Stuff Boston

Warming trends

Rising stars: Local talents shine bright

In an era when “entertainment” often means an evening spent sofa-bound in front of some illicitly downloaded BitTorrent blockbuster, Boston’s performing arts scene finds itself struggling to fill seats, fighting against a collective couch potato epidemic and an economy that’s left many would-be patrons strapped for extracurricular cash. But the city still teems with stellar talent, and the standouts of the local sphere aren’t necessarily those with the most well-known names; they’re the risk takers, the workhorses, the young visionaries who straddle the chasm that separates neophyte from superstar and who are fated for a life in the limelight. Boston is blessed by its diverse community of comedians and actors, dancers and musicians — performers of all crafts, all shapes and sizes, and all permutations of artistic perspective. We’ve selected a few of our favorites, not only because they serve as representatives of the creative masses who expand the minds and satisfy the souls of this city, but because we truly believe that these artists are the ones to watch, the ones who are primed for professional lift-off. Though we know they have many more ahead of them, we’re thrilled to give them this well-deserved moment in the spotlight.

BY SARA FAITH ALTERMAN, CHRIS FARAONE, JACQUELINE HOUTON, ERIN SOUZA, AND LIZA WEISSTUCH. PHOTOS BY IAN BARNARD.

>>click here for slideshow<<

Covering your assets

 
It’s easy to give yourself a panic attack over the current economic catastrophe. The stock market is pinballing, the housing market is clinging for dear life to a pecuniary crag, and jobs are being slashed like victims in a 1980s B movie. To make matters worse, financial talking heads are forever going on TV to flap their yaps about what you should do to deal with this mess. But how can anyone (without a top-tier MBA) make sense of their advice, for all the technical jargon? We decided to round up an expert of our own — Dave Gallacher, Director of Global Portfolio Services at Citizens Bank — to help you make savvy decisions about what to do with your cold, hard cash. What’s left of it, anyway.

The good life?

 Now might just be the time to indulge your champagne taste

Spring Fashion: Unwrapped

Get out of the cold and into the bold with spring fashion's bright colors

Photographed by Ian Travis Barnard | Directed by Mike Diskin | Produced by Erica Corsano | Styled by Liana Peterson | Hair by Maria Nieves of Bradley and Diegel Salon | Makeup by Dani Wagener of Shu Uemura | Model, Megan of The Model Club Boston | Stylist’s assistant, Kristina Weljkovic | Photography assistants, Chris Sanchez and Joe Phommasith | Location scout, Michael Johnson

>> click here for slideshow <<

Spring Fashion: Retro Renewal

Look to fashion flashbacks to weatherproof your wardrobe during this economic storm

Spring is all about renewal. But since a closet full of new clothing isn’t in the cards for most of us cash-strapped shoppers, spring is also a time to get creative. Fashion, like the changing seasons, is cyclical. Translation: used, throwback pieces can make powerful comebacks when paired with modern accessories. In that vein, we asked a few independent vintage and consignment havens — Café Society, The Closet, and Dame — to take cues from the spring 2009 runways. The results? Recycled clothes become easily wearable, on-trend wardrobe staples that fit into a recession-ravaged budget. In tough economic times, vintage finds a new voice.

>>Click here for slideshow<<

Leftovers: Testing the enduring appeal of some of Boston’s old-school dining favorites

Photos by Mitch Weiss 

Ever been out to dinner and asked yourself, “Damn, is this the hottest restaurant in town right now?” The signs are obvious. Weekend prime-time reservations are like gold. The bar is four-deep with walk-ins waiting an hour-plus for a table. There’s excitement in the air, in your glass, on the plate. You spot a local celebrity or two. You can’t wait to tell your friends how amazing it is. You’re at an “It Place” all right.

Of course, seasoned observers know It Places don’t stay that way for long. Most have their moment in the sun and quickly fade. The crowd that makes it their obsessive business to patronize only the freshest of the fresh has a short attention span — after a few months, it grows bored and moves on, anointing another darling du jour. Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish-and-chips wrapper.

Boston’s restaurant landscape is pocked with craters from meteoric stars that flared briefly before crashing to earth — like Excelsior, a former Back Bay hotspot that abruptly shut down last month. The current economic freefall is partly to blame: many high-end restaurants are struggling to survive the drastic shrinkage in business entertaining.

So how is it that certain former It Places — restaurants whose bright, shining moments passed years before Excelsior’s — manage to survive despite the imploding economy? Trend-conscious locals may dismiss them with a “pfah, that place started sliding 10 years ago” or “oh, I guess we loved it as kids when our grandparents took us there.” But they’re still packing in the customers. One theory is that today’s patrons of faded It Places are naïfs who’ve been sold a bill of goods: clueless tourists following their hotel-room dining guides or business travelers steered by graft-collecting concierges.

But what if the conventional wisdom is wrong? Could these superannuated superstars still have something worthwhile to offer? How fun would it be to convince your food-snob friend that a restaurant she derides as a passé tourist trap is in fact a hidden gem? I decided to test this contrarian idea by revisiting a few restaurants that are still popular, despite not having been “hot” since at least the arrival of PlayStation 2.

>>Click here to read on<< 

Desserted: Why don't pastry chefs get more respect?

Photos by: Ian Barnard

Think of it: those dazzling, intricate, sinful, crave-able desserts are fashioned from a handful of relatively unglamorous ingredients — sugar, butter, flour, chocolate, cream, some nuts, a bowl or two of fruits and berries, a sprinkle of spice. Not much room to hide. A little imagination meets a cup of sugar. Every single day, in all the restaurants of the world, working in tiny, chilly, quiet spaces, perfectionist pastry chefs are working chemical miracles, methodically measuring cups and teaspoons of boring, unadorned, “stuff.” It’s sweet alchemy — chemistry and creativity melding into a truffle, a ramekin, a tart. Unlike the “serious” part of the meal, dessert is fantasy, reward. The silkiness of the crème brûlée, the chocolate on the tip of your tongue, on your breath. But how much do we amateurs know about pastry chefs? Can you name one, or two? Why don’t pastry chefs get more respect?

>>Click here to read on<< 

Putting on a Show

Photographed and co-directed by Michael Diskin

Produced and co-directed by Erica Corsano
Styled by Liana Peterson
Models: Alanna and Renatta, Maggie, Inc.
Make-up: Robin Powers and Brian Brady, G20 Spa and Salon
Hair: Brady Brumfield and Alexander Maud, G20 Spa and Salon

Photoshoot location - The Beehive | 541 Tremont Street | Boston

Do Bostonians know how to flirt?

A look at the Hub’s dating game

If I had a buck for every time I heard a friend, family member, or colleague gripe about Boston’s crappy dating scene, I’d probably be one of the wealthiest writers in the biz. Though I’m in a committed relationship, I’ve often found myself observing my single friends’ behavior, like an anthropologist doing field research. I stand back, drink in hand, and watch.

I’ve closely studied these interactions, searching for clues that could shed light on this local quandary. The sad hypothesis? Bostonians, on the whole, are bad at flirting. In fact, a Match.com survey of more than 2000 of its members ranked Boston dead last in a list of the nation’s most flirtatious cities.

Drink it! We did.

Stressed? We are too. The holiday season tends to fellate our motivation, sucking our cache of energy bone dry. Here at Stuff@Night, the pressures to give you a stellar cocktail issue were dog piled on top of the usual Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year’s freakout bonanzas and, frankly, all we could think about by January was getting soused.

So, we did.

And goddamn if we didn’t deserve it.

We noticed, in our quest to saturate our overworked brains with booze, that our tastes run a broad flavor gamut. Editorial director Erica Corsano adores the bubbly; staff writer Erin Souza likes it fruity or dirty or a little bit of both; creative director/lover-not-fighter Mike Diskin is obsessed with any and all things chain restaurant. And me? As the Liquid columnist who, to be honest, still learns as she goes, I like a little bit of everything, though I am currently harboring a night and day obsession with St. Germain and whiskey. Not together. Gross.

This variety, we noticed, gave us a hell of a range for a list of favorites, which we proudly, and drunkenly, present to you. Are they, drop for drop, the best libations in town, by cocktail elitist standards? Some of them. The rest range from simple pleasures to those creamy, dreamy dessert drinks that wouldn’t make the cut behind the bar at a Newbury Street trend vortex but are fantastically satisfying nonetheless, illustrating once and for all that just because it wasn’t created by a “master mixologist” doesn’t mean it sucks.

Boston’s little-of-this, little-of-that bar scene is an asset to its diverse population of drinkers, and we hope that this list of our alcoholic superlatives pays tribute to the local flavors, and the mad scientist bartenders who love to play around with them.

>>Click here for the slideshow<<

Bodies by Boston

>>Click here for the Bodies by Boston slideshow<< 

Our third-annual lowdown on the city’s highest-ranking bodies

Boston may be home to the baked bean, the Fenway frank, and the eponymous cream pie, but that doesn’t stop the people on these pages from tweaking their physiques. Among the 22 figures we’ve included in our tribute to the Boston bod are, of course, people who are paid to stay svelte: trainers, athletes, and one fiercely fit ultimate fighter. But we also highlight those in myriad other professions, from tax attorneys to hospital administrators to restaurateurs. So sit back, peel off the winter-weather layers, and celebrate bodies that are strong, resilient, and finely tuned. What’s hotter than that?

PHOTOS BY TIM GRAY

The Great Escape

Let fashion take you away

Photographed by Mitch Weiss • Directed by Michael Diskin • Styled and produced by Erica Corsano
Model: Leah of Maggie, Inc. • Makeup by Dani Wagener of Shu Uemura
Hair by Allison of Mizu • Fashion assistant: David Sebastien Wedemeyer

STORES:
Barneys New York, Copley Place, 100 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 617.385.3300
Saks Fifth Avenue, 786 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.262.8500
Stel’s, 334 Newbury Street, Boston, 617.262.3348
Twilight, 12 Fleet Street, Boston, 617.523.8008

>>Click here for the slideshow<< 

Forward Thinking

Local experts make their fashion, food, nightlife, and beauty predictions for 2009

In a world in which the items on the “It” lists move faster than the lines you stand in to get them, it can be tough to keep up. So we called in some of Boston’s
style, beauty, fitness, and culinary authorities to predict what we’ll be wearing, tasting, hearing, and slathering on in 2009. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

>>Click here for the Foward Thinking slideshow<< 

Current Events

In tough economic times, turn your over-the-top holiday bash into something more reasonable — without sparing the staples

We hate to be the Grinch who stole your holiday hope, but we have to be honest: in a time of economic uncertainty, you can be sure about one thing: ’tis the season to be frugal. But that doesn’t mean you have to forgo the festivities in lieu of a financial-woes pity party. We scoured the city for some cheap-but-chic party necessities, then checked in with events guru Bryan Rafanelli for pointers on how to make the most of what we found.

>>Click here to find out how to throw a party on any budget<<