The first two trips to Boston I was not able to do very much as for both times I was on tightly scheduled business trips. I went in the spring and then summer of 2012 when the weather was nice. This trip was in the middle of winter - January 2013. Let's just that my days in Boston were some of the coldest days I have ever experienced.
I went to Boston once again for a company paid business trip. You have to love those! My boyfriend, who used to work for Delta, flew up to stay with me on a Thursday and we hit up a few interesting restaurants in the evening and on Friday. We extended the trip for an extra day to do some sightseeing in the city on Saturday.
On Thursday I dragged Bill to a vegan diner in the Cambridge area. We initially were going to go to Peace O' Pie in the Allston neighborhood, however, they were closed due to maintenance issues. I was so disappointed! During my 2nd trip to Boston (alone) I stumbled upon Peace O' Pie - an all vegan pizzeria. In fact, the entire neighborhood of Allston is vegan friendly as the restaurant next to Peace O' Pie is vegetarian Asian cuisine, and just two doors in the opposite direction is a vegan ice cream shop. It was too cold in January for ice cream but they had cookies as well!
On Thursday evening the vegan pizzeria was closed so we ended up at the vegan diner in Cambridge called Veggie Galaxy. I would say that the food was OK and my boyfriend would say that it was not very good. Our favorite item on the menu was the Boston cream pie that we shared for desert. Check out this picture of the delicious vegan Boston cream pie.
On Friday I had a meeting in NH but by the afternoon we were back in Boston. I talked my boyfriend into going to the Samuel Adams Brewery and we had a great time. I say that I talked him into it because he hardly drinks. Samuel Adams does a really good job providing tours and the best part about the tour is that visitors can pay a donation amount of their choice. The donation actually goes to local charities. A tour guide will walk you through the process of how their beers are created, the ingredients used, and visitors are even provided with a sampling of their beers. What I really had to talk my boyfriend into doing was to go to the local Irish bar down the road. The reason for going to Doyle's Cafe was because not only was it the first bar to serve Samuel Adams in 1985, but because it was also the famous bar featured in Mystic River, My Best Friend's Girl, and a few other Hollywood films. Doyle's Cafe also gave us a free Samuel Adams glass! Although, the glass in the picture below is from the tasting at the brewery.
On Friday evening I knew that I needed to find a restaurant for dinner that served meat. Bill was not happy with Veggie Galaxy and I owed it to him to find a good restaurant! We were staying in the financial district so when I used my Happy Cow app I found a restaurant only 10 minutes away in Little Italy that had a vegan ravioli on the menu. This was probably one of the best restaurants I have ever been to.
Gennaro's serves up traditional Italian food in a small, cozy restaurant. We were seated by a window overlooking the North Square. The entire neighborhood is very historical and the roads are cobblestone. In fact, the Paul Revere house was only down the road. I mentioned to the wait staff that I was vegan and they made sure to let me know that I could eat the bread, they made a vegan salad for me, and of course I ordered the vegan ravioli. The dish didn't have any faux meats or cheese in it and because of that I thought it was delicious! My boyfriend said that the chicken marsala was perfect and we both agreed that they waitstaff was excellent. If you are Italian and/or you are vegan traveling to Boston then you must check out this restaurant!
On Saturday we spent the rest of our time driving around the city and freezing at the Paul Revere House. We drove around to sightsee because it was a high of 25 that day. I had gloves on while walking around outside and I still could not feel my hands. Below is a picture of us in front of one of his bells and a picture of the house.
I love Boston with it's Irish bar on every street corner, awesome neighborhoods such as Little Italy, Allston, and of course the Cambridge area. I did not want to create this to be an extremely long post as I didn't mention that throughout our visit to the city we met multiple people and we struck up great conversations with all of them. Boston is full of your typical northerners, but they of course hold a distinct accent (that I love) and, the residents are a little more welcoming when you show love for their city. There is still a large part of Boston that I have yet to explore but from what I know of so far it is a city full of "tough" people and these people, although temporarily damaged, will not be fully broken by this tragedy. I may not ever go to the Boston Marathon (or any marathon now), but I will go back to visit for more vegan food... hopefully soon!
-Kerry
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