MINI GUIDE
Food and drink in Boston
COMPILED BY LORNA PARKES, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MARA VORHEES. PHOTOGRAPHS: SEBASTIAN WESSEL/500PX, WAYNE E CHINNOCK, ALAN MEDVINSKY PHOTOGRAPHY, LANE TURNER/THE BOSTON GLOBE/GETTY IMAGES, MICHAEL WESCHLER PHOTOGRAPHY, KEITH HOMAN/ALAMYBoston essentials The know-how
FURTHER READING
Lonely Planet’s
Boston (£13.99)
city guide and
Pocket Boston
(£7.99) have
you covered for
short or longer trips to the
city. Boston features in
Lonely Planet’s Guides
app, available for free on
app stores. Edible Boston
magazine celebrates the
city’s local food; its
website is helpful for
recipes and restaurant
reviews (edibleboston.
com). The Given Day
(£9.99; Black Swan) by
Dennis Lehane is a
suspense-filled novel
following two families
through post-WWI
Boston.BEANTOWN
Culinary historians believe that
Native Americans cooked beans
with bear meat and molasses in
earthenware pots. Early settlers
adapted this recipe by
substituting bear meat with
pork, resulting in the famed
Boston baked beans. Hence
Boston’s nickname, Beantown.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Despite the name, you’ll have
trouble finding baked beans on a
menu in Boston today. Look for
restaurants specialising in
old-fashioned cooking.
Durgin-Park This no-nonsense
all-American restaurant in
Faneuil Hall hasn’t changed
much since it opened in 1827
(arkrestaurants.com).
Union Oyster House The oldest
restaurant in Boston
has been serving
seafood in this
historic red-brick
building since 1826
(unionoyster
house.com).(kendallhotel.com; 350 Main St;
from £160).
Co-owned by an architect and
a set designer, Encore occupies
an arty 19th-century South End
townhouse. All four rooms have
a sitting area or private deck with
skyline views (encorebandb.com;
116 W Newton St; from £170).
It is with intended irony that
the notorious Charles Street Jail
(which once housed Malcolm X)
has been converted into the
elegant Liberty Hotel. Rooms
boast floor-to-ceiling windows
with views of the Charles River
and Beacon Hill (libertyhotel.
com; 215 Charles St; from £300).WHERE TO STAY
The Cambridge landmark in
which Kendall Hotel resides
was once the Engine 7 Firehouse,
now transformed into a cool,
classy all-American hotel.
There’s no scrimping at
breakfast and the on-site Black
Sheep restaurant is worth a visitTRANSPORT
Cathay Pacific offers a
comfortable route from
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to
Boston with only one stopover
in Hong Kong (from £683;
cathaypacific.com). From the
airport, the convenient, free
Silver Line express bus stops in
the Seaport District before
terminating at South Station,
or you can catch the subway
to downtown via a shuttle bus
(£2.20; mbta.com). Boston is a
wonderful walking or cycling
city, though most attractions are
accessible by subway (£1.80).
It’s a waterside city, so shuttle
boats are also part of the fun.The Liberty Hotel is housed in
the former Charles Street JailDrinking Eating Sleeping