By Cathy Boudreau and Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times
Not too soon after she said her goodbyes to her friends and fellow Beacon Hill activists, the fiery activist Billie Lawrence was gone.
Billie Rose (Lambert) Lawrence, 74, had just decided to scale back her work with the Suffolk University Task Force due to her battle with terminal cancer, when she died Nov. 26.
Most people knew her as a community activist, although she was also an educator, editor, and television personality.
“Billie was a tireless and fearless advocate for upper Beacon Hill,” said Representative Martha M. Walz. “She asked the hard questions and would insist on answers, even when developers and others didn’t want to give them. I admired her tenacity, and I will miss her.”
Born in Huntington, West Virginia, she moved with her family to Erlanger, Kentucky, when she a young girl. Lawrence was a child prodigy, playing Mozart at the age of five.
Lawrence was actively involved since she was a little girl, she told our reporter recently. “If I didn’t like the answer, I would try to do something about it.” An anti-war activist during World War II, she ran a training program for those trying to avoid the draft. She also worked to preserve Kentucky’s Red River Gorge from development.
She graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a BA in Education, with a focus on psycho-linguistics.
In the 1950s, “Billie Savely” starred as Miss Nancy Lee, of “Jellybean Acres," a children’s educational television show in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she also wrote TV and radio jingles. In the 1960’s while teaching at a Cincinnati inner city school, she became frustrated because police routinely removed her students for theft. In response, she decided to teach her students the importance of earning their own money and helped them produce and sell a successful Appalachian cookbook. Years later many of her students cited this as a major turning point in their lives.
From a young age, Billie was involved in many social and charitable organizations. She was the first president of the Junior Board for Crippled Children in Cincinnati.
Lawrence moved to Indiana as a contract designer for MAC’s Family Restaurants, supervising the design and construction of interiors for 16 steak houses and 27 hamburger restaurants, as well as handling press and public relations. Billie returned to TV/film/attractions in the 1970s when she moved to Key Biscayne, Florida, and handled public relations for Miami Seaquarium, home of “Flipper” and “Salty the Sea Lion.”
Coming to Boston 27 years ago to receive treatment at Mass General, she fell in love with Boston and stayed.
She was a faculty assistant at the Harvard Business School, where she also did editing and wrote speeches, moved onto the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the JFK School of Government, where she handled logistics for international speakers and guests in areas of Arms Control, the Aspen Institution, National Science Foundation and the Science Fellows Program.
She became the building manager and system designer for 30 offices at the JFK School of Government. After leaving Harvard, she worked for The Beacon Group as a manuscript editor for a variety of authors, as well as working privately for more than 20 clients.
In 1982, Lawrence joined the Massachusetts Teachers Association, for 15 years in the Human Resources Division until three days prior to her death. “Billie was a very unique and a very special person,” said MTA President Anne Wass. “She touched many lives in the MTA. She always brought humor and a colorful flair to MTA gathering. She will be deeply missed.”
As a local activist, Lawrence fought against what she called “hit and run development.” Lawrence was a force to be reckoned with, since her activism was not about her; it was for those whose voices could not heard, for maintaining the character of the city she grew to love, and for her commitment that Boston “shouldn’t just look like anyplace. We took our beautiful old City Hall and put a chain steakhouse in it. We have faceless buildings going up all over the place.”
She founded the Upper Beacon Hill Civic Association to direct attention to Suffolk’s 20 Somerset Street project, helping to scale back the number of dorms originally proposed.
"I really feel a sense of personal loss with Billie's passing,” said John Nucci, Vice President for External Affairs at Suffolk University. “We could sometimes disagree on certain things, but at the end of the day, we'd sit and talk about life and family like best of friends. Those were special moments for me. She was a fighter, often with a loud bark, sometimes a painful bite, but always with a heart of gold and the best interests of her neighbors in mind."
She battled liquor licenses on the Hill, protected limited-income elderly residents from being pushed out of the neighborhood, and most recently opposed a proposed restaurant on Boston Common.
She was also interested in the significance of her own apartment building, formerly the historic Hotel Bellevue, and the home, at times, of John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, and his grandson, President John F. Kennedy.
In 1999, Lawrence planned and hosted the 100th anniversary celebration of the Hotel. The reception was held on the rooftop overlooking the State House and Boston Commons, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy was the keynote speaker.
You could find Ms. Lawrence most nights at 5:15, next door to her condo, at Fifteen Beacon’s Moo restaurant—one martini, shaken 50 times, and one cup of black coffee, surrounded by friends and, most often, talking politics and current affairs.
In lieu of a memorial service, last night a celebration of Lawrence’s life was held at her old watering hole. In her honor, Mooo created a signature Martini in her honor. “Billie was a like a member of our family,” said Mooo Restaurant General Manager Alexa Demarco. “We have her signature martini on our drink list called the Billie Lawrence Martini.” All the proceeds will be donated to Billie’s favorite charity, the Autism Society of American-Massachusetts Chapter, said DeMarco, who added, “She will be deeply missed, and it was an honor for all of us to be part of this unique’s person’s life.”
Billie is survived by four children: Sandra (Shane) Nickell of Barbourville, KY; Suzanne (Dacre) Hancock of Wakefield, MA; Jay (Lea) Savely of Andover, MA; Stephanie Lind of Mariemont, OH; a brother Leslie Lambert, of Erlanger, KY; sisters Judith (Thomas) Hodge of Florence, KY and Donna (Arnold) Lively of Cocoa Beach, FL; eight grandchildren; and many more friends and admirers. Lawrence was an active member of the Women’s City Club of Boston and the Boston Atheneum. She was a member of King’s Chapel, and belonged to a group of weekly bridge players.
Donations in her memory can be made to Hospice & Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts, 1420 Providence Highway, Norwood, MA 02062 or The Autism Society of America-Massachusetts Chapter, c/o Autism Services Association, 47 Walnut Street, Wellesley Hills, MA 02481.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Black Friday in Back Bay
By Sandra MIller
While many watched anxiously as to whether shoppers would complete their shopping the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday in Boston is a more genteel affair. While our suburban friends dealt with snarled traffic, Bostonians simply walked to their stores.
Yes, there were crowds at the likes of Filene’s Basement and shoppers wielding bargains from the major chains, while others simply walked the malls, Newbury Street, and other shopping districts in the city to get some ideas.
It’s not about how much Back Bay businesses made on Friday, though.
“We’re predicting local retail will be stronger than expected,” said Alexander Cooper, the Back Bay Association’s (BBA) director of membership and marketing. “Back Bay has always been a destination for those looking for world-class luxury brands and independent boutiques.”
The BBA is working on a “shop locally” marketing campaign to remind the neighborhood to support their local merchants.
According to the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year. Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend, up 7.2 percent over last year's $347.55. The NRF credited pent-up demand on electronics and clothing, plus bargains on the season's hottest items, and predicted that holiday sales aren’t expected to continue at this pace.
For savvy shoppers, retail insiders say the real bargains on Black Friday are at publicly traded companies who are under pressure to improve upon last year's sales. Smaller boutiques, along with large, privately owned companies such as Crate and Barrel, don't offer Black Friday discounts because they can look at profits for the quarter, not a day.
The Boylston Street Crate and Barrel, closed from a recent fire, opened Friday for business, with only its furniture line unavailable for anything other than online orders. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, said Crate and Barrel spokespersonVicki Lang, who confirmed \there were no special “doorbuster” sales. “We’re just happy to have the doors open,” said Lang.
Lux Bond and Green on Boylston Street didn’t have discounts, but hosted celebrity stylist Steve London, national jewelry stylist for the John Hardy brand, who offered fashion tips and introduced new pieces. Customers were also treated to a free light lunch and refreshments.
Macy’s, among other stores, reported light lines in the morning, while Filene’s Basement on Newbury Street was crowded. Some may have been scared off by threats of rain, but shoppers going to the boutiques on Friday appeared a little more leisurely, assembling their ideas and just enjoying the day.
While during the day sales seemed light, one resident said most of his friends were spending that day driving out to the malls to grab big ticket items such as TVs at the Big Boxes, and would be shopping at the smaller stores throughout December.
“I’m kind of a procrastinator,” said Bruce Edgehill of Commonwealth Avenue, who was wandering Newbury Street, bagless, poking around the stores and burning off some Thanksgiving turkey. “I’ll buy some things online, but I like to pick up cute things that I can see and touch, things that are unique.” He said he’d do a lot of his shopping locally.
While a few boutiques around town have shut their doors, others continue to open. Gucci opened its new store at the Mandarin Oriental, in a spacious 6750 square-foot spot.
Nationwide,, many celebrated “Buy Nothing Day,” sponsored by AdBusters, meant to identify ways to reduce overall consumption habits. StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit organization supported by National Public Radio and others, suggested using November 28 as the day to record someone you know to talk about their lives. "This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives -- it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood," reads its web site. "By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.”
Others were saving themselves for yesterday’s “Cyber Monday,” surfing at home or at work for virtual coupons, special offer codes and e-mail alerts. The term was coined in 2005 for the Monday following Thanksgiving, which the National Retail Federation said is when "consumers have flooded Web sites on Cyber Monday and come to expect robust promotions and specials that day."
While many watched anxiously as to whether shoppers would complete their shopping the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday in Boston is a more genteel affair. While our suburban friends dealt with snarled traffic, Bostonians simply walked to their stores.
Yes, there were crowds at the likes of Filene’s Basement and shoppers wielding bargains from the major chains, while others simply walked the malls, Newbury Street, and other shopping districts in the city to get some ideas.
It’s not about how much Back Bay businesses made on Friday, though.
“We’re predicting local retail will be stronger than expected,” said Alexander Cooper, the Back Bay Association’s (BBA) director of membership and marketing. “Back Bay has always been a destination for those looking for world-class luxury brands and independent boutiques.”
The BBA is working on a “shop locally” marketing campaign to remind the neighborhood to support their local merchants.
According to the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year. Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend, up 7.2 percent over last year's $347.55. The NRF credited pent-up demand on electronics and clothing, plus bargains on the season's hottest items, and predicted that holiday sales aren’t expected to continue at this pace.
For savvy shoppers, retail insiders say the real bargains on Black Friday are at publicly traded companies who are under pressure to improve upon last year's sales. Smaller boutiques, along with large, privately owned companies such as Crate and Barrel, don't offer Black Friday discounts because they can look at profits for the quarter, not a day.
The Boylston Street Crate and Barrel, closed from a recent fire, opened Friday for business, with only its furniture line unavailable for anything other than online orders. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, said Crate and Barrel spokespersonVicki Lang, who confirmed \there were no special “doorbuster” sales. “We’re just happy to have the doors open,” said Lang.
Lux Bond and Green on Boylston Street didn’t have discounts, but hosted celebrity stylist Steve London, national jewelry stylist for the John Hardy brand, who offered fashion tips and introduced new pieces. Customers were also treated to a free light lunch and refreshments.
Macy’s, among other stores, reported light lines in the morning, while Filene’s Basement on Newbury Street was crowded. Some may have been scared off by threats of rain, but shoppers going to the boutiques on Friday appeared a little more leisurely, assembling their ideas and just enjoying the day.
While during the day sales seemed light, one resident said most of his friends were spending that day driving out to the malls to grab big ticket items such as TVs at the Big Boxes, and would be shopping at the smaller stores throughout December.
“I’m kind of a procrastinator,” said Bruce Edgehill of Commonwealth Avenue, who was wandering Newbury Street, bagless, poking around the stores and burning off some Thanksgiving turkey. “I’ll buy some things online, but I like to pick up cute things that I can see and touch, things that are unique.” He said he’d do a lot of his shopping locally.
While a few boutiques around town have shut their doors, others continue to open. Gucci opened its new store at the Mandarin Oriental, in a spacious 6750 square-foot spot.
Nationwide,, many celebrated “Buy Nothing Day,” sponsored by AdBusters, meant to identify ways to reduce overall consumption habits. StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit organization supported by National Public Radio and others, suggested using November 28 as the day to record someone you know to talk about their lives. "This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives -- it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood," reads its web site. "By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.”
Others were saving themselves for yesterday’s “Cyber Monday,” surfing at home or at work for virtual coupons, special offer codes and e-mail alerts. The term was coined in 2005 for the Monday following Thanksgiving, which the National Retail Federation said is when "consumers have flooded Web sites on Cyber Monday and come to expect robust promotions and specials that day."
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Modern to get Suffolk-style facelift
By Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times
City and Suffolk University officials and students crowded into a tent set up Friday to celebrate the official start of the $42 million redevelopment of Washington Street’s historic Modern Theatre.
In what is heralded by many as another key in the revitalization of Downtown Crossing, the Modern will enjoy the renovation of its façade, with its decrepit interior filled with a new LEED-certified, 184-seat black box theater, gallery space, and 12-story, 200-bed dorm.
The façade of the historic building will be taken apart stone by stone and sent to a masonry restoration expert before the remainder of the structure is torn down. When the residence hall/theater opens in fall 2010, it will be a completely new building with a fully restored face. Architects worked with Suffolk to design a building that will meet students’ needs, be environmentally sustainable and preserve the historic landmark. Menino also noted that the project will pursue green design and sustainability; The Modern project will use building materials recycled from a construction site.
“This is going to be a preservation project above all,” said Suffolk’s external affairs Vice President John Nucci. “This building was built with a keen awareness of sustainability.”
The Modern was built in 1876 to house two storefronts and furniture and carpet showrooms and storage. It was renovated in 1913 to accommodate the first Boston movie house, and later became a performing arts center. The last attempt to restore the building was made in the late 1970s, and has been vacant for nearly 20 years. The 4,266 square foot parcel is bounded by Washington, West, Mason and Avery Streets.
“The inside of it is really bad,” said Jane Forrestall, a member of several area task forces, including for Suffolk. “It’s was going to take someone very innovative to pull it off. I am very excited about this.”
VHB consultant Darlene Winn took little over a year to help Suffolk with the permits, a relatively easy process for this project since it didn’t involve any parking, transportation issues or aesthetics issues, she says. “Community groups will have an opportunity to use the theater. They went to the public early to figure it out. This was an easy one, since it’s a win-win for the city.”
Area residents and community activists noted that with Suffolk students comes more foot traffic downtown, along with increased security that will boost area safety.
The university’s police force will staff the building 24/7. Students living in the residence hall in the new building at the Modern and the one in the 10 West Street building will use one main entrance on West Street where a security desk will be located.
“Suffolk has a wonderful security force,” said Downtown Crossing Partnership president Rosemary Sansone, who is Suffolk’s former public affairs director. “The visibility of their officers and their vehicles is just a welcome addition to the neighborhood.”
The community asked Suffolk to explore the possibility of redeveloping the Modern after supporting their plans to purchase and develop the adjacent 10 West Street property.
MaryAnn Ponti, a Downtown Crossing Partnership member and a member of the Suffolk Task Force as well as a Washington Street resident, is also looking forward to “more culture and diversity.” Ponti has watched the area undergo a slow but steady revitalization that started with the Ritz Carlton, and the addition of hotels, a high-rise apartment, the Filenes project, and other developments. “In between it all there’s been a reawaking of the ladder streets. There’s more to come.”
Menino cited the project as key in the revitalization of downtown. “A lot of those so-called professional people say that Downtown neighborhood is dead… but the best things are to come,” said Menino, saying that the Filene’s building project will “be on again soon.”
“Soon we will be back to watching a movie at the theater,” said Menino. “You’ll see in the next couple years that Downtown Crossing will be the place to be for shopping and entertainment. We continue to have faith.”
“It is exciting to be part of the rebirth of the Downtown Crossing area,” said Sargent. “Restoring the handsome façade of the Modern Theatre will help with the continuing revitalization of Washington Street, and the new residence hall will allow more of our students to take advantage of a full residential college experience.”
Suffolk’s push for more housing is part of Menino’s emphasis on Boston universities housing their students, in order to free up apartments around Beacon Hill and other neighborhoods for families.
Suffolk president David Sargent oversaw the addition of Suffolk’s first dorm halls in the 1990s, a new law school and library, campuses in Madrid and Senegal, and soon, its 20 Somerset building.
“It is particularly sweet to (benefit the economy) and benefit our home city,” he said. Among other benefits, the project will create 120 construction jobs in a time where other area projects have slowed or even halted due to the economy.
The Modern is the last of the three Landmark theatres in this area targeted for preservation by Mayor Thomas Menino. The Opera House opened in 2004 following a $31 million restoration, and the Paramount Theatre is under construction for Emerson College, which plans a new theatre, classroom, restaurant and dorm space for the school.
Beacon Hill Times
City and Suffolk University officials and students crowded into a tent set up Friday to celebrate the official start of the $42 million redevelopment of Washington Street’s historic Modern Theatre.
In what is heralded by many as another key in the revitalization of Downtown Crossing, the Modern will enjoy the renovation of its façade, with its decrepit interior filled with a new LEED-certified, 184-seat black box theater, gallery space, and 12-story, 200-bed dorm.
The façade of the historic building will be taken apart stone by stone and sent to a masonry restoration expert before the remainder of the structure is torn down. When the residence hall/theater opens in fall 2010, it will be a completely new building with a fully restored face. Architects worked with Suffolk to design a building that will meet students’ needs, be environmentally sustainable and preserve the historic landmark. Menino also noted that the project will pursue green design and sustainability; The Modern project will use building materials recycled from a construction site.
“This is going to be a preservation project above all,” said Suffolk’s external affairs Vice President John Nucci. “This building was built with a keen awareness of sustainability.”
The Modern was built in 1876 to house two storefronts and furniture and carpet showrooms and storage. It was renovated in 1913 to accommodate the first Boston movie house, and later became a performing arts center. The last attempt to restore the building was made in the late 1970s, and has been vacant for nearly 20 years. The 4,266 square foot parcel is bounded by Washington, West, Mason and Avery Streets.
“The inside of it is really bad,” said Jane Forrestall, a member of several area task forces, including for Suffolk. “It’s was going to take someone very innovative to pull it off. I am very excited about this.”
VHB consultant Darlene Winn took little over a year to help Suffolk with the permits, a relatively easy process for this project since it didn’t involve any parking, transportation issues or aesthetics issues, she says. “Community groups will have an opportunity to use the theater. They went to the public early to figure it out. This was an easy one, since it’s a win-win for the city.”
Area residents and community activists noted that with Suffolk students comes more foot traffic downtown, along with increased security that will boost area safety.
The university’s police force will staff the building 24/7. Students living in the residence hall in the new building at the Modern and the one in the 10 West Street building will use one main entrance on West Street where a security desk will be located.
“Suffolk has a wonderful security force,” said Downtown Crossing Partnership president Rosemary Sansone, who is Suffolk’s former public affairs director. “The visibility of their officers and their vehicles is just a welcome addition to the neighborhood.”
The community asked Suffolk to explore the possibility of redeveloping the Modern after supporting their plans to purchase and develop the adjacent 10 West Street property.
MaryAnn Ponti, a Downtown Crossing Partnership member and a member of the Suffolk Task Force as well as a Washington Street resident, is also looking forward to “more culture and diversity.” Ponti has watched the area undergo a slow but steady revitalization that started with the Ritz Carlton, and the addition of hotels, a high-rise apartment, the Filenes project, and other developments. “In between it all there’s been a reawaking of the ladder streets. There’s more to come.”
Menino cited the project as key in the revitalization of downtown. “A lot of those so-called professional people say that Downtown neighborhood is dead… but the best things are to come,” said Menino, saying that the Filene’s building project will “be on again soon.”
“Soon we will be back to watching a movie at the theater,” said Menino. “You’ll see in the next couple years that Downtown Crossing will be the place to be for shopping and entertainment. We continue to have faith.”
“It is exciting to be part of the rebirth of the Downtown Crossing area,” said Sargent. “Restoring the handsome façade of the Modern Theatre will help with the continuing revitalization of Washington Street, and the new residence hall will allow more of our students to take advantage of a full residential college experience.”
Suffolk’s push for more housing is part of Menino’s emphasis on Boston universities housing their students, in order to free up apartments around Beacon Hill and other neighborhoods for families.
Suffolk president David Sargent oversaw the addition of Suffolk’s first dorm halls in the 1990s, a new law school and library, campuses in Madrid and Senegal, and soon, its 20 Somerset building.
“It is particularly sweet to (benefit the economy) and benefit our home city,” he said. Among other benefits, the project will create 120 construction jobs in a time where other area projects have slowed or even halted due to the economy.
The Modern is the last of the three Landmark theatres in this area targeted for preservation by Mayor Thomas Menino. The Opera House opened in 2004 following a $31 million restoration, and the Paramount Theatre is under construction for Emerson College, which plans a new theatre, classroom, restaurant and dorm space for the school.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Designer Apple's flavor is singularly unique
by Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times
When you’re the daughter of a famous interior designer, the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
May Appleton “Apple” Parish Bartlett lives in a flat overlooking the Charles with her golden doodle Billy, along with collections of carved wooden animals, a half-dozen antique bird cages, wooden nods to her name -- apples and pears -- and other touches unique to her taste, a sort of Shabby Chic meets folk art.
“I don’t care what people think,” says Bartlett, who also sells “pure whimsy” at her Maine store, Apple’s, as well as her decoupage artworks. But she knows her mother would approve of her home decor, the same way she approved of her former Back Bay apartment.
“She would have loved it,” said Bartlett.
Bartlett is the daughter of Sister Parish, the legendary American interior decorator, who is known as the Martha Stewart of the Upper Class. The former Dorothy May Kinnicutt was born into a patrician New York family in 1910, and during the Depression put her design ability to work, her “American country” style inspired by the family’s Maine summer house. Her firm, Parish-Hadley, was filled with a client list that eventually included the Rockefellers, Astors, and Whitneys, and transformed Jackie Kennedy’s White House into American elegance.
With her daughter, Susan Bartlett Crater, Apple Parish Bartlett wrote a biography about her mother, “Sister: The Life of Legendary American Interior Designer Mrs. Henry Parish II.” Bartlett recently regaled attendees at a recent book night at the Beacon Hill Civic Association with tales of her mother’s flair and the drama that surrounded her.
“What seems important to me is permanence, comfort, and a look of continuity in the design and decoration of a house,” said Sister Parish. Among the things she believed in was: buy the best bed you can afford; invest in a quality sofa; and start a collection of items that you love. She fell in love with painted French furniture, and enjoyed creating a homey undecorated look.
Apple’s home is filled with collections of items she picked up at flea markets and antiques stores. Like her mother, she doesn’t believe in throwing out things to follow the latest trend every couple of years. “The influence my mother has on me, it’s subconscious,” she said. “She really just wanted people to be comfortable. Every house should be a happy one.”
Along her bedroom wall she has a dozen framed paintings, some of which she describes as “crappy,” but that’s the charm, she said. “It makes it more interesting.”
Some of her walls are lined with intricately designed and oftentimes fun wallpaper designed by her daughter, Susan Crater, who launched Sister Parish Design in New York.
Her home is a steady accumulation of loved things, some which she inherited from her mother, others that she picked up along the way at flea markets. Some items she’ll repaint or refinish, others, like the ancient coffee table, is peeling gesso paint, but she loves the look.
To some, the look may be “cluttered,” she admitted, but her home is clean. “I’ve never seen an apartment as goofy looking as this.” She then added, “I do what I do, which makes me really happy.”
Beacon Hill Times
When you’re the daughter of a famous interior designer, the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
May Appleton “Apple” Parish Bartlett lives in a flat overlooking the Charles with her golden doodle Billy, along with collections of carved wooden animals, a half-dozen antique bird cages, wooden nods to her name -- apples and pears -- and other touches unique to her taste, a sort of Shabby Chic meets folk art.
“I don’t care what people think,” says Bartlett, who also sells “pure whimsy” at her Maine store, Apple’s, as well as her decoupage artworks. But she knows her mother would approve of her home decor, the same way she approved of her former Back Bay apartment.
“She would have loved it,” said Bartlett.
Bartlett is the daughter of Sister Parish, the legendary American interior decorator, who is known as the Martha Stewart of the Upper Class. The former Dorothy May Kinnicutt was born into a patrician New York family in 1910, and during the Depression put her design ability to work, her “American country” style inspired by the family’s Maine summer house. Her firm, Parish-Hadley, was filled with a client list that eventually included the Rockefellers, Astors, and Whitneys, and transformed Jackie Kennedy’s White House into American elegance.
With her daughter, Susan Bartlett Crater, Apple Parish Bartlett wrote a biography about her mother, “Sister: The Life of Legendary American Interior Designer Mrs. Henry Parish II.” Bartlett recently regaled attendees at a recent book night at the Beacon Hill Civic Association with tales of her mother’s flair and the drama that surrounded her.
“What seems important to me is permanence, comfort, and a look of continuity in the design and decoration of a house,” said Sister Parish. Among the things she believed in was: buy the best bed you can afford; invest in a quality sofa; and start a collection of items that you love. She fell in love with painted French furniture, and enjoyed creating a homey undecorated look.
Apple’s home is filled with collections of items she picked up at flea markets and antiques stores. Like her mother, she doesn’t believe in throwing out things to follow the latest trend every couple of years. “The influence my mother has on me, it’s subconscious,” she said. “She really just wanted people to be comfortable. Every house should be a happy one.”
Along her bedroom wall she has a dozen framed paintings, some of which she describes as “crappy,” but that’s the charm, she said. “It makes it more interesting.”
Some of her walls are lined with intricately designed and oftentimes fun wallpaper designed by her daughter, Susan Crater, who launched Sister Parish Design in New York.
Her home is a steady accumulation of loved things, some which she inherited from her mother, others that she picked up along the way at flea markets. Some items she’ll repaint or refinish, others, like the ancient coffee table, is peeling gesso paint, but she loves the look.
To some, the look may be “cluttered,” she admitted, but her home is clean. “I’ve never seen an apartment as goofy looking as this.” She then added, “I do what I do, which makes me really happy.”
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sonsie is the Apple of the Back Bay’s Eye
By Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
The Thanksgiving table is filled with lots of high-maintenance dishes. Here’s an easy but decorative salad for the Turkey Table, as well as year round.
Sonsie’s Stacked Apple Spinach Salad is easy to make and looks fabulous, with slices of apple alternating with spinach leaves, and sprinkled with walnuts, blue cheese, oil and vinegar, and and grilled pepper bacon. It’s quick to make, and perfect for the Thanksgiving table.
The salad is on Sonsie’s executive chef Bill Poirier’s new apple-tizer menu, which features five items made with their seasonal ingredient, apples. “It’s kind of like Iron Chef,” he says. In the summer, they did the same with crab, and in the spring it was asparagus.
The French onion soup is made with apple cider, apple brandy, and some julienned apples sharing the bowl with carmelized onions. It’s sweet mixed with the topper of gruyere on toast, hearty yet bright. Another appetizer features four sea scallops browned in a buerre blanc/apple cider sauce, paired with granny smith sliced and spiced with cinnamon, clove and curry. The smoked shrimp is brined in apple cider, and paired with with a vanilla bean and endive salad. And even the pork cheeks are seared and braised in pork stock and cider for three hours until tender.
Poirier learned how to cook from his Italian grandmother, and later at Johnson and Wales; he was one of the famous alumni chefs, along with Gordon Hamersley, Jasper White, and Lydia Shire at the Bostonian Hotel’s Seasons. He’s also cooked in Providence, Washington DC, Florida, and Tokyo, until opening Sonsie with Lyons Group’s Patrick Lyons and CEO Ed Sparks 15 years ago.
He’s still making local favorite steak au poive and spicy thai stirfry noodles, but he and his crew area always looking to keep things fresh by offering a mix of comfort items and more complex offerings. “Over the years, the customer base have changed,” says Poirier. People are more educated. We have to keep pace.” He says the prices are lower than a high-end restaurant, suiting its café atmosphere they describe as “relaxed yet sophisticated.”
He loves that Sonsie has become the neighborhood spot for Back Bay. “We get foodies, Berklee students, tourists, and repeat customers. I try to keep them coming back. I want them to find something on the menu that will make them happy.”
Sonsie will also be working to make Thanksgiving happy for locals. They’ll be open on Thanksgiving; the day before, they’re making dinner for the nearby firehouse crew.
Stacked Apple Spinach Salad with Walnuts, Blue Cheese and Pepper Bacon
Ingredients
(for each serving -- adjust for your number of guests)
1 small apple, core removed but unpeeled (preferably a red apple for drama – Cortland, mac, fuji) (You can also use a pear.)
1 cup baby spinach leaves
2 tb toasted walnut halves (toss with olive oil and salt, place on cookie sheet in 350-degree oven until golden throughout)
3 Tb crumbled blue cheese (high quality, such as Great Hill from Marion, Mass, or gorgonzola or Roquefort)
1 Tb julienne red onion
2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar, (chef first reduced cider, and blended with more cider for more punch)
salt and pepper to taste
2 strips pepper bacon, grilled. (If you can’t find peppered bacon, buy whole double-smoked or cobb-smoked bacon, slice it yourself and add pepper. Grill, not fry, bacon.)
Method:
Thinly slice apples to 1/8 “ thickness horizontally. Keep together to retain apple shape. (Chef used a mandolin, but a sharp French knife will work.)
Arrange, alternately layering apple with spinach leaves, to reform the apple stack.
Sprinkle salad with remaining ingredients.
“It’s such a simple salad,” says Poirier. “The freshness of the ingredients will shine through.” He suggested such variations as using Asian fruit with soy dressing, and adding grilled shrimp or scallops. “Simple can go in any direction.”
Poirier says this recipe gets pretty popular. “We sell so many of these it’s off the hook. Once one or two goes out (into the restaurant), others see it and we get a run on them.”
Back Bay Sun
The Thanksgiving table is filled with lots of high-maintenance dishes. Here’s an easy but decorative salad for the Turkey Table, as well as year round.
Sonsie’s Stacked Apple Spinach Salad is easy to make and looks fabulous, with slices of apple alternating with spinach leaves, and sprinkled with walnuts, blue cheese, oil and vinegar, and and grilled pepper bacon. It’s quick to make, and perfect for the Thanksgiving table.
The salad is on Sonsie’s executive chef Bill Poirier’s new apple-tizer menu, which features five items made with their seasonal ingredient, apples. “It’s kind of like Iron Chef,” he says. In the summer, they did the same with crab, and in the spring it was asparagus.
The French onion soup is made with apple cider, apple brandy, and some julienned apples sharing the bowl with carmelized onions. It’s sweet mixed with the topper of gruyere on toast, hearty yet bright. Another appetizer features four sea scallops browned in a buerre blanc/apple cider sauce, paired with granny smith sliced and spiced with cinnamon, clove and curry. The smoked shrimp is brined in apple cider, and paired with with a vanilla bean and endive salad. And even the pork cheeks are seared and braised in pork stock and cider for three hours until tender.
Poirier learned how to cook from his Italian grandmother, and later at Johnson and Wales; he was one of the famous alumni chefs, along with Gordon Hamersley, Jasper White, and Lydia Shire at the Bostonian Hotel’s Seasons. He’s also cooked in Providence, Washington DC, Florida, and Tokyo, until opening Sonsie with Lyons Group’s Patrick Lyons and CEO Ed Sparks 15 years ago.
He’s still making local favorite steak au poive and spicy thai stirfry noodles, but he and his crew area always looking to keep things fresh by offering a mix of comfort items and more complex offerings. “Over the years, the customer base have changed,” says Poirier. People are more educated. We have to keep pace.” He says the prices are lower than a high-end restaurant, suiting its café atmosphere they describe as “relaxed yet sophisticated.”
He loves that Sonsie has become the neighborhood spot for Back Bay. “We get foodies, Berklee students, tourists, and repeat customers. I try to keep them coming back. I want them to find something on the menu that will make them happy.”
Sonsie will also be working to make Thanksgiving happy for locals. They’ll be open on Thanksgiving; the day before, they’re making dinner for the nearby firehouse crew.
Stacked Apple Spinach Salad with Walnuts, Blue Cheese and Pepper Bacon
Ingredients
(for each serving -- adjust for your number of guests)
1 small apple, core removed but unpeeled (preferably a red apple for drama – Cortland, mac, fuji) (You can also use a pear.)
1 cup baby spinach leaves
2 tb toasted walnut halves (toss with olive oil and salt, place on cookie sheet in 350-degree oven until golden throughout)
3 Tb crumbled blue cheese (high quality, such as Great Hill from Marion, Mass, or gorgonzola or Roquefort)
1 Tb julienne red onion
2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar, (chef first reduced cider, and blended with more cider for more punch)
salt and pepper to taste
2 strips pepper bacon, grilled. (If you can’t find peppered bacon, buy whole double-smoked or cobb-smoked bacon, slice it yourself and add pepper. Grill, not fry, bacon.)
Method:
Thinly slice apples to 1/8 “ thickness horizontally. Keep together to retain apple shape. (Chef used a mandolin, but a sharp French knife will work.)
Arrange, alternately layering apple with spinach leaves, to reform the apple stack.
Sprinkle salad with remaining ingredients.
“It’s such a simple salad,” says Poirier. “The freshness of the ingredients will shine through.” He suggested such variations as using Asian fruit with soy dressing, and adding grilled shrimp or scallops. “Simple can go in any direction.”
Poirier says this recipe gets pretty popular. “We sell so many of these it’s off the hook. Once one or two goes out (into the restaurant), others see it and we get a run on them.”
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Councilor Ross among those who helped ensure integrity of presidential election
by Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times/Back Bay Sun
Councilor Michael Ross recently returned from Florida, where he joined a volunteer crew of lawyers nationwide who arrived armed to protect voters rights at the polls. His efforts were part of a huge outpouring from all levels of Democrats who turned out at key states to keep things clean.
“We wanted to make sure that 2004 and 2000 didn’t happen again,” he said, referring to the Voter Protection program.
Actually, nothing out of sorts happened, he said. Instead, he answered several questions from young voters who had no idea how the process worked, from his Northwest Miami spot in a largely Jamaican community.
“There was a first-time voter, 19 years old, who clearly was not aware of how to or even where to vote,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Walk through the doors, you’ll be fine.’ “ Concerned about the strict regulations many states have enacted to match voter registrations to voter identifications, Ross became impatient. “Look, the people who want to defraud the election system will be able to defraud if they want to. When you put up barriers to voting, you hurt first-time voters, you make it harder for people who want to vote. There’s a lot of people who are underhoused or lost their home or are transient, or college students. A lot of people who had moved were discouraged from the polls.”
Ross was happy to be part of the process, but he was also aware of his role in a strong democracy.
“I felt like I was a part of history,” he said. “Most of all it was an opportunity to watch a swing state that was previously Republican the last couple of elections to watch that state become a Democratic state.”
An early Obama supporter, Ross was in awe of the huge organizational fete. “It was great. If the Obama administration is run half as good as the way they executed his campaign, they will be great,” he said.
Ross noted thousands of others lawyers were organized via numerous conference calls. “Hundred went to Florida, doing what I was doing,” he said, noting strong organizer Cheryl Cronin, a Back Bay resident who recruited Ross.
He noticed a lot of other Massachusetts volunteers in Florida and around the country, including many of his constituents. “They knew their vote was far more useful and their work was far more useful outside of Massachusetts, in a swing state,” he said.
As for his friends on the John McCain side, he said, “I don’t think the Republicans were impressed, and they had come to terms with the way Obama conducted himself with dignity, and how he ran a good campaign.”
Ross is pretty active as a Democrat, traveling to the primaries to cast his vote at the Democratic Convention, and otherwise campaigning for Obama.
“It’s a great experience every four years,” he said, noting that the past few years weren’t great for Democrats. “I was glad to be able to say I voted for Barack Obama in January 2007. … when he spoke at the convention in 2000, I had an opportunity to meet him. I felt up front and close to a historic moment.”
Beacon Hill Times/Back Bay Sun
Councilor Michael Ross recently returned from Florida, where he joined a volunteer crew of lawyers nationwide who arrived armed to protect voters rights at the polls. His efforts were part of a huge outpouring from all levels of Democrats who turned out at key states to keep things clean.
“We wanted to make sure that 2004 and 2000 didn’t happen again,” he said, referring to the Voter Protection program.
Actually, nothing out of sorts happened, he said. Instead, he answered several questions from young voters who had no idea how the process worked, from his Northwest Miami spot in a largely Jamaican community.
“There was a first-time voter, 19 years old, who clearly was not aware of how to or even where to vote,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Walk through the doors, you’ll be fine.’ “ Concerned about the strict regulations many states have enacted to match voter registrations to voter identifications, Ross became impatient. “Look, the people who want to defraud the election system will be able to defraud if they want to. When you put up barriers to voting, you hurt first-time voters, you make it harder for people who want to vote. There’s a lot of people who are underhoused or lost their home or are transient, or college students. A lot of people who had moved were discouraged from the polls.”
Ross was happy to be part of the process, but he was also aware of his role in a strong democracy.
“I felt like I was a part of history,” he said. “Most of all it was an opportunity to watch a swing state that was previously Republican the last couple of elections to watch that state become a Democratic state.”
An early Obama supporter, Ross was in awe of the huge organizational fete. “It was great. If the Obama administration is run half as good as the way they executed his campaign, they will be great,” he said.
Ross noted thousands of others lawyers were organized via numerous conference calls. “Hundred went to Florida, doing what I was doing,” he said, noting strong organizer Cheryl Cronin, a Back Bay resident who recruited Ross.
He noticed a lot of other Massachusetts volunteers in Florida and around the country, including many of his constituents. “They knew their vote was far more useful and their work was far more useful outside of Massachusetts, in a swing state,” he said.
As for his friends on the John McCain side, he said, “I don’t think the Republicans were impressed, and they had come to terms with the way Obama conducted himself with dignity, and how he ran a good campaign.”
Ross is pretty active as a Democrat, traveling to the primaries to cast his vote at the Democratic Convention, and otherwise campaigning for Obama.
“It’s a great experience every four years,” he said, noting that the past few years weren’t great for Democrats. “I was glad to be able to say I voted for Barack Obama in January 2007. … when he spoke at the convention in 2000, I had an opportunity to meet him. I felt up front and close to a historic moment.”
Antiques sound financial investment - that look nice, too
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
When stocks tank and your real estate value is underwater, maybe it’s time to pay attention to what’s in your attic - or in others’ attics.
In what may be the oldest recycling movement known to man, investors have long been practicing “reduce, reuse and recycle.”
By many accounts, investment-grade antiques are an investment that hold, if not increase, in value. It’s risky, but there’s also the thrill of the hunt, and unlike, say, a stock, you can put an antique to work around your home. Just keep the grandkids away from the vase and the dog off the sofa.
“Buy something new, and it’s not worth anything,” says Marc s. Glasberg, of Marcoz Antiques at 173 Newbury St. “It’s like ten cents on the dollar. Antiques hold their value, plus they are beautiful examples of craftsmanship. The quality of wood is much better in an antique.”
Some things just hold their value better. The more unusual pieces can still go up in value, despite the economy, since there are always speculators who are waiting for this type of soft market to scout for bargains.
A watercolor portrait miniature on ivory of George Washington, created by Robert Field in 1801, was estimated at $10,000 and sold for $303,000.
“There are always buyers for things that don’t often come up,” says Skinner Vice President Kerry Shrives, who notes excitement over an upcoming sale on November 16 of rare 16th century manuscripts at their Park Plaza location.
Skinner’s site lists Aubry Beardsley (1872-1898) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), “The Climax,” Important original illustration for “Salome: A Tragedy in One Act,” published in 1894 -- Estimate: $15,000-$20,000.
“They are examples of book illustrations that’s been in Boston families for a long time,” adds Shrives.
That’s what Shrives loves about working in Boston - there are so many treasures being held by longtime Back Bay families, and there are so many enthusiasts.
“The core reason why we have had a presence in the Back Bay since 1980 is that it’s a great place for buying and selling art,” says Shrives. “We still have a devoted core of Boston customers. It’s business we don’t see in the other parts of the country.”
In this area, residents are constantly moving, which means a lot of new inventory for auction houses and shops. There are students moving in, and many parents also choose to set up a local apartment for visits. Businesses see lots of employee turnover. There are a lot of old Boston families, and not a lot of space in their homes.
“Many are downsizing their estates,” says Shrives. “Some estates need to be settled. There are always people who need to make a move. There are always people who need to make purchases.”
And yes, perhaps a few are in need of some quick cash due to the economy.
Shrives has been with Skinner since the 1980s, and in that time, she’s seen several economic fluctuations. “I’ve seen turbulence through the years,” says Shrives.
Lately, she’s noticed that the lower end of the market, the more common pieces, are creating a buyer’s market. For speculators, this could be an ideal time to buy.
“Things that usually are in the tens of millions of dollars, there are signs of softening,” she says. But for investors and speculators, she adds, “It’s not been battered as much as other sectors.”
The Newbury Street antiques scene, however, is a bit weathered. It used to be home to dozens of antiques shops, a number that’s dwindled to a handful: Marcoz Antiques, Brodney Antiques & Jewelry at 145 Newbury, and Small Pleasures at 142 Newbury St. There are paintings and other artworks at the many galleries here, and Charles Street still has about a dozen antique shops, too.
For some antiques dealers, it may be easier to just go to the antiques shows or sell online. But for a certain customer, they have to see the item up close before they buy. They want to develop a relationship with a dealer who will keep an eye out for items they are looking for.
“I’ve never purchased anything on eBay,” says Glasberg, who opened Marcoz Antiques in 1972. “I am one of those people who have to touch it. The patina is everything. You can’t judge quality by a photo.”
He recalled one customer who saw something she liked in his store, then found a similar item on eBay. “The condition wasn’t good,” he said. He didn’t know how much the customer paid for it, but he was certain she was embarrassed about the purchase and covered up by saying that they didn’t pay a lot for it.
In the thrill of the antiques hunt, sometimes what some consider trash is another person’s treasure; other times, you just buy trash. That’s what makes antiques an exciting trade.
But for residents, it’s not only about investments, it’s buying pieces that match their equally antique homes that have preserved moldings, fireplaces and other detail that just doesn’t match well with today’s modern decor.
In the Back Bay, residents who are interested in antiques vary, from the families moving here from other countries who have an appreciation of classic pieces, to young couples looking for china, young professionals looking for unique items that will hold value. For those empty nesters moving from the suburbs, an antique may be a more appropriate type of furniture to place in a historic home.
“People still need to furnish their nests, even if it’s a sofa or a ceiling fixture,” says Glasberg, who sits next to a striking Bagatelle game table, with a custom stand. It formerly was a parlor bowling game, with a hinged top, but it’s been converted over to a more useful side table that boasts useful storage, for $4,250.
“The Back Bay is a wonderful community of people who live here and are very tasteful. These apartments or homes are into centerpieces. If there are restored moldings and fireplaces, they want a certain amount of antiques in the home. If you’re in the suburbs in a home with lower ceilings, it’s different - you can’t have a big armoire there. Here, it’s a big, European kind of city.”
This “European kind of city” also attracts people from Europe, who are in town to work, or sending their kids to school. “A lot of people who come here are from Central and South America and Mexico, and they like a lot of European items,” Glasberg notes. “Sometimes, the parents buy apartments and stay here when they visit. The dollar is weak. They can buy nice things to put in them.”
For those wishing to dabble in buying antiques, many experts recommend buying what you love, and buy the best examples of it, whether it be art glass, period furniture, paintings and sculpture, “and what you can afford,” adds Shrives. “Some items keep their value, while other pieces continue to grow. At least with arts and antiques, it’s an investment you can live with and enjoy.”
back to top...
The Marcoz way by Sandra Miller
Marcoz Antiques of 173 Newbury St. is a well-organized, clean store - .no mustiness, no dustiness, you’re not tripping over items or squeezing into narrow spaces to check out the inventory.
The store, which opened in 1972, specializes in European pieces from the 18th century and up. Clients have ranged from the Back Bay to around the world. Famous customers have included the Kennedys, Meryl Streep, Ralph Lauren, Donna Summer, Bryant Gumbel, and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Marc S. Glasberg started Marcoz 36 years ago, along with many other Newbury Street antiques shops.
Glasberg received a business degree from Suffolk University, and tried his hand at retail - at Lord & Taylor and Filene’s - until he decided to give in to what he loved, and he opened a one-room shop in 1972. He served tea, which drew a lot of interesting people who liked to do nothing much but gab and sip. “During the off-season, people would talk to me, we’d have tea. I didn’t make a lot of money back then, but it was nice to get to know my customers,” he said.
In the beginning, he was interested in all sorts of antiques. “Everything was of interest to me. I bought all around the board. There was so much stuff back then. It was hard to go wrong. I had a good eye for things,” he said.
Today, a lot of those good pieces just aren’t available any more. Neither are most of the Newbury Street antique stores. Many have gone online or on the show or auction circuit. He’s seen 10-12 other antique stores close on Newbury Street. “Rents got very high,” he said.
Glasberg keeps going by staying on top of the trends. He works in the shop with Jon Diamond, an interior designer, and also does custom picture framing and lamp shades, interior design, lamp rewiring, restorates ceramics, furniture and glassware, and some upholstery. A longtime member of the Newbury Street League, Glasberg last year earned the Fay Rotenberg Public Service Award.
Glasberg has a long history of relationships with international collectors and antique specialists, and travels around the world to find just the right pieces for his clients. Some of his pieces he buys for long-term investments, although much of his items don’t stay in the store longer than a few months.
Marcoz specializes in 18th to 20th century European furnishings, but he also loves dealing with accessories, such as candlesticks and ceramics. “Marcoz specializes in highly decorative centerpieces that make a room,” said Glasberg. “Things don’t hang around very long.”
Glasberg recently moved from his longtime spot a few doors down, when his building was sold. He loves the space, and saw it as a chance to move away from the French antiques that he loves – think dark woods, carved items and tapestries -- to what more customers are looking for - furniture and accessories with cleaner lines: lighter-colored woods like sycamore, satin wood, light cherry and walnut painted finishes, less elaborate frames; and more Asian pieces.
“We’ve been buying things that are simpler, more angular. People’s tastes are changing to straighter lines,” he said
When you enter his new shop, one of the first pieces is a Japanese folding horseshoe-back chair, from the 18th century, and he’s still researching to obtain its value. Nearby is an industrial table from a factory, the metal frame in a dark gray patina and topped with glass, selling for $2,375. “An architect looking at it said it was made to hold a lot of weight,” he said.
In the window is an armillary sphere, a model of the earth, with encircling iron bands that represent the outer sphere of fixed stars. The iron and stone piece was originally for the garden, and sells for $3,800.
However, Glasberg’s favorite antique is his dog Phoebe, a happy Cavalier King Charles spaniel who has spent many years in the shop and getting walked along Newbury Street.
Like his store, Glasberg tries to keep his home well-stocked but uncluttered.
“My home is pretty clean,” he said, adding he has shutter-style window treatments and solid carpets and bare floors in his fifth floor Commonwealth Avenue condo, to balance the antiques-filled home. “I didn’t want it to get too fussy,” he added.
In Glasberg’s family, a love of antiques was something that skipped a generation. He grew up in Newton, in a home that was a response to his mother’s own upbringing, when her home was filled with heavy, antique furniture. She reacted by decorating her own home with “modern lines” and “monochromatic colors,” said Glasberg. But he was drawn to the home of his great-aunt, whose home was filled with classic antiques. His aunt picked up on his interest by refusing to give him a ballpoint pen or handkerchief that was the usual birthday gift. Instead, she’d give him one of her antiques. He still has her cloisonné ginger jar that she filled with pennies, which she gave to him when he was a teen. “It was black, not like most cloisonné, with red and yellow flowers,” he said. “It’s unusual, a big fat ginger jar with a dome top. It’s dramatic looking.
“She didn’t succumb to trends,” he said. “Going into her home was a different world.” His aunt would invite her family over to Newton on the weekend for a long dinner, served on antique china, and everyone had to arrive with a good joke for the table. “It was a good time,” he said. “I got to see someone I loved, using these things.”
Taking a cue from her, Glasberg loves hosting dinners in his dining room. This year, his Thanksgiving dinner for friends will be served on his Meissen porcelain, Tiffany silver, and Baccarat crystal. He’ll set up his porcelain menus that he writes on with wax pencil.
Among his guests will be Dottie Stewart, sister of his longtime employee, Dan Murphy, who died a few years ago. Murphy worked three decades at Marcoz, but many locals knew him as the guy who would walk Glasberg’s dogs up and down the street. Last year, Glasberg and others planted a tree in his memory. “He was part of the scene,” he recalled. “He had a caustic sense of humor. You either hated or loved him.”
Glasberg has a good idea of how to stoke a person’s love of antiques. He boasts, “I’ve turned people into ardent collectors.” He recalled a collector in the western suburbs whom he turned onto French furniture, and today they’re trolling for pieces each weekend and keeping up with what Marcoz gets. “They have a little museum,” he said. “They don’t have children, so it’s like their kids. Their life has changed.”
Some of his customers are avid collectors of creamware; another loves leather books and miniatures.
A common request is from young couples looking for gifts for their wedding party, for which he suggests picture frames, a decanter, and other small but unique items.
“The fun part is the hunt, to search for these pieces,” he said, recalling one customer who fell in love with his Japanese Imari porcelain plate with iron red and cobalt blue, from the 1880s, and bought it for a friend whose daughter was getting married. But while the daughter was away, her mom took the plate out to admire it again, lying it on the bed. The dog jumped up and quickly crushed it. Heartbroken, she begged for another one to give to her friend’s daughter before the girl returned from her honeymoon. Glasberg insisted that it was a pretty rare plate, but the next weekend, while he was on his regular forays through New York City, he was at a street fair on Third Avenue, and found the very plate. “I was extremely lucky,” he said. He couldn’t have found it if he searched for 10 years, he thought, and he just lucked into this plate within days. “I didn’t make any money on that deal, and I’m sure she was thinking, ‘Oh, right, he said it was so rare, he was trying to sell me a bill of goods…’” But, he said, that’s the thrill of the hunt that keeps him going.
Back Bay Sun
When stocks tank and your real estate value is underwater, maybe it’s time to pay attention to what’s in your attic - or in others’ attics.
In what may be the oldest recycling movement known to man, investors have long been practicing “reduce, reuse and recycle.”
By many accounts, investment-grade antiques are an investment that hold, if not increase, in value. It’s risky, but there’s also the thrill of the hunt, and unlike, say, a stock, you can put an antique to work around your home. Just keep the grandkids away from the vase and the dog off the sofa.
“Buy something new, and it’s not worth anything,” says Marc s. Glasberg, of Marcoz Antiques at 173 Newbury St. “It’s like ten cents on the dollar. Antiques hold their value, plus they are beautiful examples of craftsmanship. The quality of wood is much better in an antique.”
Some things just hold their value better. The more unusual pieces can still go up in value, despite the economy, since there are always speculators who are waiting for this type of soft market to scout for bargains.
A watercolor portrait miniature on ivory of George Washington, created by Robert Field in 1801, was estimated at $10,000 and sold for $303,000.
“There are always buyers for things that don’t often come up,” says Skinner Vice President Kerry Shrives, who notes excitement over an upcoming sale on November 16 of rare 16th century manuscripts at their Park Plaza location.
Skinner’s site lists Aubry Beardsley (1872-1898) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), “The Climax,” Important original illustration for “Salome: A Tragedy in One Act,” published in 1894 -- Estimate: $15,000-$20,000.
“They are examples of book illustrations that’s been in Boston families for a long time,” adds Shrives.
That’s what Shrives loves about working in Boston - there are so many treasures being held by longtime Back Bay families, and there are so many enthusiasts.
“The core reason why we have had a presence in the Back Bay since 1980 is that it’s a great place for buying and selling art,” says Shrives. “We still have a devoted core of Boston customers. It’s business we don’t see in the other parts of the country.”
In this area, residents are constantly moving, which means a lot of new inventory for auction houses and shops. There are students moving in, and many parents also choose to set up a local apartment for visits. Businesses see lots of employee turnover. There are a lot of old Boston families, and not a lot of space in their homes.
“Many are downsizing their estates,” says Shrives. “Some estates need to be settled. There are always people who need to make a move. There are always people who need to make purchases.”
And yes, perhaps a few are in need of some quick cash due to the economy.
Shrives has been with Skinner since the 1980s, and in that time, she’s seen several economic fluctuations. “I’ve seen turbulence through the years,” says Shrives.
Lately, she’s noticed that the lower end of the market, the more common pieces, are creating a buyer’s market. For speculators, this could be an ideal time to buy.
“Things that usually are in the tens of millions of dollars, there are signs of softening,” she says. But for investors and speculators, she adds, “It’s not been battered as much as other sectors.”
The Newbury Street antiques scene, however, is a bit weathered. It used to be home to dozens of antiques shops, a number that’s dwindled to a handful: Marcoz Antiques, Brodney Antiques & Jewelry at 145 Newbury, and Small Pleasures at 142 Newbury St. There are paintings and other artworks at the many galleries here, and Charles Street still has about a dozen antique shops, too.
For some antiques dealers, it may be easier to just go to the antiques shows or sell online. But for a certain customer, they have to see the item up close before they buy. They want to develop a relationship with a dealer who will keep an eye out for items they are looking for.
“I’ve never purchased anything on eBay,” says Glasberg, who opened Marcoz Antiques in 1972. “I am one of those people who have to touch it. The patina is everything. You can’t judge quality by a photo.”
He recalled one customer who saw something she liked in his store, then found a similar item on eBay. “The condition wasn’t good,” he said. He didn’t know how much the customer paid for it, but he was certain she was embarrassed about the purchase and covered up by saying that they didn’t pay a lot for it.
In the thrill of the antiques hunt, sometimes what some consider trash is another person’s treasure; other times, you just buy trash. That’s what makes antiques an exciting trade.
But for residents, it’s not only about investments, it’s buying pieces that match their equally antique homes that have preserved moldings, fireplaces and other detail that just doesn’t match well with today’s modern decor.
In the Back Bay, residents who are interested in antiques vary, from the families moving here from other countries who have an appreciation of classic pieces, to young couples looking for china, young professionals looking for unique items that will hold value. For those empty nesters moving from the suburbs, an antique may be a more appropriate type of furniture to place in a historic home.
“People still need to furnish their nests, even if it’s a sofa or a ceiling fixture,” says Glasberg, who sits next to a striking Bagatelle game table, with a custom stand. It formerly was a parlor bowling game, with a hinged top, but it’s been converted over to a more useful side table that boasts useful storage, for $4,250.
“The Back Bay is a wonderful community of people who live here and are very tasteful. These apartments or homes are into centerpieces. If there are restored moldings and fireplaces, they want a certain amount of antiques in the home. If you’re in the suburbs in a home with lower ceilings, it’s different - you can’t have a big armoire there. Here, it’s a big, European kind of city.”
This “European kind of city” also attracts people from Europe, who are in town to work, or sending their kids to school. “A lot of people who come here are from Central and South America and Mexico, and they like a lot of European items,” Glasberg notes. “Sometimes, the parents buy apartments and stay here when they visit. The dollar is weak. They can buy nice things to put in them.”
For those wishing to dabble in buying antiques, many experts recommend buying what you love, and buy the best examples of it, whether it be art glass, period furniture, paintings and sculpture, “and what you can afford,” adds Shrives. “Some items keep their value, while other pieces continue to grow. At least with arts and antiques, it’s an investment you can live with and enjoy.”
back to top...
The Marcoz way by Sandra Miller
Marcoz Antiques of 173 Newbury St. is a well-organized, clean store - .no mustiness, no dustiness, you’re not tripping over items or squeezing into narrow spaces to check out the inventory.
The store, which opened in 1972, specializes in European pieces from the 18th century and up. Clients have ranged from the Back Bay to around the world. Famous customers have included the Kennedys, Meryl Streep, Ralph Lauren, Donna Summer, Bryant Gumbel, and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Marc S. Glasberg started Marcoz 36 years ago, along with many other Newbury Street antiques shops.
Glasberg received a business degree from Suffolk University, and tried his hand at retail - at Lord & Taylor and Filene’s - until he decided to give in to what he loved, and he opened a one-room shop in 1972. He served tea, which drew a lot of interesting people who liked to do nothing much but gab and sip. “During the off-season, people would talk to me, we’d have tea. I didn’t make a lot of money back then, but it was nice to get to know my customers,” he said.
In the beginning, he was interested in all sorts of antiques. “Everything was of interest to me. I bought all around the board. There was so much stuff back then. It was hard to go wrong. I had a good eye for things,” he said.
Today, a lot of those good pieces just aren’t available any more. Neither are most of the Newbury Street antique stores. Many have gone online or on the show or auction circuit. He’s seen 10-12 other antique stores close on Newbury Street. “Rents got very high,” he said.
Glasberg keeps going by staying on top of the trends. He works in the shop with Jon Diamond, an interior designer, and also does custom picture framing and lamp shades, interior design, lamp rewiring, restorates ceramics, furniture and glassware, and some upholstery. A longtime member of the Newbury Street League, Glasberg last year earned the Fay Rotenberg Public Service Award.
Glasberg has a long history of relationships with international collectors and antique specialists, and travels around the world to find just the right pieces for his clients. Some of his pieces he buys for long-term investments, although much of his items don’t stay in the store longer than a few months.
Marcoz specializes in 18th to 20th century European furnishings, but he also loves dealing with accessories, such as candlesticks and ceramics. “Marcoz specializes in highly decorative centerpieces that make a room,” said Glasberg. “Things don’t hang around very long.”
Glasberg recently moved from his longtime spot a few doors down, when his building was sold. He loves the space, and saw it as a chance to move away from the French antiques that he loves – think dark woods, carved items and tapestries -- to what more customers are looking for - furniture and accessories with cleaner lines: lighter-colored woods like sycamore, satin wood, light cherry and walnut painted finishes, less elaborate frames; and more Asian pieces.
“We’ve been buying things that are simpler, more angular. People’s tastes are changing to straighter lines,” he said
When you enter his new shop, one of the first pieces is a Japanese folding horseshoe-back chair, from the 18th century, and he’s still researching to obtain its value. Nearby is an industrial table from a factory, the metal frame in a dark gray patina and topped with glass, selling for $2,375. “An architect looking at it said it was made to hold a lot of weight,” he said.
In the window is an armillary sphere, a model of the earth, with encircling iron bands that represent the outer sphere of fixed stars. The iron and stone piece was originally for the garden, and sells for $3,800.
However, Glasberg’s favorite antique is his dog Phoebe, a happy Cavalier King Charles spaniel who has spent many years in the shop and getting walked along Newbury Street.
Like his store, Glasberg tries to keep his home well-stocked but uncluttered.
“My home is pretty clean,” he said, adding he has shutter-style window treatments and solid carpets and bare floors in his fifth floor Commonwealth Avenue condo, to balance the antiques-filled home. “I didn’t want it to get too fussy,” he added.
In Glasberg’s family, a love of antiques was something that skipped a generation. He grew up in Newton, in a home that was a response to his mother’s own upbringing, when her home was filled with heavy, antique furniture. She reacted by decorating her own home with “modern lines” and “monochromatic colors,” said Glasberg. But he was drawn to the home of his great-aunt, whose home was filled with classic antiques. His aunt picked up on his interest by refusing to give him a ballpoint pen or handkerchief that was the usual birthday gift. Instead, she’d give him one of her antiques. He still has her cloisonné ginger jar that she filled with pennies, which she gave to him when he was a teen. “It was black, not like most cloisonné, with red and yellow flowers,” he said. “It’s unusual, a big fat ginger jar with a dome top. It’s dramatic looking.
“She didn’t succumb to trends,” he said. “Going into her home was a different world.” His aunt would invite her family over to Newton on the weekend for a long dinner, served on antique china, and everyone had to arrive with a good joke for the table. “It was a good time,” he said. “I got to see someone I loved, using these things.”
Taking a cue from her, Glasberg loves hosting dinners in his dining room. This year, his Thanksgiving dinner for friends will be served on his Meissen porcelain, Tiffany silver, and Baccarat crystal. He’ll set up his porcelain menus that he writes on with wax pencil.
Among his guests will be Dottie Stewart, sister of his longtime employee, Dan Murphy, who died a few years ago. Murphy worked three decades at Marcoz, but many locals knew him as the guy who would walk Glasberg’s dogs up and down the street. Last year, Glasberg and others planted a tree in his memory. “He was part of the scene,” he recalled. “He had a caustic sense of humor. You either hated or loved him.”
Glasberg has a good idea of how to stoke a person’s love of antiques. He boasts, “I’ve turned people into ardent collectors.” He recalled a collector in the western suburbs whom he turned onto French furniture, and today they’re trolling for pieces each weekend and keeping up with what Marcoz gets. “They have a little museum,” he said. “They don’t have children, so it’s like their kids. Their life has changed.”
Some of his customers are avid collectors of creamware; another loves leather books and miniatures.
A common request is from young couples looking for gifts for their wedding party, for which he suggests picture frames, a decanter, and other small but unique items.
“The fun part is the hunt, to search for these pieces,” he said, recalling one customer who fell in love with his Japanese Imari porcelain plate with iron red and cobalt blue, from the 1880s, and bought it for a friend whose daughter was getting married. But while the daughter was away, her mom took the plate out to admire it again, lying it on the bed. The dog jumped up and quickly crushed it. Heartbroken, she begged for another one to give to her friend’s daughter before the girl returned from her honeymoon. Glasberg insisted that it was a pretty rare plate, but the next weekend, while he was on his regular forays through New York City, he was at a street fair on Third Avenue, and found the very plate. “I was extremely lucky,” he said. He couldn’t have found it if he searched for 10 years, he thought, and he just lucked into this plate within days. “I didn’t make any money on that deal, and I’m sure she was thinking, ‘Oh, right, he said it was so rare, he was trying to sell me a bill of goods…’” But, he said, that’s the thrill of the hunt that keeps him going.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Kershaw is engaged
The phone has been ringing off the hook at the Hampshire House, where owner Tom Kershaw is thanking all the well-wishers calling about his big news: Kershaw of Beacon Hill popped The Question to Janet Sharp of Winchester last week.
"We were sitting on my couch one evening, I don't know how the subject came up, and she said yes," said a beaming Kershaw.
Kershaw met Sharp over the summer in Nantucket at a fundraiser for his friend, Councilor Mike Ross. She was there with friends who also knew Ross. Smitten, he asked for her phone number, and they ended up going on a date four weeks later. "It's been fast and furious ever since," he said.
The two announced their engagement November 11. For now, Sharp is sporting a cocktail ring made up of a ruby arranged with diamonds, while they are having her engagement ring custom-made by a local jeweler. "I purchased a cocktail ring as an interim to show that we are 'engaged' – there are a lot of things you can say but he you've to have some visual," says Kershaw. "It'll be a nice size diamond."
Sharp is the mother of two; her daughter, Elizabeth, is in a post-graduate pre-med program at Columbia University in New York City, and her son is at the University of Vermont. Janet is a graduate of Hamilton College and has been in the real estate business, is active in many charitable activities, and is an avid tennis player.
Kershaw is the owner of the Hampshire House on Beacon Hill, Cheers, and 75 Chestnut, as well as an investor in two suburban restaurants, John Brewer's Tavern of Waltham and John Brewer's Tavern of Malden. Kershaw is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Business School and had been a resident of Beacon Hill for more than 40 years. This year he will be celebrating 40 years of ownership of the Hampshire House property at 84 Beacon Street.
The couple plan to reside on Beacon Hill and in Winchester.
Wedding plans are being finalized and will probably be some time in the month of May, says Kershaw. They're looking at holding the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, and having a small reception at the Hampshire House.
"We were sitting on my couch one evening, I don't know how the subject came up, and she said yes," said a beaming Kershaw.
Kershaw met Sharp over the summer in Nantucket at a fundraiser for his friend, Councilor Mike Ross. She was there with friends who also knew Ross. Smitten, he asked for her phone number, and they ended up going on a date four weeks later. "It's been fast and furious ever since," he said.
The two announced their engagement November 11. For now, Sharp is sporting a cocktail ring made up of a ruby arranged with diamonds, while they are having her engagement ring custom-made by a local jeweler. "I purchased a cocktail ring as an interim to show that we are 'engaged' – there are a lot of things you can say but he you've to have some visual," says Kershaw. "It'll be a nice size diamond."
Sharp is the mother of two; her daughter, Elizabeth, is in a post-graduate pre-med program at Columbia University in New York City, and her son is at the University of Vermont. Janet is a graduate of Hamilton College and has been in the real estate business, is active in many charitable activities, and is an avid tennis player.
Kershaw is the owner of the Hampshire House on Beacon Hill, Cheers, and 75 Chestnut, as well as an investor in two suburban restaurants, John Brewer's Tavern of Waltham and John Brewer's Tavern of Malden. Kershaw is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Business School and had been a resident of Beacon Hill for more than 40 years. This year he will be celebrating 40 years of ownership of the Hampshire House property at 84 Beacon Street.
The couple plan to reside on Beacon Hill and in Winchester.
Wedding plans are being finalized and will probably be some time in the month of May, says Kershaw. They're looking at holding the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, and having a small reception at the Hampshire House.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Vox Populi's food speaks volumes, and recipe
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
Vox Populi, a Latin phrase that literally means “the voice of the people,” is an apt name for the Boylston Street restaurant of the same name. It gets pretty vocal during a late night scene with upscale ambiance competing with one of the more glittery singles scene around Boston.
The 755 Boylston St. restaurant used to be the Back Bay Brewing Company, from 1995 to the end of the brewpub phase, around 2000. The owner, Joe Quattrocchi, picked up a full liquor license and converted the restaurant to Vox Populi. The move was smart, because the spot turned into a trendy hot spot known for its lively social scene as well as martini-fueled hookups. For the glassy-eyed regulars wondering what all those words are along the bar top, it’s from one of Cicero’s speeches to Congress, an inspiration of the architect, Steven Sousa.
On top of that bar, award-winning bartenders serve many a martini, and perhaps you’ve been there when you needed to absorb some alcohol with their late-night snacks. Yes, they have food.
It’s good food, too, as the after-work crowd and the business-and-tourist lunchers have discovered. A lot of comfort food –- pan-roasted maple salmon, blackened shrimp, black angus burgers – but executive chef Ryan Murphy would steer you toward the Tuscan braised pork shank, an osso bucco that falls off the bone, with saffron potatoes laced with an earthy thyme; or his Cajun seafood stew, with sauteed shrimp, lobster, scallops, mussles and clams in a spicy broth, served with dirty rice.
Audrie Lambert, a friendly waitress who lives on Beacon Street, strongly recommended for lunch the New England Fall Salad, mixed greens with fresh blueberries, goat cheese and candid walnuts with cranberry vinaigrette. She’s right -- topped with salmon, and it becomes an antioxidant dream far too tasty to be called a salad.
Like most Back Bay restaurants, they are also serving simple entrees with a la carte sides, which many customers appreciate because they can choose what they want. The sharable portions include creamed spinach, lyonnaise potatoes, haricot vert, and truffled parmesan or sweet potato fries.
But its their new lineup of organic beef and local-farm fruits and veggies that the restaurant is especially proud of. “There’s probably only two or three other restaurants who are featuring Brandt beef,” says Yasmin Saleh, marketing and events coordinator for Vox.
It’s all part of Vox’s mission to go green. “We’re more aware of what’s going on around us, environmentally. We’re the only bar in the City of Boston who is recycling its beer bottles, and we’ve started doing liquor bottles. We’re going to start doing away with water bottles. We have some of the cleanest tap water in the country. People are going to have to get used to water from the tap. We’re really lucky to have great water and great regulation.”
But in the end, what people want is good food. Their Brandt beef is from well-treated cows fed vegetarian, corn-based diet without antibiotics or hormones. The ala cart beef menu includes New York sirloin, bone-in rib eye, and filet mignon. Murphy, a dad of two young girls in Taunton, is especially sensitive to providing quality food to families. “Everyone wants to eat healthier,” he says. “We are showing our kids how to eat.”
Chef Murphy also likes to watch his customers eat, which means going downstairs from his second-floor kitchen to talk to diners to see what they like and don’t like. “I like seeing people happy when they’re eating.”
How Chef Murphy makes a New York Sirloin:
This recipe is a special, served with a ragout of local and organically grown vegetables and fingerling potatoes, finished with a sherry lobster glace. The meat isn’t officially prime, but it’s buttery and fork-tender, full of flavor further enhanced by the sherry sauce.
First, he recommends chopping up and preparing all of the ingredients ahead of time, for “mise en place,” which he says is French, literally "put in place." He also recommends a really sharp French knife – at home, he uses a $600 JA Henkels knife.
He also came up with a recipe that uses local ingredients, which for this time of year means a colorful array of root vegetables. Less transportation means fresher veggies with more vitamins.
Sirloin:
10 oz. "Brandt" NY Sirloin
Kosher salt & freshly cracked pepper to taste
Season well with salt & pepper, atop a hot grill, without oil, to your liking. “Don’t touch it! The more you touch it, the more uneven it cooks,” says Murphy. For medium rare, 3-4 minutes each side; medium, 4-5 minutes each side; medium well, 6-7 minutes each side. Don’t flip or touch the meat until the time is up. When done, let the meat rest while you cook the rest of the food.
Vegetable & Fingerling Ragout:
Canola or soybean oil
6 Pearl Onions, whole
6 Baby Button Mushrooms, whole
3 Baby New Carrots, Blanched
1⁄4 Leek, Julienned
2 Fingerling Potatoes, Blanched & Quartered
1⁄2 Roma Tomato, Quartered
1⁄2 c. White Wine (use a wine you’d drink, nothing fancy)
2 oz. Demi Glace
Salt & Pepper
To blanche carrots, boil carrots in a pot of salted wter, and cook until fork tender or to taste. Shock in icewater so they’ll stop cooking.
On medium heat, lightly season and saute onions and mushrooms in some oil until brown. Add carrots, then leeks for a few minutes, then add potatoes and tomatoes for approximately 3-4 minutes.
Remove vegetables, and deglaze pan with white wine and simmer and reduce by half. Add demi glace, and toss vegetables in sauce. Season to taste.
Sherry Lobster Glace:
1 Lobster Claw
1⁄2 c. Sherry Wine
1/8 c. Lobster Stock
1/8 c. Demi Glace
1 tbls Unsalted Butter
Allow pan to get hot and burn off sherry wine, reducing it by half. If you’re feeling brave, light it on fire, letting the alcohol burn off before it self-extinguishes. Add lobster stock and demi glace and reduce by half again. Add the butter and lobster claw and remove from heat after about a minute.
Demi Glace:
You can use any reduced beef stock; specialty stores like Whole Foods may have some already made, he says. Murphy likes to take beef or veal bones, roast them until they are nice and brown, add a mirepoix (50 percent chopped onions to 25 percent chopped celery and 25 percent chopped carrots) and peppercorns to the pot, add bones, and cold water, and simmer for 2-3 hours. Strain, let it cool down, then transfer to a different pot and reduce it by half. You should have about a half-gallon of demi glace.
Lobster stock: use leftover lobsters and shell, and boil a few hours in water. Or you can buy lobster base at many stores. He has also used lobster powder for the base, to good results.
Plating:
Place sliced sirloin on one side of the plate and the ragout on the opposite side of the plate. Top sirloin with the lobster claw and drizzle with the glace. Garnish with fresh chopped chives & a rosemary sprig.
Serve with a nice bottle of Organic Halter Ranch, a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso, California.
Back Bay Sun
Vox Populi, a Latin phrase that literally means “the voice of the people,” is an apt name for the Boylston Street restaurant of the same name. It gets pretty vocal during a late night scene with upscale ambiance competing with one of the more glittery singles scene around Boston.
The 755 Boylston St. restaurant used to be the Back Bay Brewing Company, from 1995 to the end of the brewpub phase, around 2000. The owner, Joe Quattrocchi, picked up a full liquor license and converted the restaurant to Vox Populi. The move was smart, because the spot turned into a trendy hot spot known for its lively social scene as well as martini-fueled hookups. For the glassy-eyed regulars wondering what all those words are along the bar top, it’s from one of Cicero’s speeches to Congress, an inspiration of the architect, Steven Sousa.
On top of that bar, award-winning bartenders serve many a martini, and perhaps you’ve been there when you needed to absorb some alcohol with their late-night snacks. Yes, they have food.
It’s good food, too, as the after-work crowd and the business-and-tourist lunchers have discovered. A lot of comfort food –- pan-roasted maple salmon, blackened shrimp, black angus burgers – but executive chef Ryan Murphy would steer you toward the Tuscan braised pork shank, an osso bucco that falls off the bone, with saffron potatoes laced with an earthy thyme; or his Cajun seafood stew, with sauteed shrimp, lobster, scallops, mussles and clams in a spicy broth, served with dirty rice.
Audrie Lambert, a friendly waitress who lives on Beacon Street, strongly recommended for lunch the New England Fall Salad, mixed greens with fresh blueberries, goat cheese and candid walnuts with cranberry vinaigrette. She’s right -- topped with salmon, and it becomes an antioxidant dream far too tasty to be called a salad.
Like most Back Bay restaurants, they are also serving simple entrees with a la carte sides, which many customers appreciate because they can choose what they want. The sharable portions include creamed spinach, lyonnaise potatoes, haricot vert, and truffled parmesan or sweet potato fries.
But its their new lineup of organic beef and local-farm fruits and veggies that the restaurant is especially proud of. “There’s probably only two or three other restaurants who are featuring Brandt beef,” says Yasmin Saleh, marketing and events coordinator for Vox.
It’s all part of Vox’s mission to go green. “We’re more aware of what’s going on around us, environmentally. We’re the only bar in the City of Boston who is recycling its beer bottles, and we’ve started doing liquor bottles. We’re going to start doing away with water bottles. We have some of the cleanest tap water in the country. People are going to have to get used to water from the tap. We’re really lucky to have great water and great regulation.”
But in the end, what people want is good food. Their Brandt beef is from well-treated cows fed vegetarian, corn-based diet without antibiotics or hormones. The ala cart beef menu includes New York sirloin, bone-in rib eye, and filet mignon. Murphy, a dad of two young girls in Taunton, is especially sensitive to providing quality food to families. “Everyone wants to eat healthier,” he says. “We are showing our kids how to eat.”
Chef Murphy also likes to watch his customers eat, which means going downstairs from his second-floor kitchen to talk to diners to see what they like and don’t like. “I like seeing people happy when they’re eating.”
How Chef Murphy makes a New York Sirloin:
This recipe is a special, served with a ragout of local and organically grown vegetables and fingerling potatoes, finished with a sherry lobster glace. The meat isn’t officially prime, but it’s buttery and fork-tender, full of flavor further enhanced by the sherry sauce.
First, he recommends chopping up and preparing all of the ingredients ahead of time, for “mise en place,” which he says is French, literally "put in place." He also recommends a really sharp French knife – at home, he uses a $600 JA Henkels knife.
He also came up with a recipe that uses local ingredients, which for this time of year means a colorful array of root vegetables. Less transportation means fresher veggies with more vitamins.
Sirloin:
10 oz. "Brandt" NY Sirloin
Kosher salt & freshly cracked pepper to taste
Season well with salt & pepper, atop a hot grill, without oil, to your liking. “Don’t touch it! The more you touch it, the more uneven it cooks,” says Murphy. For medium rare, 3-4 minutes each side; medium, 4-5 minutes each side; medium well, 6-7 minutes each side. Don’t flip or touch the meat until the time is up. When done, let the meat rest while you cook the rest of the food.
Vegetable & Fingerling Ragout:
Canola or soybean oil
6 Pearl Onions, whole
6 Baby Button Mushrooms, whole
3 Baby New Carrots, Blanched
1⁄4 Leek, Julienned
2 Fingerling Potatoes, Blanched & Quartered
1⁄2 Roma Tomato, Quartered
1⁄2 c. White Wine (use a wine you’d drink, nothing fancy)
2 oz. Demi Glace
Salt & Pepper
To blanche carrots, boil carrots in a pot of salted wter, and cook until fork tender or to taste. Shock in icewater so they’ll stop cooking.
On medium heat, lightly season and saute onions and mushrooms in some oil until brown. Add carrots, then leeks for a few minutes, then add potatoes and tomatoes for approximately 3-4 minutes.
Remove vegetables, and deglaze pan with white wine and simmer and reduce by half. Add demi glace, and toss vegetables in sauce. Season to taste.
Sherry Lobster Glace:
1 Lobster Claw
1⁄2 c. Sherry Wine
1/8 c. Lobster Stock
1/8 c. Demi Glace
1 tbls Unsalted Butter
Allow pan to get hot and burn off sherry wine, reducing it by half. If you’re feeling brave, light it on fire, letting the alcohol burn off before it self-extinguishes. Add lobster stock and demi glace and reduce by half again. Add the butter and lobster claw and remove from heat after about a minute.
Demi Glace:
You can use any reduced beef stock; specialty stores like Whole Foods may have some already made, he says. Murphy likes to take beef or veal bones, roast them until they are nice and brown, add a mirepoix (50 percent chopped onions to 25 percent chopped celery and 25 percent chopped carrots) and peppercorns to the pot, add bones, and cold water, and simmer for 2-3 hours. Strain, let it cool down, then transfer to a different pot and reduce it by half. You should have about a half-gallon of demi glace.
Lobster stock: use leftover lobsters and shell, and boil a few hours in water. Or you can buy lobster base at many stores. He has also used lobster powder for the base, to good results.
Plating:
Place sliced sirloin on one side of the plate and the ragout on the opposite side of the plate. Top sirloin with the lobster claw and drizzle with the glace. Garnish with fresh chopped chives & a rosemary sprig.
Serve with a nice bottle of Organic Halter Ranch, a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso, California.
A new model for the fitness world
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
Helena Collins admits to having a big ego. She's so sure that once you come into her studio and take a class, you'll be back.
"I've been in this industry forever," says Collins, 44, who just opened Life in Synergy on Boylston Street last week. In 26 years, she has run many gyms, and she also knows the super fitness centers that automatically withdraw $49.95 a month from your bank account is betting that you don't even show up.
"I think my industry is completely responsible for making people fat," she declares, pointing out the trendy exercise machines you see advertised on TV, as used by models who starve themselves and work out three times a day. "You go to that gym, and you see that $49.95 come out of your checking every month, and maybe the place is too intimidating, and you don't go, and your self-esteem goes down..."
Her health center is about as big as many other gyms, at 5,000 square feet, but the difference is that it's filled with 5 trainers at the studio and 30 class instructors, who "are filled with people like me who are dying to get you into shape."
In fact, she's so sure you'll be back, she only sells her classes individually for $15 or in 10-packs for $120. "If we're not good, we don't make money. It makes the people who work for me think about fitness and education. It's a completely different model."
With the first class, the instructors don't want to be your friend, they want to check your alignment, see where your strengths and weaknesses are. They look at your body holistically, taking into account nutrition, how you breathe, your stress. "People think it's about what did I eat or did I work out. It could be about learning some breathing exercises that you do for two minutes a day, so at the end of the week you aren't so exhausted."
And unlike some gyms that emphasize the need to work out five days a week, Collins says her studio has clients who work out only two days a week and still look great. "You align your body, you can just be. You don't have to stress out."
Collins has had many years in the field to figure this out.
She was an asthmatic who took up swimming to improve her health and swam competitively while growing up in Long Island, but when she discovered the gym she stayed on dry land. "I was in incredible shape," she said, but then began feeling a sore back, a knee that hurt, and noticed that the instructors would just say, "do this exercise. They wouldn't explain what led to the pain."
That's what led her to study what she calls macromuscular synergy, to tailor a workout to an individual, rather than have a whole class follow a routine that works for her particular body. "If a watch is off, it may keep ticking, but you'll lose time," she says. "That's what is happening with our bodies. To correct your engineering so you won't be in pain any more, that's the big journey for me."
She married a martial arts trainer, Brian, who taught her about Eastern philosophy, and she studied around the world, including acupuncture in China.
Collins has traveled around the world to study muscular science and movement, to create her Synergistics Fitness Method, which she teaches at her award-winning facility, Synergistics Personal Training Studio, which she opened in 1997 on Newbury Street.
Last week, she opened Life in Synergy Fitness Studio to bring her methods to a broader audience in class format. Students experience different types of movement, including yoga, salsa, Martial Arts, meditation, Zumba, House Dance, and pilates. "Things like Pilates are only a teeny, tiny part of Life in Synergy," she says. "I am a fitness geek, and I have to learn everything about it, the pluses, the minuses, the negatives, and improve upon it so I can tailor it to each person and do the best thing possible for them."
She has classes that focus on diabetes, women who under went a mastectomy, and other sessions that cater to a person's individual needs, she says.
While many of the people in the big gyms hire pretty and slim people whose bodies many would like to emulate, Collins says she hires her educators based on what she notices "from the neck up": they're smart, and they know that there's always more to learn. "Anyone who works on my team want to be educators," says Collins.
The instructors are not going to chat about their personal life, she says. "That may be fun, but it may not get you where you need to be. You need to be friendly but not friends, happy, no attitude, no -isms, no ifs. When you walk in the door, everyone is friendly. Then they would take you in front of the mirror, and say, 'This is what's wrong with your alignment.'"
"My goal this year is to really work to change the health of America. To bring what I teach to the public."
In her first week, 275 signed up, and for those who register online, they get the first class free. "I think once they see how clean it is, they see the quality, people will be back. I say, 'Book one session, you don't have to see me ever again.' The retention rate at health clubs is 40 percent. My retention rate is 98 percent."
Back Bay Sun
Helena Collins admits to having a big ego. She's so sure that once you come into her studio and take a class, you'll be back.
"I've been in this industry forever," says Collins, 44, who just opened Life in Synergy on Boylston Street last week. In 26 years, she has run many gyms, and she also knows the super fitness centers that automatically withdraw $49.95 a month from your bank account is betting that you don't even show up.
"I think my industry is completely responsible for making people fat," she declares, pointing out the trendy exercise machines you see advertised on TV, as used by models who starve themselves and work out three times a day. "You go to that gym, and you see that $49.95 come out of your checking every month, and maybe the place is too intimidating, and you don't go, and your self-esteem goes down..."
Her health center is about as big as many other gyms, at 5,000 square feet, but the difference is that it's filled with 5 trainers at the studio and 30 class instructors, who "are filled with people like me who are dying to get you into shape."
In fact, she's so sure you'll be back, she only sells her classes individually for $15 or in 10-packs for $120. "If we're not good, we don't make money. It makes the people who work for me think about fitness and education. It's a completely different model."
With the first class, the instructors don't want to be your friend, they want to check your alignment, see where your strengths and weaknesses are. They look at your body holistically, taking into account nutrition, how you breathe, your stress. "People think it's about what did I eat or did I work out. It could be about learning some breathing exercises that you do for two minutes a day, so at the end of the week you aren't so exhausted."
And unlike some gyms that emphasize the need to work out five days a week, Collins says her studio has clients who work out only two days a week and still look great. "You align your body, you can just be. You don't have to stress out."
Collins has had many years in the field to figure this out.
She was an asthmatic who took up swimming to improve her health and swam competitively while growing up in Long Island, but when she discovered the gym she stayed on dry land. "I was in incredible shape," she said, but then began feeling a sore back, a knee that hurt, and noticed that the instructors would just say, "do this exercise. They wouldn't explain what led to the pain."
That's what led her to study what she calls macromuscular synergy, to tailor a workout to an individual, rather than have a whole class follow a routine that works for her particular body. "If a watch is off, it may keep ticking, but you'll lose time," she says. "That's what is happening with our bodies. To correct your engineering so you won't be in pain any more, that's the big journey for me."
She married a martial arts trainer, Brian, who taught her about Eastern philosophy, and she studied around the world, including acupuncture in China.
Collins has traveled around the world to study muscular science and movement, to create her Synergistics Fitness Method, which she teaches at her award-winning facility, Synergistics Personal Training Studio, which she opened in 1997 on Newbury Street.
Last week, she opened Life in Synergy Fitness Studio to bring her methods to a broader audience in class format. Students experience different types of movement, including yoga, salsa, Martial Arts, meditation, Zumba, House Dance, and pilates. "Things like Pilates are only a teeny, tiny part of Life in Synergy," she says. "I am a fitness geek, and I have to learn everything about it, the pluses, the minuses, the negatives, and improve upon it so I can tailor it to each person and do the best thing possible for them."
She has classes that focus on diabetes, women who under went a mastectomy, and other sessions that cater to a person's individual needs, she says.
While many of the people in the big gyms hire pretty and slim people whose bodies many would like to emulate, Collins says she hires her educators based on what she notices "from the neck up": they're smart, and they know that there's always more to learn. "Anyone who works on my team want to be educators," says Collins.
The instructors are not going to chat about their personal life, she says. "That may be fun, but it may not get you where you need to be. You need to be friendly but not friends, happy, no attitude, no -isms, no ifs. When you walk in the door, everyone is friendly. Then they would take you in front of the mirror, and say, 'This is what's wrong with your alignment.'"
"My goal this year is to really work to change the health of America. To bring what I teach to the public."
In her first week, 275 signed up, and for those who register online, they get the first class free. "I think once they see how clean it is, they see the quality, people will be back. I say, 'Book one session, you don't have to see me ever again.' The retention rate at health clubs is 40 percent. My retention rate is 98 percent."
Royal treatment at the Mandarin spa
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
Every detail in the just-opened Spas at Mandarin Oriental is designed to promote wellness, which they define as focusing on physical, emotional and mental well being. Surfaces are strewn with fuschia philinopsis orchids, a waterfall bubbles pleasantly, the lights are low, the music is soft and pleasant.
Upon my arrival, the ritual immediately begins. Concierges lead me to a cushy bench, take my shoes to complete the transformation of leaving the external world behind, and give me spa slippers, an aromatic hand towel to clean my hands, and a cup of its signature peppermint tea to help me enter a more peaceful zone.
Guests get a locker filled with toiletry products, a fine robe from Frette, and nearby are hair styling supplies and hair dryer. At a supply station, bottles of water and huge soft towels are readily available.
Inside, the spa’s rooms feature bamboo flooring except in the wet area, where they are slate, three-dimensional artwork and glass tiles, and golden-hued anegre wood throughout.
There’s an option of rinsing off in an aromatic “Experience” shower with names like Artic Ice and Tropical Mist, with multiple water jets and a waterfall-like showerhead, but I found the water far too cold to enjoy my experience. After a brief rinse in the shower – which was equally lukewarm at best, even when cranked all the way to hot - I warmed up in the large hot tub, followed by the color therapy Crystal steam room. The steam, thick enough to obscure anything beyond a few inches away, was tinted with mood-shifting lighting that changed colors and created an almost surreal experience, like living in a watercolor painting. To cool off, clients can scoop up some shaved ice just outside the steam room.
While awaiting my massage appointment, I enjoyed fresh fruit and nuts while relaxing on one of the lounges, which feature privacy curtains, current magazines and a spa menu.
Holistic services are hosted in nine treatment areas that feature natural light, some with private showers, a hydrotherapy room and two specialty suites. Treatments are personalized, depending on a discussion between the guest and the concierge. “The traveler who has just deplaned from an international flight would benefit from a different treatment than the person who has so much on their mind that they are not spleeping well,” explained Sharon Holtz, Mandarin Boston’s director of spa.
Treatments include “Time rituals,” a two-hour or more treatment designed to “restore your natural state of equilibrium,” with a customized treatment that begins with feet cleansing and a tiny bell.
The Oriental Harmony Signature Experience, at two hours, provides four hands working in unison to provide a foot bath, a warm body scrub, and a harmonious dual massage, ending with a head and foot massage performed simultaneously. I left the room relaxed and simultaneously energized, with fragrant skin to boot.
The Triple Vitality two-hour massage includes Shiatsu and Tui Na techniques which uses stretching, jostling, range of motion and meridian stimulation to energize the body. For the busier types, the New England Retreat also provides two hours of full body exfoliation to prepare for a massage that focuses on the upper back, eye strain, leg circulation, and “those overused Blackberry muscles,” reads the Spa brochure.
Suite experiences, at three hours or more, offer a 700-square-foot “private spa oasis” with a private vitality tub, stone sauna, two treatment tables, and a day-bed for relaxation. It’s designed for two guests to enjoy a time ritual or signature treatment of choice, with an hour of relaxation time. For couples, two therapists provide simultaneous treatments personalized for each guests needs.
Other services include specialty treatments for expectant mothers and new mothers, leg and foot refreshers, body wraps with names like “definite detox,” “rose indulgence,” and “de-stress mind”. Several water-based therapies include an aqua ritual with body exfoliation, vichy shower, aromatic hydrotherapy bath, and massage. They offer salt scrubs, coffee-and-frankincense scrubs, facials, and manicure/pedicures. Half-and full-day services are also available with various treatments and lunch.
I received a two-hour massage on a heated table that began with a foot bath, and included a combination of Swedish, Shiatsu, Tui Na, and other massage techniques to address the stress in my upper back and neck. The therapist, Samantha, got up on the table at times to twist, bend and flex my body to improve circulation, release tension, and energize me. She wrapped my body in long scarves to apply gentle pressure, and worked to unblock my three chakras. I left feeling refreshed and energized, although we both agreed the crick in my neck would require a few more sessions.
Samantha then escorted me back to the relaxation lounge for tea, and noted I could go to the Spa Café for light meals.
The nearby fitness center will feature personal trainers and attendants to guide guests using the Technogym equipment and the personal Kinesis Wall.
For those doing yoga, lululemon, a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company, also just opened in the hotel. Lululemon athletica is a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company using technical fabrics and functional designs created with feedback from yogis and athletes. This is lululemon’s first full-size retail store in Boston.
The Mandarin Oriental will also round out its retail division with the Thanksgiving arrival of Gucci.
Back Bay Sun
Every detail in the just-opened Spas at Mandarin Oriental is designed to promote wellness, which they define as focusing on physical, emotional and mental well being. Surfaces are strewn with fuschia philinopsis orchids, a waterfall bubbles pleasantly, the lights are low, the music is soft and pleasant.
Upon my arrival, the ritual immediately begins. Concierges lead me to a cushy bench, take my shoes to complete the transformation of leaving the external world behind, and give me spa slippers, an aromatic hand towel to clean my hands, and a cup of its signature peppermint tea to help me enter a more peaceful zone.
Guests get a locker filled with toiletry products, a fine robe from Frette, and nearby are hair styling supplies and hair dryer. At a supply station, bottles of water and huge soft towels are readily available.
Inside, the spa’s rooms feature bamboo flooring except in the wet area, where they are slate, three-dimensional artwork and glass tiles, and golden-hued anegre wood throughout.
There’s an option of rinsing off in an aromatic “Experience” shower with names like Artic Ice and Tropical Mist, with multiple water jets and a waterfall-like showerhead, but I found the water far too cold to enjoy my experience. After a brief rinse in the shower – which was equally lukewarm at best, even when cranked all the way to hot - I warmed up in the large hot tub, followed by the color therapy Crystal steam room. The steam, thick enough to obscure anything beyond a few inches away, was tinted with mood-shifting lighting that changed colors and created an almost surreal experience, like living in a watercolor painting. To cool off, clients can scoop up some shaved ice just outside the steam room.
While awaiting my massage appointment, I enjoyed fresh fruit and nuts while relaxing on one of the lounges, which feature privacy curtains, current magazines and a spa menu.
Holistic services are hosted in nine treatment areas that feature natural light, some with private showers, a hydrotherapy room and two specialty suites. Treatments are personalized, depending on a discussion between the guest and the concierge. “The traveler who has just deplaned from an international flight would benefit from a different treatment than the person who has so much on their mind that they are not spleeping well,” explained Sharon Holtz, Mandarin Boston’s director of spa.
Treatments include “Time rituals,” a two-hour or more treatment designed to “restore your natural state of equilibrium,” with a customized treatment that begins with feet cleansing and a tiny bell.
The Oriental Harmony Signature Experience, at two hours, provides four hands working in unison to provide a foot bath, a warm body scrub, and a harmonious dual massage, ending with a head and foot massage performed simultaneously. I left the room relaxed and simultaneously energized, with fragrant skin to boot.
The Triple Vitality two-hour massage includes Shiatsu and Tui Na techniques which uses stretching, jostling, range of motion and meridian stimulation to energize the body. For the busier types, the New England Retreat also provides two hours of full body exfoliation to prepare for a massage that focuses on the upper back, eye strain, leg circulation, and “those overused Blackberry muscles,” reads the Spa brochure.
Suite experiences, at three hours or more, offer a 700-square-foot “private spa oasis” with a private vitality tub, stone sauna, two treatment tables, and a day-bed for relaxation. It’s designed for two guests to enjoy a time ritual or signature treatment of choice, with an hour of relaxation time. For couples, two therapists provide simultaneous treatments personalized for each guests needs.
Other services include specialty treatments for expectant mothers and new mothers, leg and foot refreshers, body wraps with names like “definite detox,” “rose indulgence,” and “de-stress mind”. Several water-based therapies include an aqua ritual with body exfoliation, vichy shower, aromatic hydrotherapy bath, and massage. They offer salt scrubs, coffee-and-frankincense scrubs, facials, and manicure/pedicures. Half-and full-day services are also available with various treatments and lunch.
I received a two-hour massage on a heated table that began with a foot bath, and included a combination of Swedish, Shiatsu, Tui Na, and other massage techniques to address the stress in my upper back and neck. The therapist, Samantha, got up on the table at times to twist, bend and flex my body to improve circulation, release tension, and energize me. She wrapped my body in long scarves to apply gentle pressure, and worked to unblock my three chakras. I left feeling refreshed and energized, although we both agreed the crick in my neck would require a few more sessions.
Samantha then escorted me back to the relaxation lounge for tea, and noted I could go to the Spa Café for light meals.
The nearby fitness center will feature personal trainers and attendants to guide guests using the Technogym equipment and the personal Kinesis Wall.
For those doing yoga, lululemon, a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company, also just opened in the hotel. Lululemon athletica is a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company using technical fabrics and functional designs created with feedback from yogis and athletes. This is lululemon’s first full-size retail store in Boston.
The Mandarin Oriental will also round out its retail division with the Thanksgiving arrival of Gucci.
Downtown neighborhoods come to life on Halloween
by Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times/Back Bay Sun
Who needs Salem, what with its violence and throngs of tourists and bar scene? Let the college kids get drunk there. Little kids dressed as Ninjas and Star Wars characters and princesses and super heroes roamed the Hill and the Back Bay for their trick-or-treating thrills. More importantly, the neighborhoods get one last block party before the winter closes doors, and people go into hibernation mode.
Halloween wasn’t always drawing the families around here. Longtime residents recall years ago, when it was literally a ghost town for trick-or-treaters.
Former Marlborough Street and Beacon Hill resident Julie Jones recalled the 1980s, even to the mid-90s, since she lived on the Hill in 1982, and Back Bay in 1996, she has watched the holiday change. Of the 1980s, she said, “It was quiet, like a treasure hunt to find homes giving out candy. There wasn’t very much action.”
In the Back Bay, there was the Clarendon Street Playground and about 20 addresses listed as candy stops, plus a hayride. Beacon Hill was a lot quieter.
Actually, she and others noted that life on the Hill was a little scary in other ways, too, citing muggings and other suspicious characters that had many frightened to venture out at night. “It was dangerous and creepy,” she said.
But more families are moving to the city, as part of the downtown’s new attractiveness to young professionals, who, in turn, are choosing not to leave town when they begin having families. College students have been blamed for many things, but one thing they have brought is a safer neighborhood, many residents say.
Jones has watched the demographics shift. Over the years, when she opened her doors to trick-or-treaters, she’d watch the same girls come by, growing from toddlers to junior high students, and then high schoolers coming with their boyfriends.
You see people of all ages with kids, or their dogs, looking to reconnect with familiar faces. It’s yet another reminder that these neighborhoods are a tight unit of people looking out for one another and their kids, and not the typical Boston neighborhood of people too anxious or busy to get to know the person next door.
Halloween night begins at 4 p.m., with the little kids roaming the streets. By 6 or 7 p.m., mobs of kids and their families flood the doorways along the sections of Marlborough Street closed to traffic, and navigate tiny Beacon Hill streets. Neighbors run into friends they haven’t seen for awhile, catching up with each other in a place different from the schoolyard or playdates. Former residents visit to catch up with old friends. By eight o’clock, you start noticing some college kids poking around curiously, warming up for their revels elsewhere, and by 9 p.m., all is quiet.
The list of safe houses, as handed out by the Friends of the Clarendon Street Playground, as part of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, listed 22 Marlborough Street addresses, from 74 to 322 Marlborough, three on Commonwealth Avenue, and four others, on Clarendon, Dartmouth and Exeter. That didn’t stop others who didn’t submit their addresses on time to open up their doors and set out a candy bowl, either attended or on the honor system, watched by glowing pumpkins.
Several residents opened their doors and invited guests into the hallway for a glass of wine or cider. Neighbors gathered on stoops, wine glasses in hand, to socialize with each other and with families that stopped by. You don’t see this in places like Halloween Central over in Salem, or in surrounding communities. You don’t see regular-size candy bars handed out in too many spots, as you do here.
Tiny cobblestoned Acorn Street was wall-to-wall with costumed tykes and their families.
Edwin Prien and Dain Waters of 1 Acorn St. reported going through 10 huge bags of BJ’s candy. “It was slow in the beginning,” said Waters, who reported children’s costumes this year were more creative than ever. “There’s been more Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz and less Harry Potter,” Waters added.
“We get an overwhelming number of adorable kids,” said Debb Diggins of 12 Acorn St. Her dad, Con Coleman, came over to help her out, and for the excitement, he said, since they don’t get many kids where he lives on Commonwealth Avenue.
“It’s so much fun, year after year,” said James Houghton, who with Connie Coburn of 4 Acorn Street gave out bags and bags of candy. “It’s the highlight of the year.”
Lines formed to enter a Chestnut Street courtyard, where Al Holman and his brother-in-law took advantage of the gothic ivy-covered theme and camped it up with flying ghosts, a 3-D scary face, a witch, coffins and cobwebs. Dozens of other Beacon Hill doorways just needed a few touches to enhance the natural spookiness of webbed archways and ironwork grills. Halloween is a natural here.
Will Norse, who formerly lived on Marlborough Street before moving to Coolidge Corner, came to visit his friends on Beacon Hill who alternated with their own bash and decorating their stoop with a talking skeleton in a top hat and other spooky details. “It started out small, and it keeps growing,” he said. “It’s a native New England holiday. I had a friend from San Diego fly in for it. They don’t get it there.”
Norse noted since families have begun settling along the Hill, they are committed to making this a family community. Plus, he noted, “They’re staying in apartments that are far too small, so they look for any opportunity to roam the neighborhood.”
Jones actually traveled all the way from her new home in Jamaica so her now college-age son could experience Halloween on the hill again.
“It’s like Disney World now. It’s little scenarios that are being created in the streets, on doorsteps, and in hallways. Sometimes they’re cheerful, sometimes dark. Disney would give its right hand to have this,” she said.
Beacon Hill Times/Back Bay Sun
Who needs Salem, what with its violence and throngs of tourists and bar scene? Let the college kids get drunk there. Little kids dressed as Ninjas and Star Wars characters and princesses and super heroes roamed the Hill and the Back Bay for their trick-or-treating thrills. More importantly, the neighborhoods get one last block party before the winter closes doors, and people go into hibernation mode.
Halloween wasn’t always drawing the families around here. Longtime residents recall years ago, when it was literally a ghost town for trick-or-treaters.
Former Marlborough Street and Beacon Hill resident Julie Jones recalled the 1980s, even to the mid-90s, since she lived on the Hill in 1982, and Back Bay in 1996, she has watched the holiday change. Of the 1980s, she said, “It was quiet, like a treasure hunt to find homes giving out candy. There wasn’t very much action.”
In the Back Bay, there was the Clarendon Street Playground and about 20 addresses listed as candy stops, plus a hayride. Beacon Hill was a lot quieter.
Actually, she and others noted that life on the Hill was a little scary in other ways, too, citing muggings and other suspicious characters that had many frightened to venture out at night. “It was dangerous and creepy,” she said.
But more families are moving to the city, as part of the downtown’s new attractiveness to young professionals, who, in turn, are choosing not to leave town when they begin having families. College students have been blamed for many things, but one thing they have brought is a safer neighborhood, many residents say.
Jones has watched the demographics shift. Over the years, when she opened her doors to trick-or-treaters, she’d watch the same girls come by, growing from toddlers to junior high students, and then high schoolers coming with their boyfriends.
You see people of all ages with kids, or their dogs, looking to reconnect with familiar faces. It’s yet another reminder that these neighborhoods are a tight unit of people looking out for one another and their kids, and not the typical Boston neighborhood of people too anxious or busy to get to know the person next door.
Halloween night begins at 4 p.m., with the little kids roaming the streets. By 6 or 7 p.m., mobs of kids and their families flood the doorways along the sections of Marlborough Street closed to traffic, and navigate tiny Beacon Hill streets. Neighbors run into friends they haven’t seen for awhile, catching up with each other in a place different from the schoolyard or playdates. Former residents visit to catch up with old friends. By eight o’clock, you start noticing some college kids poking around curiously, warming up for their revels elsewhere, and by 9 p.m., all is quiet.
The list of safe houses, as handed out by the Friends of the Clarendon Street Playground, as part of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, listed 22 Marlborough Street addresses, from 74 to 322 Marlborough, three on Commonwealth Avenue, and four others, on Clarendon, Dartmouth and Exeter. That didn’t stop others who didn’t submit their addresses on time to open up their doors and set out a candy bowl, either attended or on the honor system, watched by glowing pumpkins.
Several residents opened their doors and invited guests into the hallway for a glass of wine or cider. Neighbors gathered on stoops, wine glasses in hand, to socialize with each other and with families that stopped by. You don’t see this in places like Halloween Central over in Salem, or in surrounding communities. You don’t see regular-size candy bars handed out in too many spots, as you do here.
Tiny cobblestoned Acorn Street was wall-to-wall with costumed tykes and their families.
Edwin Prien and Dain Waters of 1 Acorn St. reported going through 10 huge bags of BJ’s candy. “It was slow in the beginning,” said Waters, who reported children’s costumes this year were more creative than ever. “There’s been more Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz and less Harry Potter,” Waters added.
“We get an overwhelming number of adorable kids,” said Debb Diggins of 12 Acorn St. Her dad, Con Coleman, came over to help her out, and for the excitement, he said, since they don’t get many kids where he lives on Commonwealth Avenue.
“It’s so much fun, year after year,” said James Houghton, who with Connie Coburn of 4 Acorn Street gave out bags and bags of candy. “It’s the highlight of the year.”
Lines formed to enter a Chestnut Street courtyard, where Al Holman and his brother-in-law took advantage of the gothic ivy-covered theme and camped it up with flying ghosts, a 3-D scary face, a witch, coffins and cobwebs. Dozens of other Beacon Hill doorways just needed a few touches to enhance the natural spookiness of webbed archways and ironwork grills. Halloween is a natural here.
Will Norse, who formerly lived on Marlborough Street before moving to Coolidge Corner, came to visit his friends on Beacon Hill who alternated with their own bash and decorating their stoop with a talking skeleton in a top hat and other spooky details. “It started out small, and it keeps growing,” he said. “It’s a native New England holiday. I had a friend from San Diego fly in for it. They don’t get it there.”
Norse noted since families have begun settling along the Hill, they are committed to making this a family community. Plus, he noted, “They’re staying in apartments that are far too small, so they look for any opportunity to roam the neighborhood.”
Jones actually traveled all the way from her new home in Jamaica so her now college-age son could experience Halloween on the hill again.
“It’s like Disney World now. It’s little scenarios that are being created in the streets, on doorsteps, and in hallways. Sometimes they’re cheerful, sometimes dark. Disney would give its right hand to have this,” she said.
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