Go Sox!!!!
When you visit Boston, it is required you have on a cap,
shirt or jacket celebrating your loyalty to the Sox, Patriots, Bruins or
Celtics. This is a sports town.
The Hotel Commonwealth is the same metro stop as Fenway Park. On my last
visit the lobby of this lovely little palace was filled with dads and boys,
decked out with foam fingers, popcorn, gloves and a shared love of the game.
Walking outside under the green canvas canopy as a game breaks and you can be
stampeded by a heard of boisterous fans.
The sox had just taken the 4th of four from the Indians and
were preparing for a post-season appearance with the dreaded Yankees. Boys and
dads, sons and fathers. Baseball and Boston. These are perfect encapsulated
moments and the economy, environment, world tensions and swine flu were
noticeably absent in the euphoria of the baseball heaven. I grew up in the
shadow of Ebbett’s field and the Brooklyn Dodgers with a Dad that took me to
all the Brooklyn Dodger games (he was a NY City Cop at Ebbets) so I know about
these moments.
These are personal histories. If you want a broader
view….try the colonial walking tour. Meet at Feneuil Hall and wander from the
one revolutionary site to another with a bonnet-clad tour guide relating some
fact, some fiction and some speculations. The site of the Boston Massacre (six
men died) is approached by dodging traffic in all directions rather than musket
bullets. Over to the Anglican church, minus a steeple, to the graveyard of
these same massacre victims.
History is always an edit, but I thought it a shame that our
guide never mentioned that Crispus Attucks was a former slave. A dozen + people
share the tour, most from Germany, a couple from Manchester, interested in this
view of the young republic and sharing thoughts from other perspectives,
including the face of the nation today. This dialogue is more compelling that
the ritual of the bedecked tour guide.
The Boston Common is the terminus of the tour and we take a
more direct route to Quincy market where there are 80 stalls and a culinary
dining common to consume. The food ranges from chowder and lobster to curry and
sushi. Samples and shouts entreat the crowd to purchase a lunch. With so many
local specialties is it hard to image a couple walking with two slices of
pepperoni pizza and a coke…but this is America. Lunch is boisterous and noisy and fun here, but for a better
sit down drink and dinner, The Eastern Standard, part of the Hotel Commonwealth
is hard to beat. Their Glouster scallops four perfect discs of flavor-resting
on a bed of corn cannoli succotash filled my thoughts at night. I wrote to the
restaurant with my compliments and they sent me the recipe. I tried to recreate
it at home. Not bad, but far from the perfection of the creators. I ended up the
next night grilling the balance of the scallops on the barbque in Wasabi oil.
(Maybe I have been in California too long.) A second night dining was well served at the Fireside. This
cozy restaurant, has their premium tables at the advertised—fireside. I was
alone and treated myself to a dinner at the bar. Nothing like being in a
distant city, with a TV and the of course hometown Sox winning. The ne owner hasn’t quite figure out
the pricing of the scotches….so all the premium single malts are the same
price. I am in a moral quandary reporting this. Do I owe the reader the inside
story at the expense of a nice restaurant? I err on the side of candor and
truth. Dinner was Boston baked beans, and obligatory offering to the gods of
Boston and a Talisker scotch. Both were enjoyable and stretched out over the
course of nine-inning and a chatty bartender.
At the more modest end of the accommodations spectrum is
Anthony Guest House. A very quirky townhouse on Beacon Street. Shared bathrooms
on each floor, furniture covered in clear plastic, a house manager that takes
you down the street two blocks to park your car? Sound a little strange. It
sure is, but affordable, clean and like spending the night is you slightly
batty aunts house in Maine. Across the street is the Beacon Street Café.
Reasonable, decent, convenient and somewhat unremarkable. Breakfast and lunch
is the Busy Bee Café. It is right out of the set of Alice with antiquated
waitresses that are downright hostile. Food is mediocre eggs and
sandwiches…..but again, it’s the experience of an urban dinner environment that makes it worth
the walk across the street and more.
Culture abounds with the Museum of Fine Arts impressive in
its collection, breadth as well as depth with the Gardner Museum a heart beat
away. The Gardner is a floor to ceiling collection of work from a period that holds little interest. The building
itself is remarkable as an example of the finest quasi Seville/Arabic inner
courtyard this side of the ocean.
It is the splendid home of an uneventful collection. It should be noted that in the current
economic world, many institutions have chosen to raise prices for admission to
cover costs. The MFA and the Garder among them. Between entry fees and parking,
you better come prepared with more than colonial currency to pay for the day’s
excursions. Boston is a manageable city in size, opportunity and attraction.
Think of Portland or Seattle rather than Los Angeles on the West Coast. It is
not NY--and that is the blessing of Boston--and those dreaded Yankees? Fugetaboutit!
Hotel Commonwealth
www.hotelcommonwealth.com
Anthionys Town House
www.anthonystownhouse.com
Eastern Standard Restaurant
www.easternstandardboston.com
Fireplace Restaurant
www.fireplacerest.com/
Museum of Fine Arts
www.mfa.org/
Elizabeth Stanley Gardner Museum
www.gardnermuseum.org/
Walking tour Colonial History
www.freedomtrail.org/
Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market
www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com