Johnny's Luncheonette
On weekends, Johnny's teems with families. But step in for any pre-workday fuel-up and you'll encounter an entirely different feel. The retro red vinyl booths and bright checkerboard floor are still there, of course, but the chaos is gone. Patrons linger over porridge with apples and cranberries, and plates heaped with feather-light buttermilk pancakes. Splurge on the oversized servings of cheese blintzes or catch one of the breakfast specials for $4 or less. It's all so good, you may just find yourself craving French toast come dinnertime. 1105 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA johnnysluncheonette.com.
Ten Tables
Barely bigger than a trophy wife's walk-in closet, the original Ten Tables delivers one of the most divine but relaxed meals around. Charcuterie boards bear house-cured meats and rich patés, bacony collards cozy up to pan-seared bluefish, and orange and bay leaf infuse a crème brûlée, none of it overreaching, all created by chef Sean Callahan's able team. 597 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, MA 2130, tentables.net.
Rowinsky's
Back in 1971, Dave Rowinsky's pièce de résistance was called Mustard Kup cheesecake, after the Cambridge deli where he worked and baked. The name was unappetizing, but the cheesecake was sublime; Rowinsky's fans once picketed a deli that employed him but wouldn't let him bake cake. Now he has his own shop, selling the all-natural cheesecakes in twenty flavors and as many sizes (one to 150 pounds). Other establishments he supplies include Papillon, Bette's Rolls Royce, and the Harvard Business School. Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA .
Obosá Restaurant
It says a lot about Obosá that it got foodies raving despite opening just one month before the 2020 COVID shutdown. As it turns out, the only timing that really matters is in the kitchen, where chef-owner Gloria Omoregbee patiently coaxes deep flavor from Nigerian recipes — slow-simmered soups of goat with grilled plantain, and signature nkwobi, bone-in cow foot in a peppery sauce — that always meet guests piping hot and right on time. 146 Belgrade Ave., Roslindale, MA 02131, obosafoods.com.
The "10 Miles West of Boston" Incident
Courtesy MAX HBO’s 2023 series The Last of Us depicted a present-day dystopian Boston in which the North End was a heavily militarized quarantine zone, and Quincy Market was a wasteland of fungal zombies. But the post-apocalyptic storyline required a greater suspension of disbelief in the third episode, when an establishing shot identified a coniferous forest landscape and steep mountain range as “10 Miles West of Boston.” The Internet wasn’t having it. As one local cracked on Twitter, “I [love] to take my family skiing in the mountain wilderness of Waltham.”
Cambridge School of Weston
It holds its own Punk Day. MA
Cookie Express from Karen's Kitchen
If everybody's mom made cookies this good, nobody would ever leave home. Area stores, .
Rocco's
Big, fat and juicy—the sort of burgers that made America the home of the brave. 5 Charles St. South, Boston, MA .
Julia Mejia, Boston City Councilor
Vania Arroyo See the People Who Gave Us Hope for more. boston.gov/departments/city-council/julia-mejia.
Out of Town Newspapers
Sheldon Cohen makes the world feel at home. Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA .
Sol Azteca
Good mole sauce, good salsa, good sangria, and a pleasant setting. 914A Beacon St., Boston, MA .
O Luxe Design
DW Digital Photography Thoughtfully crafted with a keen eye for color and scale, the bold centerpieces, runners, and greenery-forward installations dreamed up by Erica Jones and her team at O Luxe Design feel showy in all the right ways, bringing personality and creativity to every space they touch. One recent standout? A circular sweetheart-table arch, wrapped with trendy pampas grass and Italian ruscus for a barn bash in Groton. oluxedesign.com.
Beam
At a time when the Bay State’s CBD scene is absolutely exploding, this buzzy local startup has gone to great lengths to produce some of the cleanest and purest cannabidiol products on the market, helping users improve sleep, focus, and recovery one drop (or capsule) at a time. And by aligning themselves with a range of top athlete ambassadors such as professional golfer Billy Horschel and gold medalist triathlete Gwen Jorgensen, the company continues to prove that we’re only just scratching the surface of CBD’s powers. beamtlc.com.
Green Dragon Tavern
Picking Boston's best Irish pub is a little like picking the loveliest clover in County Kildare. Still, the Green Dragon manages to stand out from its many worthy rivals. Set on a cobblestone street by Faneuil Hall, this 350-year-old pub once played host to Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty, and now rallies a bustling after-work crowd that comes for well-poured pints of stout, excellent fish and chips, live entertainment seven nights a week, and one mean Boston cream pie. Slainte! 11 Marshall St., Boston, MA somerspubs.com.
Jo Jo Taipei
Photograph by Anthony Tieuli One bite of this Allston beauty's crisp, pillowy scallion-and-roast-beef pancakes, and you'll never order those sad, green-flecked cardboard slabs from your local Chinese takeout joint again. Here, it's all authentic Taiwanese dishes—like three-cup cuttlefish, spicy beef-noodle soup, and dry-cooked chicken with three peppers—and none of that greasy cream cheese-stuffed crab rangoon or gloppy General Gao's chicken you get elsewhere. 103 Brighton Ave., Allston, MA 2134, jojotaipei.com.