Boston Coasters

See the city differently … like under your beer

By CHRISTINE LIU

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"Coasters are what started everything," Brian Beaucher says, his arms outstretched in his five-week-old store meticulously lined with Boston-emblazoned merch. "The idea just came out of the blue." Coasters and their smooth-surfaced brethren cleanly sport photos by area artists, including Mike Ritter and Saul Blumenthal, with strikingly familiar locales like MBTA signage, views of Fenway Park or an antique map of Jamaica Plain- -- even Cambridge's kitschy Mayflower Poultry "Live poultry, fresh killed" logo gets a mosaic tableau. Beaucher, founder of Boston Coasters and photographer, triumphantly opened the first retail outpost of a four-year business that steadily outgrew his basement, buoyed to popularity via regular appearances at local art festivals and open studios (as the renowned "coaster guys") while supplementing business through an online presence. With the store a reality, you may now fondle the inventory whenever- -- and however- -- you like.

In this tidy nook in Harvard Square, it's worth scouring for glimpses of your own neighborhood floating somewhere within the mix of snapshots. There be the coasters, adorably geometric in singles and sets; mugs and mouse pads are smartly stacked. Photographs are brilliantly reproduced on messenger and clutch bags, the ink indelible to the fabric (read: no cracking, peeling or fading) via dye-sublimation. "We can do one-offs of anything," explains Beaucher of the printing technology. "They're pressed by hand by trained artisans."

Journals resemble blank books fit snugly into covers which are removable, satiny and stitched with care. The elegant design allows you to swap Central Square for Kyoto Station, or plug a new blank book into the cover when the journal reaches capacity. (If only the brooding Bohemians at the store's downstairs neighbor, Café Pamplona, knew what charming vessels of note-taking pleasures lay above.)

Sheathes of protected antique map originals anchor one side of the store (part of the separate "family business" of WardMaps Brian runs with his brother), while vintage television knobs are reincarnated as magnets that beg for a hand-hold. Says Beaucher, "We like anything old."

But with its clever products and mission, this local business is, happily, onto something new.

[12 Bow St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 617.497.0737. bostoncoasters.com]