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Freewheelin' with the Dutch Bicycle Company
Spend any time with Dan Sorger and Maria Salve, the visionary husband-and-wife team behind the Dutch Bicycle company, and you can't help but feel a compulsion to hop on a bike and roll.
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The sweet beerafter
On the left wall of the recently opened Publick House Provisions specialty shop stands the wet dream of all those who have ever smuggled a pint glass from a bar under their jackets:
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Chewing the fat with Kevin Healy
I was introduced to Kevin Healy as one who loves freshly ground beef to the extent that he'll eat it raw, straight from grinder to mouth. "I don't know if I can legally recommend that, but it's the freshest taste you can ever get." O RLY? "The texture's great, smells fresh." He continues, "It tastes like you didn't cook all the flavor out of it." A little laugh follows that bit.
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Old, but never tired
Here's betting you don't have one decent safari-style leisure jacket in your closet. Luckily, the Boston Antiques Weekend has arrived just in time with enough historical ephemera and vintage clothing for everybody. Score some super rare glass or pottery art, or spice up your apartment with American period furniture. If you aren't a seasoned antique buyer, you can attend one of the various seminars dealing with all the ins and outs of the trade, from spotting a fake to restoring damaged cabinets. (Always useful.)
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Aroa Fine Chocolate arrives
"I have 6,000 pounds of chocolate in my office right now," confesses Alejandro Luna. Luckily, the profusion of fair trade El Rey Venezuelan single-bean origin chocolate is in good hands. I'm chatting with Luna, one of Boston's foremost dessert authorities, over the counter of his comfortable, yet ambitious, on-the-cusp-of-opening chocolaterie Aroa. Last seen as the Langham's executive pastry chef and genius behind the hotel's infamous Chocolate Bar (and to imagine it all started with baking cakes with his grandmother in Venezuela), Luna is ready to unleash his concept—an extensive wholesale business in addition to a European-style café serving petit gateaux, petits fours and plenty of chocolate—upon the streets.
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Oh, my God, shoes.
In what may be the next online shoe-centric phenomenon—in the fierce glitter-strewn aftermath of "let's get some shoes, betch"—Shoetube plants its well-shod toes firmly in the universe of shoes and its obsessed legions thereof.
The website (launched on February 14) takes the reins with short, snappy, strangely addictive video clips. The range stretches from words of wisdom via hardcore Oakland sneaker chicks to a veritable catfight between a leopard-print stiletto and blindingly metallic boot at the World Shoe Association tradeshow in Las Vegas.
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A Somerville square gets a little less so
It's about 15 degrees outside as I limp towards Grand's brand new storefront in Union Square, bracing against a wind that seems to come from all sides. But as I approach the all-glass facade, it's not just the thought of escaping the cold that quickens my pace. Even through the window, the store exudes a glow that's immediately inviting and comfortable. Its minimal display stands, clean gray concrete floor, and two-tone wall murals make you feel like you've just walked into an art gallery—or perhaps that Billyburg loft you've been drooling over in the pages of a glossy design mag.
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Smellementary, my dear
Most epiphanies don't necessarily begin with stinky tees, but for Eric Holzle, founder and president of ScientificMatch, they inspired a new futuristic platform for online dating. Watching educational television one night, the NEU-alum mechanical engineer learned about a curious scientific study. The report proved that women rated the most attractive-smelling shirts as those previously worn by men with the most different MHC profiles from them (MHC being six genetic reference points that define your immune system, equally contributed from both mother and father). The shirt-smelling test further correlated that MHC-dissimilar couples experience happier and healthier long-term relationships.
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Conquer bi-solar disorder
Admittedly I can be a bit cranky, sullen and lethargic at times, but I'd like to chalk that up to my highly fallible thresholds of patience year-round. Sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), however, are pretty much victim to the dearth of sunlight in the winter, especially in Boston where icy gray spells can fling someone into the emotional dark. Ergo: a sad, sleepy, Snickers-stuffing season.
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Saving the earth one pixel at a time
"It's a visualization of grassroots," explains Benjamin Brown of the virtual tree that shows how much impact my pals and I in aggregate have on the environment. With a click, I promise to eat locally grown foods 10 percent of the time; itty-bittily but surely, I've reduced our collective carbon footprint. W00t.
