🍹 We ate. We drank. We conquered.

Happy Friday, Boston!

🌳 It’s also Arbor Day! Get out there and hug a tree. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• A big breathalyzer ruling

• Boston Calling food

• Look at that fish!

Up first...

B-SIDE CERTIFIED

Eat. Drink. Do. 

Welcome to the first edition of B-Side Certified, a quarterly round up of our favorite bites, sips, and experiences we think you’ll enjoy, too. To kick off the weekend, here are some of our picks from the last few months:

FOOD

🥞 The sweet potato pancakes from Deluxe Town Diner. A 10-minute ride on the 71 bus from Harvard is the only thing separating you from some of the best pancakes in the area. This Watertown institution has been serving the community since 1947. And while it looks like your textbook retro diner on the outside, its CVS-receipt length menu showcases a series of fun and elevated twists on the classics, including these pancakes. The sweet potato stack is the love child of a spice cake and a pancake; it’s light, fluffy, spicy, and sweet enough. 

DRINK

🍸 The Senator Line from La Bodega. I really had to resist gate-keeping this one. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Watertown is a tapas-style restaurant with Uruguayan roots. Half the dining space is a 1950s train car called “The Senator Line,” which once shuttled politicians between D.C. and Boston. “When you have a big train car, you need to create a cocktail to honor it,” said chef-owner Gabriel Bremer. And he did that by making sure the drink had plenty of whisky and smoke. This bourbon-based cocktail with notes of vanilla and orange is smooth, a little sweet, and smoky. Plus, the presentation makes your table smell like a campfire.

THINGS TO DO

🛍️ Spend an afternoon at the Brighton Bazaar. This pop-up artisan market has an array of vendors at their monthly Sunday Markets and Thursday Night Markets with something for nearly everyone. From vintage pieces to vinyls to local crafters selling their work, you could spend a lifetime just looking around. Plus, if you get hungry while you shop, they usually have food vendors ready to serve stellar eats. Their next market is on May 7 at the Brighton Elks Lodge and has 100 local businesses and makers (yes, 100!). 

👀 Need to see it to believe it? Here’s a video highlighting some of our picks (they look just as good as they sound).

Want access to the full B-Side Certified list? Refer one friend to this email and you’ll get it in your inbox!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

👨‍⚖️ Almost eight years of breathalyzer tests get thrown out. The Mass. Supreme Judicial Court ruled Wednesday that tests taken on a faulty breathalyzer between June 2011 and April 2019 can’t be used in drunk-driving cases. The SJC found that State Police withheld information about how widespread the problem was, causing them to rule that years of Alcotest 9510 breath tests can’t be used as evidence. This ruling calls 27,000 convictions into question, but the cases aren’t automatically thrown out. People who used the tests will need to request new trials to try and get their convictions overturned. 

⚠️ Tent enforcement returns to Mass. and Cass. Mayor Wu’s office is asking people living in tents and makeshift shelters around Mass. and Cass. to voluntarily move to shelters and addiction treatment centers ahead of May 1. The city will remove structures and begin enforcement measures after that deadline. A similar tent encampment enforcement rule was put in place last January, and the tents eventually returned. The city decided not to clear the tents this winter, opting to allow unhoused people to stay through the cold months. 

☘️ The Celtics move on up! After a 128-120 win over the Atlanta Hawks last night, the C’s are advancing to Round 2 of the NBA playoffs. Next, the No. 2 seed Celtics will go up against the No. 3 seed Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Monday night. They’ll face a rested Philadelphia, who haven't played since they clinched their series against the Brooklyn Nets on April 22. Let’s hope the Bruins can also wrap their series in Game 6 against the Panthers tonight.

🌮 The Boston Calling food lineup just dropped. The list of vendors this year includes 10 newcomers. Flour Bakery + Cafe from James Beard award winner Joanne Chang will join the festival this year, along with local chain Blackbird Doughnuts, Lily P’s Fried Chicken, and Dumpling Daughter. Returning eateries include local favorites Jaju Pierogi, Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese, and Smoke Shop BBQ. And, yes, Smoke Shop is bringing back its BBQ cone filled with burnt ends, mac and cheese, pit beans, coleslaw, and pickled jalapeños.

THINGS TO DO

Weekend plans

💐 Take in the flowers at the Art in Bloom Festival at MFA.  

🍺 Sip on the best local brews at the Massachusetts Craft Brewers Festival. 

🕺 Groove along to the Red Bull Dance Your Style competition at City Hall Plaza. The winner will move on to the National Championship in Chicago.  

🇬🇭 Spend ‘An Evening in Ghana’ at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury.

🥑 Duke it out at the 8th annual GUAC OFF  from The Painted Burro. Throw your recipe in the ring, or just eat competitors and vote for your fave.

ONE LAST THING

Look at that fish!

There’s always a Mass. connection: The mega-viral ‘If I were a fish’ song was co-written by a Berklee grad. 

If you’re on TikTok, you’ve definitely heard the folksy earworm by Corinne Savage (who sings under the name corook) and their partner, Olivia Barton. The song with simple lyrics like “If I were a fish, and you caught me, you’d say ‘Look at that fish,’ shimmering in the sun, such a rare one, can’t believe that you caught one,” has been viewed 14.5 million times, duetted by other artists, and sung by school groups. The duo wrote the upbeat song after people left some nasty comments on a TikTok made by Savage and they needed a pick-me-up tune. The simple ditty is now a full-length song available on music streaming platforms. 

Savage graduated from Berklee in 2017 and now lives in Nashville. One of their former professors told the Globe that they weren’t surprised that Savage made a hit song, calling them an “unforgettable student.”

🐠 Thanks for reading! This song has been stuck in my head for DAYS. 

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