Happy Saturday, B-Siders!
🫢 We may be halfway through August … but there’s two whole weeks to redeem your monthly deals, so get to it! Catch a Levitate Backyard show for a beachy vibe, or get a sammie deal from Paisani, The Dirty Italian, Big Grin, and Bon Me! Long story short: Become a member here.
👀 What’s on tap today:
Chicken nugget happy hour
Swifties were FED this week
Restaurant smash or pass
Up first…
B-SIDE GUIDE
The best bites, buys, and bargains
llustration: Emily Schario
If you ask us … One of the best parts of being a B-Side Member are the DEALS. Whether it’s cheap tickets or free food, we always try to give you ways to make life in the city a little cheaper (and a whole lotta fun).
Here are the best bites, buys, and bargains we found this week:
🏖️ Free boat day, anyone? Our friends at Boston Harbor Now LOVE B-Side so much, they’re giving the first 10 Members who respond to this email the ultimate summer day trip with FREE TICKETS to their next Spectacle Summer Nights trip on Aug. 23. We’ll send the code to the lucky winners. 3 … 2 … 1 … GO!
🥟 Pretend it’s happy hour with 50-cent nugs. The alcohol deals may be dry, but this 50-cent chicken nugget weekday deal at Shybird makes you forget about it preeeeetty quickly. Bonus: You can also grab $3.50 beers, and $9 sandwiches and cocktails in the same window.
The rest of this newsletter, including a RAVE review of a local hot dog and eight exclusive things-to-do recs are for our premium members who contribute to our journalism.
If you start a 14-day trial, you’ll be able to continue reading at bside.beehiiv.com!
👀 Plus, our members get access to curated Boston Globe content every Saturday — paywall-free. Here are this week’s reads:
💃 Swifties were FED this week. Taylor announcing her new album on “New Heights” def wasn’t on our bingo card. But are we complaining? These were the four big reveals from her chat with Jason and Travis Kelce.
💏 Obsessed with ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’? Here are places on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard that feel just like Cousins Beach.
🎶 So … shat’s the song of the summer? If you ask us, it’s “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday.” But real talk: Is the concept of a ‘song of the summer’ dead? Some experts think so.
🍹 People are actually putting the bottle down. Here’s why many Americans are rethinking alcohol these days, according to a new Gallup poll.
🥊 It feels like Trump vs. Massachusetts. How one state represents everything the president despises.
🚘 Take it from an experienced travel writer: Dubai chocolate whoopee pies to alpaca finger puppets, these are the best rest stops in New England. (And one rises to the top.)
⌚ Don’t buy your kids a phone. Buy them a … watch? As states like Mass. move to ban students’ smartphones in schools, the youngins are turning to smartwatches.
⚾ OK, where can we get one of these? Meet the Massachusetts man (and lifelong Red Sox fan) who designs and delivers the team’s beloved T-shirts.
💭 Have specific feedback you’d like to share? Book time with us here! Send comments and suggestions to [email protected].