🌹😳 Every rose has its thorn ...

It’s Monday, Boston.

🤑 And we have TWO boozy summer lunch deals for you: On weekdays, $18 gets you a marg, taco or quesadilla, and a side at Citrus & Salt, and $25 gets you an Aperol spritz, a caesar salad, and fries at Sonsie. You’re welcome. <3

👀 What’s on tap today:

• The Boston Legacy’s new lewk

• Noah Kahan on the big screen

• Is Wally … sexy?

Up first…

OUT & ABOUT

This secret garden is in BLOOM

Roses are red …. and pink, purple, white, yellow, even stripey! Well, at least they are at the Kelleher Rose Garden, a mini-oasis of over 1,500 roses in the Back Bay Fens, which are currently in full bloom. 

Here’s what to know:

🌹 The vibes are straight out of “Bridgerton.” Which might have something to do with the fact that the garden is nearly 100 years old. Since opening in 1931, it has expanded, modernized, and transformed into its current form with a fountain, hedges, and of course, roses everywhere — climbing up fences, blooming in bushes, even creating archways. Honestly, you just gotta take a look. “It's almost like a different little world,” said Tony Hennessy, the city’s superintendent of horticulture. 

👀 No two bushes are exactly alike. Mind-blowing fact: There are over 30,000 different cultivated rose varieties, and the Kelleher garden stocks 200. Thanks to the sheer number of new options, the varieties that come back to the Kelleher Garden year after year are “few and far between,” Hennessy said. So each spring, he chooses a batch of newbies to join the garden depending on what’s available.

🤩 A few of Hennessy’s faves this year: The “Gertrude Jekyll,” a bubblegum pink English shrub rose, the “Hotel California,” a tall, bright yellow hybrid tea, and “In Love Again,” a dark pink rose that grows on a single stem. 

❄️ This winter set us up for some solid bloomage. Roses are fickle flowers, so anything from the winter weather to bugs, or even goose poop (which can change the soil content), can get in the way of a perfect bloom. Thankfully, this year’s “cold, consistent winter” without heavy snow set us up for success, Hennessy said, so barring an act of god, we can expect a great show.

💐 The first bloom is happening … NOW. While the garden should be in bloom from June through the fall, the peak flushes tend to be in June and September. Hennessy expects this flush to stick around for another few weeks, but the weather can change things, so we’d go sooner rather than later.

📅 Need an excuse to stop by? June 11 is the annual Rose Garden Picnic with music and refreshments. And for a more casual affair, the Emerald Necklace hosts a weekly Tuesdays with Roses volunteer night, where you can help weed and prune the roses. Make sure to register!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🦢 The Boston Legacy’s rebrand is complete. After absolutely flopping the first try, Boston’s NWSL team has a fresh new team crest. And it’s … a swan! Swans “encompass our core club values,” according to controlling manager Jennifer Epstein. “Famously loyal, relentless in defending their territory, and iconic residents of our waterways and green spaces.” Plus, if you look closely, the design includes nods to both the Zakim Bridge and Boston’s OG NWSL team. Judging by these IG comments on the announcement, second time’s the charm.

😅 Boston’s budget is looking good … for now. The City Council unanimously approved Mayor Michelle Wu’s $4.8 billion FY26 budget sans drama. But rougher seas may be ahead: A new report predicts Boston could see the values of office buildings plummet 35 to 40% below FY24, which would leave the city with up to $2.1 billion less in revenue than expected over the next five years. Since Boston’s budget relies heavily on property taxes, that drop would (once again) leave the city in a sticky situation: Raise taxes … or slash the budget.

🌲 Our stick season king is hitting the big screen. It’s the Eras Tour for blundstone-wearing girlies: Noah Kahan is getting a documentary. The actual release date is still very much TBD, but we do know the film will catch up with Kahan after his 2024 tour (which gave us the iconic Live from Fenway Park album). It’ll follow him as he returns to his Vermont roots, offering peeks into how his speedy ascent to superstardom impacted his mental health. The movie is currently looking for a distributor, so stay tuned!

⛴️ The 2025 Harbor Island szn is going to be LIT. How do we know? Boston.com’s 2025 Boston Harbor Islands Guide. Members already know how the B-Side team feels about the Spectacle Summer Nights series. But that’s not the only thing going down on the islands this summer. From the all-new Prosecco Picnic on Spectacle Island to a Juneteenth celebration at Georges to camping on Peddocks, there’s something for everyone to add to their cal. And we’d hurry up — tickets move fast. 

THINGS TO DO

Weekday plans

🤑 Feast like you’re in a different tax bracket. Shoutout to STK’s three-course steak dinner deal where $69/pp gets you a bottle of prosecco or red wine, two starters, two entrees, two sides, and one dessert. And yes, filet mignon is on the menu.

🥋 Get to work on your roundhouse. Fun fact: Villari’s Martial Arts Center offers a free first class for adults on Tuesdays and Wednesdays where you’ll learn some self-defense techniques and martial arts ABCs.

🚴 Fight your run club FOMO … with a bike club! The Brighton Slow Roll/Notch Bike Club is heading out on a 4.5-mile post-work ride on June 11. Don’t have a bike? A Bluebike station is across the street!

😋 Go on the ultimate Somerville food crawl. Without doing ANY crawling. Taste of Somerville is BACK June 11, where your ticket gets you endless bites to the city's best restaurants all in one place. 

🧘 Stretch it out, then swap it out. Balance with Babz is teaming up with Uvida for a donation-based lymph flow yoga class followed by a free clothing swap on June 11. 

🌃 Spend a night at the market. Specifically, the Brighton Bazaar’s Night Market that’s returnin’ on June 12. Expect Culture Pop freebies, elusive food trucks, and dogs (it’s pet-friendly!). 

🍿 Make outdoor movies fetch again. How awesome does this free outdoor screening of “Mean Girls” at Boston Landing on June 12 sound? The limit does not exist. 

🤼 Watch grown men kick the crap out of each other. It’s as simple as buying a ticket to this IRL wrestling match happening at Night Shift Brewing on June 12. 

QUICK QUESTION!

⚾ We promise this will make sense later, but … which of Boston’s sports mascots is the sexiest? (For reference, you can see them all here).

ONE LAST THING

The MLB’s sexiest mascots

Is Boston Red Sox mascot Wally … sexy? It’s one in a long list of cursed questions that we’d never considered until it landed on our desks (a.k.a. Boston.com wrote about it).

And yet, thanks to a new report from BetUS, which ranks the hotness of the MLB’s mascots, broadcasters, umpires, and managers (all on one list, mind you), we are now thinking about it. 

Per the report, (which bases its rankings on “personality traits, the Golden Ratio … job title, search volume, and social following”), Wally’s sex appeal is a 49.4 out of 100, putting him at No. 364 on the list, behind all but six MLB mascots. Yikes.

That said, a 49.4 is still miles ahead of, for example, Kansas City Royals mascot Sluggerrr the lion, or even human umpire Chad Fairchild. Sorry Chad.

Check out the entire report here … if you dare.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

⚾ Thanks for reading! Wally having a Golden Ratio of 7.5 is kind of iconic though.

🍩 The results are in: 26% of B-Siders say their favorite Dunkin’ doughnut is some variety of frosted with sprinkles, followed by glazed at 21% and Boston Kreme at 19%. One reader said: “There's a reason every donut logo is a pink donut with sprinkles. Icon, queen.”

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