Clarke
This is the ultimate playground for those in the throes of kitchen renovation. Open to the public and the design trade, Clarke lets consumers explore how a kitchen might look and discover the latest in cutting-edge kitchen technology from manufacturers like Thermador, Sub-Zero, Gaggenau, and Dynasty. The 5,000-square-foot show room contains a number of kitchen vignettes, and consultants are on hand to answer questions about models, features, and cooking techniques. Because Clarke is a distributor, there's no pressure to purchase; consultants will refer consumers to any one of 150 stores within its network. 63 South St., Suite 190, Hopkinton, MA .
Dr. Robert Leach
Exercise leads occasionally to injury, and for treating the busted knees, there's probably no one better than Leach. He works with the Boston Celtics, the US ski team, the Olympic squad, and top professional tennis players. "The real action though," Leach says, "is not with the pros. It's with the people who are doing sports for fun." That category includes Leach. With son Mike, the Leaches are a nationally ranked tennis duo. But Leach's sports medicine is all business. "These days, reputations are often made not on the surgery, but on not doing the surgery," he says. "And the athletes know I don't quit. They recognize I'm relating." Boston, MA
Fred Donovan and John Dewar
The John Dewar & Company operation has been in business only since October, but already its commercial clients include Front Street, the Hermitage, and Jason's. The Dewar company also encourages retail business at its 753 Beacon St., Newton, address. According to Fred Donovan, the vice-president and chief meat cutter of the store, "We're not trying for the strong sell. We just want to satisfy the customer. We don't care if they come in for one hot dog or four ounces of hamburger. We treat all our customers the same." John Dewar & Company, .
Coolidge Corner Clubhouse
A moment of silence, please, for the newly shuttered Sports Depot in Allston, at one time the only true sports bar (thanks to its 70 TVs and $9.99 Sunday brunch) this town could claim. Left to fill its shoes are several bars near Fenway and the FleetCenter, but only the Coolidge Corner Clubhouse offers the requisite coziness and camaraderie every sports bar needs. Trivia Night on Mondays draws a packed house, while 22 TVs and 36 microbrews to choose from keep the energy high. Now if it could just lose the annoying 90-minute table limit. 309 Harvard St., Brookline, MA thecoolidgecornerclubhouse.com.
Dal
Put one foot in this tapas bar and (as its name foretells) suddenly you've stepped inside a surrealist painting. The walls bombard the senses, covered as they are with trinkets, tchotchkes, knick-knacks, and accouterments from all over the Iberian peninsula. The food follows suit, starting with the tapas menu, which offers a palette of wildly disparate tastes in a few small bites, from juicy duckling smothered in berry sauce to delicate scallops swimming in saffron cream. But the entrées are the genuine masterpieces—especially the house special, melt-on-your-fork pescado a la sal (striped bass cooked in coarse salt that tenderizes the fish as it's baked). 415 Washington St., Somerville, MA dalirestaurant.com.
Jason Bond, Bondir
Bondir Restaurant Bond showcases New England's bounty like no one else in town, dreaming up quirky-beautiful dishes that feature lesser-known flora, like calaminth, angelica root, and carrot-shaped Shunkyo radishes. And if Bond can blow us away working in a kitchen the size of a walk-in closet, we can't wait to see what he'll do when he opens the 2,800-square-foot outpost of Bondir in Concord—which will source items from his new Dracut farm plot—this fall. 279A Broadway, Cambridge, MA bondircambridge.com.
Café Vanille
Most bakeries aim for French authenticity, but few this side of the Atlantic succeed as completely as Café Vanille. Choosing between the flaky, airy, and flawlessly textured chocolate croissants and blissful fresh-fruit custard tarts is an exercise in futility: Just take one of each. The setting, an almost impossibly charming little Charles Street storefront, also sports a sunny brick patio, the ideal perch for tucking into a decadent mocha crème-filled pâté à choux while watching all of Beacon Hill stroll past. Now you know what Proust was fussing about. 70 Charles St., Boston, MA frenchmemories.com.
Siena Farms
Other CSAs (community-supported agriculture, or farm-shares) have more-convenient pickup spots or more-varied plans. But for produce quality, there's no beating Chris Kurth's Siena Farms in Sudbury, where he grows the most beautiful tomatoes and the tenderest greens you'll find anywhere. Kurth's wife, Ana Sortun, is one of Boston's best chefs (at Oleana) and weighs in on what to plant. And now that Kurth offers both a membership-style deal that gets you a discount at the farmers' markets and the traditional weekly box of produce, he's beginning to close the gap on convenience, too. 113 Haynes Rd., Sudbury, MA 1776, sienafarms.com.
Il Casale
Stop us if you've heard this one before: City chef heads to the 'burbs, ditches fine dining for comfort fare, and watches culture-starved locals pour in. Original or not, we're smitten with Il Casale, which opened this spring in Belmont's old fire station. Maybe it's because owners Dante deMagistris and brothers Filippo and Damian grew up in the neighborhood. Or it could be the simple family recipes. Who cares? We just want some more of that gnocchi with porcini cream, burrata with pistachios, and fluffy tiramisu. 50 Leonard St., Belmont, MA 2478, ilcasalebelmont.com.
Craigie On Main
Tony Maws isn't one of those chefs who tries to make it look easy. In his new Central Square digs, the open kitchen takes center stage, providing an unobstructed view of exactly how that (Vermont organic) lamb three ways and (Maine dayboat) halibut get onto the plate. Maws even spells out his principles on the Craigie website, including 'First we find the ingredients, then we create the menu'—which means that every day he's sourcing what's local, in season, and, for the most part, organic. By degrees, Maws takes it further than anyone else in town, and his work is your reward. 853 Main St., Cambridge, MA 2139, craigieonmain.com.
Rene Michelena
Within a few short months of his arrival at La Bettola, Michelena had helped the new South End tavern win honors from Esquire, Bon Appetit, and Food and Wine magazine as one of the best new restaurants in America. Raised in a Spanish-Filipino culinary tradition and trained in the finest kitchens in the country, Michelena has an extraordinary palate that is able to infuse French, Italian, and Asian flavors with subtelty and mastery. Having made his mark at La Bettola, which he still oversees, Michelena has recently taken over the kitchen at its sister restaurant, Galleria Italiana. La Bettola, 480A Columbus Ave., .
Nick's Moving
Ask almost anyone to name the milestones in life they hate most, and moving invariably ends up in the top five. The experts at Nick's prove that even the most intense uprooting needn't mean an existential crisis—or any other crisis, for that matter. Staffed by a network of experienced, careful, swift, and—get this—often intelligent movers, Nick's takes one of life's most stressful moments and makes it almost easy with speed, organization, and even humor. Moves are efficiently structured, valuables are carefully wrapped and packed, and customers' concerns and requests are handled with respect. Moving may never be fun, but moving with Nick's comes closest. 495 Columbia St., Somerville, MA bostonmamovers.net.
KO Prime
Gazillion-thread-count sheets aside, a hotel is really only as good as its bar. And chichi steakhouse KO Prime has admirably elevated the one at downtown's Nine Zero Hotel over the past year. Adjacent to the restaurant's sweeping dining room, the loungelike space caters to an in-town audience as well as trysters and overnight guests with a smart by-the-glass wine list and wowza cocktails such as the green tea-calamansi gimlet (chilled with liquid nitrogen!). For travelers with work to attend to, the combination of wireless Internet and tush-pleasing seating banishes the memory of sterile hotel business centers. 90 Tremont St., Boston, MA 2108, .
Boston Rock Gym
A huge industrial loft in Woburn, the Boston Rock Gym is carpeted with 20 tons of chopped-up car tires, the walls are studded with tiny gargoyles, dinosaurs, and rocklike footholds, and the place looks like a preppy torture chamber. One of the best-equipped climbing gyms in all of New England, the rock gym has 30 different climbing routes of varying complexity, ranging from beginner to impossible. Check out Hades—a bouldering cave in which climbers hang upside down, suspended by their fingers and toes—as well as the Treadwall (imagine a treadmill that's a vertical wall). Patient instructors keep an eye out for your safety and offer group classes and individual instruction. 78G Olympia Ave., Woburn, MA .
Bakers' Best
The increasingly popular sit-down service is good, too (especially for Saturday and Sunday brunch), but it's the takeout that sets this Newton Highlands institution apart. The friendly staff will wrap up anything to go, from a cup of coffee to a multicourse gourmet dinner for as many guests as you can gather. Big orders like those require one day's notice, but Baker's Best makes it easy with a quiet catering office and a convenient check-off menu. There are also freezers full of ready-to-cook meal components in the main store, from hors d'oeuvres to entrées. And that food—it really is the best. 27 Lincoln St., Newton Highlands, MA bakersbestcatering.com.