Emmets

Exploring Bar Food in Boston.

Someday, I'd like to do an entry just on the bar food that is available in Boston. Boston has a lot of Pubs and Bars, some of which are really old venerable establishments with a wide variety of food that is served along with the myriad beers that are made in Boston (Samuel Adams comes to mind).

Emmets is located on a quiet street and is a typical Irish Pub with wooden panels and "Ye Olde Victoriana" decor.
It has a very inviting storefront, a welcoming atmosphere and friendly service.


The food is fairly simple with some wonderful surprises like mussels and other local seafood. The menu is peppered with old favorites such as burgers and chicken wings listed alongside curry, spring rolls and quesadillas without feeling TGIFridays.

5  Turkey Club with Fries

5  Mussels in Garlic and White Wine

Emmets is on 6 Beacon Street, Beacon Hill, Boston.

Harvard in 23 Minutes

College is a breeze!

We thought we'd take a peek at Harvard before we headed back to the airport not realizing we didn't really have that much time so here goes!

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The Boston Public Library

Read it and weep.

The Boston Public Library is the first library in the United States that was built with public funding and the first library to lend books for free.

5  Side view of the Boston Public Library 

The current building in Copley Square was designed by the famed architectural firm McKim, Mead and White who also designed Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and the Morgan Library in New York.

5  Facade with Bela Pratt's sculpture of Science on the left.

There are two statues on the platform by Bela Pratt.  One is Science and the other is Art.  The facade is flanked by gothic looking sconces that are at once sinister and majestic.  

5 The sconces

5  The Grand Staircase

The central staircase is flanked by two lions created by Louis St. Gaudens and murals of the muses by Pierre Puvis De Chavannes.

5  Pierre Puvis De Chavaness mural.

5  Bates reading room

The reading room has amazing vaulted ceilings and large windows.  One can't help but think that this is what a library should look like.

5  The Abbey Room

This library has a ballroom (actually called the Abbey Room but I'd like to have a party there someday so let's call it the ballroom).  The murals of "The Quest For The Holy Grail" by American artist Edwin Austin Abbey surrounds the room.

5  The Courtyard

There is a wonderful Italianate courtyard with galleries that are perfect for sitting and reading a book or having a snack.  It's very quiet and peaceful.

5  The Novel Restaurant

They have several choices for eating including a formal dining room called Novel.  It seems empty as people seem to prefer the more casual snack bar right next to it.

5  John Singer Sargent Gallery

The Boston Public Library has a whole gallery that has murals by John Singer Sargent.  It depicts scenes from Judeo-Christian history and Sargent worked on a lot of it in a studio in London.  These murals were recently restored and is something to see.  For more about the Sargent murals, click here.

If you are a devout Catholic, you may even want to walk on your knees from one end of the hall to the other to fulfill your "panata".

5  Sargent mural lunette.

5  Mural with highly articulated crucifix

5  Bela Pratt's sculpture of Art overlooking Copley Square and Trinity Church

From what I understand, the Boston Public Library is severely underfunded, compared to the New York Public LIbrary.  A lot of the rare books are deteriorating.  The BPL has 2 curators versus New York Library's 35, so you can imagine how overworked the curators must be.

Legal Seafood Boston

All the seafood that's fit to eat.

Legal Seafoods seems to be an appropriate name due to it's very stringent standard for serving the freshest seafood available. But actually, it was named after patriarch Harry Berkowitz's "Legal Cash Market", the precursor of the restaurants.

The restaurant was actually more of a fish market that cooked the fish you bought and now it's a dine-in restaurant and one of the best seafood restaurants in Boston.

5  Dining room at Legal Seafoods, Copley Place

They expanded a lot in the 90's and now have locations up and down the east coast.

5  Haddock with Thai Red Curry Sauce

I had the Grilled Haddock with Red Thai Curry Sauce.  Considering that haddock is very bland, it was  nicely seasoned (a little mild for me, though).  The Thai Red Curry Sauce tasted like it came out of a bottle (it probably did!).  I also had the popcorn shrimp (inhaled it before I could take a picture) which was enjoyable.

5  Lobster and clambake dinner

They also ship complete lobster meals across the state including the pot to boil the lobster in.

Cheers!

Election night 2008.

We stopped by the bar that inspired the popular TV series, Cheers for a pre-election celebration before watching the election returns.

The exterior was used in the TV series and the interior inspired the look of the bar on TV.  This was originally the Bull & Finch pub when it was discovered by one of the TV shows creators who brought back pictures to Hollywood to be copied by the production designer.

The whole bar is small.  For the TV show, the bar was expanded and turned into an island bar to facilitate shooting in front of a live audience.  They do have a backroom and the backstairs does lead to a restaurant and hotel.  The bar is a basement bar and this was true with the TV version as well.

I had a locally brewed beer called Harpoon IPA. 

GOBAMA!

Suite 706

The suite life at the Omni Parker House Boston.

Having taken the red-eye to Boston, we knew we were arriving early but forgot that clocks go back that evening so our 6:45am arrival was actually 5:15 (oh, and we had speedy the pilot who cut 30 minutes form the flight time).

I was assigned a suite but since it was early, we were placed in a Deluxe Room as our "holding cell".  Having seen both the suite and the Deluxe Room, Suite is definitely the way to go when staying at the Omni since the Deluxe is way too small for comfort.  

5  Suite 706 is a queen bedroom suite also known as the Adams suite.

5  It has it's own private hallway.  Door to the left can be the maid's quarters (not included in our rate so it was non-functional), Middle door is main entrance and Right Door is direct entry into the bedroom.

5  Just to make sure you don't forget the provenance of the suite, commemorative plaques are on the main entry door.  It was named after the 2nd President of the United States, John Adams and First Lady, Abigail Adams. Also known as the parents of John Quincy Adams (also a U.S. President).

 

5  The spacious sitting room

5  Desk area and entry to bedroom

5  Queen size bed

5  Teeny-tiny bathroom

The Omni Parker House

An historic hotel experience.


The Parker House hotel, currently operated by Omni comes with an illustrious 150 year history.  It is the longest continuously operating hotel in the U.S.

5  Lobby

JFK has a long been tied to this hotel having made his first speech here at 6 years old (at a party for his grandfather where he was asked to say "This is the best grandfather a child ever had"), to his announcement of his candidacy for the Congress and to his proposal to Jacqueline Bouvier at the Parker Restaurant.

5  Elevator Decor

Malcolm X worked here as a busboy and Ho Chi Minh worked as a baker in the pastry shop.

Staples of American Cuisine - Parker House Rolls, Scrod and Boston Cream Pie were all invented here.

And best of all, there's an H&M around the corner!