😳🍴Boston’s hottest restaurant? Facebook.

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🥓 You could argue with your friends about Boston’s best breakfast sandwich. Or you could use this incredible local breakfast sandwich matrix — which lists sandwiches according to how many reviews they have and how good they are. It’s beautiful.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Green Line fare-evaders, beware

• Be in a local movie with Zendaya

• Boston’s holiday lights preview

Up first…

FOOD & DRINK

ISO: a $20 couch, a free TV and … dinner.

The trendiest item on Facebook Marketplace? Food. No joke. Amid the random assortment of used furniture and knick-knacks are a growing number of listings for food, including right here in Boston.

😋 If buying food from a virtual garage sale sounds a little odd, you’re not alone. “I’m a little wary of it, honestly,” said Allston resident Gillian Strothenke, who sells homemade bagels and sourdough starter on the platform. In fact, none of the sellers we spoke to knew there was a food market on Facebook before they started. But it’s happening: Just look at the results from searching “food” in Boston. The New York Times attributed to the uptick to the “rising cost of eating out, the COVID-19 pandemic and changes to state laws.” 

🙋‍♀️ It’s part of a growing trend. Facebook Marketplace has been doing big numbers with young people, who love to use the platform to make (or save) a quick buck on furniture and tech. But they also seem eager to use the platform for food. “I would say I have had maybe two [customers] … over the age of 30,” Strothenke said. Annavictoria Ojeda, who sells cookies on FB Marketplace out of her home in Malden, said most of her customers are “in their 20s or 30s.”

💻 It allows sellers to create a side hustle from their homes. For online sellers, many of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants, FB Marketplace specifically has an added bonus: It’s a uniquely low-lift way to get their products in front of a lot of eyeballs. Ojeda called it “an easy way to get people to know and try” her products, even when she “didn’t know anyone” in the area. Now, it’s a part-time job for her. She makes $300 to $400 a week from her cookie sales, about $100 to $150 of which come from Facebook.

📦 The idea of sharing food with your neighbors isn’t as odd as it sounds. According to Michael Orr, who moderates a “buy nothing” Facebook group in Cambridge, “This is something you would do with your neighbor,” he said, “it's just … creating an online marketplace rather than an in person marketplace for sharing food.” And for Strothenke, the customer interaction is one of the best parts of her business. “I love baking and I don't have anyone else to bake for,” she said. “It’s just a nice way to kind of interact with people you wouldn't otherwise.”

QUICK QUESTION

🧑‍💻 We’re working on a story, and we want to know: Have you ever participated in “quiet quitting” or “quiet vacationing” at work?

TOGETHER WITH THE LINCOLN HOTEL

Your home (away from home) for the holidays 

🎁 🎄 Why spend your holiday PTO on mom and dad’s blow-up mattress when you can relax in comfort at The Lincoln Hotel? Celebrate the season at this Michelin Key-winning retreat, where the festive lobby decor looks straight out of your favorite Hallmark movie. With special offers to keep your spirits high and your wallet merry, it’s the perfect spot for a holiday escape or cozy family getaway that’ll make your in-laws jealous. Make new memories in Maine — book your stay today!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚃 MBTA fare-evaders, Phillip Eng has his eye on you. He and his new "fare engagement" department, who have dispatched staff to GLX stops to keep riders honest about paying their fares. Simply put, the T needs cash. Right now, fares make up only 15% of the MBTA’s operating funds, down from 31% pre-pandemic, with an estimated $16 to 26 million lost to fare evasion on the T and commuter rail per year. So far, the new system seems to be working: fare collection has improved by 35% on the Green Line Extension.

⚕️In the wake of Roe v. Wade overturning, Mass. abortions shot up. And by shot up, we mean increased by a whopping 37% between 2022 and 2023, the first full year without national abortion protection. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of that increase came from out-of-staters. In that time, abortions saw an increase of about 1,500 for Mass. residents, but out-of-state numbers grew from 920 to 6,115 (that’s over seven times bigger). Of those out-of-staters, most came from the mid-Atlantic and Pacific regions and the majority obtained abortion medications through telehealth appointments.

💸 How much of your monthly pay is going right back into rent? Welp, if you’re an average worker in Mass., about 53.4 hours of it — or between six and seven workdays on average. That’s according to a new report by Self Financial that figured out the number for each state. Our number is slightly higher than the national average of 50 hours, which speaks to our higher-than-average wages and cost of living, which average us out, coming in at No. 2 and No. 5 on the ranked list. Yikes!

🤩 Red alert: Zendaya and Robert Pattinson want YOU to be in their movie. OK, OK, not really, but the movie they’re currently working on in Boston (IYKYK) is looking for extras right now. The movie’s casting director just posted an open casting call for Bostonians with “distinctive faces,” no acting experience required. But IMO, distinctive face or not, for $216 a day and the chance to be feet away from Zendaya … just shoot your shot. You can apply here.

GIVEAWAY

Enter to win Two Handel and Haydn Society H² Memberships for Young Adults!

One lucky winner will receive two Handel and Haydn Society H² Memberships for Young Adults! To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on Nov. 15. 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.

ONE LAST THING

Boston’s holiday lights preview

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t put up a tree until after Thanksgiving, avert your eyes. Because Boston’s holiday lights season is BACK. 

For all of you scrooges, don’t worry, the actual holiday light ceremonies won’t be happening for a little while longer, with the Columbus Park Trellis, Faneuil Hall, and Martin’s Park Ship lightings happening in the last week of November, plus Boston’s official tree arriving (check out a full schedule here). 

But for those of you (like us) who want the holiday vibes to start ASAP, good news: You can take a peek at the newly arrived official Faneuil Hall tree right now! She’s gorgeous. And … huge.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🎄 Thanks for reading! With these 4:30 p.m. sunsets, as far as we’re concerned, we’ll take all the light we can get, holiday or otherwise.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, The Lincoln Hotel, for supporting local journalism and offering New Englanders a holiday getaway worth remembering. 

😴 The results are in: 68% of B-Siders say that they would prefer to switch to permanent Daylight Saving time (darker mornings, lighter evenings). One reader said: “I need sunlight like a plant.”

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