📲🤤 A restaurant made for your FYP

❄️✨Here’s a good excuse to go outside: We’re dropping 10 free (!) tickets to Solstice at Mount Auburn Cemetery, one of the most magical holiday light shows around Boston. There will be stunning light and sound displays, a lantern walk, and live music.

👉 Want in? B-Side Members will get an email tomorrow between 9 and 10 a.m. where they can claim their ticket. Bonus: Even if you miss out, all other members get 10% off!

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

2025 may be winding down, but Boston’s restaurant scene sure isn’t. And the proof is in the pudding, a.k.a. Boston.com’s lineup of this month’s hottest restaurant openings. 

Here’s what’s worth a bite:

🍔 Cactus Club Cafe, Back Bay. Trendy Canadian chain Cactus Club Cafe has chosen Boston for its first-ever U.S. location, and we can safely say the TikTok baddies are going to go WILD. The aesthetic is mid-century modern chic, the menu has something for quite literally everyone (see: sushi, steak, salad, burgers, AND pasta), and the drink offerings are heavy on the spritzes, margs, and hand-crafted cocktails. Book a table Dec. 9 (opening day!) through 15 to get a $25 credit for your next visit.

Things to try:

🎵 Acapella by X, Dorchester. If you like your dinner with a side of ~culture~, this is the spot for you. The restaurant’s rotating lineup of live music and performances promises to be just as good as its tapas-style menu of dishes from around the world, from Chinese dumplings, to Spanish patatas bravas, and Mexican tacos. Bonus: It’s the perfect excuse to give your weddings-only dress another spin (they have a “dress to impress” policy). It’s open now.

Things to try:

🥑 Agavero Guac and Margs, Southie. Southie’s Mexican food scene is only getting bigger with this recent opening in the former Purple Shell space on Broadway. The restaurant’s 5,000+ square feet are bursting with colorful decor — including a literal tree in the middle — and a menu of street food-inspired dishes, like quesadillas, tacos, fajitas, and of course, guac and margs. Rumor has it, they’re dropping a nightly happy hour deal (which we assume involves food only). 

💋 My Girl, Downtown. Boston’s COJE Management Group (Caveau, Mr. H, Lolita Back Bay) is back at it again, transforming its luxe underground club, Mariel Underground, into … a new luxe underground club, My Girl. Like Mariel, My Girl will draw inspo from the glamour of 1950s Havana, with a Latin-inspired menu, a lineup of live music and performances, and absolutely STUNNING retro-glam decor. Just look at that bar! The menu and opening date are still TBD, but apparently, they’re eyeing early December. 

😋 Hungry for more? You can check out Boston.com’s entire list here.

🐾 ❤️‍🩹 Make your nice-list debut early this year: when you donate to Animal Rescue League between now and Dec. 2, your gift is matched dollar for dollar up to $200,490. Since ARL doesn’t receive any government funding, your generosity is what keeps pets safe, warm, fed, and cared for 365 days a year. Donate today and double the love, double the tail wags, and double the second chances.

🌨️ Our first winter storm is on the way! Come Tuesday, Boston could see its first measurable snowfall of the season … or a whole bunch of rain. As of Sunday evening, it’s too soon to tell exactly what’s coming our way, but the Globe’s lead meteorologist predicts Greater Boston will see somewhere between a coating and two inches of snow (also, rain), with up to six inches west of I-95. Of course, the weather is famously ever-changing, but we’d brace for a sloppy commute regardless. Keep up with the latest here.

🎁 We hope MBTA shutdowns are on your Christmas list. ‘Cause December’s gonna be full of them. The Orange Line will get one weekend shutdown from Dec. 5 to 6, but that’s just a stocking stuffer compared to the Green Line’s 15-day shutdown from Dec. 8 to 22. It’ll start at North Station and run to Babcock Street on the B branch, Kenmore on the C and D branches, and all the way to Heath Street on the E branch — basically the MBTA equivalent of a giant lump of coal. Here are the deets. 

☕ Priced out of your usual morning coffee? You’re not alone. Boston’s coffee prices have risen 36% this year, from $13.07 per pound in January to $17.79 in September thanks to a particularly brutal combo of tariffs, drought, and supply disruptions. If you’re not already plotting a switch to tea, compare that to the national average of just $9.14 per pound, basically half of Boston’s. Unsurprisingly, local coffee shops are feeling the heat: Thinking Cup has raised prices three times this year to keep up.

🥐 Want a box of FREE pastries? Enter: Flour Bakery & Cafe’s holiday window challenge! Step one: Head to all 10 of Greater Boston’s Flour Bakery & Cafe locations, and take a selfie at each one. Step two: Post said selfies on IG, tagging Flour, and shoot them an email with your IG handle. Step three: Claim your FREE box of pastries! You have until Jan. 1 to complete the challenge, but if you’re short on time, you can technically run the route as a half marathon — though its official race sold out in five minutes. Happy hunting!

🎄 Add some *sparkle* to your social calendar. From Comm. Ave. to Codman Square, there are enough holiday light ceremonies this week to choke a horse. Here’s one of the most comprehensive roundups we’ve seen.

🧀 Give your cheeseboard a glow up. This charcuterie board workshop on Dec. 2 will def do the trick. Paint, design, and craft two gorgina trays, just in time to show off at your holiday party.

🌝 Find a new lover under the moonlight. Out: Speed dating. In: This full moon singles walk through the park on Dec. 2 with Mighty Squirrel Brewing (followed by fun dating games!). 

🏒 Get loud for your fave women’s hockey squad. The Boston Fleet hit the ice at Agganis Arena on Dec. 3 for Women’s Empowerment Night. Yes, tickets are only ~$30. Yes, B-Side Members can get a sick discount (check your perks!). 

📚 Hit refresh on that TBR pile. Your reading list is called — it wants a makeover. Head to Trident's winter book swap on Dec. 4 to swap up to five old reads with something new.

🧑‍🎄 Say ho ho ho to a Southie small biz. The neighborhood’s annual Christmas stroll is happening Dec. 4, where Santa (!) will cruise through in a firetruck. And yes, there will be hot cocoa!

🎨 Start your holiday crafting engines. Need a card for mom? A cute ornament for the tree? DIY them both at Bow Market’s neighborly craft night on Dec. 4.

🍹 Prepare to sleigh. The Jingle Bar officially opens at PKL Boston on Dec. 4. Think: Mariah Carey, festive cocktails, and ugly sweaters galore. Grab tickets here before they disappear!

Enter to win a two night stay at The Mansion at Ocean Edge with an igloo experience for four people. To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on 12/02/2025. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

18+. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one entry per person. See Official Rules & an additional entry option here.

The Pru is getting LIT tonight. And every night for the rest of the year, thanks to its 17th annual 31 Nights of Light celebration. Every night this month, the Prudential Center will light up in different colors every night honoring 28 local nonprofits and three holidays.

Tonight, it’ll be red, blue, and white in honor of The Hoyt Foundation (shoutout Gia’s Boston Marathon charity team!), and tomorrow, it’ll be teal and purple for the New England Musicians Resource Fund. And that’s just the beginning. 

Over the month, we’ll see the Pru in pink, purple, orange, gold, and, our personal fave, rainbow on Dec. 9, which looks fabulous, BTW. 

Here’s the full list of lights!

— Written by Gia Orsino, Emily Schario, and Claire Nicholas

💡 Thanks for reading! Pink is definitely her color.

💜 Special shoutout to today's sponsor, Animal Rescue League of Boston, for supporting local journalism and helping every animal find a loving home.

🦃 The results are in: 32% of readers say turkey is the worst thanksgiving food. One B-Sider said: “As a certified Sides Girlie, turkey can stuff it.” Heard!

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].