🍝 The North End didn’t get an al fresco invite

It's Monday, Boston

☕ PSA: Dunkin’ Rewards members can get a free medium hot or iced coffee with any purchase every Monday in May, i.e., TODAY.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Laura’s Law

• A top tier sake bar

• NBA at the MFA

Up first...

RESTAURANTS

The outdoor dining drama saga

Boston’s outdoor dining season kicks off today (and it looks like the weather might cooperate). What started as a temporary pandemic program to keep restaurants afloat will now be a permanent staple during the city’s warmer months. But not everyone got an invite to the party this year.

Here’s what you need to know:

🍽️ Don’t expect as many outdoor dining options in the North End. While most restaurants will be able to set up tables on adjacent sidewalks and parking spaces starting today, North End eateries will be limited to sidewalks of “adequate width” (between five and eight feet, depending on the area). And for a neighborhood where sidewalks can barely handle two ways of foot traffic, only those blessed with an abundance of pavement will be able to participate.

📝 The city cited a list of reasons behind the decision: traffic, sanitation, loss of parking, and noise, to name a few. Plus, the Sumner Tunnel closures and the North Washington Street Bridge construction are expected to be a massive headache for the neighborhood this summer.

🤬 And North End business owners are pissed. The owners of Casarecce Ristorante launched a petition (which now has over 2,300 signatures) asking the city to more fully include the North End in the outdoor dining program. Some went as far as saying the decision discriminated against Italians. But one thing is for sure: This year’s rules definitely didn’t help Wu's already tense relationship with the North End. Remember last year’s extra outdoor dining fees?

😅 That said, the city is trying to patch things up. In addition to buying back street barriers from restaurant owners and providing relief for storage-related costs, the city plans to figure out a solution for the 2024 outdoor dining season with a task force including residents and restaurants.

😋 Luckily, there’s still plenty of outdoor dining spots to pick from. Here’s a running list of some of the best places to eat al fresco in the area, according to Boston.com readers. And this map shows all restaurants with outdoor dining in Boston proper (the 2023 map should be available soon).

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

😭 The Bruins broke our hearts. The B’s join the 2007 Patriots as a record-breaking team that didn’t win a title after their devastating 4-3 overtime loss in Game 7 to the bottom-seeded Florida Panthers. Things looked promising as the B’s roared back from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 lead. But the Panthers tied it up with only 59 seconds left in regulation, sending the game into overtime where they ultimately scored the series-winning goal. The most successful regular season in NHL history is over. Onto the Celtics.

🏥 Local hospitals will soon be required to makes their entrances easier to find. This is all thanks to Laura’s Law, a bill that passed in 2021 after Laura Levin died from an asthma attack outside of a Somerville hospital. Her husband, Peter DeMarco, has been advocating for more regulations around patient access to hospitals ever since (you may remember his story from this viral Boston Globe piece from 2018). As a result of his advocacy, Mass. hospitals have until Jan. 1 to ensure all hospital doors are well-lit, ER entrances have brighter lights than other doors, and there are ample directional signs leading to the ER.

🚇 Add another problem to the T’s list: climate change. A new study found that flood damage to the T will double from $24 million in 2020 to $58 million by 2030 as sea levels continue to rise and storms intensify. And it’ll only get worse from there. The T’s annual costs could be as high as $1.2 billion by 2100, with one extreme scenario projecting $9.3 billion. While the MBTA has several flood-mitigation projects in the works starting next year, experts will say one thing: it “should have been done earlier.”

🍽️ One of the world’s best restaurants is in Brighton. At least that’s according to Conde Nast Traveler, which just released its 2023 Hot List and named The Koji Club as one of the 21 best new restaurants in the world. This 250-square-foot sake bar run by O Ya alum Alyssa Mikiko DiPasquale “is as cozy and authentic as anything you would find in Japan,” according to the publication. Plus, the bartenders have an “encyclopedic knowledge of sake's multiverse,” making it a great spot for both sake buffs and the sake-curious.

THINGS TO DO

Weekly plans

🧀 Learn to pair IPAs and cheese (a winning combo) at Lamplighter Brewing Co. tonight.

🌌 Put your Star Wars knowledge to the test with trivia at Night Shift Brewing. Consider it an early Star Wars Day party.

🌮 Chow down at a special taco Tuesday pop-up at Cosmica featuring James Beard-nominated Chef David Vargas.

🎤 Watch the final round of Fenway’s Got Talent at Time Out Market Boston.

🎃 Celebrate Half-o-ween, the halfway point to Halloween, at the Rockwell.

ONE LAST THING

Jaylen Brown is fine art

The MFA is cheering on the Celtics in their playoffs run by turning Jaylen Brown into fine art.

Following the Celtics’ Thursday win, the museum posted a picture of Brown photoshopped into a piece in their collection “Corn Husking Frolic.” Brown is pictured dunking over townspeople while a shadow of Lucky the Leprechaun is cast on a wall. And despite what some people think, it wasn’t made by AI. Evan Baumeister, the MFA’s senior graphic designer, took about three or four days to put a modern twist on “Corn Husking Frolic.”

The MFA has a trend of making fine art into fans of our local sports teams. Before the Bruins’ and Celtics’ playoff runs began, the museum posted a picture of members of “Joseph Moore and his Family” decked out in C’s and B’s gear. And on Sox Opening Day, the boy in “The Torn Hat” wore a Sox bucket hat.

🎨 Thanks for reading! Put it in the Louvre.

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