverly Morgan-Welch, who runs the Museum of African-American History on Beacon Hill, that she hasn’t quite sounded like her composed, almost regal self the past few days.
“I was so elated that everyone said my voice was an octave or two higher,’’ she said yesterday with a hearty laugh.
That’s what can happen when the organization you manage suddenly scores $4 million in federal stimulus money to restore its crown jewel, the African Meeting House. The grant was announced late last week, coming after well over a year of lobbying. (The museum itself, which houses displays and hosts events on African-American history, is next door.)
There’s no question that it needs restoration. America’s oldest standing black church doesn’t look like historic ground at the moment. In fact, it has been closed since 2006 and was in rough shape before that. But the grant will restore an essential piece of the history that is this city’s heart and soul.
“To have the meeting house closed is just such a terrible waste of such a resource and a historical landmark,’’ Morgan-Welch said.
The meeting house dates to 1806, when the north slope of Beacon Hill housed Boston’s original black community. Both church and community center, it was a hotbed of abolitionist activity before the Civil War. Even before that, it was a cornerstone of one of the first free black communities in America.
Frederick Douglass spoke there. William Lloyd Garrison helped plan his assault on slavery there. Landmark moments in the early history of both the abolitionist and feminist movements played out there.
Although the museum held events there as recently as 2006, disrepair has been a problem for years. Although much of the original design is still visible, restoration has always been a project put off for another day, not out of a lack of concern, but simply because the museum has simply never been able to afford it. Now Morgan-Welch estimates that it can be restored to its 1850s form, when it was first renovated, in a year or so.
“The public is really going to be able to see and feel this space in a different way,’’ she said. “They’re going to be able to sit and stand where all these wonderful people sat and stood.’’
This is a watershed moment for the museum, which was founded in the early 1970s. For years, Boston’s history as a center of anti-slavery had been somewhat buried. There was a trail that included places scattered all over town that were significant to black history, but nothing that would be confused with the history mania that accompanies places like Faneuil Hall or Bunker Hill. The meeting house had long hosted a synagogue.
Change came around 1970, when Henry Hampton, later famous as the force behind the civil rights documentary “Eyes On The Prize,’’ found out that the synagogue was for sale. Fortunately, Beacon Hill real estate was not the hot property it would soon become.
“They wanted $40,000 for the building,’’ recalled state Representative Byron Rushing, the museum’s first director. “At the time, the north slope of Beacon Hill was overrun by college students. There were no condos and no upscale anything. If they’d waited 10 years longer, we never would have been able to afford it.’’
The actual preservation work will include everything from painting walls and restoring pews — some of the old pews are in storage — to making the building handicapped-accessible. The electrical and heating systems will all need upgrading, as will most of the lighting.
Millions of dollars in private funds have already been spent, mostly to determine what restoration would actually entail. Now it can finally get done.
And when it is, a profound, often revolutionary, piece of Boston’s past will be visible again.
“Ultimately, we’re an intellectual institution,’’ Morgan-Welch said. “This is a huge part of carrying on that tradition.’’
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Vapiano review
The Boston Globe
CHEAP EATS
A taste of Italy -- via Germany
By Ike DeLorenzo, Globe Correspondent | August 25, 2010
The upscale “fast-casual’’ restaurant chain Vapiano, based in Germany, opened its first franchise in New England last month in Boston’s theater district. The interior is breathtaking. At a cost of more than $2 million, it should be. Designed by Italian architect Matteo Thun, it feels like a large, swanky Euro-lounge. Strategically lighted, it has gorgeous thick-milled wood tables, which surround marble moats, a tree, or nothing at all. Instead of chairs, there are comfy orange leather bar stools on which to perch and strike a pose. On a recent Saturday, a crowd of mostly young, fashionable, club-ready women were doing just that to a dancy soundtrack.
The payment model is novel. Customers get a “chip card’’ on arrival. There are no waiters. The card is presented at the various stations (pasta, pizza, panini) and the bar, where there are good wines for about $5 a glass and ceremoniously prepared espresso drinks of uneven quality. When you leave, the staff scans your card and you pay. It’s a handy way to avoid a shared bill.
I’m Italian-American, so I’m skeptical of a German chain assembling pizzas and pasta. But the small artisanal-style pizzas ($9.95-$12.95) — with thin, golden brown, semolina-floured crusts, and strikingly fresh locally sourced toppings — are excellent. Basil and other herbs are grown in a solarium-tower at the back of the dining room.
Pasta is made on site. “Vapianisti’’ (the term preferred by the company over “employees’’) mix the flours and extrude the pasta from a refrigerator-sized machine in full view of the dining area, with mixed results. “They are still in training,’’ admits assistant general manager Nicole Kenneally.
One night, the conchiglie-shaped pasta is soggy and the composition oddly grainy. A day later, it is perfect in salsiccia con mirtillo rosso ($11.95), pasta with meaty, spicy pepperoni and a judicious dose of sweet dried cranberries in a light sauce of tomato, onion, and herbs. Ask for shaved Parmesan on top.
Conchiglie is one of the eight shapes you can choose at the pasta counter. Bolognese ($11.95) is interesting. The carrots are shredded and barely cooked — hardly traditional — but oddly appealing that way. The mixed antipasti ($8.95) of roast vegetables, olives, cheese, and bruschetta is good to share.
There are few men here. The Vapianisti admit the customers are currently about 80 percent female. One reason might be that no slabs of protein are on the menu. The best you can do in that department is an aromatic, perfectly baked chicken pesto pizza ($12.95) or a “pizza americana’’ ($11.95) topped with sausage and pepperoni, and somehow light and not greasy.
The European aesthetic and menu offer a fun and unusual dining experience at reasonable prices. It may be even better when they find pasta makers who know their trade.
Ike DeLorenzo can be reached at ike@theideassection.com
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Lyons Group buys Match
Patrick Lyons strikes match deal
By Donna Goodison | Wednesday, August 25, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
The Lyons Group is building quite a presence in Boston’s Back Bay.
The restaurant and nightlife company’s latest acquisition is Match Burgers and Martinis on Massachusetts Avenue.
It’s the third Back Bay property that Patrick Lyons and his partners have added in the last year, bringing the total to five.
First, there was Sonsie on Newbury Street, which opened in 1993. Then Lyons partnered with chef Jasper White in his Summer Shack chain with its Dalton Street location.
This year, Lyons went all out on Boylston Street. The 380-seat Towne Stove and Spirits that bowed in July at the Hynes Convention Center with White and chef Lydia Shire as its culinary directors, and the 200-seat Back Bay Social Club opened this month.
A spokesman for Lyons confirmed that he bought Match - the former Blue Cat Cafe until 2005 - but declined further comment.
“They’re not going to talk until things get settled,” she said.
Match, meanwhile, remains open, but its kitchen has closed. It’s now sticking to drinks only, Tuesday through Saturday, according to the restaurant’s voicemail.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1276855
By Donna Goodison | Wednesday, August 25, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
The Lyons Group is building quite a presence in Boston’s Back Bay.
The restaurant and nightlife company’s latest acquisition is Match Burgers and Martinis on Massachusetts Avenue.
It’s the third Back Bay property that Patrick Lyons and his partners have added in the last year, bringing the total to five.
First, there was Sonsie on Newbury Street, which opened in 1993. Then Lyons partnered with chef Jasper White in his Summer Shack chain with its Dalton Street location.
This year, Lyons went all out on Boylston Street. The 380-seat Towne Stove and Spirits that bowed in July at the Hynes Convention Center with White and chef Lydia Shire as its culinary directors, and the 200-seat Back Bay Social Club opened this month.
A spokesman for Lyons confirmed that he bought Match - the former Blue Cat Cafe until 2005 - but declined further comment.
“They’re not going to talk until things get settled,” she said.
Match, meanwhile, remains open, but its kitchen has closed. It’s now sticking to drinks only, Tuesday through Saturday, according to the restaurant’s voicemail.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1276855
G2O opens in new location; tied with Mandarin Oriental spa for largest in Boston
Wide-eyed Tom Menino tours Boston’s newest luxury spa
By Jessica Van Sack | Wednesday, August 25, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Mayor Thomas M. Menino had his first “spa day” yesterday.
But hizzoner wasn’t clad in a robe with a mud-mask and cucumbers - he was on hand to open a lavish, five-floor Newbury Street day spa.
Talk of zero-gravity beds, nap pods and brine inhalation chambers abounded at the kickoff of the latest venture of Newbury Street doyenne Joyce Hampers.
“It’s just amazing the different services in this structure,” Menino said. “The couples . . .”
“. . . Massages,” Hampers interjected.
Like a stranger in a strange land, Menino wandered wide-eyed through the luxe corridors of relaxation and pampering.
“Interesting,” Menino said as he entered the sleek hairstyling room. “I go to Johnny and Gino’s in the North End.”
Perplexed by the hot tub room, Menino asked: “You go bare in here?”
“We recommend a bathing suit,” Hampers replied.
At 14,000 square feet, the new G2O, a few blocks from its former location, now ties as the Hub’s largest spa along with the Mandarin Oriental.
The facility was transformed from two brownstones Hampers purchased for $9 million in 2008.
An environmental advocate, Hampers designed the building with largely recycled material. It features low-energy lighting and a geothermal heating and cooling system controlled by water flowing below the floorboards, creating no carbon emissions. The system required wells to be constructed 1,500 feet below the ground.
“We hope more people will get interested in this technology,” Hampers said.
As for the mayor, she added, “I have a feeling he’ll be back.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1276853
By Jessica Van Sack | Wednesday, August 25, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Mayor Thomas M. Menino had his first “spa day” yesterday.
But hizzoner wasn’t clad in a robe with a mud-mask and cucumbers - he was on hand to open a lavish, five-floor Newbury Street day spa.
Talk of zero-gravity beds, nap pods and brine inhalation chambers abounded at the kickoff of the latest venture of Newbury Street doyenne Joyce Hampers.
“It’s just amazing the different services in this structure,” Menino said. “The couples . . .”
“. . . Massages,” Hampers interjected.
Like a stranger in a strange land, Menino wandered wide-eyed through the luxe corridors of relaxation and pampering.
“Interesting,” Menino said as he entered the sleek hairstyling room. “I go to Johnny and Gino’s in the North End.”
Perplexed by the hot tub room, Menino asked: “You go bare in here?”
“We recommend a bathing suit,” Hampers replied.
At 14,000 square feet, the new G2O, a few blocks from its former location, now ties as the Hub’s largest spa along with the Mandarin Oriental.
The facility was transformed from two brownstones Hampers purchased for $9 million in 2008.
An environmental advocate, Hampers designed the building with largely recycled material. It features low-energy lighting and a geothermal heating and cooling system controlled by water flowing below the floorboards, creating no carbon emissions. The system required wells to be constructed 1,500 feet below the ground.
“We hope more people will get interested in this technology,” Hampers said.
As for the mayor, she added, “I have a feeling he’ll be back.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1276853
UFC fans flock to Boston
Fervent UFC fans muscle their way into convention center
Fight Club
By Peter Gelzinis | Sunday, August 29, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
“Me and my son, Johnny, we just love to watch the fighting,” Joe DiMartino said, as he cast a paternal smile upon the 8-year-old by his side.
Father and son, clad in matching UFC T-shirts, journeyed from Montgomery, N.Y., to be first in line at the autograph table inside the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center yesterday morning.
Stretching out behind them was a serpentine herd of adults, many clutching Ultimate Fighting Championship action figures as they waited for autographed pictures from a half-dozen beloved hulking brawlers.
“This is our Disneyland,” Joe DiMartino said.
A Disneyland where it seemed every bicep, male or female, was tattooed, and where models in spiked heels and tiny Spandex shorts passed out free samples of Fight Fuel - twin red capsules chock full of some synthetic mystery meat.
Think of a “Star Trek” convention on steroids, a convocation of souls for whom the antics of pro wrestling have become too theatrical, and the violence in boxing, football and hockey is not nearly imaginative enough.
What they have found in UFC is a kind of video game where all the muscles and blood are real.
“UFC is all about modern-day gladiators,” Joe DiMartino said. “Let’s face it, we want to see people get in a cage and do something that most other people won’t do.”
But you must understand, Joe insists, that UFC is not just about two guys punching and kicking and choking each other inside a chain-link cage. Oh, no.
“You got rules, now,” Joe says. “There’s no knee strikes anymore, like there used to be. No head butts, no groin shots, no kicking the other guy when he’s down, none of that stuff.”
For Dawn Paquette, who traveled from Halifax, Nova Scotia, so her husband Jayson could snap a picture of his wife in the fight cage, UFC is a rich banquet of mixed martial arts.
“We belong to a gym in Halifax, where we practice Muai Thai, which is basically mixed martial arts,” said Dawn, a telecommunications worker. “I enjoy the athleticism of UFC.”
It wasn’t anything quite so esoteric that lured Liz Courter, a Dunkin’ Donuts worker, up from Thomaston, Conn., so she could pose with UFC star Tito Ortiz.
“I like it,” Liz said with a blushing smile, “because it’s all about guys with no shirts on.”
Mike Vitarelli, Liz’s companion in a short-sleeved shirt, nodded a bit sheepishly. “Yeah,” he sighed, “ that and because both of us really like combat sports.”
Dave Fero, a factory worker, spent 12 hours on a bus from Corning, N.Y., so he could hold a UFC championship belt.
“Of course it’s brutal,” Dave said, “but it’s also elegant and graceful in a way. Like a yin and yang sort of a thing, you know? For me, it’s sort of like an aggression release. There’s bloodshed, sure. But there’s also a lot of thinking that goes on, too.
“I mean, honestly, when you think about all the violence that is sanctioned in this world,” Dave mused, “getting punched in the face is really not such a big deal.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1277641
Related Articles:
Fight Club
By Peter Gelzinis | Sunday, August 29, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
“Me and my son, Johnny, we just love to watch the fighting,” Joe DiMartino said, as he cast a paternal smile upon the 8-year-old by his side.
Father and son, clad in matching UFC T-shirts, journeyed from Montgomery, N.Y., to be first in line at the autograph table inside the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center yesterday morning.
Stretching out behind them was a serpentine herd of adults, many clutching Ultimate Fighting Championship action figures as they waited for autographed pictures from a half-dozen beloved hulking brawlers.
“This is our Disneyland,” Joe DiMartino said.
A Disneyland where it seemed every bicep, male or female, was tattooed, and where models in spiked heels and tiny Spandex shorts passed out free samples of Fight Fuel - twin red capsules chock full of some synthetic mystery meat.
Think of a “Star Trek” convention on steroids, a convocation of souls for whom the antics of pro wrestling have become too theatrical, and the violence in boxing, football and hockey is not nearly imaginative enough.
What they have found in UFC is a kind of video game where all the muscles and blood are real.
“UFC is all about modern-day gladiators,” Joe DiMartino said. “Let’s face it, we want to see people get in a cage and do something that most other people won’t do.”
But you must understand, Joe insists, that UFC is not just about two guys punching and kicking and choking each other inside a chain-link cage. Oh, no.
“You got rules, now,” Joe says. “There’s no knee strikes anymore, like there used to be. No head butts, no groin shots, no kicking the other guy when he’s down, none of that stuff.”
For Dawn Paquette, who traveled from Halifax, Nova Scotia, so her husband Jayson could snap a picture of his wife in the fight cage, UFC is a rich banquet of mixed martial arts.
“We belong to a gym in Halifax, where we practice Muai Thai, which is basically mixed martial arts,” said Dawn, a telecommunications worker. “I enjoy the athleticism of UFC.”
It wasn’t anything quite so esoteric that lured Liz Courter, a Dunkin’ Donuts worker, up from Thomaston, Conn., so she could pose with UFC star Tito Ortiz.
“I like it,” Liz said with a blushing smile, “because it’s all about guys with no shirts on.”
Mike Vitarelli, Liz’s companion in a short-sleeved shirt, nodded a bit sheepishly. “Yeah,” he sighed, “ that and because both of us really like combat sports.”
Dave Fero, a factory worker, spent 12 hours on a bus from Corning, N.Y., so he could hold a UFC championship belt.
“Of course it’s brutal,” Dave said, “but it’s also elegant and graceful in a way. Like a yin and yang sort of a thing, you know? For me, it’s sort of like an aggression release. There’s bloodshed, sure. But there’s also a lot of thinking that goes on, too.
“I mean, honestly, when you think about all the violence that is sanctioned in this world,” Dave mused, “getting punched in the face is really not such a big deal.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1277641
Related Articles:
W Boston investor threatens forclosure
W Boston faces foreclosure
Developer may lease condos
By Jay Fitzgerald | Saturday, August 28, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate
Prudential Insurance Co. is pushing to foreclose on the bankrupt W Boston Hotel and Residences, putting more than $10 million in city loan funds at risk if high-end condos at the swanky complex in the Theater District are sold off at bargain-basement prices.
Prudential, which originally sunk $192 million in the W Boston, openly mocked developer Sawyer Enterprises’ plans to rent out 25 of the approximately 100 unsold units within the complex, saying it would merely put wear-and-tear on condos and make them less attractive for future sales because they would be “stigmatized as rental property.”
“The debtor has demonstrated no ability to mount a fresh sales campaign to rehabilitate its business or otherwise reorganize nor does it have any prospects for such reorganization on the horizon,” Prudential said in a recent court filing.
Sawyer, operating the W under the name SW Boston Hotel Venture LLC, hit back in filings that its plans to lease condo units for six to 12 months “will serve to strengthen its income stream, bolster its marketing efforts and better its chances of structuring a viable (bankruptcy) reorganization.”
Sawyer also rejected arguments that it has mismanaged the entire project, claiming its costs as of April were within $10,000 of intial estimates, according to filings.
In a statement, Sawyer dismissed Prudential’s attempt to force a foreclosure as “typical” for such bankruptcy proceedings.
“As we have said from day one, we intend to pay all our creditors and claims in full,” Sawyer said.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Neighborhood Development Department - which last year issued a $10.5 million loan to the developer to build out the final portions of the 26-story structure, including a spa, restaurant and bar - downplayed the chances of a court-ordered foreclosure.
But the city, which has received $260,000 in payments from the developer so far, sounded alarmed in court filings about the prospect of Prudential taking over the W Boston and selling off units at cut-rate prices.
“It would be simply unconscionable for Prudential to wipe out, through foreclosure proceedings, all of the value that it has watched the city of Boston pour into the project,” argued an attorney hired by the city.
Selling off the units via foreclosure would allow Prudential to benefit from the city’s investment while “wiping out the city of Boston’s interest in the project completely,” the filing said.
The next court hearing in the case is in November.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1277458
Developer may lease condos
By Jay Fitzgerald | Saturday, August 28, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate
Prudential Insurance Co. is pushing to foreclose on the bankrupt W Boston Hotel and Residences, putting more than $10 million in city loan funds at risk if high-end condos at the swanky complex in the Theater District are sold off at bargain-basement prices.
Prudential, which originally sunk $192 million in the W Boston, openly mocked developer Sawyer Enterprises’ plans to rent out 25 of the approximately 100 unsold units within the complex, saying it would merely put wear-and-tear on condos and make them less attractive for future sales because they would be “stigmatized as rental property.”
“The debtor has demonstrated no ability to mount a fresh sales campaign to rehabilitate its business or otherwise reorganize nor does it have any prospects for such reorganization on the horizon,” Prudential said in a recent court filing.
Sawyer, operating the W under the name SW Boston Hotel Venture LLC, hit back in filings that its plans to lease condo units for six to 12 months “will serve to strengthen its income stream, bolster its marketing efforts and better its chances of structuring a viable (bankruptcy) reorganization.”
Sawyer also rejected arguments that it has mismanaged the entire project, claiming its costs as of April were within $10,000 of intial estimates, according to filings.
In a statement, Sawyer dismissed Prudential’s attempt to force a foreclosure as “typical” for such bankruptcy proceedings.
“As we have said from day one, we intend to pay all our creditors and claims in full,” Sawyer said.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Neighborhood Development Department - which last year issued a $10.5 million loan to the developer to build out the final portions of the 26-story structure, including a spa, restaurant and bar - downplayed the chances of a court-ordered foreclosure.
But the city, which has received $260,000 in payments from the developer so far, sounded alarmed in court filings about the prospect of Prudential taking over the W Boston and selling off units at cut-rate prices.
“It would be simply unconscionable for Prudential to wipe out, through foreclosure proceedings, all of the value that it has watched the city of Boston pour into the project,” argued an attorney hired by the city.
Selling off the units via foreclosure would allow Prudential to benefit from the city’s investment while “wiping out the city of Boston’s interest in the project completely,” the filing said.
The next court hearing in the case is in November.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1277458
Upcoming Boston restaurant openings
Zagat
Boston Fall Restaurant Preview
Summer, sigh, is almost over. But fall, and the slew of restaurant openings that come with it, is just around the corner. From new bistros to a mysterious Central American concept, autumn should be interesting to say the least.
Bijou: This multilevel restaurant and nightclub is aiming to open in the Theater District this October. Occupying three floors, it will include a “parlor” floor with the main dining room as well as a full-service European-style nightclub on the third floor. The menu will focus on “utensil-free” shared plates (think deviled eggs and skewers). The name comes from Boston’s historic Bijou Theatre, the first in the country to be equipped with an electrical lighting system (51 Stuart St.).
Bondir: Jason Bond, head chef at the Beacon Hill Bistro, is aiming to open this intimate 24-seater with a tiny bar and sustainable, modern American cuisine in Cambridge sometime in October (279 Broadway).
Deuxave, a sophisticated New American, is slated to open in the Back Bay around Labor Day. The cuisine, while rooted in “nouvelle techniques of contemporary French,” will focus on fresh, seasonal and local ingredients. Co-owners of the restaurant, Brian Piccini and chef Christopher Coombs, are also responsible for dbar, the hip lounge in Dorchester. Deuxave will be open for dinner only at first, with brunch service starting down the road (371 Commonwealth Ave.).
Four Square: No relation to the social media game, this newcomer in the Braintree section of Weymouth Landing boasts State Senator Robert Hedlund (R- Weymouth) as an investor, and will offer classic American comfort food, plus a smattering of Italian dishes, when it opens later this year (16 Commercial St., Braintree).
Island Creek Oyster Bar: This seafooder is slated to open in Kenmore Square’s Hotel Commonwealth, in the enormous former Great Bay space next to Eastern Standard. Operators include Jeremy Sewall (Lineage), Garrett Harker (Eastern Standard) and Skip Bennett, founder of Island Creek Oysters, an oyster farm and purveyor in Duxbury. Expect it to open in October at the earliest (500 Commonwealth Ave.).
Jimmy’s: The tiny neighborhood Italian Joe V’s, now located on Shawmut Avenue in the South End, is slated to close in the coming months and relocate to 1653 Beacon Street in Brookline’s Washington Square. And when it does open, owner Jimmy Hamelburg plans to redub it with something a little closer to, well, his name (1653 Beacon St.).
Liberty Wharf: The Seaport District in South Boston continues to undergo a renaissance. And with the new Liberty Wharf mixed-use development coming to the waterfront, it’ll have the food to match. Restaurants slated to open there include Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill – this will be the third location for former Sox second baseman Rem Dog – and Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House, a steakhouse chain based in Texas. Both are expected early next year.
MET Bar & Grill: This steakhouse mini-chain plans to open a fourth location in the Back Bay in early October. Located in a historic brick townhouse, the newcomer will serve New American cuisine with a New England flair (279 Newbury St.).
Petit Robert Central: Petit Robert and Chez Jacky owners Jacky Robert and Loic Le Garrec take their gig up a notch this fall when they open this larger version of their Petit Bistros, once again serving up classic French bistro fare (34 Summer St.).
Tico: Word on the street is that Michael Schlow (Radius, Via Matta) will open this presumably Central American concept (tico is a term for a native Costa Rican) in the coming months. While rumors have it located in the Seaport District, the Buzz is working on confirming the exact location and culinary concept. We’ll keep you posted.
– Naomi Kooker
Boston Fall Restaurant Preview
Summer, sigh, is almost over. But fall, and the slew of restaurant openings that come with it, is just around the corner. From new bistros to a mysterious Central American concept, autumn should be interesting to say the least.
Bijou: This multilevel restaurant and nightclub is aiming to open in the Theater District this October. Occupying three floors, it will include a “parlor” floor with the main dining room as well as a full-service European-style nightclub on the third floor. The menu will focus on “utensil-free” shared plates (think deviled eggs and skewers). The name comes from Boston’s historic Bijou Theatre, the first in the country to be equipped with an electrical lighting system (51 Stuart St.).
Bondir: Jason Bond, head chef at the Beacon Hill Bistro, is aiming to open this intimate 24-seater with a tiny bar and sustainable, modern American cuisine in Cambridge sometime in October (279 Broadway).
Deuxave, a sophisticated New American, is slated to open in the Back Bay around Labor Day. The cuisine, while rooted in “nouvelle techniques of contemporary French,” will focus on fresh, seasonal and local ingredients. Co-owners of the restaurant, Brian Piccini and chef Christopher Coombs, are also responsible for dbar, the hip lounge in Dorchester. Deuxave will be open for dinner only at first, with brunch service starting down the road (371 Commonwealth Ave.).
Four Square: No relation to the social media game, this newcomer in the Braintree section of Weymouth Landing boasts State Senator Robert Hedlund (R- Weymouth) as an investor, and will offer classic American comfort food, plus a smattering of Italian dishes, when it opens later this year (16 Commercial St., Braintree).
Island Creek Oyster Bar: This seafooder is slated to open in Kenmore Square’s Hotel Commonwealth, in the enormous former Great Bay space next to Eastern Standard. Operators include Jeremy Sewall (Lineage), Garrett Harker (Eastern Standard) and Skip Bennett, founder of Island Creek Oysters, an oyster farm and purveyor in Duxbury. Expect it to open in October at the earliest (500 Commonwealth Ave.).
Jimmy’s: The tiny neighborhood Italian Joe V’s, now located on Shawmut Avenue in the South End, is slated to close in the coming months and relocate to 1653 Beacon Street in Brookline’s Washington Square. And when it does open, owner Jimmy Hamelburg plans to redub it with something a little closer to, well, his name (1653 Beacon St.).
Liberty Wharf: The Seaport District in South Boston continues to undergo a renaissance. And with the new Liberty Wharf mixed-use development coming to the waterfront, it’ll have the food to match. Restaurants slated to open there include Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill – this will be the third location for former Sox second baseman Rem Dog – and Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House, a steakhouse chain based in Texas. Both are expected early next year.
MET Bar & Grill: This steakhouse mini-chain plans to open a fourth location in the Back Bay in early October. Located in a historic brick townhouse, the newcomer will serve New American cuisine with a New England flair (279 Newbury St.).
Petit Robert Central: Petit Robert and Chez Jacky owners Jacky Robert and Loic Le Garrec take their gig up a notch this fall when they open this larger version of their Petit Bistros, once again serving up classic French bistro fare (34 Summer St.).
Tico: Word on the street is that Michael Schlow (Radius, Via Matta) will open this presumably Central American concept (tico is a term for a native Costa Rican) in the coming months. While rumors have it located in the Seaport District, the Buzz is working on confirming the exact location and culinary concept. We’ll keep you posted.
– Naomi Kooker
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Castle Island popularity grows
Summer in the City
Castle with a view
August 21, 2010 07:22 AM
CASTLE ISLAND — Betty King and her friend Terry Carney had staked out their favorite spot and were watching the world unfurl before them.
Under a monument to a legendary 19th century shipbuilder, the two watched boats pass by — motorboats skimming the water, graceful sloops cutting through the wind — the fancy yachts.
“Look at that one,’’ oohed King, a 60-year-old who started coming to Castle Island as a teenager and grows fonder of it with every visit. “Yes, sir.’’
“I’m telling you,’’ Carney agreed, smiling at the sweeping scene.
A 22-acre state park in South Boston that juts into the harbor and features a commanding five-bastion fort, Castle Island has long ranked among the region’s most popular summer destinations, an urban escape that is close at hand, yet somehow feels far away, a spirited place that seems serene on even the most crowded days.
An attraction to walkers and runners who loop along the water in all seasons, Castle Island finds its glory in the summer heat, when its forgiving ocean breezes slice through the swelter and when ice cream at Sullivan’s, the famed snack bar, tastes all the sweeter.
At its peak, the park draws thousands of visitors in a single day, bustling crowds of picnickers, beachgoers, and fishermen. And the crowds are content to just sit back and take it all in.
“This is the best view in Boston, right here,’’ King said, her gaze moving from the downtown skyline across the water to Logan Airport and Deer Island. “It’s a beautiful, peaceful place. I could stay here all day.’’
All around them, the gentle whirl of Castle Island shimmered in the midday sun, like a slow-moving carousel. Children ran across the open field, then rolled down the grassy hill. Landing planes rumbled overhead, so low you could see the airline name and wave to the passengers.
Bare-chested men puffed their way around the loop, bellies hanging over belts, cigarettes hanging from lips. Elderly couples wearing Florida T-shirts and visors strolled together in silence, holding hands.
In recent years, Castle Island’s popularity has broadened, drawing families from far-flung suburbs and a polyglot of immigrants to complement an urban base that dates back generations. Today, the crowds are strikingly diverse, a demographic signpost of contemporary Boston.
Irish-Catholic families from Dorchester and South Boston share the shade with immigrants from Portugal. Fishermen from Brockton, Puerto Rico, and El Salvador cast lines shoulder to shoulder, hoping there are enough fish to go around.
“Nothing’s biting,’’ said Melvin Alvarado, a 38-year-old from Brockton who counts the Castle Island pier among his favorite fishing spots. But with the sun on the water and the wind on his face, no fish was about to spoil his day, he said.
“I’m relaxing, man,’’ he said. “All day long, right here.’’
Nearby, Rico Canas was having similar luck. The fishing used to be better at Castle Island, he said, recalling a day he reeled in 17 bluefish. Nowadays he is lucky to catch a handful.
But in other ways, Castle Island has changed for the better, Canas says. A native of El Salvador who moved to the Boston area in 1969, he used to see few Hispanics at Castle Island. Today, they flock to its enclosed bay and grassy hills overlooking the water from near and far.
“Everywhere you look,’’ said Canas, 62. “It’s a good thing to see.’’
Up the hill toward Fort Independence, Linda Breen of Hull looked out over the harbor. Breen, 58, has been coming to Castle Island since she was a girl, and in her mind’s eye could still see the kite of her childhood floating in the breeze and could almost taste the picnics of cold chicken and potato salad.
Castle Island is a unifying force, Breen said. No matter where you come from, you come here for the same reasons.
“The fresh air, the water, maybe something at Sullivan’s,’’ she said. “We all kind of share that.’’
Many people who have been coming to Castle Island for years say its popularity is at an all-time high, as suburbanites stumble upon its secret, while those who went to Castle Island as children introduce it to their own.
“People seem to be coming back to what’s familiar to them,’’ said Jackie Cusack, an 81-year-old from Milton, as she walked with her family. “It’s just a great time. There’s everything here.’’
Sharon Carrigan, a 65-year-old from Arlington who has been coming here to the harbor’s edge for four decades, said the crowds have grown steadily in recent years and the park’s popularity is infectious.
“It’s a place for anybody and everybody to enjoy,’’ she said. “I love to watch the people enjoy their time here.’’
As she prepared to leave her coveted spot for a fish sandwich and crinkly fries at Sullivan’s, King remembered the days of the school busing crisis when she and other African-Americans could not feel comfortable at Castle Island.
When she returned, she had forgotten how much she missed it. But no longer.
“It’s for the best,’’ King said. “Because this view is for everybody.’’
Globe correspondent L. Finch contributed to this report. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com. To read other articles in the series, go to www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/summer_in_the_city.
Saus to open on Union Street next month
What to Eat at Saus, Bringing Pommes Frites and Poutine to Faneuil Hall
8/20/10 at 11:00 AM
Saus, the pommes frites spot we told you about back in January, is expected to open next month and we've got your first look at the menu. Everything at Saus is built on either pommes frites or Liege waffle. The former are available as the base for poutine, topped with a deep-fried egg (!!!!), or on their own with any one of nine different house made sauces, including bacon parmesan and cheddar and Duvel. The waffles may be topped with everything from lemon cream to house made Nutella. The best part: Saus will stay open until 2 a.m. on weekends.
8/20/10 at 11:00 AM
Saus, the pommes frites spot we told you about back in January, is expected to open next month and we've got your first look at the menu. Everything at Saus is built on either pommes frites or Liege waffle. The former are available as the base for poutine, topped with a deep-fried egg (!!!!), or on their own with any one of nine different house made sauces, including bacon parmesan and cheddar and Duvel. The waffles may be topped with everything from lemon cream to house made Nutella. The best part: Saus will stay open until 2 a.m. on weekends.
Food trucks coming to SoWa market every Sunday
Boston Phoenix
Food trucks coming to SoWa every Sunday through October
Published Aug 19 2010, 04:28 PM by Ashley Rigazio
Did you enjoy Boston's First Annual Food Truck Festival earlier this month? We sure did, as did the thousands of hungry Bostonians who flocked to Harrison Avenue in search of tacos, hot dogs, cupcakes, and other meals on wheels. So we were totally psyched to hear this huge news from the SoWa Open Market crew today: starting August 29, food trucks will be in SoWa every Sunday through October (when the market goes into hibernation mode). Fillbelly's, Trolley Dogs, Boston Frosty, Pizza Barbone, Concept Carts, and - yes - Clover Food Lab, Boston's top-rated food source on Yelp, have signed up so far.
Also making our ever-growing bellies happy: this weekend's Ice Cream Showdown, taking place in Somerville's Union Square on Saturday and SoWa on Sunday. By the time St. Anthony's Feast rolls around on August 27, we just might explode. But it will be soooo worth it.
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2010/08/19/food-trucks-coming-to-sowa-every-sunday-through-october.aspx#ixzz0xFl6e6xO
Food trucks coming to SoWa every Sunday through October
Published Aug 19 2010, 04:28 PM by Ashley Rigazio
Did you enjoy Boston's First Annual Food Truck Festival earlier this month? We sure did, as did the thousands of hungry Bostonians who flocked to Harrison Avenue in search of tacos, hot dogs, cupcakes, and other meals on wheels. So we were totally psyched to hear this huge news from the SoWa Open Market crew today: starting August 29, food trucks will be in SoWa every Sunday through October (when the market goes into hibernation mode). Fillbelly's, Trolley Dogs, Boston Frosty, Pizza Barbone, Concept Carts, and - yes - Clover Food Lab, Boston's top-rated food source on Yelp, have signed up so far.
Also making our ever-growing bellies happy: this weekend's Ice Cream Showdown, taking place in Somerville's Union Square on Saturday and SoWa on Sunday. By the time St. Anthony's Feast rolls around on August 27, we just might explode. But it will be soooo worth it.
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2010/08/19/food-trucks-coming-to-sowa-every-sunday-through-october.aspx#ixzz0xFl6e6xO
Fire forces evacuation of Intercontinental Hotel and Condos
Fire forces evacuation of Hub’s InterContinental Hotel
By Renee Nadeau Algarin | Saturday, August 21, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A smoldering electrical fire early this morning caused the evacuation of the InterContinental Hotel, leaving about 800 guests and residents out on the streets for hours.
Firefighters, electrical inspectors, Nstar and other workers were on site after the 2 a.m. electrical fire was reported in the basement electrical room InterContinental’s garage, fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald said. He said the only way to deal with an electrical fire is to turn off the power, which required the evacuation of everyone in the building’s 424 hotel rooms and 130 condos.
Hotel spokeswoman Stephanie Loeber said guests were allowed back in around 9:20 a.m.
No cause has been determined, MacDonald said.
Pat Meekhof of Michigan spent part of the night lying on the grass across the street from the posh waterfront hotel with her son, daughter, sister and elderly mother, who had dreamed of walking the Freedom Trail on a trip that took four years to arrange. She said they were allowed inside around 9 a.m. to get dressed.
“They didn’t really give us a whole lot of communication - they have not been forthcoming in telling us what is going on,” she said, adding she was grateful no one was injured.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1276164
By Renee Nadeau Algarin | Saturday, August 21, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A smoldering electrical fire early this morning caused the evacuation of the InterContinental Hotel, leaving about 800 guests and residents out on the streets for hours.
Firefighters, electrical inspectors, Nstar and other workers were on site after the 2 a.m. electrical fire was reported in the basement electrical room InterContinental’s garage, fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald said. He said the only way to deal with an electrical fire is to turn off the power, which required the evacuation of everyone in the building’s 424 hotel rooms and 130 condos.
Hotel spokeswoman Stephanie Loeber said guests were allowed back in around 9:20 a.m.
No cause has been determined, MacDonald said.
Pat Meekhof of Michigan spent part of the night lying on the grass across the street from the posh waterfront hotel with her son, daughter, sister and elderly mother, who had dreamed of walking the Freedom Trail on a trip that took four years to arrange. She said they were allowed inside around 9 a.m. to get dressed.
“They didn’t really give us a whole lot of communication - they have not been forthcoming in telling us what is going on,” she said, adding she was grateful no one was injured.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1276164
Friday, August 20, 2010
Lansdowne Pub will not lose liquor license after incident says Boston LIcensing Board
Licensing chief thinks pub where man died can use glass
By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent | August 20, 2010
The head of the city’s Licensing Board said yesterday that the Lansdowne Street bar where a man was killed by a broken beer mug last week will retain its liquor license and that the board will support the pub’s right to use glassware.
The Lansdowne Pub stopped using glassware and glass bottles this week at the request of a different licensing department, which could still ban glass permanently at the bar during a hearing next month. At the bar early Saturday morning, Hector Guardiola, 25, of South Boston, allegedly threw a glass that shattered and fatally injured Michael DiMaria, 23, a New York man.
“I will not be asking them to go to plastic,’’ said Michael Connolly, chairman of the Boston Licensing Board, which governs liquor licenses and can ban glass at bars. “This is an establishment with a good record that had an incredible freak accident . . . and at the moment I certainly don’t see their [liquor] license in jeopardy.’’
Earlier this week, Patricia Malone — Boston’s director of consumer affairs and licensing, who governs entertainment licenses — asked the bar to switch to plastic cups and nonglass bottles until the hearing with her Sept. 15. She declined yesterday to comment whether she would permanently ban glass at the bar.
In addition to Malone’s hearing, the bar will go before the Licensing Board for a violation hearing, which is standard after any serious incident.
A spokesman for the pub said yesterday that the incident was random and not indicative of its typical crowd.
“This is not about plastic versus glass,’’ the spokesman said. “We have served countless patrons without incident. This horrible tragedy could have occurred anywhere there are people, a glass, and a hard surface. Our thoughts and prayers are with the deceased and his family.’’
Malone said she has banned glassware at about 12 bars and restaurants. Connolly said he does not remember his board ever banning glass.
“There’s no one at the moment that uses glass and [glass] bottles that we would like to see use only plastic,’’ he said.
Connolly said plastic cups do make sense at some bars in the city, but all are already using them, due to Malone’s orders or choice. Two Roxbury bars, Packy Connors and Breezeway Bar & Grille, voluntarily switched to plastic after problems, he said.
In February, the British government unveiled two prototypes of shatterproof pint glasses after it estimated that about 87,000 alcohol-related glass attacks cost the country’s health service approximately $4.3 billion per year.
Since the death last weekend, banning glassware at bars has become a point of discussion in the city, from online message boards to the City Council president.
“I don’t think the government should wade into whether glassware can be used,’’ Council President Michael Ross said yesterday. “Within a restaurant with a commitment to food and certain night clubs, I think [glass] is part of the ambience.’’
Jack Nicas can be reached at jnicas@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent | August 20, 2010
The head of the city’s Licensing Board said yesterday that the Lansdowne Street bar where a man was killed by a broken beer mug last week will retain its liquor license and that the board will support the pub’s right to use glassware.
The Lansdowne Pub stopped using glassware and glass bottles this week at the request of a different licensing department, which could still ban glass permanently at the bar during a hearing next month. At the bar early Saturday morning, Hector Guardiola, 25, of South Boston, allegedly threw a glass that shattered and fatally injured Michael DiMaria, 23, a New York man.
“I will not be asking them to go to plastic,’’ said Michael Connolly, chairman of the Boston Licensing Board, which governs liquor licenses and can ban glass at bars. “This is an establishment with a good record that had an incredible freak accident . . . and at the moment I certainly don’t see their [liquor] license in jeopardy.’’
Earlier this week, Patricia Malone — Boston’s director of consumer affairs and licensing, who governs entertainment licenses — asked the bar to switch to plastic cups and nonglass bottles until the hearing with her Sept. 15. She declined yesterday to comment whether she would permanently ban glass at the bar.
In addition to Malone’s hearing, the bar will go before the Licensing Board for a violation hearing, which is standard after any serious incident.
A spokesman for the pub said yesterday that the incident was random and not indicative of its typical crowd.
“This is not about plastic versus glass,’’ the spokesman said. “We have served countless patrons without incident. This horrible tragedy could have occurred anywhere there are people, a glass, and a hard surface. Our thoughts and prayers are with the deceased and his family.’’
Malone said she has banned glassware at about 12 bars and restaurants. Connolly said he does not remember his board ever banning glass.
“There’s no one at the moment that uses glass and [glass] bottles that we would like to see use only plastic,’’ he said.
Connolly said plastic cups do make sense at some bars in the city, but all are already using them, due to Malone’s orders or choice. Two Roxbury bars, Packy Connors and Breezeway Bar & Grille, voluntarily switched to plastic after problems, he said.
In February, the British government unveiled two prototypes of shatterproof pint glasses after it estimated that about 87,000 alcohol-related glass attacks cost the country’s health service approximately $4.3 billion per year.
Since the death last weekend, banning glassware at bars has become a point of discussion in the city, from online message boards to the City Council president.
“I don’t think the government should wade into whether glassware can be used,’’ Council President Michael Ross said yesterday. “Within a restaurant with a commitment to food and certain night clubs, I think [glass] is part of the ambience.’’
Jack Nicas can be reached at jnicas@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Match stops serving food; open for drinks Thursday-Satuday
Boston Restaurant Talk
Match Burgers and Martinis in the Back Bay Is No Longer Serving Burgers (Or Any Other Food)
It appears that a restaurant and lounge in Boston's Back Bay has decided to stop serving food, at least for the time being.
According to both Grub Street Boston and Yelp, Match Burgers and Martinis on Mass. Ave. has closed their kitchen and will no longer be serving burgers, macaroni and cheese, steaks, pizza, or any other food. Grub Street Boston indicates that Match will remain open for drinks Thursday through Saturday.
Match, which first opened about five years ago, is primarily known as a trendy, chic place that people tend to go to for their martinis and other cocktails.
The address for Match is: Match Burgers and Martinis, 94 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215. The phone number is (617) 247-9922.
posted by Marc at 1:20 PM |
Match Burgers and Martinis in the Back Bay Is No Longer Serving Burgers (Or Any Other Food)
It appears that a restaurant and lounge in Boston's Back Bay has decided to stop serving food, at least for the time being.
According to both Grub Street Boston and Yelp, Match Burgers and Martinis on Mass. Ave. has closed their kitchen and will no longer be serving burgers, macaroni and cheese, steaks, pizza, or any other food. Grub Street Boston indicates that Match will remain open for drinks Thursday through Saturday.
Match, which first opened about five years ago, is primarily known as a trendy, chic place that people tend to go to for their martinis and other cocktails.
The address for Match is: Match Burgers and Martinis, 94 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215. The phone number is (617) 247-9922.
posted by Marc at 1:20 PM |
Daryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen to open next week; Q Restaurant open downtonwn
On menu: ‘Food people love to eat’
Also, hot-pot eatery, book on hospitality
By Donna Goodison / Turning the Tables | Friday, August 20, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Chef Tim Partridge, who devoted the last year and a half to spending time with his little girl, catering and “laying low” until the right opportunity came along, is excited to be back in his own restaurant’s kitchen.
Partridge is now wearing two hats as general manager and executive chef of Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen, set to open next week at 604 Columbus Ave. in Boston. It’s the spot most remembered as restaurateur Darryl Settles’ Bob’s Southern Bistro and the former longtime Bob the Chef’s.
Partridge has partnered with building owner Settles in the new restaurant and neighborhood bar, which will serve a regional American menu. Formerly at the East Coast Grill in Cambridge, Partridge owned Perdix in the South End and was last with the Back Bay Restaurant Group’s Atlantic Fish Co. and Bouchee in the Back Bay.
“We’re trying to nail down exactly what the very simple phrase for the food is (at Darryl’s),” he said. “But it’s basically food people love to eat. We want the whole place to be very approachable. We’re very conscious of where we are and what we are.”
Sitting at the South End-Roxbury border, Darryl’s wants to cater to Northeastern University students who like craft beers and good burgers, but also their parents when they’re in town and a more mature clientele for dinner andweekend brunch.
The menu includes homemade soups, eight sandwiches, classic Caesar salad, duck confit salad, raw bar items, three or four different mussel and chicken wing preparations, and more than a handful of burger choices. Other dishes range from trout with shrimp salad and a cod dish with chorizo and corn chowder to steak tips and hanger steak tacos. All entrees will be $24 and under.
The space last housed the Stork Club, which closed in June after nine months following only a six-week run by Circle Plates and Lounge.
“It’s been a quick five weeks from the day we got the key,” Settles said. “The last two guys here, unfortunately, had a bad turnout. I know the space.”
Darryl’s will tip its hat to the successful Bob’s incarnations with live jazz duos and Southern menu items, including chicken and waffles for brunch and blackened tuna with a green tomato salad.
“I’m a big fan of history and food, and this place has a really kind of old soul to it,” Partridge said. “It just has a great feel, and part of it comes from its history as Bob’s. That was a quintessential Southern type of place, so we have a few nods to that.”
But, Partridge added, “We’re not positioning ourselves in any way or form as ‘Bob’s redone.’ As Darryl would say, ‘That was Bob’s day, this is Darryl’s day.’ ”
Another Mongolian hot-pot restaurant will open in Boston next month.
Ming Zhu is bringing the 78-seat Q Restaurant to the Archstone Boston Common apartment building at 660 Washington St., at the edge of Chinatown.
Zhu owned the 4-year-old Little Q Hot Pot in Quincy - before it was forced to close in January to make way for construction of the Quincy Center concourse, and he opened an Arlington outpost in May.
The 78-seat Boston restaurant will include a lounge and sushi bar in addition to the hot-pot dishes that have customers cooking their raw slices of beef, pork, lamb, chicken, seafood and vegetables in pots of broth on induction cooktops at their tables.
“It’s an Asian version of fondue,” said Zhu, a Shanghai native who’s spending more than $1 million to open the restaurant.
UpStairs on the Square owners Mary-Catherine Deibel and Deborah Hughes are writing a book about their three decades of partnership and hospitality.
And they’re putting out the call for reminiscences - “appropriate, inappropriate, raw, abridged, unabridged, personal or professional” - about their Harvard Square restaurant and UpStairs on the Pudding, which they operated for nearly two decades above the Hasty Pudding Theatre until 2001.
“Our story can only be told through the experience and eyes of our customers, vendors, employees and guests, as you have brought our vision to life every day,” the partners said in an e-mail this week. “Our story is your story.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1275948
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Teranga brings Senegal to the South End
Serving a taste of Senegal
Marie-Claude Mendy brings African cuisine — and art and hospitality — to Teranga in Boston’s South End
By Natalie Southwick, Globe Correspondent | August 18, 2010
It’s 2 p.m. on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and Marie-Claude Mendy is not supposed to be working. At either of her full-time jobs.
Sunday is her day of rest from what can only be described as a frenetic schedule, but here she is, eating a lunch of grilled chicken simmered with onions at the bar of Teranga, the Senegalese restaurant she opened in the South End just over a year ago. An elegant 36-year-old with short hair and a dazzling smile, who speaks five languages, Mendy runs the restaurant while maintaining a job at a French asset-management company. Four days a week at 5:30 p.m., she takes the Silver Line from her Financial District office to the South End, arriving in time to prepare her signature dishes, such as the caramelized onion sauce served with several entrees.
“I’ve been called crazy before,’’ Mendy says, laughing. “In all honesty, I just like to try stuff. I just want to enjoy life and make the most out of it. When you live your passion, anything is possible.’’
A few decades ago, the idea of a successful African restaurant not only opening in Boston, but also thriving, might have seemed implausible, but today Mendy is running a genuine hot spot with a menu spanning the globe from France to Senegal to Vietnam.
Born to a family of entrepreneurs in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on the coast of West Africa, Mendy credits her parents for encouraging her endeavors. “The spread of entrepreneurship is so in me that I always knew that I would branch out on my own,’’ she says. Both of her parents had side businesses in addition to their regular jobs, and Mendy and her five siblings, who all live in France, are following that path. “I grew up seeing that, so it was very easy for me to do,’’ she says, although she acknowledges that “easy’’ isn’t the best description for what she’s doing right now.
Her mother is also responsible for her interest in food, teaching her to bake by age 5. She encouraged Mendy to open the first Senegalese restaurant in Boston, and continues to play a large role in her daughter’s culinary life. Every few months she sends ingredients necessary to make items like bouye juice, a sweet, milky drink made from baobab fruit.
Following her father’s wishes, Mendy studied international law in college in London, then moved to Washington, D.C., and earned a second degree in finance. She continued cooking, hosting dinner parties for friends and running a small home-based catering company to bring in extra income. She visited Boston in summer 2000, after months of nagging by a friend who insisted she would love it.
He was right. “I immediately fell in love with the city,’’ she says.
She moved here in April 2001, without an apartment, furniture, or a job, and was greeted by a blizzard. She settled in the South End and found her finance job, and, though she dislikes cold weather, she quickly felt at home. After colleagues begged for a bite of her homemade lunch a few too many times, she began to consider opening a restaurant. She started writing a business plan for a patisserie in 2002; seven years later, she opened Teranga.
In a green strapless dress, straw wedges, and green and gold jewelry, Mendy looks like she’s glided straight out of a fashion spread. “Sometimes I do cook in my outfits,’’ she admits. “I ruin all of my clothes doing that, because when I come in and we have a room full of people, I have to go and cook.’’
She briefly considered a career in the fashion industry, but realized her shortcomings. “Since I don’t know how to sew, or cut, I said OK, fine. I know how to cook,’’ she says.
When she first met with Teranga’s architect, she outlined her plan for a “chic African restaurant’’: no animal prints, no masks, just African materials. A self-described “art junkie’’ with no artistic skills of her own, Mendy decorated the dining room with paintings from her own collection. “One night I was sitting at home and I was like, I’m surrounded by art,’’ she says. “So I just took it off the walls.’’
Her commitment to creating that atmosphere is reflected in the restaurant’s name, which means “hospitality’’ and a little more in Wolof, the most common language of Senegal. “In Senegal, if you walk into my house unannounced and it’s lunchtime or dinnertime, we will give you the food and starve,’’ she says. “That’s what I’m trying to replicate here.’’
If her willingness to open her restaurant doors to regulars and friends at any hour is any indication, she’s succeeding so far. Shea Justice, a Jamaica Plain-based artist who has known Mendy for six years, says their group of friends gathers at Teranga once or twice a month. Two of Justice’s paintings hang there. “I’m lucky and privileged to be friends with Marie-Claude,’’ he says. “I was honored that she asked me to put work there.’’
If the South End held elections for a West African ambassador, Mendy would win in a landslide. She speaks Wolof, French, English, Spanish, and her ethnic group’s language — and uses all of them with co-workers, clients, staff, customers, and family. Even for a multi-tasker like Mendy, it gets confusing. “My brain mixes up everything,’’ she says. “I’ll talk to someone who I’m supposed to talk to in English, and I’ll say something in French. It’s so natural.’’
Teranga has already become a gathering place for diners with ties to Senegal or West Africa. Sarah Williamson went for the first time in mid-July. Williamson, 30, who spent a semester in Senegal in 2001, caught Mendy’s attention when she correctly pronounced thiebou djeun, the Senegalese national dish of herb-stuffed fish served with vegetables and broken jasmine rice, and the two chatted. “I think she’s done a really nice job of connecting,’’ says Williamson. “It’s very authentic.’’
At first Mendy was surprised when Caucasians spoke to her in Wolof; though she knew Peace Corps alumni in Washington, she had no idea they had a strong presence in Boston. But as more ex-Corps members came, bringing friends or relatives, Mendy began to feel responsible for their experience. “There was one day, one guy who hadn’t had our food in 40 years, and he was actually jumping and had teary eyes,’’ she says. “He was like, ‘This is exactly what I had [in Senegal].’ Bringing these people together, bringing back the emotions, the memories, it’s great.’’
Recently, a friend called Mendy to tell her he was bringing in a pair of visiting Congolese singers she has admired since childhood. “I was so excited, I was doing a dance on the phone,’’ she says. “That goes to tell you that the African community thinks of us very seriously as a nice restaurant to go to.’’
Beyond the food, Mendy herself has become a star attraction, providing a community away from wherever home may be.
“People tell me where their kids go on vacation, where their grandparents are from, who was born in Africa,’’ she says. “I meet great, great people. For me, that’s priceless.’’
Natalie Southwick can be reached at nsouthwick@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Marie-Claude Mendy brings African cuisine — and art and hospitality — to Teranga in Boston’s South End
By Natalie Southwick, Globe Correspondent | August 18, 2010
It’s 2 p.m. on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and Marie-Claude Mendy is not supposed to be working. At either of her full-time jobs.
Sunday is her day of rest from what can only be described as a frenetic schedule, but here she is, eating a lunch of grilled chicken simmered with onions at the bar of Teranga, the Senegalese restaurant she opened in the South End just over a year ago. An elegant 36-year-old with short hair and a dazzling smile, who speaks five languages, Mendy runs the restaurant while maintaining a job at a French asset-management company. Four days a week at 5:30 p.m., she takes the Silver Line from her Financial District office to the South End, arriving in time to prepare her signature dishes, such as the caramelized onion sauce served with several entrees.
“I’ve been called crazy before,’’ Mendy says, laughing. “In all honesty, I just like to try stuff. I just want to enjoy life and make the most out of it. When you live your passion, anything is possible.’’
A few decades ago, the idea of a successful African restaurant not only opening in Boston, but also thriving, might have seemed implausible, but today Mendy is running a genuine hot spot with a menu spanning the globe from France to Senegal to Vietnam.
Born to a family of entrepreneurs in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on the coast of West Africa, Mendy credits her parents for encouraging her endeavors. “The spread of entrepreneurship is so in me that I always knew that I would branch out on my own,’’ she says. Both of her parents had side businesses in addition to their regular jobs, and Mendy and her five siblings, who all live in France, are following that path. “I grew up seeing that, so it was very easy for me to do,’’ she says, although she acknowledges that “easy’’ isn’t the best description for what she’s doing right now.
Her mother is also responsible for her interest in food, teaching her to bake by age 5. She encouraged Mendy to open the first Senegalese restaurant in Boston, and continues to play a large role in her daughter’s culinary life. Every few months she sends ingredients necessary to make items like bouye juice, a sweet, milky drink made from baobab fruit.
Following her father’s wishes, Mendy studied international law in college in London, then moved to Washington, D.C., and earned a second degree in finance. She continued cooking, hosting dinner parties for friends and running a small home-based catering company to bring in extra income. She visited Boston in summer 2000, after months of nagging by a friend who insisted she would love it.
He was right. “I immediately fell in love with the city,’’ she says.
She moved here in April 2001, without an apartment, furniture, or a job, and was greeted by a blizzard. She settled in the South End and found her finance job, and, though she dislikes cold weather, she quickly felt at home. After colleagues begged for a bite of her homemade lunch a few too many times, she began to consider opening a restaurant. She started writing a business plan for a patisserie in 2002; seven years later, she opened Teranga.
In a green strapless dress, straw wedges, and green and gold jewelry, Mendy looks like she’s glided straight out of a fashion spread. “Sometimes I do cook in my outfits,’’ she admits. “I ruin all of my clothes doing that, because when I come in and we have a room full of people, I have to go and cook.’’
She briefly considered a career in the fashion industry, but realized her shortcomings. “Since I don’t know how to sew, or cut, I said OK, fine. I know how to cook,’’ she says.
When she first met with Teranga’s architect, she outlined her plan for a “chic African restaurant’’: no animal prints, no masks, just African materials. A self-described “art junkie’’ with no artistic skills of her own, Mendy decorated the dining room with paintings from her own collection. “One night I was sitting at home and I was like, I’m surrounded by art,’’ she says. “So I just took it off the walls.’’
Her commitment to creating that atmosphere is reflected in the restaurant’s name, which means “hospitality’’ and a little more in Wolof, the most common language of Senegal. “In Senegal, if you walk into my house unannounced and it’s lunchtime or dinnertime, we will give you the food and starve,’’ she says. “That’s what I’m trying to replicate here.’’
If her willingness to open her restaurant doors to regulars and friends at any hour is any indication, she’s succeeding so far. Shea Justice, a Jamaica Plain-based artist who has known Mendy for six years, says their group of friends gathers at Teranga once or twice a month. Two of Justice’s paintings hang there. “I’m lucky and privileged to be friends with Marie-Claude,’’ he says. “I was honored that she asked me to put work there.’’
If the South End held elections for a West African ambassador, Mendy would win in a landslide. She speaks Wolof, French, English, Spanish, and her ethnic group’s language — and uses all of them with co-workers, clients, staff, customers, and family. Even for a multi-tasker like Mendy, it gets confusing. “My brain mixes up everything,’’ she says. “I’ll talk to someone who I’m supposed to talk to in English, and I’ll say something in French. It’s so natural.’’
Teranga has already become a gathering place for diners with ties to Senegal or West Africa. Sarah Williamson went for the first time in mid-July. Williamson, 30, who spent a semester in Senegal in 2001, caught Mendy’s attention when she correctly pronounced thiebou djeun, the Senegalese national dish of herb-stuffed fish served with vegetables and broken jasmine rice, and the two chatted. “I think she’s done a really nice job of connecting,’’ says Williamson. “It’s very authentic.’’
At first Mendy was surprised when Caucasians spoke to her in Wolof; though she knew Peace Corps alumni in Washington, she had no idea they had a strong presence in Boston. But as more ex-Corps members came, bringing friends or relatives, Mendy began to feel responsible for their experience. “There was one day, one guy who hadn’t had our food in 40 years, and he was actually jumping and had teary eyes,’’ she says. “He was like, ‘This is exactly what I had [in Senegal].’ Bringing these people together, bringing back the emotions, the memories, it’s great.’’
Recently, a friend called Mendy to tell her he was bringing in a pair of visiting Congolese singers she has admired since childhood. “I was so excited, I was doing a dance on the phone,’’ she says. “That goes to tell you that the African community thinks of us very seriously as a nice restaurant to go to.’’
Beyond the food, Mendy herself has become a star attraction, providing a community away from wherever home may be.
“People tell me where their kids go on vacation, where their grandparents are from, who was born in Africa,’’ she says. “I meet great, great people. For me, that’s priceless.’’
Natalie Southwick can be reached at nsouthwick@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Seaport Square project recieves state environmental approval
AROUND THE REGION
Seaport Square wins a key approval
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | August 18, 2010
Seaport Square has received a major environmental approval from the state that allows the developers to build buildings, parks, and boulevards that will transform a 20-block swath of the South Boston Waterfront.
Environmental Secretary Ian Bowles determined the proposed project would comply with state regulations and benefit the public by revitalizing 23 acres in a district still dominated by parking lots.
The project calls for residences, stores, offices, and hotels between the federal courthouse and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Several new parks, streets, and sidewalks would connect the property to the waterfront. The developers, doing business as Seaport Square LLC, include commercial builder Gale International, Morgan Stanley, and retail developer W/S Associates.
Bowles wrote that the project will “set a new standard for energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction.’’ Buildings are to have energy-saving heating and ventilation equipment, green rooftops, and transparent walls to minimize artificial lighting. “Indeed, when fully built-out, Seaport Square may be one of the largest sustainable neighborhoods in the country,’’ he wrote.
The project needs other state and local approvals. The developers expect to start one of the residential buildings in mid-2011. Yesterday, they pledged to help advance Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s goal of making the area a so-called innovation district that houses technology and medical firms and housing for their workers.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Seaport Square wins a key approval
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | August 18, 2010
Seaport Square has received a major environmental approval from the state that allows the developers to build buildings, parks, and boulevards that will transform a 20-block swath of the South Boston Waterfront.
Environmental Secretary Ian Bowles determined the proposed project would comply with state regulations and benefit the public by revitalizing 23 acres in a district still dominated by parking lots.
The project calls for residences, stores, offices, and hotels between the federal courthouse and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Several new parks, streets, and sidewalks would connect the property to the waterfront. The developers, doing business as Seaport Square LLC, include commercial builder Gale International, Morgan Stanley, and retail developer W/S Associates.
Bowles wrote that the project will “set a new standard for energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction.’’ Buildings are to have energy-saving heating and ventilation equipment, green rooftops, and transparent walls to minimize artificial lighting. “Indeed, when fully built-out, Seaport Square may be one of the largest sustainable neighborhoods in the country,’’ he wrote.
The project needs other state and local approvals. The developers expect to start one of the residential buildings in mid-2011. Yesterday, they pledged to help advance Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s goal of making the area a so-called innovation district that houses technology and medical firms and housing for their workers.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Lansdowne Pub to switch to plastic cups and bottles ahead of September licensiing hear
The Boston Globe
Pub switches to plastic cups after death
By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent | August 18, 2010
The Lansdowne Street pub where a man was killed by a broken beer glass early Saturday morning will switch to plastic cups and nonglass bottles until a city licensing hearing next month, a practice Boston officials have used elsewhere to reduce injuries from bar fights.
At the city’s request, Lansdowne Pub owner Patrick Lyons, who owns several popular restaurants and bars in Boston, agreed to the switch, said Patricia Malone, Boston’s director of consumer affairs and licensing.
Malone said the bar will not use glass at least until its licensing hearing on Sept. 15, which the city called in response to last weekend’s death. Hector Guardiola, 25, of South Boston, allegedly threw a glass that shattered, fatally injuring Michael DiMaria, a 23-year-old New York man. At the hearing, the city could ban glass permanently at the pub.
Malone said Boston has banned glassware at about 12 other bars or restaurants.
“It’s not a movement; it’s been on a case-by-case basis,’’ she said. “If you’re constantly seeing beer bottles flying and people being injured, you have an issue to deal with. And I deal with it by saying, ‘You’re going to plastic, and that’s the way it’s going to be.’ No one has ever fought me on it.’’
The Lansdowne Pub said yesterday that management feels “a tremendous sense of sadness’’ about DiMaria’s death.
“We have and will continue to cooperate with the city and the Boston Police Department and have committed to cease the use of glassware effective Wednesday evening, pending the outcome of this investigation,’’ the statement said.
About half of such bans on glassware at other establishments began as self-imposed, Malone said. Slainte Bar & Bistro in South Boston voluntarily agreed to switch to plastic cups last year during a licensing hearing that was called following a number of glass-related assaults there, Malone said.
“Most of them get it,’’ she said. “They recognize I’m going to do something, so they sometimes can be very proactive on their own.’’
Slainte’s ban was solely on glassware though, not glass bottles. Lyons has agreed to use neither glassware nor bottles at the Lansdowne Pub for at least the next month.
For bar owners, there are complications involved in switching to all plastic, said Kevin Maguire, bar manager at the White Horse Tavern in Allston, which still serves in glass. Coolers are designed for bottles, so cans would not work; aluminum bottles are more expensive than glass, so customers would feel the pinch; and plastic cups are just tacky, he said. And, Maguire said, if the bar had to resort to pouring every glass bottle into a plastic cup, revenues would take a hit.
“That would be very time-consuming,’’ he said. “They’re probably crazy busy during Red Sox games, and that would draw back from the speed they’d be able to serve a packed house.’’
Malone said she has handed down glass bans to places that have had repeat problems with assaults or one particularly serious incident. She acknowledged, that banning glass is not a panacea to bars’ late-night problems.
Jack Nicas can be reached at jnicas@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Pub switches to plastic cups after death
By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent | August 18, 2010
The Lansdowne Street pub where a man was killed by a broken beer glass early Saturday morning will switch to plastic cups and nonglass bottles until a city licensing hearing next month, a practice Boston officials have used elsewhere to reduce injuries from bar fights.
At the city’s request, Lansdowne Pub owner Patrick Lyons, who owns several popular restaurants and bars in Boston, agreed to the switch, said Patricia Malone, Boston’s director of consumer affairs and licensing.
Malone said the bar will not use glass at least until its licensing hearing on Sept. 15, which the city called in response to last weekend’s death. Hector Guardiola, 25, of South Boston, allegedly threw a glass that shattered, fatally injuring Michael DiMaria, a 23-year-old New York man. At the hearing, the city could ban glass permanently at the pub.
Malone said Boston has banned glassware at about 12 other bars or restaurants.
“It’s not a movement; it’s been on a case-by-case basis,’’ she said. “If you’re constantly seeing beer bottles flying and people being injured, you have an issue to deal with. And I deal with it by saying, ‘You’re going to plastic, and that’s the way it’s going to be.’ No one has ever fought me on it.’’
The Lansdowne Pub said yesterday that management feels “a tremendous sense of sadness’’ about DiMaria’s death.
“We have and will continue to cooperate with the city and the Boston Police Department and have committed to cease the use of glassware effective Wednesday evening, pending the outcome of this investigation,’’ the statement said.
About half of such bans on glassware at other establishments began as self-imposed, Malone said. Slainte Bar & Bistro in South Boston voluntarily agreed to switch to plastic cups last year during a licensing hearing that was called following a number of glass-related assaults there, Malone said.
“Most of them get it,’’ she said. “They recognize I’m going to do something, so they sometimes can be very proactive on their own.’’
Slainte’s ban was solely on glassware though, not glass bottles. Lyons has agreed to use neither glassware nor bottles at the Lansdowne Pub for at least the next month.
For bar owners, there are complications involved in switching to all plastic, said Kevin Maguire, bar manager at the White Horse Tavern in Allston, which still serves in glass. Coolers are designed for bottles, so cans would not work; aluminum bottles are more expensive than glass, so customers would feel the pinch; and plastic cups are just tacky, he said. And, Maguire said, if the bar had to resort to pouring every glass bottle into a plastic cup, revenues would take a hit.
“That would be very time-consuming,’’ he said. “They’re probably crazy busy during Red Sox games, and that would draw back from the speed they’d be able to serve a packed house.’’
Malone said she has handed down glass bans to places that have had repeat problems with assaults or one particularly serious incident. She acknowledged, that banning glass is not a panacea to bars’ late-night problems.
Jack Nicas can be reached at jnicas@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Ticket Scalpers feeling the effects of the Sox, economy
The Boston Globe
Losses are piling up for scalpers
By Robert Mays, Globe Correspondent | August 17, 2010
A streetcorner outside Fenway Park is an odd place to receive an education. But as Daisuke Matsuzaka struggles through another first inning inside the park during a recent Red Sox game, a crude course in economics is under way off Brookline Avenue.
There are buyers and sellers, neither of whom is willing to budge. The scene is something of a capitalist staring contest, an exercise in supply and demand. Except here, supply is shirtless in a backwards Red Sox cap, a lit cigarette in one hand, and a dozen tickets fanned out like a hand of gin rummy in the other.
In a few hours, not long before David Ortiz will give the Sox a 5-4 walkoff win over the Tigers, there will be an announcement over the public address system in the press box.
“Today’s paid attendance is 37,498,’’ it will say. “This is the 602d straight sellout at Fenway Park, dating to May 15, 2003.’’
For more than seven years, the Red Sox have claimed that for every home game, the number of tickets sold and distributed has eclipsed the seating capacity of America’s Most Beloved Ballpark. But recently, the task of filling those seats has grown more difficult. Television ratings are down, and marketing campaigns have been revved up.
The Sox are not the hot ticket they were five years ago, and the scalpers on Brookline Ave. are feeling it, too.
Rich, who declines to give his last name, has been scalping tickets for the better part of a decade. He is originally from Charlestown and says he used to work with heavy machinery until an accident left him with a titanium plate in his neck. When a few acquaintances first asked if he would be interested in the ticket business, he balked.
“I thought, ‘How could anyone make a living doing this?’ ’’ he said.
He found out fast. Rich claims he made about $100,000 in his first year re-selling tickets to NASCAR events and Sox games. This year, though, he says he’ll be lucky to bring in one-third of that.
A fellow re-seller overhears Rich’s claim.
“[Down] 70 percent? It’s way worse than that,’’ said the man.
The other scalper is silver-haired with a belly and a limp. He’s wearing a Red Sox jersey and isn’t interested in saying much more.
“Things are bad enough already,’’ he says.
Business is better on this Saturday. Rich sells his 15 tickets in less than half an hour. Despite that success, he repeatedly cautions that that was a rarity. Come back during the week, he says. He claims that several times the previous week he was left holding a dozen tickets.
A couple of blocks farther north on Brookline Ave., this season’s harsh market is more evident. Rich’s tickets were standing room and were going for about $100 each.
On this corner, the available seats are field boxes and loges. This is the high-end stuff, another scalper, a man in a gray cotton T-shirt, says. And the high-end stuff is hard to move.
Many of the buyers here have leather Blackberry cases clipped to their belts and shirts as crisp as the $100 bills they slide from their wallets.
A customer with a woman and children in tow approaches one of the scalpers and inquires about the price.
“One-fifty,’’ the scalper replies.
The customer nods. The number seems fair. He reaches for his back pocket. As the scalper asks how many the man needs, the misunderstanding becomes clear.
“Wait, 150 each?’’
The customer shakes his head and goes on his way.
Things have changed
Rich wistfully talks about the pre-championship Red Sox and laments the way things are now. Back then, a $50 ticket went for $200, easy, he says. Now there are days where he struggles to get 50 percent above face value.
The scalpers have different theories for why things have gotten so bad.
Some blame Ace Tickets, the secondary ticketing company that set up an office on Brookline Ave. five years ago.
“Ace Tickets, they’re the real scalpers,’’ the silver-haired man in the Red Sox jersey says as he walks away after declining to be further interviewed.
But Ace Tickets charges similar prices to the scalpers for similar seats, and, contrary to what some scalpers claim, the owner of the company, Jim Holzman, says it has no priority access to tickets, simply re-selling tickets sold to it, often by season-ticket holders. Ace, too, has been left holding tickets this season, sometimes as many as 100 per game.
Some blame a rise in ticket prices. A seat at Fenway Park is the second-priciest ticket in the majors (a $52.32 average; the Cubs tops the majors at $52.56), and in order to make a profit, re-sellers have to adjust as the price changes. With the nation’s economy struggling, Rich believes the chance to enjoy a night at the ballpark is no longer available to everyone.
“Most people make $500 a week,’’ he says. “They just can’t [afford it] anymore.’’
One thing all the scalpers agree on is something they have noticed the last few years. Since 2007, they say, many people have become sick of the Red Sox.
“Red Sox fans are spoiled,’’ the man in the gray cotton T-shirt says. “They win two World Series, and nobody cares anymore. There’s no desperation.’’
Some new ideas
The new market has called for new tactics. Rich says that years ago, the scalpers would just stand under the sign at Copperfield’s Bar just past Yawkey Way.
With tickets scarce, people would come to them. Now, few scalpers ever are camped out for long.
The shirtless man in the backwards cap is the most active among them.
Four hours before the first pitch, he’s standing at the top of the steps of the Kenmore T Station. His voice echoes down the stairs and off the walls: “I need Red Sox tickets! Does anyone have extras?’’
He repeats the request 16 times in one minute, speeding up when the foot traffic at the station becomes heavier.
Ten minutes before game time, he briskly moves with the throng flowing over the thin patch of sidewalk off Brookline Ave. over the Mass Pike. With game time closing in, the question has changed.
“Does anyone need tickets? Anyone need tickets?’’
Now, it’s the middle of the first inning, and he’s one of several sellers occupying the corner off Brookline Ave. The game has started but his price remains fixed. His field box seats, with a face value of $52 apiece, are going for $150.
Like many of his colleagues, he is having trouble moving the seats. To a casual onlooker, the solution seems simple. Drop the price. But when the idea is brought up, the man in the gray cotton T-shirt quickly shoots it down.
“Let me ask you something,’’ he says. “If you owned a store, and you sold milk, and all your milk was about to go bad, and everyone held out until the last minute to buy your milk, and you dropped the price, what would happen?’’
He doesn’t wait for an answer. He explains that no one would be willing to buy milk at full price. The integrity of the product would be compromised.
So the shirtless man in the backwards cap waits, eyes wide. Every 30 seconds or so, he approaches a bystander. This time, it’s a man in a black polo shirt and khaki shorts.
“You need tickets?’’ the scalper asks.
“Not yet.’’
“All right,’’ the scalper says as he walks away. “I can go all day.’’
Robert Mays can be reached at rmays@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Losses are piling up for scalpers
By Robert Mays, Globe Correspondent | August 17, 2010
A streetcorner outside Fenway Park is an odd place to receive an education. But as Daisuke Matsuzaka struggles through another first inning inside the park during a recent Red Sox game, a crude course in economics is under way off Brookline Avenue.
There are buyers and sellers, neither of whom is willing to budge. The scene is something of a capitalist staring contest, an exercise in supply and demand. Except here, supply is shirtless in a backwards Red Sox cap, a lit cigarette in one hand, and a dozen tickets fanned out like a hand of gin rummy in the other.
In a few hours, not long before David Ortiz will give the Sox a 5-4 walkoff win over the Tigers, there will be an announcement over the public address system in the press box.
“Today’s paid attendance is 37,498,’’ it will say. “This is the 602d straight sellout at Fenway Park, dating to May 15, 2003.’’
For more than seven years, the Red Sox have claimed that for every home game, the number of tickets sold and distributed has eclipsed the seating capacity of America’s Most Beloved Ballpark. But recently, the task of filling those seats has grown more difficult. Television ratings are down, and marketing campaigns have been revved up.
The Sox are not the hot ticket they were five years ago, and the scalpers on Brookline Ave. are feeling it, too.
Rich, who declines to give his last name, has been scalping tickets for the better part of a decade. He is originally from Charlestown and says he used to work with heavy machinery until an accident left him with a titanium plate in his neck. When a few acquaintances first asked if he would be interested in the ticket business, he balked.
“I thought, ‘How could anyone make a living doing this?’ ’’ he said.
He found out fast. Rich claims he made about $100,000 in his first year re-selling tickets to NASCAR events and Sox games. This year, though, he says he’ll be lucky to bring in one-third of that.
A fellow re-seller overhears Rich’s claim.
“[Down] 70 percent? It’s way worse than that,’’ said the man.
The other scalper is silver-haired with a belly and a limp. He’s wearing a Red Sox jersey and isn’t interested in saying much more.
“Things are bad enough already,’’ he says.
Business is better on this Saturday. Rich sells his 15 tickets in less than half an hour. Despite that success, he repeatedly cautions that that was a rarity. Come back during the week, he says. He claims that several times the previous week he was left holding a dozen tickets.
A couple of blocks farther north on Brookline Ave., this season’s harsh market is more evident. Rich’s tickets were standing room and were going for about $100 each.
On this corner, the available seats are field boxes and loges. This is the high-end stuff, another scalper, a man in a gray cotton T-shirt, says. And the high-end stuff is hard to move.
Many of the buyers here have leather Blackberry cases clipped to their belts and shirts as crisp as the $100 bills they slide from their wallets.
A customer with a woman and children in tow approaches one of the scalpers and inquires about the price.
“One-fifty,’’ the scalper replies.
The customer nods. The number seems fair. He reaches for his back pocket. As the scalper asks how many the man needs, the misunderstanding becomes clear.
“Wait, 150 each?’’
The customer shakes his head and goes on his way.
Things have changed
Rich wistfully talks about the pre-championship Red Sox and laments the way things are now. Back then, a $50 ticket went for $200, easy, he says. Now there are days where he struggles to get 50 percent above face value.
The scalpers have different theories for why things have gotten so bad.
Some blame Ace Tickets, the secondary ticketing company that set up an office on Brookline Ave. five years ago.
“Ace Tickets, they’re the real scalpers,’’ the silver-haired man in the Red Sox jersey says as he walks away after declining to be further interviewed.
But Ace Tickets charges similar prices to the scalpers for similar seats, and, contrary to what some scalpers claim, the owner of the company, Jim Holzman, says it has no priority access to tickets, simply re-selling tickets sold to it, often by season-ticket holders. Ace, too, has been left holding tickets this season, sometimes as many as 100 per game.
Some blame a rise in ticket prices. A seat at Fenway Park is the second-priciest ticket in the majors (a $52.32 average; the Cubs tops the majors at $52.56), and in order to make a profit, re-sellers have to adjust as the price changes. With the nation’s economy struggling, Rich believes the chance to enjoy a night at the ballpark is no longer available to everyone.
“Most people make $500 a week,’’ he says. “They just can’t [afford it] anymore.’’
One thing all the scalpers agree on is something they have noticed the last few years. Since 2007, they say, many people have become sick of the Red Sox.
“Red Sox fans are spoiled,’’ the man in the gray cotton T-shirt says. “They win two World Series, and nobody cares anymore. There’s no desperation.’’
Some new ideas
The new market has called for new tactics. Rich says that years ago, the scalpers would just stand under the sign at Copperfield’s Bar just past Yawkey Way.
With tickets scarce, people would come to them. Now, few scalpers ever are camped out for long.
The shirtless man in the backwards cap is the most active among them.
Four hours before the first pitch, he’s standing at the top of the steps of the Kenmore T Station. His voice echoes down the stairs and off the walls: “I need Red Sox tickets! Does anyone have extras?’’
He repeats the request 16 times in one minute, speeding up when the foot traffic at the station becomes heavier.
Ten minutes before game time, he briskly moves with the throng flowing over the thin patch of sidewalk off Brookline Ave. over the Mass Pike. With game time closing in, the question has changed.
“Does anyone need tickets? Anyone need tickets?’’
Now, it’s the middle of the first inning, and he’s one of several sellers occupying the corner off Brookline Ave. The game has started but his price remains fixed. His field box seats, with a face value of $52 apiece, are going for $150.
Like many of his colleagues, he is having trouble moving the seats. To a casual onlooker, the solution seems simple. Drop the price. But when the idea is brought up, the man in the gray cotton T-shirt quickly shoots it down.
“Let me ask you something,’’ he says. “If you owned a store, and you sold milk, and all your milk was about to go bad, and everyone held out until the last minute to buy your milk, and you dropped the price, what would happen?’’
He doesn’t wait for an answer. He explains that no one would be willing to buy milk at full price. The integrity of the product would be compromised.
So the shirtless man in the backwards cap waits, eyes wide. Every 30 seconds or so, he approaches a bystander. This time, it’s a man in a black polo shirt and khaki shorts.
“You need tickets?’’ the scalper asks.
“Not yet.’’
“All right,’’ the scalper says as he walks away. “I can go all day.’’
Robert Mays can be reached at rmays@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Pat Moscaritolo, GBCVB head interview in Boston Herald
Hub hospitality chief: I love N.Y.
By Frank Quaratiello / Frank Talk | Friday, August 13, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Photo
Photo by Angela Rowlings
Restaurant Week, which kicks off Sunday, is celebrating its 10th year and Patrick Moscaritolo, the longtime president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, is notching his 20th year on the job.
Despite the recession, Moscaritolo said membership in the nonprofit bureau is booming and he has even had to turn some businesses away that he feels he can’t help. The bureau gets the bulk of its funding from members’ dues and the rest from a portion of the rooms and meals tax, he said.
Moscaritolo spends his workdays trying to promote Greater Boston as a tourist destination and develop the Hub’s $7.5 billion visitors industry, but the Herald asked the self-described “city guy” where he likes to go when he leaves Boston.
So, Pat, what are your favorite places and what do you like about them?
Well, Phoenix is very high on my list, because that’s where my son is and where my two grandkids are - so we go there a couple times a year to visit them and I also work very closely with my counterpart at the Phoenix Convention and Visitor Bureau. We’re involved in a couple of national associations together and a couple of projects and we do fund raising to raise money for scholarships for kids that are going to go on in the hospitality industry.
So, Phoenix because of my son and, interestingly, the other city is New York.
So you have a dirty little secret. Let’s hear it .
A dirty little secret. That’s right (laughs). Well, actually when you look at, when you analyze what drives people to destinations in our industry, for leisure travelers, somewhere around 75 to 85 percent of the decisions about where to go on vacation are made by the female in the family. And then come the kids. So it’s mom and the kids. And then dads kind of always hold up the last 5 to 10 percent of the decision. So, the mothers decide where they want to go.
In my case, my wife is from New York. So she grew up outside of New York City, but I think from 10 years old on she used to spend her summers in New York with her aunt, so she has a family connection. And my sister now has lived in New York since, I think, 1999. So I have a family connection.
We started out going to New York a couple times a year because of the family connection, but then I came to appreciate all New York really has to offer as a destination, so I’m one of those people.
I’m even now comfortable wearing my Red Sox [team stats] hat there. For the first few years, I wasn’t.
So what do you do when you’re there, other than root for the Yankees?
We go for some of the special events. So, for example, we go every year sometime around the Christmas holidays, because we go to Radio City Music Hall. That was one of the things my wife always wants to do. We started out celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in 2000. We go back every year. It’s become a tradition to go to Radio City, see the Rockettes, see the Christmas lights and then take in the theater. We discovered “Jersey Boys” there, which is such a hit now. It was here in Boston last year and it’s coming back in January of 2011. It’s a great show and we basically just stumbled on it while we were in New York City. . . .
What attracts me to New York is like what attracts people to Boston. It’s basically these kind of unique family-related memories and the kinds of things you can do in New York that are one of a kind. So that’s a big part of the reason we go. So I’m committed.
We usually go, like I said, at Christmas time, the first or second week in December and then we’ll usually go back again in the early spring and we try to take in a Red Sox-Yankees game. Or if we’re not able to do that, we’ll go in the early fall. We’ve gone a couple of times to see the Patriots [team stats] play the Jets in the old stadium so we’ll hopefully be able to make a trip to see them play in their new stadium.
Do you wear your Patriots gear?
Yes, but the first time we went with some friends of ours from New York. We were sitting around all of these Jets fans.
And my wife is a character. She was rooting for the Patriots. And the guy next to her said, “Why are you rooting for the Patriots?”
“I’m Tom Brady [stats]’s mother,” (she said).
“Oh, oh, OK.”
Then, she’s like going ahead and she’s a fan, fan. I mean she will jump out of her seat. She knows the game. . . .
Then all of a sudden, other people in the section were like, “Hey sit down, why are you rooting for the Patriots?”
And the people on either side of us are like, “Shhh, that’s Tom Brady’s mother.”
And I’ll never forget that because I was like, “Oh my god, Liz, we’re supposed to be sitting here quietly, not rooting and everything, but she is.” And she grew up in New York.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1274272
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By Frank Quaratiello / Frank Talk | Friday, August 13, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
Photo
Photo by Angela Rowlings
Restaurant Week, which kicks off Sunday, is celebrating its 10th year and Patrick Moscaritolo, the longtime president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, is notching his 20th year on the job.
Despite the recession, Moscaritolo said membership in the nonprofit bureau is booming and he has even had to turn some businesses away that he feels he can’t help. The bureau gets the bulk of its funding from members’ dues and the rest from a portion of the rooms and meals tax, he said.
Moscaritolo spends his workdays trying to promote Greater Boston as a tourist destination and develop the Hub’s $7.5 billion visitors industry, but the Herald asked the self-described “city guy” where he likes to go when he leaves Boston.
So, Pat, what are your favorite places and what do you like about them?
Well, Phoenix is very high on my list, because that’s where my son is and where my two grandkids are - so we go there a couple times a year to visit them and I also work very closely with my counterpart at the Phoenix Convention and Visitor Bureau. We’re involved in a couple of national associations together and a couple of projects and we do fund raising to raise money for scholarships for kids that are going to go on in the hospitality industry.
So, Phoenix because of my son and, interestingly, the other city is New York.
So you have a dirty little secret. Let’s hear it .
A dirty little secret. That’s right (laughs). Well, actually when you look at, when you analyze what drives people to destinations in our industry, for leisure travelers, somewhere around 75 to 85 percent of the decisions about where to go on vacation are made by the female in the family. And then come the kids. So it’s mom and the kids. And then dads kind of always hold up the last 5 to 10 percent of the decision. So, the mothers decide where they want to go.
In my case, my wife is from New York. So she grew up outside of New York City, but I think from 10 years old on she used to spend her summers in New York with her aunt, so she has a family connection. And my sister now has lived in New York since, I think, 1999. So I have a family connection.
We started out going to New York a couple times a year because of the family connection, but then I came to appreciate all New York really has to offer as a destination, so I’m one of those people.
I’m even now comfortable wearing my Red Sox [team stats] hat there. For the first few years, I wasn’t.
So what do you do when you’re there, other than root for the Yankees?
We go for some of the special events. So, for example, we go every year sometime around the Christmas holidays, because we go to Radio City Music Hall. That was one of the things my wife always wants to do. We started out celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in 2000. We go back every year. It’s become a tradition to go to Radio City, see the Rockettes, see the Christmas lights and then take in the theater. We discovered “Jersey Boys” there, which is such a hit now. It was here in Boston last year and it’s coming back in January of 2011. It’s a great show and we basically just stumbled on it while we were in New York City. . . .
What attracts me to New York is like what attracts people to Boston. It’s basically these kind of unique family-related memories and the kinds of things you can do in New York that are one of a kind. So that’s a big part of the reason we go. So I’m committed.
We usually go, like I said, at Christmas time, the first or second week in December and then we’ll usually go back again in the early spring and we try to take in a Red Sox-Yankees game. Or if we’re not able to do that, we’ll go in the early fall. We’ve gone a couple of times to see the Patriots [team stats] play the Jets in the old stadium so we’ll hopefully be able to make a trip to see them play in their new stadium.
Do you wear your Patriots gear?
Yes, but the first time we went with some friends of ours from New York. We were sitting around all of these Jets fans.
And my wife is a character. She was rooting for the Patriots. And the guy next to her said, “Why are you rooting for the Patriots?”
“I’m Tom Brady [stats]’s mother,” (she said).
“Oh, oh, OK.”
Then, she’s like going ahead and she’s a fan, fan. I mean she will jump out of her seat. She knows the game. . . .
Then all of a sudden, other people in the section were like, “Hey sit down, why are you rooting for the Patriots?”
And the people on either side of us are like, “Shhh, that’s Tom Brady’s mother.”
And I’ll never forget that because I was like, “Oh my god, Liz, we’re supposed to be sitting here quietly, not rooting and everything, but she is.” And she grew up in New York.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1274272
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MFA hosts show of Richard Avedon's fashion photos
Artist’s sense of style simply timeless
By Arthur Pollock | Sunday, August 15, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Arts & Culture
The Museum of Fine Arts is hosting another don’t-miss show, the first retrospective of Richard Avedon’s career in fashion photography. This mid-20th century pioneer revolutionized the way fashion photographers work, replacing formal, mannequinlike poses with dynamic images of models who move and swirl, dance and leap.
Avedon’s father owned a women’s clothing store in New York City, where Richard developed an interest in fashion photography. He got his start in the ’40s when he was assigned to the photography division of the Merchant Marine taking crew ID pictures.
At age 21, he boldly approached Bonwit Teller and asked for a few models and some clothes. He sold his first photo for $7.50 and was soon working for Harper’s Bazaar. They sent him to Paris, where he made his reputation, reconstructing the pre-war glamour of the city with original, playful images in a photojournalistic style: photos that show the swirl of a skirt as passers-by look on; a woman in mid-step, all in black, her arms and leg outstretched in precise geometric angles; a model leaping (floating?) off a curb, holding an umbrella.
The pictures look stunning today. One can only imagine the reaction to them half a century ago. Unless you are of a certain age and were a devoted reader of fashion magazines, you’ve probably never seen these images. Many are dramatically displayed by spotlight, to great effect, in a gallery entitled “Paris at Night.”
By the late ’50s Avedon was arguably the most famous photographer in the world, Ansel Adams being his only competition. One of his boyhood idols, Fred Astaire, played a photographer loosely based on Avedon’s career in the 1957 movie “Funny Girl,” staring Audrey Hepburn. Avedon said, “I’d learned to be me by pretending to be him, and then I had to teach him how to pretend to be me.”
His work in the ’60s captured the tenor of the times. He was the first prominent photographer to use nonwhite models, turning Donyale Luna into the first major African-American high-fashion model in U.S. fashion magazines.
The drug culture makes an appearance in a 1968 photo of a sun-kissed, bare-shouldered Lauren Hutton, eyes closed as if in a trance, about to take a drag on a joint. Being photographed by Avedon brought celebrity to models such as Hutton, Angelica Huston and Twiggy, among others.
Avedon did compelling work in later decades. There’s an exquisite image of Stephanie Seymour from 1994, in a black dress and feather hat. The focus is soft, she has a faraway look in her eyes and seems to be falling. But she’s falling so gracefully, so balletically, she could be the dying swan of “Swan Lake.”
You don’t have to be a fashionista or even care a whit about the world of fashion to appreciate Avedon’s artistry and creativity.
He draws you in with his vibrant, original images. “You can’t separate fashion from the world. Fashion is the way we live,” he said.
Well, maybe not for all of us, but viewing Avedon’s work makes you want to be part of that fantasy world, if only for a little while.
“Avedon Fashion: 1944-2000” is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts through Jan. 17, 2011.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1274664
By Arthur Pollock | Sunday, August 15, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Arts & Culture
The Museum of Fine Arts is hosting another don’t-miss show, the first retrospective of Richard Avedon’s career in fashion photography. This mid-20th century pioneer revolutionized the way fashion photographers work, replacing formal, mannequinlike poses with dynamic images of models who move and swirl, dance and leap.
Avedon’s father owned a women’s clothing store in New York City, where Richard developed an interest in fashion photography. He got his start in the ’40s when he was assigned to the photography division of the Merchant Marine taking crew ID pictures.
At age 21, he boldly approached Bonwit Teller and asked for a few models and some clothes. He sold his first photo for $7.50 and was soon working for Harper’s Bazaar. They sent him to Paris, where he made his reputation, reconstructing the pre-war glamour of the city with original, playful images in a photojournalistic style: photos that show the swirl of a skirt as passers-by look on; a woman in mid-step, all in black, her arms and leg outstretched in precise geometric angles; a model leaping (floating?) off a curb, holding an umbrella.
The pictures look stunning today. One can only imagine the reaction to them half a century ago. Unless you are of a certain age and were a devoted reader of fashion magazines, you’ve probably never seen these images. Many are dramatically displayed by spotlight, to great effect, in a gallery entitled “Paris at Night.”
By the late ’50s Avedon was arguably the most famous photographer in the world, Ansel Adams being his only competition. One of his boyhood idols, Fred Astaire, played a photographer loosely based on Avedon’s career in the 1957 movie “Funny Girl,” staring Audrey Hepburn. Avedon said, “I’d learned to be me by pretending to be him, and then I had to teach him how to pretend to be me.”
His work in the ’60s captured the tenor of the times. He was the first prominent photographer to use nonwhite models, turning Donyale Luna into the first major African-American high-fashion model in U.S. fashion magazines.
The drug culture makes an appearance in a 1968 photo of a sun-kissed, bare-shouldered Lauren Hutton, eyes closed as if in a trance, about to take a drag on a joint. Being photographed by Avedon brought celebrity to models such as Hutton, Angelica Huston and Twiggy, among others.
Avedon did compelling work in later decades. There’s an exquisite image of Stephanie Seymour from 1994, in a black dress and feather hat. The focus is soft, she has a faraway look in her eyes and seems to be falling. But she’s falling so gracefully, so balletically, she could be the dying swan of “Swan Lake.”
You don’t have to be a fashionista or even care a whit about the world of fashion to appreciate Avedon’s artistry and creativity.
He draws you in with his vibrant, original images. “You can’t separate fashion from the world. Fashion is the way we live,” he said.
Well, maybe not for all of us, but viewing Avedon’s work makes you want to be part of that fantasy world, if only for a little while.
“Avedon Fashion: 1944-2000” is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts through Jan. 17, 2011.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1274664
Monday, August 16, 2010
Down Ultra Lounge opens below Howl at the Moon
Urban Daddy
Getting Down
A New Hidden Club in FiDi
Another Friday lies at your feet, ready for your command.
And tonight promises the kind of cool evening perfect for sliding into your slickest threads, grabbing your entourage and sniffing out the newest hot spot in town.
Fortunately, we found it for you...
Introducing Down Ultra Lounge, the brand-new, semi-hidden subterranean nightclub underneath the piano-karaoke bar Howl at the Moon, now open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in the Financial District.
The first time in, you’ll need to demonstrate a certain level of location-navigating authority, so let us help: simply walk in like you’re headed to Howl, bang a right and head down the mysterious stairs that look like they lead to a janitor’s closet.
What you’ll find waiting there is the kind of place you could imagine as the LED-illuminated hangout for some kind of Russian crime syndicate underboss. Think white exposed brick, two DJ booths on opposite sides of the room (oh yes, there will be battles) and a white-and-leathery lounge area for VIP-ing.
And knowing your proclivity for moonwalking, break dancing and other booty-shaking maneuvers, you’ll be pleased to hear about the ample floor space (the entire space fits 200). Combine this with a mix of Top 40, R&B and old-school hip-hop, and you’re looking at an underground lair that has the potential to become Dance Party USA.
Only more lair-y.
Read more: http://www.urbandaddy.com/bos/nightlife/11019/Down_Ultra_Lounge_A_New_Hidden_Club_in_FiDi_Boston_BOS_Financial_District_Nightclub#ixzz0wme865V4
Getting Down
A New Hidden Club in FiDi
Another Friday lies at your feet, ready for your command.
And tonight promises the kind of cool evening perfect for sliding into your slickest threads, grabbing your entourage and sniffing out the newest hot spot in town.
Fortunately, we found it for you...
Introducing Down Ultra Lounge, the brand-new, semi-hidden subterranean nightclub underneath the piano-karaoke bar Howl at the Moon, now open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in the Financial District.
The first time in, you’ll need to demonstrate a certain level of location-navigating authority, so let us help: simply walk in like you’re headed to Howl, bang a right and head down the mysterious stairs that look like they lead to a janitor’s closet.
What you’ll find waiting there is the kind of place you could imagine as the LED-illuminated hangout for some kind of Russian crime syndicate underboss. Think white exposed brick, two DJ booths on opposite sides of the room (oh yes, there will be battles) and a white-and-leathery lounge area for VIP-ing.
And knowing your proclivity for moonwalking, break dancing and other booty-shaking maneuvers, you’ll be pleased to hear about the ample floor space (the entire space fits 200). Combine this with a mix of Top 40, R&B and old-school hip-hop, and you’re looking at an underground lair that has the potential to become Dance Party USA.
Only more lair-y.
Read more: http://www.urbandaddy.com/bos/nightlife/11019/Down_Ultra_Lounge_A_New_Hidden_Club_in_FiDi_Boston_BOS_Financial_District_Nightclub#ixzz0wme865V4
Suspect in Lansdowne Pub killing to be arraigned today; victim identified
Victim in Boston nightclub fatality identified as New York man
August 16, 2010 11:11 AM
By Globe Staff
The man suspected of killing another man in a pub confrontation early Saturday morning is scheduled to be arraigned in Roxbury Municipal Court today.
Hector Guardiola, 25, of Boston, has been charged with manslaughter and two counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon after he allegedly threw a glass or a bottle that shattered and sliced a 25-year-old man's neck at The Lansdowne pub Saturday morning.
The man later died after he was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was identified today as Michael Dimaria, 23, of Hicksville, N.Y., according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office.
It is not clear whether Dimaria was Guardiola's intended target.
The circumstances of Dimaria's death remained unclear today. The Globe reported this weekend that the incident stemmed from a fight at the pub between two groups.
People who were in the pub said on Sunday that it quickly transformed from a loud, crowded club with a live rock band to a crime scene.
Jerry Remy's looks to expand to Fall River
Grub Street Boston
Jerry Remy's Eyes Fall River
By Leila Cohan-Miccio
Jerry Remy's is in negotiations to open in Fall River's Quaker Fabrics building, reports the Herald News. For those of you keeping track at home, this puts the Jerry Remy's Expansion Plans Count at three: a 300-seat rooftop patio for the Fenway location, a 5,000 square foot outpost in Liberty Wharf, and now, a project out in Fall River. Hey, Remy's the president of Red Sox Nation: just consider this his manifest destiny.
Jerry Remy's Eyes Fall River
By Leila Cohan-Miccio
Jerry Remy's is in negotiations to open in Fall River's Quaker Fabrics building, reports the Herald News. For those of you keeping track at home, this puts the Jerry Remy's Expansion Plans Count at three: a 300-seat rooftop patio for the Fenway location, a 5,000 square foot outpost in Liberty Wharf, and now, a project out in Fall River. Hey, Remy's the president of Red Sox Nation: just consider this his manifest destiny.
Stuart Street Playhouse is Boston's exclusive art-house cinema
Stuart Street Playhouse is marquee destination for art-house cinema fans
By Brett Michel | Sunday, August 15, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Arts & Culture
The Stuart Street Playhouse, the only art-house cinema in Boston proper, is nestled away on the corner of Charles and Stuart streets in the Theater District. It’s one of Boston’s newer - and simultaneously older - moviegoing destinations.
The site had been dormant since 1996, when the former Cinema 57 went dark after final showings of “The Great White Hype” and “Original Gangstas.”
It wasn’t always this way.
When Ben Sack originally opened the twin-screen Sack Cinema 57 in 1971, it featured some of the era’s biggest hits. Such films as “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Exorcist” had their local premieres here, as seen in the gallery of photos adorning the lobby of the renovated Stuart Street Playhouse, as it’s now known. The pictures showcase the movie-theater marquees of a thriving, bygone era in a city that once offered film lovers more than a dozen theater options - from the Astor to the Beacon Hill, the Saxon to the Cheri, the Savoy to the Music Hall.
The latter two live on as performing arts theaters: Citi Wang and the Opera House, respectively.
Stuart Street Playhouse also had functioned as a live theater venue from 2000 to 2009, until David Bramante took over as operator, keeping the name and reopening the complex as a single-screen, 435-seat space (with an eye toward expansion) last Oct. 30.
Bramante, who also operates West Newton Cinema, thought the time was right to bring an independent cinema back to Boston, so residents wouldn’t have to trek to Cambridge or Brookline to catch the latest art-house offerings.
Nine months later, has Bramante realized his dream?
The theater is currently screening the Italian drama “I Am Love.” And from Sept. 17 to 23, Stuart Street will host the Boston Film Festival, now in its 26th year.
Bramante also adds a little magic - literally - with a monthly staging of Backstage Magic, an act of intimate illusions performed by illusionist Eric Gagne in the Playhouse lobby, converted for the evening into a black box theater.
Still, “We’re not doing the business I thought we would do,” Bramante confides. Though the economy hasn’t helped, he’s learned routines are hard to break.
“They’re in the habit of going to Kendall, or Coolidge, or going to the West Newton,” Bramante said of moviegoers. He also acknowledged the difficulty in building a market practically from scratch.
“There was no theater, and now there is a theater. We try to get people into the building, and through the door.”
He caught a bad break this summer, when noise from construction on the Radisson Hotel garage ramp during the day forced the theater to show films only at night. But a full daily schedule of films will resume in the fall.
Though Bramante’s still trying to locate the sweet spot with his programming, more patrons will mean more options, and newer films should follow.
(For schedules and information, go to stuartstreetplayhouse.com.)
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1274658
By Brett Michel | Sunday, August 15, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Arts & Culture
The Stuart Street Playhouse, the only art-house cinema in Boston proper, is nestled away on the corner of Charles and Stuart streets in the Theater District. It’s one of Boston’s newer - and simultaneously older - moviegoing destinations.
The site had been dormant since 1996, when the former Cinema 57 went dark after final showings of “The Great White Hype” and “Original Gangstas.”
It wasn’t always this way.
When Ben Sack originally opened the twin-screen Sack Cinema 57 in 1971, it featured some of the era’s biggest hits. Such films as “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Exorcist” had their local premieres here, as seen in the gallery of photos adorning the lobby of the renovated Stuart Street Playhouse, as it’s now known. The pictures showcase the movie-theater marquees of a thriving, bygone era in a city that once offered film lovers more than a dozen theater options - from the Astor to the Beacon Hill, the Saxon to the Cheri, the Savoy to the Music Hall.
The latter two live on as performing arts theaters: Citi Wang and the Opera House, respectively.
Stuart Street Playhouse also had functioned as a live theater venue from 2000 to 2009, until David Bramante took over as operator, keeping the name and reopening the complex as a single-screen, 435-seat space (with an eye toward expansion) last Oct. 30.
Bramante, who also operates West Newton Cinema, thought the time was right to bring an independent cinema back to Boston, so residents wouldn’t have to trek to Cambridge or Brookline to catch the latest art-house offerings.
Nine months later, has Bramante realized his dream?
The theater is currently screening the Italian drama “I Am Love.” And from Sept. 17 to 23, Stuart Street will host the Boston Film Festival, now in its 26th year.
Bramante also adds a little magic - literally - with a monthly staging of Backstage Magic, an act of intimate illusions performed by illusionist Eric Gagne in the Playhouse lobby, converted for the evening into a black box theater.
Still, “We’re not doing the business I thought we would do,” Bramante confides. Though the economy hasn’t helped, he’s learned routines are hard to break.
“They’re in the habit of going to Kendall, or Coolidge, or going to the West Newton,” Bramante said of moviegoers. He also acknowledged the difficulty in building a market practically from scratch.
“There was no theater, and now there is a theater. We try to get people into the building, and through the door.”
He caught a bad break this summer, when noise from construction on the Radisson Hotel garage ramp during the day forced the theater to show films only at night. But a full daily schedule of films will resume in the fall.
Though Bramante’s still trying to locate the sweet spot with his programming, more patrons will mean more options, and newer films should follow.
(For schedules and information, go to stuartstreetplayhouse.com.)
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1274658
Suspicious car at Logan Airport Hertz lot prompts police action
Universal Hub
Suspicious car at Logan rental-car lot shuts streets, forces evacuation in East Boston
By adamg - 8/16/10 - 9:03 am
UPDATE: Around 9:30, State Police used a remote-control device to blow open the trunk lid. The trunk was stuffed with crap - clothes, a blanket and pillow, gym weights, a computer monitor, a skateboard, tons of papers, oh, and a two-sided ax, as if the car had been rented by somebody from Hoarders. A trooper in protective gear started pulling the crap out, apparently didn't find anything of interest. A few minutes later, authorities let residents along Maverick Street return to their homes.
Boston and State Police are investigating a suspicious "device" found at a rental-car lot at Logan Airport this morning. About 15 residents living across from the Hertz lot along Maverick Street have been evacuated; nearby streets have been shut, Boston Fire has set up a staging area in Maverick Square.
The MBTA is sending three buses from its Lynn garage to handle evacuees.
Live view from Channel 25 helicopter; shows the robot used by State Police to open the car's trunk.
Suspicious car at Logan rental-car lot shuts streets, forces evacuation in East Boston
By adamg - 8/16/10 - 9:03 am
UPDATE: Around 9:30, State Police used a remote-control device to blow open the trunk lid. The trunk was stuffed with crap - clothes, a blanket and pillow, gym weights, a computer monitor, a skateboard, tons of papers, oh, and a two-sided ax, as if the car had been rented by somebody from Hoarders. A trooper in protective gear started pulling the crap out, apparently didn't find anything of interest. A few minutes later, authorities let residents along Maverick Street return to their homes.
Boston and State Police are investigating a suspicious "device" found at a rental-car lot at Logan Airport this morning. About 15 residents living across from the Hertz lot along Maverick Street have been evacuated; nearby streets have been shut, Boston Fire has set up a staging area in Maverick Square.
The MBTA is sending three buses from its Lynn garage to handle evacuees.
Live view from Channel 25 helicopter; shows the robot used by State Police to open the car's trunk.
Daryl's Bar & Kitchen to open at former Stork Club location
Boston Restaurant Talk
Darryl's Bar and Kitchen Coming to Boston's South End
A restaurant featuring Southern-influenced cuisine is going to be opening in the South End of Boston, moving into the space where a handful of restaurants and clubs have resided in recent times.
According to both EveryBlock Boston and Zagat Boston, Darryl's Bar & Kitchen will open on Columbus Avenue along the western edge of the South End (just west of Mass. Ave.). The spot that Darryl's will be going into formerly housed a restaurant and jazz lounge called The Stork Club, which closed a couple of months ago. Before The Stork Club was a short-lived French restaurant called Circle, and before that, Bob's Southern Bistro and a popular restaurant and club called Bob The Chef's. Zagat states that the person behind Bob The Chef's is also going to be behind Darryl's Bar & Kitchen, which will focus on American fare with a nod toward Southern dishes. According to Zagat, there will also be occasional live music, and a full bar will be included as part of the new spot.
It appears that Darryl's Bar & Kitchen may be opening very soon, as Zagat mentions that it will be in operation anytime from today on.
The address for this new restaurant in the South End will be: Darryl's Bar & Kitchen, 604 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA, 02118.
posted by Marc at 9:23 AM |
Darryl's Bar and Kitchen Coming to Boston's South End
A restaurant featuring Southern-influenced cuisine is going to be opening in the South End of Boston, moving into the space where a handful of restaurants and clubs have resided in recent times.
According to both EveryBlock Boston and Zagat Boston, Darryl's Bar & Kitchen will open on Columbus Avenue along the western edge of the South End (just west of Mass. Ave.). The spot that Darryl's will be going into formerly housed a restaurant and jazz lounge called The Stork Club, which closed a couple of months ago. Before The Stork Club was a short-lived French restaurant called Circle, and before that, Bob's Southern Bistro and a popular restaurant and club called Bob The Chef's. Zagat states that the person behind Bob The Chef's is also going to be behind Darryl's Bar & Kitchen, which will focus on American fare with a nod toward Southern dishes. According to Zagat, there will also be occasional live music, and a full bar will be included as part of the new spot.
It appears that Darryl's Bar & Kitchen may be opening very soon, as Zagat mentions that it will be in operation anytime from today on.
The address for this new restaurant in the South End will be: Darryl's Bar & Kitchen, 604 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA, 02118.
posted by Marc at 9:23 AM |
Craigslist killer commits suicide in jail
Sources: Suspected Craigslist killer used bag, pen in suicide
City councilor calls for probe into death
By Laurel J. Sweet, Edward Mason and O’Ryan Johnson | Monday, August 16, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A top Hub official is calling for an independent probe into how alleged Craigslist killer Philip Markoff - Nashua Street Jail’s most infamous inmate - could commit a slow, gruesome suicide, denying his alleged victim’s family justice.
Sheriff Andrea Cabral “failed in her duty to provide care and custody to an inmate awaiting trial, and because of this failure, the Brisman family will never see justice served,” Boston City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety, told the Herald.
Markoff, 24, had been awaiting trial for erotic masseuse Julissa Brisman’s execution in a Back Bay hotel last year when he was found suffocated by a clear plastic shopping bag from the jail’s canteen yesterday morning. The apple-pie handsome former medical student at Boston University had also stabbed himself with a pen, sources said.
He was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m. He had not been checked on all night, sources said.
The shocking demise of the former doc-to-be - who sources said used his medical know-how to try to sever major arteries so he would bleed to death - was preliminarily ruled an “apparent suicide” by authorities on the day after the one-year anniversary of what was to be Markoff’s marriage to New Jersey bombshell Megan McAllister.
Murphy wants Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley to lead his own investigation into how Markoff was able to get away with taking his own life before trial, but a Conley spokesman said the DA is primarily focused on investigating Markoff’s cause of death.
“Markoff was alone in his cell, and all evidence collected thus far indicates that he took his own life,” Conley and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said in a joint statement.
Markoff - who was not on a suicide watch, though had been previously - was to go on trial next March as an accused sex ad-thumbing deviant on a stalking spree of Craigslist advertisers.
Officials at the 654-bed maximum security jail did not say how long he may have been dead.
Author Kevin Borgeson, a criminology professor at Salem State College, questioned how such a high-profile prisoner could have managed to carry out such a slow, agonizing finish.
“It sounds a little odd to me. It’s strange that he could have gotten that far into the day without somebody noticing,” Borgeson said.
A source familiar with the jail’s routine said Markoff’s metal cell door would have automatically opened for breakfast at about 7 a.m., after which staff should have called upon him for the mandatory morning cleanup of his quarters.
“It’s shocking and very saddening,” his defense attorney, John Salsberg, said.
The Craigslist killer case made world headlines after Brisman, 25, a bee-stung-lipped New York actress, turned up shot to death in a room at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Her skull had been crushed by the butt of a 9mm semiautomatic pistol. Prosecutors said Markoff had answered her online massage ad.
On April 10, 2009, four days before killing Brisman, prosecutors said an armed Markoff held up Craigslist rent girl Trisha Leffler of Las Vegas at the Westin Hotel.
He was also facing charges in Warwick, R.I., for attacking Cynthia Melton, an exotic dancer from Vegas, at the Holiday Inn Express on April 16, 2009.
Prosecutors said Markoff left a ridiculously amateur trail of fingerprints at the crime scenes and secreted the murder weapon in a hollowed-out “Gray’s Anatomy” textbook. They also found in his Quincy apartment four pairs of women’s panties hidden in his bed and plastic ties like those the Craigslist killer used to bind his victims.
David McLean, president of the Jail Officers and Employees Association of Suffolk County, said staffing was not a factor in Markoff’s suicide.
“Staffing levels had nothing to do with what happened today,” McLean said. “We’re staffed accordingly 24 hours a day, whether it’s overtime or not.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1274942
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City councilor calls for probe into death
By Laurel J. Sweet, Edward Mason and O’Ryan Johnson | Monday, August 16, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A top Hub official is calling for an independent probe into how alleged Craigslist killer Philip Markoff - Nashua Street Jail’s most infamous inmate - could commit a slow, gruesome suicide, denying his alleged victim’s family justice.
Sheriff Andrea Cabral “failed in her duty to provide care and custody to an inmate awaiting trial, and because of this failure, the Brisman family will never see justice served,” Boston City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety, told the Herald.
Markoff, 24, had been awaiting trial for erotic masseuse Julissa Brisman’s execution in a Back Bay hotel last year when he was found suffocated by a clear plastic shopping bag from the jail’s canteen yesterday morning. The apple-pie handsome former medical student at Boston University had also stabbed himself with a pen, sources said.
He was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m. He had not been checked on all night, sources said.
The shocking demise of the former doc-to-be - who sources said used his medical know-how to try to sever major arteries so he would bleed to death - was preliminarily ruled an “apparent suicide” by authorities on the day after the one-year anniversary of what was to be Markoff’s marriage to New Jersey bombshell Megan McAllister.
Murphy wants Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley to lead his own investigation into how Markoff was able to get away with taking his own life before trial, but a Conley spokesman said the DA is primarily focused on investigating Markoff’s cause of death.
“Markoff was alone in his cell, and all evidence collected thus far indicates that he took his own life,” Conley and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said in a joint statement.
Markoff - who was not on a suicide watch, though had been previously - was to go on trial next March as an accused sex ad-thumbing deviant on a stalking spree of Craigslist advertisers.
Officials at the 654-bed maximum security jail did not say how long he may have been dead.
Author Kevin Borgeson, a criminology professor at Salem State College, questioned how such a high-profile prisoner could have managed to carry out such a slow, agonizing finish.
“It sounds a little odd to me. It’s strange that he could have gotten that far into the day without somebody noticing,” Borgeson said.
A source familiar with the jail’s routine said Markoff’s metal cell door would have automatically opened for breakfast at about 7 a.m., after which staff should have called upon him for the mandatory morning cleanup of his quarters.
“It’s shocking and very saddening,” his defense attorney, John Salsberg, said.
The Craigslist killer case made world headlines after Brisman, 25, a bee-stung-lipped New York actress, turned up shot to death in a room at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Her skull had been crushed by the butt of a 9mm semiautomatic pistol. Prosecutors said Markoff had answered her online massage ad.
On April 10, 2009, four days before killing Brisman, prosecutors said an armed Markoff held up Craigslist rent girl Trisha Leffler of Las Vegas at the Westin Hotel.
He was also facing charges in Warwick, R.I., for attacking Cynthia Melton, an exotic dancer from Vegas, at the Holiday Inn Express on April 16, 2009.
Prosecutors said Markoff left a ridiculously amateur trail of fingerprints at the crime scenes and secreted the murder weapon in a hollowed-out “Gray’s Anatomy” textbook. They also found in his Quincy apartment four pairs of women’s panties hidden in his bed and plastic ties like those the Craigslist killer used to bind his victims.
David McLean, president of the Jail Officers and Employees Association of Suffolk County, said staffing was not a factor in Markoff’s suicide.
“Staffing levels had nothing to do with what happened today,” McLean said. “We’re staffed accordingly 24 hours a day, whether it’s overtime or not.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1274942
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Sunday, August 15, 2010
Fort Point Channel to undergo major transformation
Revival on tap for Hub channel
$11m plan turns Fort Point into a social hot spot
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | August 14, 2010
Boston’s Fort Point Channel, for decades a polluted workhorse of industry, is about to undergo a dramatic transformation to a recreational and social playground that could host floating restaurants and music shows, kayak rentals and fishing charters.
This fall, major property owners along the channel will lay the groundwork for its renaissance with new public docks that will increase access to the milelong waterway, advancing the city’s vision of a civic space akin to the Boston Common or the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
An $11 million plan for improvements to the channel is modeled, in part, on waterfronts in Chicago, Seattle, and other cities where museums, outdoor dining, and public events draw crowds to their shorelines.
The catalyst for the burst of activity in Boston is a law signed earlier this month by Governor Deval Patrick that essentially rezones the channel for recreational use, allowing installation of docks and other floating structures that were once banned to protect commercial navigation.
“These changes will allow us to take an urban waterway and activate it in ways that have been very successful in other cities,’’ said James Rooney, head of the nearby convention center and president of Friends of the Fort Point Channel, a civic group involved in the channel restoration.
Most of the boat ramps, taxi stations and docks will be built by commercial property owners who are required by their environmental permits to improve public access and amenities to their waterfronts.
Funds for many other improvements, such as floating art barges and water festivals, will be raised from fees charged to firms planning future building projects in the area.
New developments are moving slowly in the down economy, so it may take several years before new attractions are built. The shuttered Boston Tea Party Museum, for example, is still raising money to complete renovations and reopen facilities closed after being struck by lightning in 2001.
Another wave of improvements will probably result from the eventual redevelopment of the US Postal Service mail facility, which is planning to relocate to South Boston. But that project, too, has also been slowed by the recession.
Still, the new access points to begin construction this fall will open the channel to an array of possibilities, including floating restaurants and cafes, fountains, model boat racing, and other attractions included in a plan City Hall has for the area.
“I’ve always seen this area as a great opportunity for rowing and other events on the water,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in an interview. “Right now, it’s really just dead, unused space. But the improvements in access will help us open it up and plan for the future of that whole area.’’
Already Boston Properties has built a 60-foot ramp to a dock that will provide temporary docking service for visiting boaters behind the 32-story tower it is building at the corner of Congress Street and Atlantic Avenue. The tower will have an expansive public plaza on the channel to eventually include a new tour service and concierge desk that will provide information on waterfront attractions.
Further up the channel, Procter & Gamble Co., which owns Gillette and its sprawling headquarters in South Boston, will begin construction this fall on a 60-foot dock in an area that will be dedicated to canoeing and kayaking. City officials are also urging Procter & Gamble to provide free public parking on its property, a request the firm is considering.
The Boston Children’s Museum is planning to build a dock for a water taxi station next spring. The museum is also exploring floating educational facilities and a possible partnership with a boat rental service, although those plans are still being developed.
“We would love to see this channel come alive,’’ said Amy Auerbach, the museum’s chief financial officer. “There are so many teaching and learning opportunities, and we want to take advantage of that as much as we can.’’
In many ways, Fort Point is ideal for a public park. The channel itself is about a mile long with a watersheet stretching more than 50 acres, making the area larger than the Boston Common. The expanded access will offer new perspectives to view the Boston Tea Party, which was staged in this corner of the harbor in 1773, and the wharves and warehouses that made the city a maritime center. The channel is also protected from wind and choppy surf, making it an ideal place to learn to use kayaks and canoes.
Parts of it still suffer from its past as an industrial zone, particularly the further reaches between the MBTA railroad tracks and Interstate 93, where trash and other debris are in plain view.
For more than a century, the channel was an active shipping route that provided access to smoke-belching rail and lumber yards in South Bay. But commercial traffic slowed dramatically in the 20th century, and for the last 50 years it has remained largely unused.
Recently some portions of the channel waterfront were spruced up. A new boardwalk in front of the Boston Children’s Museum, for example, is a popular fishing site, a fact that still seems surreal to those who remember when water in the channel was repellent to any form of life.
Rooney is a South Boston native who vividly recalls the rotten-egg stench emanating from the channel during his youth.
“It was so bad you didn’t even want to walk or drive over the bridges, ’’ he said.
As the Greenway was a byproduct of years of Big Dig construction, Fort Point Channel’s comeback is due to another major public works project: The $3.8 billion cleanup of Boston Harbor, which removed decades worth of sewage and industrial filth and made the water safer for recreational use.
While today its gray-green waters are hardly pristine, the channel is free of dangerous levels of contaminants, and it offers a pleasant getaway for residents and office workers. Sunny afternoons bring lunch-time crowds; office workers gather with their Blackberries out as children fish and tourists whiz by on bicycles or Segway scooters.
Getting to the next step could take years, but environmental advocates say the first wave of change promises that the once-forgotten channel is on its way to becoming a much livelier place.
“It’s not instantly going to be Venice on the water, but it will offer cultural activities that people can easily access,’’ said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association. “People from all over the city will be able to enjoy the waterfront in a very safe area.’’
Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
$11m plan turns Fort Point into a social hot spot
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | August 14, 2010
Boston’s Fort Point Channel, for decades a polluted workhorse of industry, is about to undergo a dramatic transformation to a recreational and social playground that could host floating restaurants and music shows, kayak rentals and fishing charters.
This fall, major property owners along the channel will lay the groundwork for its renaissance with new public docks that will increase access to the milelong waterway, advancing the city’s vision of a civic space akin to the Boston Common or the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
An $11 million plan for improvements to the channel is modeled, in part, on waterfronts in Chicago, Seattle, and other cities where museums, outdoor dining, and public events draw crowds to their shorelines.
The catalyst for the burst of activity in Boston is a law signed earlier this month by Governor Deval Patrick that essentially rezones the channel for recreational use, allowing installation of docks and other floating structures that were once banned to protect commercial navigation.
“These changes will allow us to take an urban waterway and activate it in ways that have been very successful in other cities,’’ said James Rooney, head of the nearby convention center and president of Friends of the Fort Point Channel, a civic group involved in the channel restoration.
Most of the boat ramps, taxi stations and docks will be built by commercial property owners who are required by their environmental permits to improve public access and amenities to their waterfronts.
Funds for many other improvements, such as floating art barges and water festivals, will be raised from fees charged to firms planning future building projects in the area.
New developments are moving slowly in the down economy, so it may take several years before new attractions are built. The shuttered Boston Tea Party Museum, for example, is still raising money to complete renovations and reopen facilities closed after being struck by lightning in 2001.
Another wave of improvements will probably result from the eventual redevelopment of the US Postal Service mail facility, which is planning to relocate to South Boston. But that project, too, has also been slowed by the recession.
Still, the new access points to begin construction this fall will open the channel to an array of possibilities, including floating restaurants and cafes, fountains, model boat racing, and other attractions included in a plan City Hall has for the area.
“I’ve always seen this area as a great opportunity for rowing and other events on the water,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in an interview. “Right now, it’s really just dead, unused space. But the improvements in access will help us open it up and plan for the future of that whole area.’’
Already Boston Properties has built a 60-foot ramp to a dock that will provide temporary docking service for visiting boaters behind the 32-story tower it is building at the corner of Congress Street and Atlantic Avenue. The tower will have an expansive public plaza on the channel to eventually include a new tour service and concierge desk that will provide information on waterfront attractions.
Further up the channel, Procter & Gamble Co., which owns Gillette and its sprawling headquarters in South Boston, will begin construction this fall on a 60-foot dock in an area that will be dedicated to canoeing and kayaking. City officials are also urging Procter & Gamble to provide free public parking on its property, a request the firm is considering.
The Boston Children’s Museum is planning to build a dock for a water taxi station next spring. The museum is also exploring floating educational facilities and a possible partnership with a boat rental service, although those plans are still being developed.
“We would love to see this channel come alive,’’ said Amy Auerbach, the museum’s chief financial officer. “There are so many teaching and learning opportunities, and we want to take advantage of that as much as we can.’’
In many ways, Fort Point is ideal for a public park. The channel itself is about a mile long with a watersheet stretching more than 50 acres, making the area larger than the Boston Common. The expanded access will offer new perspectives to view the Boston Tea Party, which was staged in this corner of the harbor in 1773, and the wharves and warehouses that made the city a maritime center. The channel is also protected from wind and choppy surf, making it an ideal place to learn to use kayaks and canoes.
Parts of it still suffer from its past as an industrial zone, particularly the further reaches between the MBTA railroad tracks and Interstate 93, where trash and other debris are in plain view.
For more than a century, the channel was an active shipping route that provided access to smoke-belching rail and lumber yards in South Bay. But commercial traffic slowed dramatically in the 20th century, and for the last 50 years it has remained largely unused.
Recently some portions of the channel waterfront were spruced up. A new boardwalk in front of the Boston Children’s Museum, for example, is a popular fishing site, a fact that still seems surreal to those who remember when water in the channel was repellent to any form of life.
Rooney is a South Boston native who vividly recalls the rotten-egg stench emanating from the channel during his youth.
“It was so bad you didn’t even want to walk or drive over the bridges, ’’ he said.
As the Greenway was a byproduct of years of Big Dig construction, Fort Point Channel’s comeback is due to another major public works project: The $3.8 billion cleanup of Boston Harbor, which removed decades worth of sewage and industrial filth and made the water safer for recreational use.
While today its gray-green waters are hardly pristine, the channel is free of dangerous levels of contaminants, and it offers a pleasant getaway for residents and office workers. Sunny afternoons bring lunch-time crowds; office workers gather with their Blackberries out as children fish and tourists whiz by on bicycles or Segway scooters.
Getting to the next step could take years, but environmental advocates say the first wave of change promises that the once-forgotten channel is on its way to becoming a much livelier place.
“It’s not instantly going to be Venice on the water, but it will offer cultural activities that people can easily access,’’ said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association. “People from all over the city will be able to enjoy the waterfront in a very safe area.’’
Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Man killed during barfight at The Landsdowne Pub
Man killed in bar brawl near Fenway
By Jessica Fargen and Renee Nadeau Algarin | Saturday, August 14, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A 25-year-old man was killed in a bar fight early this morning across the street from Fenway Park [map], where throngs of Aerosmith fans will gather tonight for a sold-out concert.
The suspect in the death, Hector Guardiola, 25, of Boston, has been charged with manslaughter, according to Boston Police.
The incident took place at about 12:10 a.m. at the Lansdowne Pub on Lansdowne Street.
The victim was killed when a glass was thrown during a fight and a shard hit his neck, according to Boston Police. (Earlier unconfirmed reports said the projectile was a liquor bottle.) Police have not released the name of the victim. Two others were injured by the flying glass, police said.
Boston police responded to the bar at 9 Lansdowne St. on a report a fight. Boston police found the victim bleeding heavily with a laceration to his neck. The victim was transported to the Brigham & Women’s Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
“The victim apparently suffered his injury when, during an altercation, a glass was thrown,” police said.
Police said the preliminary investigation suggests that a piece of broken glass from the thrown glass struck the victim.
A 22-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman suffered minor injuries in the fight. The Boston Police Homicide Unit is investigating.
The Lansdowne Pub opened in April 2009 and features live music most nights of the week. A band called Hypercane is scheduled to play tonight.
A worker at the bar and restaurant this morning declined to comment.
The Lansdowne Pub is owned by the Lyons Group, which is owned by nightclub and restaurant king Patrick Lyons. A spokesperson for the pub issued a statement today on the incident.
“We are extremely saddened by this tragic and random accident. Our deepest sympathy goes to the family and friends of all those affected. We can provide no further comment at this time based on the ongoing nature of the investigation,” said spokesman Jonathan Fine.
The bar is near the entrance to the bleachers at Fenway Park.
A woman wearing a bandage and a man with a deep gash on the back of his head visited the crime scene this morning, but declined to comment.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1274623
By Jessica Fargen and Renee Nadeau Algarin | Saturday, August 14, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A 25-year-old man was killed in a bar fight early this morning across the street from Fenway Park [map], where throngs of Aerosmith fans will gather tonight for a sold-out concert.
The suspect in the death, Hector Guardiola, 25, of Boston, has been charged with manslaughter, according to Boston Police.
The incident took place at about 12:10 a.m. at the Lansdowne Pub on Lansdowne Street.
The victim was killed when a glass was thrown during a fight and a shard hit his neck, according to Boston Police. (Earlier unconfirmed reports said the projectile was a liquor bottle.) Police have not released the name of the victim. Two others were injured by the flying glass, police said.
Boston police responded to the bar at 9 Lansdowne St. on a report a fight. Boston police found the victim bleeding heavily with a laceration to his neck. The victim was transported to the Brigham & Women’s Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
“The victim apparently suffered his injury when, during an altercation, a glass was thrown,” police said.
Police said the preliminary investigation suggests that a piece of broken glass from the thrown glass struck the victim.
A 22-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman suffered minor injuries in the fight. The Boston Police Homicide Unit is investigating.
The Lansdowne Pub opened in April 2009 and features live music most nights of the week. A band called Hypercane is scheduled to play tonight.
A worker at the bar and restaurant this morning declined to comment.
The Lansdowne Pub is owned by the Lyons Group, which is owned by nightclub and restaurant king Patrick Lyons. A spokesperson for the pub issued a statement today on the incident.
“We are extremely saddened by this tragic and random accident. Our deepest sympathy goes to the family and friends of all those affected. We can provide no further comment at this time based on the ongoing nature of the investigation,” said spokesman Jonathan Fine.
The bar is near the entrance to the bleachers at Fenway Park.
A woman wearing a bandage and a man with a deep gash on the back of his head visited the crime scene this morning, but declined to comment.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1274623
Man killed in Friday night brawl at The Lansdowne Pub
Man, 25, dies after confrontation at pub
Police say victim cut by glass shards
By Thomas Byrne and Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondents | August 15, 2010
A 25-year-old man died early yesterday after shards from a broken glass cut his neck during a late-night confrontation at a Lansdowne Street bar, according to police.
Just after midnight yesterday, two groups were fighting in The Lansdowne pub when Hector Guardiola, 25, of Boston, allegedly threw a glass or a bottle that shattered and sliced the victim’s neck, police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said. The victim was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he later died. His name was being withheld pending notification of relatives, police said.
A 22-year-old man and 23-year-old woman also struck by the broken glass were treated at Brigham and Women’s for nonlife-threatening injuries.
Driscoll could not say whether the three victims were involved in the fight. Guardiola has been charged with manslaughter and two counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Roxbury District Court.
Three people who were in the pub said yesterday that it quickly transformed from a loud, crowded club with a live rock band to a crime scene.
“Someone said something like, ‘Oh, someone got stabbed,’ or whatever. And, you know, people say stupid things all the time,’’ said Meaghan Severson, 23, of Oxford, Conn. “But then I look to the right and I saw bouncers all over the place and a guy lying on the ground, and all of a sudden the lights went on, the music stopped, and the bouncers were like, ‘Everybody get out.’ ’’
Alex, 26, of South Boston, who requested that his last name be withheld, said he was standing near the back of the bar near the bathrooms when he heard a commotion behind him.
“It looked like a bouncer had grabbed somebody and was running them outside,’’ he said. “He had him in a headlock.’’
He said he then turned back to the scene and saw broken glass and a red liquid and thought someone had dropped a drink, until a man and woman walked by bloodied and he realized there had been a fight.
Michael Payette was playing the bass guitar on stage with his band when a bar manager told them to stop playing.
“They said there was an incident and that the paramedics were coming,’’ he said. “No one knew what was going on.’’
The chain of events remained murky yesterday as police pieced together the scene into a bizarre narrative.
“An individual threw some sort of a glass,’’ Driscoll said. “When that glass hit a partition or something along those lines, the glass exploded. Shards of that glass went out into the crowd. One of those shards hit the victim, which resulted in a fatal injury.’’
Severson wondered how that could have happened.
“That just sounds really strange to me,’’ she said. “In order to bleed out, you kind of have to have a deep cut, and I feel like a ricocheted piece of glass, that just doesn’t really sound like it would do it.’’
Patrons said the bar typically attracts a college-age crowd with live music in the main area and a separate room with a DJ. It is owned by Lyons Group, which owns several of the bars lining the street that borders the Green Monster.
“We are extremely saddened by this tragic and random accident. Our deepest sympathy goes to the family and friends of all those affected,’’ the company said in a prepared statement.
A company spokesman would not comment further and the pub’s owner, Patrick Lyons, could not be reached.
The pub canceled lunch service and was to remain closed until mid-afternoon, said Andres Rendon, 22, a member of the kitchen staff. The pub reopened yesterday evening.
Globe correspondent Sean Teehan contributed to this report. Jack Nicas can be reached at jnicas@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Mandarin and W residences out of the running for Shaq as resident
Shaquille O’Neal narrows the field in search for luxury Hub digs
By Thomas Grillo | Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate
Shaquille O’Neal won’t be living at 45 Province.
Representatives for Shaq, who was introduced by the Boston Celtics [team stats] yesterday, sent him photos and descriptions via text messages of the Downtown Crossing luxury condominiums, but he gave a thumbs down to the 32-story complex near the former Filene’s, the Herald has learned.
“I suspect the lack of food killed that deal,” said one downtown broker, noting that the complex lacks a restaurant and room service. “He’s got to eat all day.”
Another source said perhaps O’Neal had second thoughts about living in a condo project that was developed by the Abbey Group, a Celtics managing partner. “I wouldn’t want to live in a building my boss owned,” the source said.
If Shaq had taken a floor at 45 Province, it would have been a marketing bonanza, according to John Ford, a Boston broker. “It would have been huge had Shaq taken space at 45 Province,” he said. “It would be a gigantic endorsement for the project without paying someone. If I was sales director, I’d have given Shaq free rent for as long as he wants.”
The Abbey Group has sold 20 of the 138 condos at 45 Province since it opened last summer, Suffolk Registry of Deeds records show.
The W Boston Hotel & Residences on Stuart Street also appears out of the running, a source said. And a spokeswoman for the Residences at the Mandarin Oriental shot down a rumor that Shaq would rent a condo there.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1273746
By Thomas Grillo | Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate
Shaquille O’Neal won’t be living at 45 Province.
Representatives for Shaq, who was introduced by the Boston Celtics [team stats] yesterday, sent him photos and descriptions via text messages of the Downtown Crossing luxury condominiums, but he gave a thumbs down to the 32-story complex near the former Filene’s, the Herald has learned.
“I suspect the lack of food killed that deal,” said one downtown broker, noting that the complex lacks a restaurant and room service. “He’s got to eat all day.”
Another source said perhaps O’Neal had second thoughts about living in a condo project that was developed by the Abbey Group, a Celtics managing partner. “I wouldn’t want to live in a building my boss owned,” the source said.
If Shaq had taken a floor at 45 Province, it would have been a marketing bonanza, according to John Ford, a Boston broker. “It would have been huge had Shaq taken space at 45 Province,” he said. “It would be a gigantic endorsement for the project without paying someone. If I was sales director, I’d have given Shaq free rent for as long as he wants.”
The Abbey Group has sold 20 of the 138 condos at 45 Province since it opened last summer, Suffolk Registry of Deeds records show.
The W Boston Hotel & Residences on Stuart Street also appears out of the running, a source said. And a spokeswoman for the Residences at the Mandarin Oriental shot down a rumor that Shaq would rent a condo there.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1273746
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