What to Eat (and Drink) This Weekend
Elusive brews haunting local bars, chocolate and tacos, all pumpkin everything, and more.
Scratch-made pasta from Mida. / Photo by Christopher Churchill for “Best Restaurants in Boston”
At the Best Restaurants in Boston
All-new for 2018, your thoroughly researched and boldly ranked guide to the greatest places to eat and drink around the city has landed. Boston magazine’s Top 50 Restaurants list is live in the November issue, on newsstands now. How many places have you visited? Make some reservations to try a new-to-you, soon-to-be-favorite this weekend.
Photo provided by Hop Culture
Spooky Brews
A frighteningly fresh beer festival is happening Friday night in the South End, but whether or not you have tickets to Hop Culture’s Spooky Brews, you can try beers from elusive breweries that are in town for the fest and haunting bars around Boston all weekend long. Craft Collective Distributors is hosting the official after-party at the Ginger Man on Friday night, with special kegs from Aslin Beer Co., Hoof Hearted Brewing, Barreled Souls, and more; and it’s closing out the first season of the Craft Collective Beer Barn at Sowa this Sunday with a spooktacular lineup, too. TRVE Brewing and Interboro have multi-venue tours planned this weekend with the likes of Brewer’s Fork, Lord Hobo, Haley.Henry Wine Bar, the Salty Pig, and others,. Of course beer director Suzanne Hays of Row 34 has some fun things planned, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the Publick House does, too. Hunt down these beers before they disappear.
Tiger Mama pumpkin sankaya photo via Instagram / Bambara Sally’s Arm cocktail photo via Instagram
All Things Pumpkin
’Tis the season. Go the sweet route with a mini pumpkin full of coffee sankaya—a Thai-style pumpkin custard—from Dee Steffen Chinn’s dessert menu at Tiger Mama. Prefer to drink your gourd? There are still tickets available for sessions 1 and 2 of the Great Pumpkin Festival at Cambridge Brewing Company, featuring pumpkin beers from Allagash, New Belgium, Southern Tier, and many, many more. Elsewhere in Cambridge, Bambara Kitchen and Bar at the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel is shaking up Sally’s Arm with pumpkin, Hangar One vodka, allspice dram, Licor 43, and, lime. And definitely make time to visit the giant, 1,000-plus-pound “pumpking” and “pumpqueen” at the Boston Public Market.
Patrick Gaggiano. / Photo by Webb Chappell for Best of Boston 2015: Best Bartender
Scotchy Scotch Scotch
Cozy up on Sunday evening at the Hawthorne, where guest bartender Patrick Gaggiano of Horizon Beverages is helping kick off this season’s Sunday Sips series with a seven Scotches to try and learn about.
Sunday, Oct. 28, 5-7 p.m., the Hawthorne, 500 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, 617-532-9150, thehawthornebar.com, Facebook.
“The 3 Catrinas” at a past Taza Chocolate Dia de los Muertos celebration. / Photo by David Reyes
Chocolate and Tacos
The original date of Taza Chocolate’s Dia de los Muertos Block Party is rained out, but the fiesta is on this mostly sunny Sunday for a chocolate-fueled afternoon of live music, face-painting, and family-friendly fun. The eighth annual event at the Somerville factory features Taza’s traditional molino-ground chocolate in free hot chocolate and other samples, plus tacos, tamales, elotes, and sweets for purchase from vendors like Taco Party, Tenoch Mexican, Q’s Nuts, Honeycomb Creamery, and more. Neighbors Bantam Cider and Somerville Brewing (Slumbrew) will provide the boozy libations, and there will be Polar Seltzer and yerba mate.
Sunday, October 28, noon-5 p.m., Taza Chocolate, 561 Windsor St., Somerville, tazachocolate.com, Facebook.
