For my birthday this year, my husband told me he had it all planned and we were headed to Boston for two days and I was just to pack for walking a lot which certainly made me happy. That's about all the information I was given. So mysterious! We left about noon last Friday and he said our first stop was lunch and pretty local. Ceres Bakery in Portsmouth in fact - a place we had gone into just a month or so ago just to look and promised we'd be back. Hooray! Remember this picture?
I wanted to take a current picture of the place outside because it was sunny, and that vine on the building which is ivy was all leafed out and adorable, but every chair had a person in it and I didn't want all of them in it. Dan suggested that we split a sandwich and dessert as we would be tasting many things over the next couple days. What??? So we ordered a chicken salad sandwich on multi grain bread and the rhubarb raspberry tart. Both were excellent, the bread so moist and chewy with a great crust and crumb. We asked to buy a loaf to take home but they had sold out. The tart obviously had a butter based crust and struesel and we agreed that this was a bakery we would return to again and again. I couldn't take many pictures because there were so many people in there and one word of warning - you have to decide what you want quickly because a line forms and you get moved forward constantly from people streaming in. I felt a lot of pressure but we made a good choice.
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Look at all the veggies on that sandwich! We are still saying "veegees" for fun as they pronounce it in NZ
After lunch we headed for Boston and then Dan revealed that since I love bakeries, our activities would unfold along stops at some of the top Boston area bakeries. Ten of them in fact. Wow!!! When we arrived in Boston, he pulled into the Millenium Bostonian Hotel across from Quincy Market and Fanueil Hall. What a great location to begin our adventure. He instructed me just to follow him as we walked. Our first stop was a perfume shop that turned out to no longer be there. So we went to the one in Macy's and I was to pick out a perfume as a gift but I just couldn't find one I liked and you've seen my perfume trays …. I told him that the whole bakery tour was present enough. We then hopped on the Red Line T at Boston Common and found ourselves on the delightfully cobbley Charles St. in Beacon Hill. Our first bakery was Panifico. We bought a brownie and after tasting it we immediately threw it out. Institutional tasting - packaged mix and canned frosting taste! Bummer. Further down the same street we found Tatte. Very busy and so cute inside. And with a French feel to it. We bought another brownie and chocolate chip cookie. Now these were homemade tasting and really good. We took bites of each and stowed the rest in Dan's back pack. Dan then reported that we would be having breakfast in that same bakery the following morning but in Cambridge where the owner has another store. Yippee!! I was looking forward to the Belgian hot chocolate and the pastries we had seen on display.
This is the inside of the Charles St. Tatte
Charles Street
After we left Charles Street, we passed through the Public Gardens to find another bakery called Finale at One Columbus Avenue. We bought another brownie, double chocolate cookie and chocolate chip walnut cookie. This bakery had a strange interior in that the bakery case was small and the seating areas were huge and it was dark and not very cozy. But the cookies? Superb!!! We took bites and then put them away for later. Then back to the Public Gardens to watch people and baby ducklings and sit a spell. Dan had to take an important business call so I set off for a walk down Boylston and Newbury Streets and found myself at LA Burdicks chocolate shop, a Walpole New Hampshire based chocolatier famous for their hot chocolate, hand made chocolate mice and just really fabulous chocolates in general. I had been once to the Walpole shop and loved what I had eaten there. It's quite expensive though! Well I found my birthday presents: a pound of very dark chocolate shavings for making hot chocolate a la francaise, a pound of their dark chocolate pieces for baking cookies, and a tin of dark unsweetened baking cocoa. Yay! Then I headed back to Dan.
The LA Burdick Goods.
Public Garden. We then walked to the North End where Dan announced we would be having dinner after we visited one more bakery, and not Modern nor Mike's (very overrated those two), but rather the lesser known but just as good Bova's at 134 Salem Street. Although we went in and perused, we didn't buy anything because frankly, Italian pastries just don't do that much for either one of us (not enough chocolate) and Dan can't stand Cannolis and I just like the filling and we were really in the mood for savory food. We headed to a place we have eaten once before that rivals anything we ate over in Italy. Bricco!!!
Fifty Four Freaking Years Old. And that doesn't bother me at all. I love it! The fifties are fabulous!
We split this starter - a hunk of fresh burrata on top of two very thin slices of toasted crostini on top of balsamic and olive oil infused arugula, grape tomatoes, roasted peppers and asparagus. To die for!
We also split this - homemade ravioli stuffed with ground pancetta, figs, and 4 cheeses served with fava beans, more pancetta and shaved parmesan. We swooned as we ate this.
I ordered braised short ribs with a fig sauce (I adore figs) and roasted carrots and parsnips. I could only eat half so I took the rest to our hotel and put it in the little fridge there.
Dan got the roasted duck leg/thigh over roasted yams and other veggies. He said it was excellent.
North End Night Street
Bricco
Our Hotel which also has the wonderful Haymarket right outside of it. We went there later.
Here is a picture of flags at Boston Common that they put out every Memorial Day; about 37,000 for each Massachusetts service person who has lost his/her life for our country since the Revolutionary war up to today.
Saturday morning we took the T over to Cambridge to the other Tatte and had this for breakfast. Don't judge; we didn't eat it all, just tastes of everything and the hot chocolate was very very very hot just as I pleaded for and super rich. Yes! And here is the rest of Saturday and the birthday trip in pics.
Breakfast
Inside Tatte
Walking through Charlestown. We are on our way to Bunker Hill to climb the monument and walk around this super pretty town. It looks like Brooklyn meets Beacon Hill meets Newburyport MA.
too many cars in the way for all these street scenes
Yeah I said, I'm gonna climb the 294 stairs to the top and work off our morning pastries! I did.
One of the views from the top of Bunker Hill
At the top inside
A nice square in Charlestown.
This duplex made me laugh - it is truly one house cut in half with paint color and door molding.
Adorable fire station.
Dan on the Freedom Trail from Charlestown headed to Old Ironsides
This part of Charlestown used to be a tangle of elevated trains and really run down. In the late 90s it was all cleaned up and the whole area is a splendid mix of old and tasteful new.
The dry docked USS Constitution launched in 1797 and a fierce war ship during the war of 1812.
Copp's Burial Ground in the North End. Two of the stones show folks born in the late 1500s! And dying in the 1600s when that area was settled. Very old stones and fun to read - some very sad.
A North End Street
Listening to a wonderful choral group in the old North Church from our pew.
No matter where we go, Dan walks in the shade and I walk in the sun. :)
Shopping at Haymarket before we get into our car and head for the last three bakeries - one in the South End and two in Somerville.
Killer Froyo at Cafe 472. I talk about it below.
Petsi Pie in Somerville. We bought slices of pecan pie and a quiche. Fantastic! I'm a crust snob and this is good crust!
Prounounced Peet See Pie. 285 Beacon St.
Two blocks from Petsi Pie on 626 Somerville Ave is Forge Baking Company in an old mill type building known for it's excellent breads and sandwiches. We bought two loaves to take home and sandwiches to take and have for dinner. All excellent.
Forge Baking Co
I took a picture of the menu so I could make their sandwiches at home using their ideas.
Cafe Madeleine in the South End on 517 Columbus Ave. I only took a bite cuz we were headed to Cafe 472 for the Hogi Yogi style frozen yogurt to have for lunch. Remember Hogi Yogi you westerners? The vanilla or chocolate bricks of froyo that go in a crusher/whirler with your mixins? They have one at 472 Commonwealth Ave near Kenmore Square. Oh happiness!!!
The loot we took home from Haymarket and bakeries
Here's a random shot of one of the pots I put together in our yard. It wasn't meant to be on here but lately pictures have been showing up, getting linked, and I can't delete them without deleting everything I just added. I still don't know what I'm doing wrong! Frustrating! But the pot is pretty. :)
Since that showed up, I'll add three more but intentionally that are just as random to this particular post but are good/interesting things. The first is what happened to the asparagus that was roasting in the oven when I fell asleep by the pool today when I went out just to soak up the sun as they cooked. Another is a plant that returns every summer to the brick patio at the Yellow House that I call the unpotted plant. It's a catmint, or Nepeta. It doesn't get watered very often and cannot be budged from the tight bricks it grows from. So there it remains and I love it. The other is another huge bunch of lily of the valley I picked this evening that is smelling up the kitchen so brilliantly. Thank you my darling husband who knows me so well for such a fun, delicious, and delightful birthday! Goodnight!
Ruined!!
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What an awesome birthday!
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