Travel Boston
Each year we take our kids on a winter trip just before Christmas. We typically switch back and forth between a trip to Disney and a trip somewhere new every other year. That way we can still take advantage of the time they are young and love the Disney trips, but also making sure we help them see more of the world other than Texas and Anaheim… We love taking them new places, finding new adventures and making special family memories. This year we took a trip to Boston at the end of December - when flights are more affordable, hotel costs are lower and it’s really really really really cold!
Cheaper flights and paying less for hotels is always a bonus, but the cold was definitely cold. So once again we all bundled up and had a blast! We ate some of the best food, saw some really cool sights throughout the city, and expanded our “American History” knowledge base - getting to actually see some of the places where revolutionary events took place. We caught a ballet, shopped and drank cappuccinos every single day (as always), walked all over the city, and had another wonderful trip as a family.
We are breaking this travel blog into 2 parts -
Part 1: Best Places to Eat
Part 2: Best things we did
But I’ll start with telling you where we stayed:
The Lenox is a 4 star Boutique hotel in a superb location! It’s such a cozy hotel that is within walking distance of everything we wanted to do. We did end up taking a couple of Uber rides because it was so cold and we had already walked so much, but the Lenox was close enough that everything was accessible. The hotel is not large, has a couple of dining and bar options that give you great late night snack options or a quick meal before you head out. They have a small gym downstairs that is open late - which allowed me to get my workouts in each day after everyone was down for bed and I didn’t miss any family time that way. The rooms are clean and cozy with great views of the city. The Lenox is a phenomenal hotel: price, location and accommodations - but the customer service is outstanding! I mean outstanding! The front desk is as friendly and helpful as anywhere else we’ve stayed, plus they provide you with free bottled water (like as much as you want) - I would grab literally 10-12 bottles a day for our family. But it didn’t stop there. When we first arrived at the hotel - we walked in and they immediately handed both our kids stuffed animals. Talk about a win with the kids right off! Nothing better than finally arriving at your hotel after a full morning of airports, planes and Ubers, when you are 9 and 13 than for a hotel attendant to hand you a present! We highly recommend the Lenox for your stay in Boston. There are so many great hotels, but the Lenox wins the race with: Location - Quality - Price - Customer service.
Best Places to Eat:
After getting settled and grabbing a few quick recommendations from the hotel we headed out to dinner and some sight seeing for the evening. We walked just a few blocks down the street to Dirty Water Dough. This is a really cool place to stop! They are located on Newbury Street and the shop has a great street view and a couple of dinning tables in a big window/patio type area that is still inside. Just makes a really fun place to eat. The pizza is phenomenal. The selection is extensive, the service is A+ and it was a great way to kick off our foodie experience in Boston as a family.
We really enjoyed the vibe @Tattebakery! It was always packed, but we never had to wait more than 15 min for our food. This place definitely feels like a local spot. The seating is more of a communal concept - is open, has a white chic look and is just a happening place to grab a healthy b-fast and coffee. The pastries are really good (we went with the morning bun on multiple occasions) but they have a wide selection of croissants, rolls, buns, etc… The poached eggs, toast and bacon are a local fav as well as their list of b-fast sandwhichs. This place is not the joint where you can get things made to order. They do not deviate from the menu and how it comes…”it is what it is” kind of place, but honestly you’re probably not going to make it better - just enjoy the local flavor. We ended up here for 3 of our breakfast stops and I think Riane may have grabbed at least one more coffee there during our time. (What I’m saying is: we really like Tatte Bakery - a lot!)
Really cool vibe. If you ever need a little hipster experience, this is it. Nothing like walking through a Boston bookstore mixed with a coffee shop/cafe in it both upstairs and down. We sat upstairs and had a street view that made for some fun people watching and a great quiet spot for conversations as a family. The food is decent, nothing to really write home about - this place is much more of an experience than it is a foodie spot. We had French toast, eggs, bacon, norm American b-fast, etc… Note: syrup is out of a package here which feels off because of the environment you are in (you don’t expect Ihop syrup in Massachusetts at a hipster cafe, but it happens - occasionally). We give Bookesellers a C+ food grade and a B+ atmosphere. Again, don’t go here if you are wanting a stellar breakfast. Go because you want the experience and adventure of something new. (But don’t order the French toast…)
Super fun experience here. This little place is right on the docks - just a short walk from the Boston Tea Party Museum. It’s a little tucked away on a side street. It is one of those “Yes, I’m in Boston” type of joints. From the time you see it from the outside until you leave you are fully immersed in the fun sea food experience. We showed up at an off dinning hour (around 2) to grab a late lunch/early dinner time meal so we had our choice of where to sit. There was one of those old time stove ovens right next to where we were sitting so it gave us a great spot to stay warm and enjoy a fire while we ate. We had fish, shrimp and fries as well as a great IPA beer. Our server was one of those fun rougher north east type ladies which totally completed the experience. This was one of our favorite lunch/dinner meals we had all week and it was ironically one of the cheaper ones. In the spring and summer months this is an open air restaurant and I’m sure makes the experience that much more fun!
I ran across the Met in my insta searches months before our trip to Boston and had taken a screen shot of their hot chocolate treats. Funny we actually didn’t end up ordering hot chocolate, but we did have pizza, pasta, burgers, fries, wine, beer, etc… This was a more lush spots to eat and was fancier than I had anticipated. I had expected more of a cafe feel, but found it a 2 story restaurant with full bar and menu that made a great early dinner spot for us. The booths are huge and fit all 6 in our party more than comfortably and although it was pretty full when we went, we didn’t wait long, the service was fun, fast and quality and the “happening” atmosphere didn’t prevent us from enjoying each other’s company while we dined. I highly recommend grabbing a meal at The Met for great service, food, and atmosphere.
This is a must stop! Like no option. If you tend to skip out on grabbing a hot coco, chocolate square or a mocha - this is not the time to do it. This is one of the best hot chocolate’s I’ve ever had… and I try them everywhere we go. Huge fan of the mocha or the coco over here! Riane took Tanner there while I had Dax at Fenway, so we had to make another stop when we were all together. I ordered a hot chocolate and as I sat and took my first sip in the process of warming up I realized - “this is the best hot chocolate I’ver ever tasted”. Every other coco or mocha would now be measured by L’Burd standard. L.A. Burdick makes all their chocolate in house, they’ve created a phenomenal family experience in a really nice little cafe spot, and they will likely continue to set the standard for gourmet chocolate experiences for years to come. It is a little pricey, but well worth the indulge because you’re not going to find this quality chocolate anywhere else in the states.
Much like The Met, I found Blackbird during my “Boston Recon”. Breakfast and brunch are hands down my favorite meals of the day, and cheat brunch day is my absolute favorite meal of the week. I love to plan out months in advance cafe and coffee places to grab my countless number of cheat meals on our trips and Blackbird obviously made the list. We had to walk about 45 min. to get to the famous doughnut spot. I had expected it to be more of a sit in/dinning spot, and to our surprise the entire customer lobby area is all of 100 square feet or less. It is tiny. We all crammed in having just hiked our mile plus to pound some doughnuts and were trying to warm our hands up and sort thru the menu. There’s literally no place to eat inside at Blackbird because it is so small. This is not a big deal if: you know that before hand, and you’ve not walked 45 min in the freezing cold to get there. So, having just won the father of the year award by taking my kids to this amazing doughnut spot with no place to eat: we huddled around a windowsill, busted open our pizza box of doughnuts and went to town. We just did a mixture of flavors and let everyone try bites of everything which is a lot of fun. We still laugh at how far we walked for something I had planned out for months only to arrive and end up eating outside hovering around a pizza box full of gourmet doughnuts. The doughnuts were delicious, but I’ll definitely have a better plan for eating them next time.
We love Italian food and Boston has some amazing Italian restaurants - most of which are found on the North End. We hit up Carmelina’s the same evening we went to Paul Revere’s house since it was only a couple of blocks over. Carmelina’s is on Hanover street where you can find a row of Italian eats as well as pastry and coffee shops to stop in. Carmelina’s was absolutely packed and I think it always is. The food is incredible and the customer service is top notch, but it’s not a big place and there is literally no where to wait on your table. We ended up waiting across the street at Vittoria Coffee, who also had great customer service, delicious coffee and hot coco and served as a perfect place to wait. We had pasta, fish and meatballs at Carmelina’s - the atmosphere is a ton of fun and again the food is delicious. This was one of our pricier meals, but it was more than worth it for another top quality foodie experience! While writing this I asked Riane for a quote and she said, “I mean, the food was really good…” - thx babe ;-).
Pavement Coffehouse: A
This is a fun little spot where we grabbed coffee and tea after our first pizza stop. It’s a cool little shop in the downstairs section of the line of shops on Newbury St. (Really fun street to cruise down at night - the lights, shops, people, scenery is just really fun and relaxing). It’s a small shop with cute little tables, but ample seating for the time of day we dropped by. The staff was fun to engage with and the coffee and tea were amazing. Their pastry selection is lacking a little (but I’m also a huge pastry fan and I have somewhat unrealistic expectations at times…). Regardless, this is a great place for another “local” experience in Boston especially on a cold night after dinner!
We obviously didn’t hit all the best places to eat in Boston and there are countless others, but these were our favs during our trip and definitely would repeat any of them given the chance. Next week I will drop Part 2: Best things we did. Have a great weekend -
Check out Travel Boston - Part 2 for “best things we did” coming out next week!