Where I was: Boston, MA, October 6-9, 2011.

Highlights of the Trip

1. - Boston Bruins Opening night, October 6^th, TD Gardens

The Bruins raised the Banner.  What else do I need to say?  Fans were on their feet for over an hour, from the moment the Bruins stepped on the ice for their pre-game warm-up, through highlights of the 2011 playoff run, the Cup getting carried around the ice, the official ceremonies, the raising of the banner to the opening face-off.  The joint was loud, but the loudest ovation was probably reserved for the President of the team, former Bruin great Cam Neely, clearly still beloved in Beantown.  A great touch for a fan-boy like me, and a recognition of the history of the franchise was bringing out veterans from the 1971-72 Cup winning squad (Don Marcotte, Derek Sanderson, Pie McKenzie, Ken Hodge, Johnny Bucyk and of course Bobby) along with Milt Schmidt to assist the 2011 team with the raising of the banner.

2. - The Stata Center, MIT

When I travel, I like walking around cities, exploring neighbourhoods.  Sometimes I have a plan and seek out points of interest, other times, I just walk around and hope to run into something worthwhile.  Suddenly rounding a corner on the MIT campus and being hit by a wave of utter joy at discovering the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center was one of those times.  Between the chrome, the brick, the rounded corners, the off-angled towers and the adjacent receding and protruding walls, the building looks like it was designed by MC Escher in an imaginative fit of drunkenness.  The accompanying pictures will not do it justice;  this has to be seen to be believed.

3. - The Bukowski Tavern, Back Bay

It is a hole in the wall, more precisely, in the wall of a multi-storey parking structure.  In addition to an extensive selection of bottled beers, the it features 20 or so beers on tap, most of which are local or regional micro-breweries, including their own extremely drinkable house brew, an IPA-style beer, with a bit more of a kick to it due to using Canadian rye as one of the grains.  The list of daily specials is entitled ‘The Fucking Specials’.  Whilst I was in there on Saturday (twice), they played the Talking Heads, Etta James, the best of Ike and Tina Turner, and, wait for it… the CD version of The Last Waltz…

So, yeah, now that you ask, one of the best bars I have ever been in.

Accommodation

The Colonnade Hotel, on Harrington Ave in Back Bay. Large room, with king sized bed.  Well located, right on the Green Line (E) and near Mass Ave.  The staff was extremely pleasant and helpful.  Paid roughly $845 for three nights through hotels.com, although I could have cut about $100 off that had I booked a bit earlier.  A good choice.

Food

Dinner on Saturday night at Troquet, a lovely, upscale restaurant on Boylston Street, overlooking the Common.  For connoisseurs, they feature a very extensive wine list.  For those of us who generally dine alone, they have almost 60 wines by the glass.  Every dish on the menu comes with a number of proposed pairings from that list, and the waiter serving me was quite helpful with his suggestions.  The menu is quite diverse, ranging from seafood to suckling pig.  For my entrée, I had the assiette of Vermont lamb, essentially, lamb cooked three different ways and served with fava beans, faro and black mission fig caponata.  It was amazing; I could have had seconds...  The high point of the meal for me was the cheese cart, which had been tantalizingly parked across from my table all night, and included a selection of over 10 types of cheeses.  I settled on a Tomme de Savoie, a fairly standard soft goat’s cheese, I think from Italy, and a lovely ewe’s milk cheese, again from Italy, which was quite strong, but not overwhelmingly so.  (Unfortunately, I forgot to enquire as to the specific name…)  I was a bit surprised at the lack of local cheeses; I do not know what the state of the dairy industry is in New England, but would have thought that there would have been at least a few local selections, rather than it being completely European.  Overall bill for three courses, wine and tip: $145 US, which for that type of restaurant is good value for the cost.

Friday lunch at Neptune Oyster Bar, on Salem Street in the North End.  I was a bit surprised at how small the place was; I think there may be in total roughly 60 seats, including the bar.  Be prepared to wait, but the hostess was taking down cell phone numbers in order for customers to walk around the North End as they waited for the table, a nice, modern touch which has the added advantage of not clogging up their front door with waiting patrons.  The Neptune features an extensive selection of fresh oysters, and a predominantly seafood-based menu.  After looking around at what other patrons were having, I ordered the very popular lobster roll, served warm with melted garlic butter.  I am not a huge lobster fan, but this was extremely tasty, and a quite generous portion to boot.  With a beer (the local Harpoon IPA, on tap), bill came to $40.  I will definitely go back.

I checked out a couple of places for brunch. The Woodward, in the Ames Hotel, downtown near the Old State House, serves a great hash; I had the chorizo and roasted pepper, but they serve 5 other flavours. The Beehive is on Tremont Street in the South End.  I had their signature dish, the Eggs Shakshuka, ‘a real Bohemian breakfast’ i.e., two sunnyside eggs with spicy tomato sauce and polenta.  For week-end brunch, there is a three-piece jazz band, which sounds pretty much like any other three-piece jazz bands.  Both brunches were quite good and a good start to both days of walking around.  (Both these restaurants had been featured in a recent article in the NY Times, ’36 Hours in Boston’.  Incidentally, I have found the ’36 Hours in…’ series invaluable in planning short stays in major US cities.)