my octopus friend

geometric dessert inspo

idk

I've never witnessed someone actually being kicked out of a restaurant, but if it were to happen anywhere - Boston feels wildly appropriate.

Let me set the scene.

I was pretending to be some mysterious woman in town, dining alone at the bar... in mom jeans, rec volleyball tee, and the cheap Target slides (that I picked up when I made a lunch run to Target to replace the shoes that literally broke on my walk to work). I was at Picco, which was down the street from my hotel that doesn't know if it's a hip hostel or upscale business stay, nibbling on a sausage, broccoli rabe, and olive pizza for one.

back in beantown

My one request from myself to myself was to get a lobster roll. 

Multiple people had recommended Alive and Kicking, which I most certainly was not after eating this sammich.

It's deceptively modest. Barely dressed lobster smushed between two slices of white bread all toasted in butter like a grilled cheese. Except that the lobster is spilling over. So unfussy in its execution, and I loved it more for that. Admittedly I did walk over 40min to get it, and I was charmed by its converted house-like storefront, tucked in a neighborhood behind some fences and boats that I almost didn't find it. But still my favorite lobster 'roll' in recent memory.

presentation

 

pitstop in beantown

I need to have this table in my dining room.

Sometimes things just fall into place. Like my super quick weekend in Boston.

the giraffe shirt

Begin: here, at Thelonious Monkfish (which I kept calling The Lioness Monkfish in my head... until literally just now when I looked it up) where we tried not to stare directly at the situation to my right that involved a shopping cart of donation clothes falling off the curb and leaving a long scratch down the side of the car that was questionably an Uber.

alumnus

My biggest faux pas was probably showing up in my Wisconsin spirit jersey.  

take me out, take me around

Show me your city.

So much talk later, Laura and I finally found each other somewhere between an Urban and an Origins.  Driven by our need to charge our phones and hide from the cold wind, we made ourselves comfortable in Nespresso, where we ordered the iced (me) and hot (her) version of the May drink of the month.  I would never have conceived of coffee and grapefruit... but it was life-changingly magical.  I think it's really the absurd amount of honey that ties it all together.

Trotted off to the mall to feed Laura's froyo addiction (to any future suitors of hers - snacktime is promptly at 4pm).

A short game of hide and seek around Copley Place later, I found Kev/Eric despite Laura's insistence that we should've stayed in place so they could come to us.  We made the drawn-out decision to cross the street to The Salty Pig where I hoped to find something light because of previous decisions.
"I thought it would be too close."
That is never a problem, sir.

At these places with page-long menus printed artistically on a sheet of off-white cardstock... where everything is between $9 and $21, the indecision is almost agonizing.  Can I just get a bite of every dish?  Please and thank you.  This is when I ask for the waiter's recommendation even though I choose the exact opposite about 80% of the time.  Our peppy waiter very eagerly suggested just about everything on the menu...actually, he suggested everything on the menu.  Helpful.  I went with the Octopus starter after he said it had been a recent popular one (I told you, I fall for that kind of thing).

With the chorizo and the potatoes and the olives and the sprig of celery.  Ahh love, so much love.  I can safely say...best octopus dish I've had to date.  There was just something about having the entire meaty tentacle, as opposed to thin slices or the baby pieces.
At the end of the meal, they give you the check in a little black book filled with messages from previous customers, which I thought was super clever and creative:

But because I'm not clever or creative, I just wrote a note to Ann regarding what we'll call "the graduation trip" to California (while Eric penned in Kevin's cell# inside the cover).

roadtripping

"Look Alfred, you'll have been to eight new states after this trip!"

We drove to Boston one weekend... because Dad's conference and family trip and saving money and I got really tired of explaining it.

"Amelia, you need to practice driving long distances."  AKA Dad wanted to sleep and play on his phone in the passenger seat.