South End

Good rainy morning! It is a super dark, rainy, chilly Saturday here in Boston, and other than a few hours of working on a few marketing pieces for work and walking doggies, I have no plans!! Wheeeeee! Having an open day makes me happier than anything.

We really kicked the weekend off right last night with a night of completely unplanned fun. I had a really frustrating day, the reason I am working again today, but all of that was erased when my husband came to meet me at Mistral near my office in Boston’s Back Bay. We each ordered a cocktail off of Mistral’s very tempting menu. I had the Harvest Martini, perfect for the cool and cloudy evening it had become. The martini consisted of Grey Goose vodka, apple schnapps, reduced local cider, and cranberry juice. It had a pretty apple chip floating in it.

This cocktail was the perfect blend of sweet from the apple cider and tart from the cranberry juice. New England in a glass! We enjoyed sitting at Mistral’s bar sipping our drinks for quite awhile. Mistral is very swanky and beautifully decorated, great for a very special evening out but still comfortable enough to go to for drinks after work.

A neat contrast between the cool, concrete and tile bar and the beautiful dining area.

For dinner we decided to wander around the South End a bit and ended up once again at The Beehive on Tremont Street. Last year I had a few not-so-great Beehive experiences, but the last two or three have been fantastic. The beehive is an underground bistro richly decorated with a bohemian vibe, nightly live jazz, and great food. It gets very crowded, but we were lucky to get two seats at the end of the bar. For some reason we love to eat at the bar on a Friday night. There’s something a little more cozy about it than a table, especially if you get the two corner seats.

For our meals we decided on the raw bar platter for two, which is a beautiful combination of oysters, lobster, tuna tartare, shrimp ceviche, and shrimp cocktail with a variety of sauces including mignonette, cocktail sauce, and garlic aioli. We also ordered the local fried clams and a Greek style wedge salad with yogurt dressing. The rest of my Friday meals consisted of yogurt, apples, and a  spinach and chickpea salad with almonds, so I was pretty hungry by the time the food arrived! Luckily, it was delicious.

With my meal I also had a glass of Mumm Napa Prestige. It brought back great memories of sitting on the oak terrace at Mumm a few weeks ago, and made me SO excited to be back in Napa next month and to meet some of you in San Francisco!!! While we ate, The Beehive really filled up. The music was GREAT. If you are ever in Boston I would recommend stopping by even just for a drink or coffee and to hear the live music. The Beehive is one of those places great for people “my age”. In a town FULL of college students, it is often hard to find live music in a location where you won’t get jostled, spilled on, or worse, but The Beehive offers a nice, sophisticated environment with music, and you can still hear your dining companion.

Fall favorite – pots of mums everywhere!

After The Beehive the plan was to go home. As we were walking back to the car, we saw that Brix Wine Shop was full of people, so we decided to see what the commotion was. They were having a “Battle of the Cabernets” tasting. Never shy to taste wine, I joined in We tasted four cabernets, my favorites being from Red Lion and Montes. We bought a bottle of each. The most fun part was speaking with the rep from Classic Wine Imports who gave us some great hints for our next visit to wine country. We also got chatting to a bunch of other attendees. I love meeting strangers!

Now we REALLY planned on going home, but we saw that, like every first Friday of the month, it was open artists studios in the SOWA buildings in the South End. Completely free, unless you buy art of course, this event is awesome. All of the local artists have their studios open, usually with wine and cheese and other goodies, so that you can browse the art, mingle with other Bostonians, and have a really good time. I loved wandering through the halls of this crazy old building which I think was once a mill. I met a couple of Chinese cresteds named Brandy and Slippers and to
ok in lots of gorgeous paintings, sculpture, jewelry, and even hats.

Though I loved seeing all of the art and am interested in starting to buy from local artists, I loved the hats the most. They were in the studio of Milliner Marie Galvin, and they were stunning. If you have been to a wedding in Ireland, you will see that most women wear creations like Ms. Galvin’s, and I just love it. I am now waiting for our next Irish wedding so I can buy one!!

All in all we really had a fabulous night, none of which was planned. I am glad that I somehow found the energy to keep going because we stumbled across so much of what makes Boston great. I will be back later with the winners of the giveaway, and I promise I have some un-Boston posts planned for the next few days, hopefully an autumn road trip tomorrow if the weather cooperates! For this morning I have my Lyons tea and the windows open enjoying the Irish weather morning. Hope that you are all having a great Saturday so far!

Technorati Tags: Boston, Food, Mumm Napa, Open Studios, South End, wine

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