🧙‍♀️ Drink up, witches!

It’s Thursday, Boston.

💰 If you’re nosy like me, here’s a fun read: Forbes rolled out its list of 400 richest people in the U.S., and seven Massholes made the cut. Three of them are in the same family. And unfortunately, I am not one of them.

🎉 Also: A big B-Side HBD to reader Allison Brousseau. We love ya.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• GLX is slow no mo

• Struggling for the right words

• The most Masshole tattoo

Up first...

FOOD & DRINK

Putting the “boo” in boozy

Local restaurants are a sucker for seasons. And with fall in full swing, their cocktail menus are leaning in.

From apple cider to alcohol-free, here’s a list of this season’s can’t-miss sips:

🍎 If you prefer traditional apple flavors … Flight Club’s “Bushel and Barrel” cocktail blends apple cider with bourbon, amaro, and cinnamon. For the unseasonable early fall days when you’re sweating by 11 a.m., Buttermilk & Bourbon is serving a refreshing frozen apple cider made with Grey Goose, apple pie spices, cider, and pear brandy. And for a solid, cheap cocktail, Highland Kitchen’s “Honey Crisp” mixes scotch, cider, and ginger-lemon syrup for just $12.

🎃 If you’re a pumpkin spice stan … The North End’s Ciao Roma’s PSL espresso martini topped with pumpkin spice cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice espresso beans is essentially the boozy version of a Starbucks cold brew with pumpkin cream cold foam. Which, bonus: You can enjoy on their $49 Monday date night special for two. And for a PSL with s’mores flare, Brighton’s Rail Stop has a “Witch-Tini,” crafted with Tito’s, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and pumpkin spice syrup with a graham cracker crust rim.

🍺 If beer is more your thing … Pie is the main character of this season’s local beer scene. Nightshift’s “Pumpkin Pie-Scraper” infuses flavors of pumpkin with vanilla beans, spices, maple syrup, and milk sugar; Dorchester Brewing’s take on the Thanksgiving favorite, “Pie Fight,” is an amber ale with a custom spice blend, served with a cinnamon sugar rim; and Remnant’s Lumina Belgian beer has notes of cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla.

🍸 If you prefer less in-your-face fall flavors … e.g., neither apples, nor pumpkin, The Smoke Shop’s Eastie locale is showing off their new liquor license with the smoky, spicy “Jeffries Pointer,” made with blood orange vodka, honey, and Ancho Reyes. Cambridge’s Bambara is also leaning into the cozy notes with “The Brookside,” made with blackberry balsamic reduction, lime juice, egg white, and Angostura bitters.

🙅 If you like a good drink, but hold the alcohol … Brookline’s Bar Vlaha has a spirit-free, Greek frappé made with oat milk, petimezi (think molasses), chocolate bitters, and egg, and Hecate’s “Baba Yaga” is leaning into root vegetable season with beets, mirepoix cordial (yes, like the stuff you put in soup), beer malt vinegar, ginger, and pickled onion.

• Note: If your wallet allows, the high-end bars are the way to go for mocktails. They treat their spirit-free drinks as a craft, not an afterthought. See: the mocktail menu at Coquette.

🍹 If you’d rather just make your own … Citrus & Salt is hosting a Halloween cocktail-making class on Monday, Oct. 23, where in addition to elevating your hosting skills, you’ll also get a welcome cocktail, several small plates, samples of craft cocktails, and the chance to mix and mingle with beverage director Sarah Heimreid.

🤤 Want more? Boston Chefs put together a list of over 20 cozy fall cocktails to indulge in this season.

QUICK QUESTION!

☕ In your opinion, which drink is the epitome of fall?

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚃 Good news: The GLX isn’t moving at a “walking pace” anymore. After a frustrating few weeks of 3 mph speed restrictions on the Green Line Extension, the MBTA announced trains are back at full speed on both the Union and Medford/Tufts branches. Even better: They finished ahead of schedule. It’s still unclear exactly why the tracks narrowed the way they did — the main culprit behind the slow zones — but for now, let’s just be happy it’s faster to take the T versus walking.

😅 Colleges are struggling for the right words in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. After 30 Harvard student groups cosigned a statement seemingly justifying Hamas’ attack on Israel, president Claudine Gay issued a response to the tragedies. But some students didn’t think it went far enough in denouncing the attacks’ barbarity, so she issued another statement, condemning “the terrorist atrocities.” Meanwhile, Tufts had to condemn a statement from a student group which commended the “creativity” of Hamas fighters.

🌊 The future of Mass. is looking … wet. Gov. Healey announced the ResilientMass Plan, which outlines the biggest climate problems the state is expected to face. First on the list? Inland flooding. This year saw historic levels of flood damage, and it’s only going to get harder to manage as sea levels rise and intense storms persist. But don’t pack up just yet. There’s also a game plan to protect people and property, like updating MBTA standards and building codes.

🍕 The pillowy dinner rolls you love are becoming few and far between. The Central Square and Lexington Bertucci’s locations have joined the list of other locales shutting their doors. But several other new restaurants are opening soon: Dorchester Food Co-op, a new community grocery store and cafe, will open on Sunday; Rebelle Bagels, owned by a James Beard Award nominee, is relocating from Providence to Kendall Square; and Eastern Standard, one of Boston’s best known restaurants, is getting close to reopening after shuttering in 2021.

— Written by Gia Orsino

ONE LAST THING

The most Masshole tattoo

Sure, you could say Cape Cod looks like a hook. But then you’d lose the opportunity to get the Masshole tattoo of your dreams, like TikTok user @nicolemarieelizabeth’s.

Nicole subscribes to the other major interpretation of Cape Cod’s shape: an arm flexing its bicep. In fact, she used it for tattoo inspo, getting a tack on her arm to match her hometown’s location on the “bicep” of the Cape. Just take a look, it’s pretty funny.

She said the tattoo is a “real conversation starter,” and gives her a chance to talk about her hometown, which is very cute.

Less cute is the idea of a commenter from New Bedford to get the tattoo in their armpit.

— Written by Gia Orsino

💪 Thanks for reading! If anyone has cute Maine or New Jersey tattoo ideas, send them our way, lol.

🏢 The results are in: Over 60% of readers agree that going into the office has made their job satisfaction plummet. One wrote, “It costs me money to go to the office, so yeah, losing income to sit under fluorescent lights is not better.” Truth.