🤑 Boston just got waaay cheaper

🥳 Welcome to your first-ever B-Side Guide! Buckle up for a weekly roundup of insider recs, essential reads, and other bits and bobs that will help you live your best Boston life. This newsletter is FOR YOU (our special members), so shoot us suggestions for other guides you’d like to see.

📝 Reminder: All B-Siders will get today’s membership email to get a little taste of what’s to come. But starting next Saturday, it’s members-only. You can sign up here!

What’s on tap today:

Up first…

One of the best parts of being a B-Side Member? Deals, baby, deals! We’ve teamed up with several local small businesses around Boston to help you experience your favorite city on the cheap. 

Don’t know where to start? Here are four itineraries using your B-Side discounts:

🧖 Sweat it out at the sauna. If you’re a dedicated reader, you already know how we feel about the Moki Sauna pop-up (it’s awesome). This weekend’s wintery weather is the perfect backdrop for an afternoon steam and cold plunge (and you’ll save 15%). 

🍻 Relax with a deeply discounted massage. You get $40 off your first massage at Squeeze Boston in Assembly Square. Each massage includes your choice of deep tissue, heat therapy, percussion therapy, and aromatherapy at no additional cost.

🚲 Take a FREE spin class. Rev’d Indoor Cycling is a B-Side fave: The music is bumpin’, classes are cheaper than other spin studios, and Rev’d is inclusive of all fitness levels. Lucky for you, your first session at the Copley Square studio is free.

☕ Grab a post-spin coffee and brekkie. Your B-Side membership saves you 20% on all food and bev purchases at Central Perk Coffee Co. (yes, the “Friends”-inspired cafe). Worried it’s just a tourist trap? May we present you these glowing food and drink reviews.

🏓 Ping pong your problems away. SPIN, Boston’s ping pong bar, has a sweet deal: Get 20% off your ping pong table and two free shared bites. If you like bars where you can do more than just drink, this is the spot. 

🎶 See the next Grammy-winning artist. Sofar Sounds puts on intimate concerts starring up-and-coming musicians at super secret locations around Boston (seriously, these Sofar artists all won Grammys this year). You get 20% off tickets, including this anti-Valentine’s day show.

🥪 Grab a sammie from Boston’s charcuterie queen. Tayla Pessalano knows her way around a cheese board (we’d know), and her meat-stacking skills are on full display at The Dirty Italian gourmet food shop. Grab your free cookie with a sandwich/wrap purchase. 

🥟 Learn of art of dumpling-making. Mei Mei Dumplings’ dumpling-making class was one of the first spots that got a B-Side Certified stamp of approval. Get 10% off said classes that will make you a dumpling-making whizz.

👀 And that’s just the beginning … There are tons of other deals to take advantage of this month, including a free Harvard Book Store tote and BOGO ice cream scoops. Sound fun? Become a B-Side Member here.

We see tons of cool events around town every week. But many sell out (or go too viral) before we can share them. Here’s what’s HOT now:

🥐 Grab a viral sweet for your sweet. Lakon Paris Patisserie (the bakery known for these viral cube croissants) is launching exclusive V-Day treats this weekend. This raspberry bow tie croissant looks WILD. 

🦑 Stay alive in this “Squid Games” drinking game. Completing (or failing) each round of fun challenges at this Malden restaurant doesn’t end in death. But they do end in shots. 

🍝 Put pasta on your at-home menu. Dave’s Fresh Pasta’s cooking classes in Somerville ALWAYS sell out (they’re booking into April). So get a jump on this pizza-making class and pasta-making class.

🍦 Make New Zealand-style ice cream. This class at Sweeties is exactly what it sounds like: Mix and form your own waffle cones and create the ice cream (and ice cream sandwiches) of your dreams. 

😆 See the queen of roasts IRL. Nikki Glaser is shipping up to Boston later this month and tickets to one of her Sunday shows are still decently priced.

📚 Get a secret look inside the BPL. Friendly reminder that the library offers a free arts and architecture tour every week. We took this tour back in 2022 and would 1000% go again. 

👠 Don your best fur and cheetah print. This mob wives-themed Galentine’s Day gathering at Row 34 is just $30 a pop and looks like a hoot. 

🍦Try a coffee cream from Kicco. We keep seeing videos of the coffee soft serve cups from Kicco Coffee in the West End and are sprinting to try it.

Fun fact: If you’re a B-Side member, all the Globe links in Saturday membership sends will be paywall FREE!

🍕 National Pizza Day is Sunday. Here’s where you should celebrate, according to Globe correspondent Kara Baskin. This is a very opinionated — and dare we say, controversial — list.

🍜 The Globe’s Soup Season newsletter is BACK! You’ll get an email in your inbox on Thursday afternoons. Most importantly: It’s free! Sign up here.

⛷️ Skiing and snowboarding doesn’t have to be $$$. Here’s how to do both on a budget around New England.

😳 My parents don’t like my girlfriend’s tattoos. Tea! Globe advice columnist Meredith Goldstein gives her POV on navigating this sticky situation in the latest “Love Letters” column. 

👀 Get a first-look at some Super Bowl commercials. This one from Dove already made us sob.

Some people do 75 hard, I do 100 hard. And by 100 hard, I mean I’m on a mission to try 100 new restaurants, bars, and cafes around Boston in 2025 (which sounds waaay more fun). 

Here are some of the best things I’ve had so far: 

😭 Salt cod fritters from Bar Volpe. Brine lovers rise up! These fried balls of crispy-crunchy goodness are topped with a pepperoncini aioli that I could drink. Really, the whole restaurant is a triumph.

🫒 Dirty Paloma mocktail from Temple Records. I desperately want to be a dirty martini girl, but the universe unfortunately has other plans. But whoever decided to pair grapefruit and olive juice together deserves a Nobel Prize.

🍯 Zeppole with honey and prosciutto from The Red Fox. Spectacular. Gimme 14 of them. Imagine: A delightfully fluffy doughnut had a baby with a stellar charcuterie board.

You can follow along on IG and TikTok for my no-BS takes on everywhere I visit. Respond to this email with what else I should add to the list!

— Written by Emily Schario

😋 Thanks for reading! On the menu next week: A Wednesday wiener special and Boston’s new viral bagel.

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