Only four out of the five Trivia Ladies are able to make it into Boston, but we plod along anyway. Our plan: Lunch at Yankee Lobster. For those who come to Boston as tourists, let me tell you what not to do -- Don't bother with the Cheers bar, don't stand in long lines to eat at Jerry Remy's, try someplace other than Mike's Pastry, and don't eat at Legal Seafoods. These are all things you can do elsewhere, pretty much.
Here's what you should do in the city: Go local. If you go to a place that has a short line, chat with people who are around you. If you hear more Boston accents than out-of-towners, you've probably hit a local goldmine.
A couple of the women in my group are inside the inner circle of several local gems along the Waterfront. They know the best local bars, the best local roof decks, the best local shops, the best local parking lots (and how to get the parking validated so it's only a fraction of the cost of a regular spot), and they know the best restaurants.
The thing about Boston, like most cities, is that there's never any down-time. Weekends are full of tourists, and weekdays are full of tourists and workers. We pick Sunday and head in for noontime, attempting to beat some of the more aggressive, mid-afternoon patrons. Like most cities, parking can be crazy. Yankee Lobster has a small lot, almost hidden from view and tucked along a road that suddenly ends in a circle, whipping ignorant drivers back into the Waterfront fray like their cars are part of a carnival ride. We snag one of the spots (with a little finagling), and one of the ladies' daughters pulls up nearby and grabs another spot.
While we are in line to place our orders, locals arrive to pick up take-out. Sure, there are tourists from Colorado and various other interesting places, but when the locals come in, and when they are familiar enough with the menu to grab and run, it's always a good sign. The women with me are regulars here, so we get a little VIP treatment - I feel like I'm dining with celebrities simply because we prefer patronizing a small, family-owned, family-operated business as opposed to being faceless in a crowd waiting hours in the hot sun on the pavement for a seat at a big-name sports place around the corner.
The food is great, the service even better. After eating our meals, we decide to take a quick walk along the water. Before we do this, we should probably hit the bathrooms. The bathrooms are located in the back of the restaurant right alongside the kitchen, not dangerously close like cross-contamination, but close enough to smell the kitchen. We are standing in the hallway, waiting for the single-seater toilets to open up, and we are smack between the fish case out front, the kitchen beside us, and the retail fish counter behind us.
Are there other good seafood restaurants in the city? Undoubtedly there are. Are there tourist trap seafood restaurants nearby? Absolutely. We can almost see one from the street except that the new buildings springing up in the last few weeks have turned the once open view into a more urban jungle of high-rises jockeying for the ocean view.
Right now, right here, we are not just buying local, we have become local. We have become family to this place for the time we're here. I look at the tourists who've found this place on their own, and they are treated like family, too. So, if you come to Boston, you don't have to do what I do nor go where I go, but if you really want to get the best out of our city, remember: Local. Listen for the natives, watch the natives, follow the natives. You will find things most tourists won't -- You'll find Boston, and Boston, in turn, will find you.
