😅 Your excuse to tackle your friends

Happy Friday, Boston!

🦪 Hot take: Some of Boston’s tourist traps are actually good. OK, we might not pick Mike’s over Modern, but we do agree with most of the Globe’s list of five tourist traps that are worth a visit.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Another round of T shutdowns

• R.I.P. to the Common’s restaurant 

• The ultimate best-of ice cream list

Up first…

SUMMER FRIDAYS

Fashion shows, festivals, and a feast

Summer might be drawing to a close, but your weekend plans aren’t slowing down. 

Here’s what’s happening around Boston:

🇮🇹 Keep feasting in the North End. Next on the feast season docket is the Fisherman’s Feast this weekend. Expect lots of Italian food (including a meatball contest on Saturday), entertainment, and on Sunday night, the iconic flight of the angel.

🎶 Hear some beats on the beach. Save The Harbor is throwing a free block party tonight on the Fort Point Channel by and for local artists. There will be musical performances, art vendors, food trucks, and even an area for your pups. 

💅 “Picture you” painting at the BPM. Chappell Roan stans, this one’s for you: Boston Public Market is hosting a Chappell Roan-themed paint and sip tonight, with instructions to help you paint designs inspired by her music. 

👁️ See Boston from new heights. Literally! View Boston is offering a $10 ticket deal for college students to see the city from the top of the Pru if you show your student ID at the box office. The deal runs from Saturday to the end of the month (and it’s normally $35 a pop).

🥳 Celebrate the end of summer. Don’t be sad summer’s over, be happy summer happened at Bow Market’s end of summer bash this Sunday, with live music and ticket sales supporting the Roslindale food pantry’s Ride For Food team.

💃🏽 Immerse yourself in African and Caribbean culture. Kick things off on Friday at ZaZ Afro-Carribean Fest for fashion, food, and culture. Then, head to the Common on Saturday for the 14th annual (free) African Festival of Boston for art, performances, food, and shopping. And finish off the weekend on Sunday with a Dominican Parade and Festival in Franklin Park.

😋 Take advantage of Boston’s best dining deals. Last call to enjoy discounted lunch and dinners (starting at $22) at over 180 local restaurants as part of Dine Out Boston. Decision paralysis? Here are some of our favorite deals.

👻 Get in the spooky spirit. It’s not spooky season yet, but it’ll sure feel like it at Long Live Taproom’s Summerween celebration on Saturday with a Halloween-themed vendor market, food from Vaz & Mac, and music by Vudu Sister.

🎤 Put a little cruel in your summer. If brat summer has left you craving a swiftie fix, Brighton Music Hall is throwing a Taylor Swift dance party tonight that’s sure to do the trick. Grab tickets here. 

🏉 Channel your inner Ilona Maher. Drop kicks. Tackles. Mauls. If the recent buzz around U.S. rugby has you itching to get on the pitch, Boston Ironsides RFC is hosting a rugby 101 class on Saturday, and it's open to everyone regardless of age or experience.

🐶 Show off your fur baby’s fashion. Or just gawk at all the cute pups because The Greenway is hosting a canine costume contest tonight, where local dogs will show up in their cutest outfits in hopes of winning a prize.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚇 Another weekend, another round of T shutdowns. Orange Liners: Service will be suspended between Wellington and Back Bay on Saturday and Sunday, with shuttle buses running between Wellington and North Station (use the Green Line between North Station and Copely). Note: The Haverhill Commuter Rail will be fare-free between Oak Grove, Malden Center, and North Station. Mattapan Trolley riders: It’s shuttle bus city starting tonight at 8:30 p.m. through Sunday. Red Liners: Start mentally preparing for a brutal commute next week …

🏙️ The plan to make Boston’s buildings greener hit a roadblock. In what was expected to be a shoo-in, Mayor Michelle Wu’s plan to require large new buildings to significantly reduce their reliance on fossil fuels didn’t get the OK from the Zoning Commission (by just one vote!). Some in the real estate community worry these requirements will raise costs for developers, while advocates argue that’s unclear since new buildings are already subject to tough energy requirements. All that said, Wu's office plans to submit a revised plan to try again. 

😢 Say goodbye to the lone restaurant on the Common. After years of bleeding money, the Earl of Sandwich restaurant (it’s near the Parkman Bandstand, you’ve definitely seen it) will close at the end of September. Despite the caché of being on the Common, it’s actually a tough location: There’s no room for indoor seating, low foot-traffic during bad weather, and competition at nearby restaurants. The good news? As the city starts looking for a new tenant, it’s now open to beer and wine as part of the operations.

QUICK QUESTION

🥪 What type of restaurant would you want to see on the Common next?

ONE LAST THING

Boston’s best ice cream

There are tons of “best of” lists for local ice cream. But none are quite like this one. 

James Douthit loves ice cream the way that some of us love coffee or wine: He doesn’t just want to taste it, but understand it on a granular level, learning exactly how it's made and why. So he decided to channel his passion to create the best best-of list he could by sourcing and trying every house-made ice cream that he “could reasonably bike to” (though we question his definition of “reasonable”).

After over 250 flavors at nearly 50 shops, he rounded up his top five favorite spots for Boston.com … three of which are MBTA accessible.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🍦 Thanks for reading! Confirming that the cannoli ice cream from Cal’s Creamery does indeed slap.

🍝 The results are in: When asked to pick their quintessential summer meal, 42% of B-Siders chose an Italian coastal meal of spritzes and handmade pasta from Bar Mezzana. One reader said: “Living my White Lotus life.”

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

Editor’s note: And earlier version of this newsletter incorrectly stated that the Taylor Swift dance party would be at Big Night Live, not Brighton Music Hall. We regret the error!