🤤🍕 Eat your way through feast szn

It’s Thursday, Boston.

🎟️🪄 Calling all theatre kids and Potterheads: The Copley Square BosTix Booth is BACK after a loooong hiatus. To kick things off, it's celebrating Harry Potter’s b-day with epic deals on “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” tickets (think: up to $40 off!) and free cake from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today.

🎂 And happy birthday to B-Sider Michele Merlino! Free cake on your birthday? That’s 100% meant to be. Have an amazing day!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Another higher ed cut casualty

• Your MBTA shutdown roadmap

• This latte is taking over the Cape

Up first…

OUT & ABOUT

Your feast szn foodie guide

If you need us for the next few weeks, we’ll be FEASTING. Literally. Feast season in the North End is underway, bringing celebrations with Italian food, music, and culture to the North End through early September.

So, we asked organizers at each feast for their favorite bites and sips. But first, a little context:

🇮🇹 The feasts are religious celebrations, but the vibes are “Italian block party.” These feasts have been a North End staple for over 100 years thanks to the neighborhood’s Italian immigrants, whose descendants still run many of them today. Each feast honors a different Catholic saint in celebration of their miracles or the people’s devotion to them by filling the streets with food, music, decorations, processions, and entertainment. 

Now, onto the recs:

🍺 Feast of Saint Agrippina | July 31 to Aug. 3. According to Sal Gesamondo Jr., president of the Saint Agrippina Society, you gotta try the mini arancini (that’s a fried rice ball) from Cini’s, and wash it down with a brew at the Peroni beer garden. 

🍩 Feast of Madonna Della Cava | Aug. 8 to 10. Anyone with a sweet tooth MUST try the Nutella Fellas’ iconic Nutella Bombolonis (donuts stuffed with Nutella), said Lauren Bloom, of the feast’s marketing team. If you’re more into savory than sweet, she recommends fried calamari from “The Captain,” or a sausage with peppers and onion — a classic feast food.

🍝 Fisherman's Feast | Aug. 14 to 17. For just $10, you can eat your way through Boston’s best meatballs at the feast’s annual meatball contest, said co-chairman Danny Puccio. Or, for a bite unique to the Fisherman’s Feast, grab some spumoni, an ice cream dessert layered with pistachio, cherry, and chocolate, from Philip R’s.

🍕 Saint Anthony’s Feast | Aug. 28 to 31. At the season’s biggest feast, committee member Mike Bonetti recommends everyone swing by Regina Pizzeria’s annual outdoor piazza (where he’s partial to the St. Anthony’s pie with sausage, peppers, and onions). And for dessert, a zeppole, a deep-fried fritter dusted in powdered sugar, from the Della Rocco brothers.

🦪 Feast of San Gennaro | Sept. 5 to 7. Organizer Christian Trotta said the feast is still ironing out the deets for this year, but to be on the lookout for last year’s hits, including the raw bar from Mare, bolognese from Carmelina’s, and margarita pizza from Quattro.

🤤 Drooling yet? You can find more info on all the feasts here.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🎓 A(nother) casualty of higher ed’s financial crisis? Small majors. We already know tons of colleges are desperate to save some cash, and some local schools are doing it by slashing entire academic programs with low enrollment. Think: Berklee is phasing out its contemporary theater degree, Clark is cutting Ancient Civilization and Studio Art, and BU nixed three social work satellite programs. The choice is often framed as a way to save big while affecting as few students as possible, but for those programs’ students and faculty, the impact can be huge.

🚇 It’s time for another round of MBTA shutdowns. And on the chopping block in August? Blue and Orange Liners. Blue Liners are the biggest losers this go-around, with a nine-day shutdown on the calendar from Aug. 9 to 17 between Airport and Wonderland, with the goal to inspect and revitalize some of the line’s older infrastructure (and hopefully avoid more underground evacuations). Orange Liners, you can anticipate a series of three weekend shutdowns between Wellington and Back Bay for signal upgrades. Here are all the deets. 

💭 Mass. lawmakers and advocates are dreaming BIG this week. And when we say big, we mean they’re pushing for rent control and a free MBTA. On Tuesday, hundreds of supporters flooded the state house in support of a bill that would cap rent hikes at 5%. Meanwhile, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Ed Markey re-introduced federal legislation that would fully fund fare-free transit nationwide, including the MBTA. But before you get too excited: Both of these ideas have been pitched (and flopped) before, so consider them major long shots. We love the hustle though!

🚲 Bluebike baddies, we have a deal for you. In honor of National Wellness Month, Blue Cross Blue Shield is throwing Bluebikers a bone in the form of a free $31 credit for bike rides (think of it as a dollar a day). If you want to take advantage, you can head to the rewards section of the app on Aug. 1 and use code “BLUECROSSMARIDE” to nab the deal while supplies last. Then, you can use the credit for up to a year after you redeem it. Happy biking!

QUICK QUESTION!

💭 In a dream world, what would you rather have? 

ONE LAST THING

The Cape’s new viral latte

Step aside, strawberry matcha. There’s a new latte of the summer in town. Enter: The Fluffy Seagull. Allow us to explain.

The Lighthouse Keeper’s Pantry in Yarmouth started offering the Fluffy Seagull latte — a peanut butter and fluff latte inspired by a fluffernutter sandwich — back in 2023. But, as the story goes, all it took was one viral TikTok to turn it into the drink of the summer this year. 

It first popped off around Memorial Day weekend, and ever since, the cafe has been selling up to 400 Fluffy Seagulls daily (that’s over 40 pounds of fluff a day!), hired six more workers to keep up with the demand, and even copyrighted the name of the drink. 

Wanna try it? Prepare to wake up at 6:30 a.m. and stand in line for an hour or more.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

☕ Thanks for reading! Personally, we can’t imagine any latte being worth an hour in line … but go off, girls!

🎓 The results are in: 78% of B-Siders say they’re against Harvard settling with President Trump. One reader said: “It’s gonna be a lot of money but this IS the rainy day.”

🎵 🛍️ Don't forget to grab your tickets to Best Day Ever, our Aug. 2 food, music, and shopping bash at Artists for Humanity!

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