🍝💃 The North End just got cooler

📚 Summer reading rut? IDK her. With the BPL’s new Adult Summer Reading bingo challenge, you’ll have no excuse to slack on your reading (or activities) this summer. Check out the rules and bingo card here.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

The only thing heating up faster than the weather is Boston’s new restaurant scene. And Boston.com’s list of exciting June restaurant openings is the perfect guide.

Here are the spots worth a res: 

🍝 The Red Fox Restaurant & Lounge, North End. Martinis and pasta? Say no more. At The Red Fox, classic Italian vibes with a modern sensibility are the name of the game. In typical North End fashion, the menu focuses on homemade pasta. But from the dramatic retro interior to the yet-to-be-named adjoined cocktail lounge, The Red Fox is shaping up to be the trendier younger sibling to the neighborhood’s more classic spots. The menu is still under wraps, but be the first to know the latest happenings here.

Thing to try:

🍸 Headroom Hi-Fi, Seaport. Music might take center stage at Headroom, the new “HiFi” mid-century modern listening bar above Trillium’s Fort Point location, but don’t sleep on the food and drink. While you’re working your way through their meticulously curated vinyl collection, you can also enjoy specialty music-themed cocktails made with Trillium’s spirits, and enjoy New England-inspired, seafood-y bites. Check out the menu here.

Items to try:

🍗  Amba, Cambridge. Cambridge’s First Street Market has been years in the making. But with Amba’s bites and sips as part of the package, it might just be worth the wait. Amba is a Mediterranean Cafe from the same folks behind Puritan & Co., The Lexington, and Gepetto. Named for the Middle Eastern condiment, the cafe will be inside the market, serving up entrees, pastries, coffee, and bar drinks to be enjoyed either in-house or while you shop around. The menu is still TBD, but you can keep up here.

Item to try:

🍜 Kyuramen, Brookline. This authentic Japanese ramen chain just opened its first two Mass. locations, including one in Brookline, boasting a ton of dining space, an outdoor patio, and never-before-seen dishes. Beyond ramen, the menu will feature everything from gyoza, to matcha crepe cakes to Japanese-style burgers. Plus, if you find a red stamp at the bottom of your bowl, you can win freebies. Check out the menu here.

Items to try:

💪 💦 Looking to break a sweat without breaking the bank? Seaport Sweat, Boston's biggest free workout series, is back for its ninth season with free classes open to everyone Monday through Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., as well as Saturdays at 10 a.m. Plus, don't forget to check out Stretch and the City, a new free yoga class held on the Summer Street Steps every Friday. With classes running now through September, it's the perfect way to unwind from your 9 to 5.

🧑‍🎓 Harvard says “bye” to DEI statements. Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the university’s largest division, announced it will no longer require professors applying for tenure-track positions to submit a statement explaining how they’ll promote “diversity, inclusion, and belonging” in their work. This move comes as some academics argue these statements are  simply “extracting loyalty oaths to a particular worldview.” It also comes as universities across the country are rethinking their relationships with free speech and academic freedom in the face of campus encampments and protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

🏘️ The Mass. House takes a stab at fixing Mass. housing. House lawmakers unveiled a $6.2 billion plan to address the region’s truly astonishing housing availability and affordability crisis, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in building affordable housing statewide, plus policy changes like allowing “granny flats.” But perhaps more notable is what was left out: Namely, a Wu- and Healey-approved provision that would have added a “transfer fee” to sales on high-end properties to be reinvested in building affordable housing (an item that’s been unsurprisingly criticized by real estate bigwigs).

🚔 Cambridge is giving alternative policing a whirl. Cambridge’s new Community Assistance Response and Engagement (a.k.a. CARE) team is set to soon begin responding to some 911 calls in place of police officers. The team, which is made up of trained social workers, will respond to non-violent, mental health-related incidents in the hopes of reshaping the way the city handles these issues, offering de-escalation instead of policing where appropriate. But before the CARE team can jump into action, there are still new items to hammer out with local police.

🍕 What’s better than Apizza? Four Apizzas! That’s right, Sally’s Apizza (that’s “a-BEETZ”), the wildly popular New Haven pizzeria, just announced plans to open two new Mass. locations in Dorchester and Concord next year. The new Apizzas will join Mass.’ one current location in Woburn, along with another planned Apizza in the Seaport that’s set to open this year. And no matter what certain B-Side writers think about Apizza, the new spots will probably have lines out the door anyway. 

We’re giving away two sets of two tickets to the VIP Viewing of the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series aboard the Spirit of Boston cruise ship (a $400 value per ticket!). To be eligible, refer a friend in the and have them accept your invite by end of day on 6/5. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below**

21+. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one entry per person. See Official Rules & an additional entry option here.

A local teen took “doing it for the bit” to a whole new level — literally. 

Ryan Mitchell, a 19-year-old from Rutland, took on and completed one of the most difficult tasks known to man last week when he successfully summited Mount Everest. But why? To create content for his YouTube channel. 

"I literally thought of the idea, 'I climbed Mount Everest,' for a YouTube video title, looked into it more, and from there, I don't know, I just fell in love with it," he told NBC10 Boston. 

Mitchell is no stranger to YouTube. He once had a highly-produced channel with almost 2 million subscribers, but as of right now, most of his content is (understandably) focused on Everest. 

Say what you will, but no one hustles harder than teenagers making money on YouTube.

Check out his climb content here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

💻 Thanks for reading! And if that’s not enough Gen Z for you … he also funded the entire journey through money he made streaming Minecraft.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, @seaportbos, for supporting local journalism and making fitness more accessible in Boston. 

🏖️ The results are in: According to polled B-Siders, the No. 1 place in Mass. to hang out this summer is the Cape, with 43% of readers voting for it. One reader said: “If I could afford Nantucket or the Vineyard, I'd vote for that, but I am unfortunately 25 and trying to be realistic.” 😭.”

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