😛🦪 Shuck around and find out

It’s Thursday, Boston.

🥳🏙️ BIG NEWS: You’re invited to the Best Day Ever! Join us Aug. 2 at Artists for Humanity for a massive B-Side festival bringing together everything we love about Boston: food, music, vintage shopping, and so much more. GA tickets are 50% off through June 11. Members, don't worry, you’ll have the best deal of all. <3

👀 What’s on tap today:

• A Fenway controversy

• THE summer dining guide

• Love and basketball … or not

Up first…

RESTAURANTS

New season = new restaurants

Seafood? Check. Cocktails? Check. Rooftop dining? Check! Per usual, Boston.com and Boston magazine are serving up this months’ restaurant opening roadmaps. And we gotta say: June’s batch has the summer vibes on LOCK.

Here’s what’s on the menu:

🦪 Island Creek Raw Bar, Seaport. Oyster lovers, RISE. The iconic Island Creek Oyster team has journeyed from Duxbury to bless Boston with a newly-opened seasonal outdoor restaurant. Vibe-wise, picture Cisco … but with green turf. As for the menu, it’s — you guessed it — full of seafood: Sushi, tinned fish, lobster rolls, oysters (duh), plus a “world famous” caviar-topped hot dog (which we GOTTA try), and a few drinks. Warning: The prices are a little steep.

Things to try: 

• Caviar-topped hot dog

• Island Creek oysters

• Ceviche with cobia, pineapple, and jalapeño 

🏙️ Essex Rooftop, Southie. Come for the rooftop views, stay for the cocktails and crudo. That’s right: Southie’s getting a *new* rooftop bar atop the Cambria Hotel. Essex Rooftop is part of Cambria’s new restaurant, The Essex (which looks good, but, let’s face it, isn’t on a roof). There’s a short menu of apps, including cocktail shrimp, an heirloom tomato salad, and charcuterie, paired with a more robust menu of (pricey) drinks, including frozen margs.

Things to try: 

• Frozen margs and frosé

• Pompeii spritz with housemade limoncello 

• Cocktail shrimp

👓 Bar Lunette, Coolidge Corner. As a Coolidge Corner girl, Gia’s No. 1 gripe is the lack of places to sit and have a little drink. But the folks behind this new French-inspired cocktail spot clearly heard her silent prayers, delivering this short and sweet menu of cocktails, including a selection of spritzes and a Nutella espresso martini. It’s open now, and rumor has it, weekend and Monday brunch are coming soon. 

Things to try: 

• “Live, Laugh, Louvre” spritz

• Lunette’s French martini 

• “Lost in Translation,” an elevated midori sour

🍣 Koro, Eastie. Build-your-own ramen AND sushi? We’re SO in. That’s what’s on the menu at Koro, a new casual Japanese restaurant in Jeffries Point. There’s a wide selection of BYO and signature ramens, sushi rolls (including a sushi doughnut!), plus donburi and a couple of apps. The space itself is retro and bright, but the menu is designed to be just as good taken out as it is eaten in. 

Things to try:

• BYO ramen menu

• Sushi doughnut 

• Koro wings with signature sauce

👀 Hungry for more? Check out Boston.com’s full roundup and Boston magazine’s here.

QUICK QUESTION!

😋 Which of these spots do you want us to try for B-Side Certified? 

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT

Don’t miss out on this deal!

B-Side members get 60+ discounts to some of Boston’s best businesses, including BOGO dumplings ($7+ Value!) at Dumpling Daughter, serving up mouthwatering Chinese-style dumplings and buns — including vegan options.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

⚾ The Green Monster view may never look the same. Plans for the Red Sox’s new HQ just dropped, and it’s already making headlines. Why? Renderings of the proposed 250,000 square-foot office building (phase one of the massive Fenway Corners Project) show it blocking the view behind the Green Monster, and some angles of the iconic Citgo sign. That said, our initial scan of social media indicates fans aren’t particularly mad about it — some even like the design. If all goes well, construction will kick off in 2026.

💸 Josh Kraft is betting BIG on himself. And by big, we mean shelling out two million of his personal dollars to close the fundraising gap between his and Mayor Michelle Wu’s campaigns. For context: They had $151,661 and $2.2 million on hand, respectively, in late May. Kraft explained the cash was a way to balance out “the power of incumbency,” and get his campaign the resources it needs to thrive. But Wu clapped back hard, saying Boston is “not for sale,” accusing Kraft of basically buying his way into the race. 

🪴 Got a green thumb? Prove it! Speaking of the mayor, entries for Wu’s annual Garden Contest are officially open through July 9. The grand prize? TWO round-trip tickets on JetBlue. Here’s how it works: Boston residents are invited to enter the competition by filling out this application and sending a few garden pics to [email protected]. There are categories for every type of garden, from a balcony setup to a 500 square-foot plot, plus a new pollinator garden category. Here are last year’s winners.

🦪 The Globe’s official guide to summer dining is here. And the theme? JOY. Food writer Devra First’s “highly selective” list includes 15 local spots that’ll provide a mental vacation from, well, everything. Looking for tiki vibes that are just the right amount of kitschy? Try Shore Leave in the South End or ​​Harvard Square’s Wusong Road. Want to dine by the water? Hit up Nautilus in the Seaport. Enjoy planning your day trips around a meal? Sushi Sang Lee in Gloucester is the ticket. Here’s the whole list.

GIVEAWAY

Together with Flour Bakery + Cafe

Enter to win a $25 Gift Card to Flour Bakery + Cafe. To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on June 5. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

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

ONE LAST THING

Love and basketball … or not

Think YOU’RE a big Celtics fan? Carolina Rodeghiero and Felipe Soares were planning their wedding day around catching a game — until their friends stepped in. 

Rodeghiero and Soares are the latest newlyweds featured in the Globe’s wedding column, The Big Day. Their OG wedding plans were as follows: a quick wedding at City Hall, a trip to the pub, and … a C’s game. Why? It’s “just so close,” Rodeghiero said.

But when their pals heard the plan, they called for a wedding planning intervention. 

The City Hall ceremony was still a go, but instead of heading to TD, their friends banded together to throw a huge surprise party for the couple — contributing flowers, cupcakes, videography, even an impromptu musical performance — and absolutely no basketball.

Read their full story here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

💒 Thanks for reading! TBH, this sounds much nicer than spending your wedding night on an overpriced Truly, a bucket of chicken, and $100 nosebleed seats.

🥳 The results are in: 46% of B-Siders say they’d pay up to $20 for our summer bash (a.k.a. Best Day Ever!). And trust us, we hear ya. The good news: From now until June 11, that’s exactly how much tickets will cost. Stay tuned for more discounts (especially you, members!). 

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