👯 This place will keep you in the friend zone

It’s Monday, Boston.

🥕 Need an easy-ish summer recipe? Try making Boston Chef Sara Wade’s carrot hummus. I’m 95% sure you already have most of the ingredients.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Too much dirty water

• Soup dumpling star

• Fenway flooding

Up first...

OUT & ABOUT

Besties for the restie

Making friends as an adult can be hard. And there’s research to prove it. 

But there’s also research on how to make it easier. And one way to do so is having a regularly scheduled group activity (think book clubs or weekly potlucks), according to psychologist and University of Maryland professor Marisa G. Franco.

So whether you’re new to the city or just need a new pal, here are a few regular meet-ups and hangouts with every hobby in mind:

🏓 If you’re a moderately sporty spice … Join a rec league. Volo Sports, Hub Sports Boston, and Boston Ski and Sports Club are the big three for organized group sports in the area, offering everything from soccer to indoor Skee-Ball year-round. Plus, Volo and Hub Sports are both operating new sets of pickleball courts at Assembly Row and Harpoon Brewery if you’re looking to join the craze.

🍷 If you consider yourself a foodie or wino … Try dinner with The Aperitivo Society. These cozy gatherings are held in someone’s home and spotlight different chefs and selections from the host, and each table is made up of six to 12 people — a great size for intimate convos. But if you can’t get into the main dinners, they also organize group dinners at local bars and restaurants.

🎲 If you’re a gamer … Find a game night near you. Tavern of Tales, a board game cafe and bar, has a weekly board game meetup on Tuesday evenings, Clover Food Lab hosts one on Wednesdays, Comicazi in Somerville has weekly board game nights and comic book clubs, and Pandemonium in Cambridge has a slew of game nights and D&D campaigns nearly every day.

🎭 If you were a theater kid … Try an Improv JAM. It’s basically an open mic night for comics and improvisers, and ImprovBoston hosts a weekly JAM open to all. Each session focuses on a different improv skill, and all levels are welcome to play. It’s also a great way to test out if you really want to commit to that stand-up class.

📖 If you like to read … Join a book club. Type in your zip code on the Reader’s Circle website and you’ll find a full list of book clubs near you. Personally, I’ve heard great things about the Bad Bitch Book Club, which recently went on a group summer camp weekend trip for adults that looked like a blast. There are also regular silent reading parties at Trident Booksellers and Café and Porter Square Books.

💻 And if you prefer to organize your own events … Join a Facebook group. The “What’s up in Boston” FB page is home to event listings specifically meant for people to connect in the area, plus, there’s a Discord group for post-grads trying to make friends in Mass. as well as a friend-connecting group for post-grads in their 20s and 30s.

💃 Want more? The Globe has a full guide to making friends in the area, from swing dancing to skating.

👀 Want to see these groups IRL? Boston creator Ayanna Moise checked out three local social groups and shared her thoughts in this IG video.

QUICK QUESTION!

👭 Do you think Boston is an easy city to make friends in?

TOGETHER WITH REV’D

Giveaway alert!

🚲 We’re giving away a $139 giftcard to Rev’d Cycling! To be eligible, refer a friend below and have them accept your invite between July 24-July 27 If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🦠 The Charles wasn’t the only dirty water this week. Boston received nearly two inches of rain in less than two hours on Friday, shutting down parts of 93, washing out roads in Western Mass., and flooding Fenway Park (more on that later). Which, no surprise, led to several sewage discharges in the area. Plus, as of Friday, swimming at 64 Mass. beaches is off limits due to elevated bacteria levels, which feels like a sick joke given this week’s forecast. If you had beach plans, we should have a swimming update today, so be sure to check here.

⛴️ The T’s happiest passengers aren’t on the subway. Obviously. They’re on the ferries! While they only account for about half a percent of MBTA ridership, those riders don’t have much to complain about. The ferries aren’t just running on time, but their service has expanded and a handful of them are reduced-cost or free thanks to Sumner Tunnel closure (the harbor views don’t hurt either). The Lynn ferry in particular has been a smashing success, so officials are working to figure out how to keep this momentum going once the tunnel reopens.

🥟 A soup dumpling star has landed in Boston. Nan Xiang Express, a fast-casual Shanghainese spot serving soup dumplings, noodles, and more just soft-launched in the old Gourmet Dumpling House building in Chinatown. This new restaurant is an offshoot of Michelin-recommended Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao in NYC, whose takeout-friendly menu riffs off the full-service restaurant. Assuming business at Nan Xiang Express goes well, according to Eater, the plan is to bring more Express locations and potentially a full-service Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, too.

🥞 The Friendly Toast is starting its freshman year at Harvard. Or at least its new Cambridge locale is. The beloved brunch chain is opening up shop this morning on Mass. Avenue, serving up favorites like their churro bites, French toast, and mimosa flights. They’ll be open today from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Never forget the OG Cambridge location in Kendall Square, home to my first Friendly Toast experience. If you’re a first-timer, I highly recommend the chicken and waffles or the “Appetize Me Captain” if you like a little of everything.

THINGS TO DO

Weekday checklist

😋 Eat your way through Eastie at the 27th annual “Taste of Eastie” event. Nearly 30 East Boston restaurants will be there. Plus, it’s at the Tall Ship, so the sunset views will be chef’s kiss.

🎨 Got a “C” in art? Join the Bad Drawing Club. This low-stakes art class at the Hatch Makerspace in Watertown is all about exploring the joy of making easy drawings without judgment.

📿 Make your own resin trinket trays. Just like the ones you see at local artisan markets. This class will teach you how to DIY from start to finish, and you’ll leave with your own oval tray.

💻 Beat the heat by streaming inside. Boston.com’s weekly list of five must-watch movies and TV shows just dropped. Bonus: It’s also Shark Week. Here’s the full shark schedule.

📝 Shut up and write at the BPL. Literally. Whether you're working on a novel, resume, or to-do list, this quiet time with other writers is all about helping those creative juices flow.

ONE LAST THING

Fenway flooding

Red Sox fans probably wished Noah were in attendance during Friday’s game. Because you definitely needed an ark to see it.

The Sox-Mets game was suspended in the fourth inning after rain turned into a lighting-laden downpour, absolutely flooding the ballpark. Several fans posted videos of water pouring down the staircase, which felt like something out of Titanic. While others treated the flooded concourse like a Slip n’ Slide. Even the hallway between the Red Sox clubhouse and dugout was underwater.

But on the upside, the Sox took home the W during the rescheduled game on Saturday. And both Sox and Mets fans were able to agree on one thing in a stadium-wide chant: Yankees suck.

😨 Thanks for reading! Solidarity to everyone who was driving during that deluge. My knuckles are still white.

🚇 The results are in: Over 50% of respondents agreed having the T run on time but without AC is worse than having nice weather but not being able to swim and not being able to get a reservation at a new restaurant in town. Lucky for us, the T never runs on time, so we’ll never have to deal with that.

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