🧑‍🍳 And your local James Beard nominees are …

Happy Friday, Boston.

🚃 Heads up: Orange and Green Line service will be suspended in some spots this weekend, so make sure to plan ahead. And prepare your emotions for more of these mini shutdowns soon (more on that below).

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Mini MBTA shutdowns

• A high note

• Lighthouse for sale

Up first…

FOOD & DRINK

Your local James Beard nominees

A round of applause for the Mass. restaurant scene, please. Twelve local restaurants and chefs were named semifinalists for the James Beard Awards this week, a.k.a. the Oscars for the food and food media industry.

Here’s who made the list (and where you need to make your next reservation):

👩‍🍳 Outstanding Chef. Rachel Miller, of Nightshade Noodle Bar in Lynn. Nightshade started as a small pop-up and now offers five- to 14-course tasting menus featuring Vietnamese and French inspired seafood and noodle dishes.

🍽️ Outstanding Restaurant. Both PAGU, a Japanese tapas restaurant in Central Square and Red Rose Restaurant, a beloved Cambodian spot in Lowell, got a nod.

👨‍🍳 Emerging Chef. Up-and-comer Vinh Le, of Cicada Coffee Bar in Cambridge, is serving an incredible menu of Vietnamese favorites in addition to coffee and specialty drinks. The iced Sea Salt Shaker looks amazing.

👀 Best New Restaurant. La Royal, a Peruvian spot in Cambridge, adds another accolade to the mantle — they were named Boston magazine’s Best New Restaurant of 2022.

🍷 Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. Rebel Rebel, a natural wine bar in Somerville’s Bow Market, offers an assortment of fun and unusual wine to expand your palate.

🤌 And, the Best Chef semifinalists in the Northeast region are:

• Valentine Howell, of Krasi, a meze and wine bar in Back Bay

• Yahya Noor, of Tawakal Halal Cafe, a Somali restaurant in East Boston

• Yisha Siu, of Yunnan Kitchen, a southwestern Chinese spot in the South End

• Derrick Teh of SEKALI, a Malaysian pop-up based in Boston

• Ellie Tiglao, of Tanám, a Filipino spot that recently closed in Somerville

• Douglass Williams, of MIDA, an Italian restaurant in the South End

Finalists will be announced on March 29, with the winners being honored at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony in Chicago on June 5. So, book your res now — the gatekeeping gig is up!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚇 Expect more mini MBTA shutdowns in February. Sigh. The MBTA announced more disruptions slated for the Orange, Green, and Red Lines, as well as the Haverhill Commuter Rail next month. While it’s quite a laundry list of shutdowns, most of them luckily take place on the weekends, which shouldn’t disrupt your commute. However, if you ride the Haverhill Commuter Rail Line, plan ahead. Shuttle buses will replace service between Haverhill and Reading stations for nine days (Feb. 4 to 12). You can check out the full list of shutdowns here.

🤑 Gov. Healey promises tax relief for local businesses. Healey assured hundreds of Mass. business leaders in a speech this week that making the state a more welcoming place to do business is a top priority for her admin. Tax reform in general, not just for businesses, has been a central piece of her campaign. And while she wasn’t generous with the specifics in her speech, a fiscal 2024 consensus figure (that should be released by the end of the month) could give Healey’s team and Beacon Hill lawmakers a better sense of which cuts are actually possible as they build out their budget.

🍄 Starting the legislative session on a high note. Mass. lawmakers filed two bills last week that would decriminalize the use and possession of certain hallucinogens like mescaline and other psychedelic mushrooms. This statewide push to decriminalize comes as communities like Cambridge, Somerville, and Northampton (no surprises here) passed resolutions decriminalizing the plants. And there’s plenty of research showing psychedelics having a positive impact on several health conditions, including opioid use disorder. But even if these bills pass, just remember: Your ‘shrooms wont be legal, you just can’t be arrested.

THINGS TO DO

Weekend plans

🥟 Learn how to make dumplings at Dumpling Duel, a Lunar New Year celebration with chefs Nicole Liu and Nina Simonds at the Foundry Consortium. FREE | Saturday, Jan. 28, 12 to 1:30 p.m.

🍾 Get bubbly with the Winter Wine & Seltzer Party at Time Out Market. Find live music, wine and seltzer (of course), food for purchase, and a silent auction to benefit the Ellie Fund or Project Smile. Tickets are $29 | Saturday, Jan. 28, 3 to 9 p.m.

💃 Dance your heart out at Dante's Saturdays bachata lessons. The beginners class is followed by social dancing, and you can go solo or with friends. The event is $20 (no registration required). | Saturday, Jan. 28, 9 p.m.

🐇 Celebrate the year of the rabbit at Chinatown’s annual Lunar New Year Lion Dance Parade. Sunday, Jan. 29, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

🤠 Grab brunch with a country twist with the Reba McEntire vs. Shania Twain Tribute Brunch at Loretta’s Last Call. Find live music and brunch favorites as artists cover the songs of two queens of country. No cover charge. | Sun, Jan. 29, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

ONE LAST THING

Lighthouse for sale

Dreamed of living in a lighthouse? Now’s your chance … kind of.

The $475,000 condo isn’t a real lighthouse, but the one-bedroom, one-bath South Yarmouth property is full of charm. The fake lighthouse is known as the Jolly Captain Motor Lodge, complete with a “motor lodge” sign and statue of a headless captain.

But have no fear, the condo association is planning to have the statue restored, replacing the head that blew off in the wind.

🥴 Thanks for reading! Welcome to Massachusetts, where a one-bed, one-bath, fake lighthouse condo featuring a beheaded captain will still run you almost $500K.

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