🙋‍♀️💅 These restaurants are for the girls

Happy Friday, Boston!

☘️ Out: Shamrock Shakes. In: This wild milkshake from Boston Burger Company topped with a MASSIVE slice of Irish cream cheesecake. Even better: They’re also now offering $2 smash burgers at their Cambridge location from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. EVERY DAY. You’re welcome.

🎂 And happy early birthday to a BUNCH of readers: Olivia Peterson, Kathryn and Julia, and Mari, we <3 you guys! Get yourself a milkshake, a smash burger, or both — you deserve it. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• The pill = FREE

• MBTA shutdowns are so back

• Late night TV for Massholes

Up first…

TELEPHONE TAG

This one is for the girls

We love women, and we love food. So since it’s Women’s History Month, we asked some of the most iconic women in Boston’s restaurant industry to recommend one of their favorite women-owned spots.

Here’s what they said:

🥯 Cassie Piuma of Sarma loves Mary Ting Hyatt’s Bagelsaurus. “Mary is as kind as she is funny as she is talented as she is real,” Piuma said. Not only are her bagels top-notch (Piuma calls them the best in the city), but she always “has time for a warm exchange,” even when the line stretches around the block. In a business where folks are “quick to monetize a good thing,” Ting Hyatt “prioritizes quality above all else … invests in her team, and finds thoughtful ways to expand her excellence.” We’re sold!

🍪 Mary Ting Hyatt loves Katie Rooney’s 3 Little Figs. From the “amazing … high quality” sandwiches, treats, and drinks, to the way she runs her business, Rooney’s 3 Little Figs is one of Ting Hyatt’s inspirations for her own career. “I remember going to eat at 3 Little Figs, and seeing what she was doing running the business with her family, and thinking like, ‘I could see this,’” she said. “Nothing's more important than people and family, and I think you can tell that from going in there.”

🍰 Katie Rooney loves Maura Kilpatrick’s Sofra Bakery and Cafe. “[Kilpatrick] always has really strong people around her,” Rooney said. “She surrounds herself with very strong women.” Combined with her hardworking attitude, “great taste in flavors and flavor combinations … and beautiful technique,” it’s no surprise to Rooney that Sofra has been so successful. “She's been building over the years, which has been really cool to watch, and she deserves every ounce of success that she has.”

☕ Maura Kilpatrick loves Monica Glass’ Verveine Cafe & Bakery. “I’ve always been a big fan of hers," Kilpatrick said. “She was one of the first gluten-free pastry chefs I met … and she's really built a really good product.” A really well-done GF pastry isn’t an easy feat, but Kilpatrick said Verveine is one of the best in the area. And Verveine really shines in trickier goods like bread. Glass has also been inspirational as a business owner: “She seems so comfortable and happy, and enjoying her job and enjoying her team … it's kind of infectious.”

TOGETHER WITH INDY PASS

The best ski days? They’re off the beaten path.

⛷️❄️Why drop $$$ just to spend half your day in lift lines? With Indy Pass, you can ski and ride at 250+ indie resorts across the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, and South America starting at just $369. That’s two days per mountain, endless untouched powder, and way more runs with way fewer crowds — all for less than what some big resorts charge for a long weekend. Indy Pass limits the number of passes sold each season to stay true to the independent, less-crowded nature of its member mountains — so grab yours before it’s too late. 

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

💊 How to get the pill for FREE. On Thursday, Gov. Maura Healey dropped two new standing orders which make over-the-counter birth control and prenatal vitamins FREE for eligible MassHealth members and Health Safety Net patients. That’s about half a million people, and covers 40% of all Mass. births! Basically, if you’re “of reproductive potential and age," and on either of those plans, you don’t have to lift a finger. You can get a 365-day supply of over-the-counter birth control pills and a 90-day supply of over-the-counter prenatal vitamins. They’ll be available at all MassHealth-enrolled pharmacies. 

🚇 This weekend, the T is giving 2024. A.k.a. shutdown season. Red Liners: Service between JFK/UMass and Braintree will be replaced by shuttle buses, though the MBTA “strongly” encourages you to take the fare-free commuter rail instead. Orange Liners: Starting tonight at 8:30 p.m., service between Oak Grove and North Station is out, and shuttles are in until Monday, including express shuttles. Blue Liners: From 7 p.m. tonight until Tuesday, service will end at Government Center, and Bowdoin station will be closed. You get all that? Find all the deets here. 

💸 Cambridge residents: A million of the city’s dollars are in your hands. Seriously! It’s participatory budget season, baby. Volunteers spent months sorting through over 1,300 resident-submitted ideas for Cambridge’s budget, and now through March 16, YOU get to vote on which of the final 20 make the cut. Ideas run the gamut: Free sunscreen in city parks, EV chargers, girls’ empowerment sports events, speed humps, and way, way more. You can read all of the final proposals here, and then Cambridge residents can cast their ballots for up to five of the ideas. 

🏒 Should the Boston Fleet play … in Boston? The Fleet, which typically play in Lowell, sold out their first two games at Boston’s Agganis Arena, which seats over 6,000 people. So you might be surprised to learn that it also currently holds the league’s second-worst home attendance record — an average of 4,259 attendees. While a year-over-year improvement, that’s well below Toronto and Montreal's 8,000-plus, and the league’s 6,062. It also begs the questions: Did the team make the right move operating outside of Boston, and should it move here in the future?

QUICK QUESTION!

🚇 Have you been impacted by the T’s weekend shutdowns this year? 

THINGS TO DO

Weekend plans

🍷 Sip and sketch in Somerville. At First Crush’s figure drawing and wine school event tonight, $70 a pop gets you three(!) glasses of “fancy” wine, food, and a live figure drawing sesh.

🏓 Get hype at SPIN. The ping-pong bar is hosting its first, first Friday celebration tonight with tables for $10/hour. It's sports-themed, so think: local sports trivia, bar bites, and suitably hype music. Plus: B-Side members get exclusive discounts.

🍳 Fill up on bottomless brunch. Friendly reminder: Batifol in Cambridge has a sweet $38 all-you-can-eat brunch buffet on Saturdays, including unlimited OJ and coffee. Bonus: Students get 10% off by showing their student ID!

🫶 Show your love for Rat City. A.k.a. Allston! The hood is gathering at the Grove on March 8 to check out some new local art and music. You can get a free taco or hot chocolate if you say what you love about Allston here.

🎥 Watch anime at the MFA. The museum is screening the iconic movie “Spirited Away” on March 9, and tickets literally cost less than some AMC showings …

🥘 Fill up on Boston’s best chili. The concept is simple: An all-you-can-eat chili fest featuring bowls from Boston’s best cooks. That’s exactly the plan at Boston's Chili Takedown on March 9.

🧖 Meet your soulmate at the sauna. Moki Sauna is hosting a singles night on March 10 where you can steam with other singles before heading to Aeronaut Brewing’s pitch-a-friend event. Bonus: If you’re a B-Side member, you can save some serious $$$.

📚 See an NYT bestseller IRL. Diego Perez, a.k.a. Yung Pueblo, is coming to Cambridge on March 10 to chat about his new No. 1 NYT bestselling book, “How to Love Better.” Tickets are going quick.

ONE LAST THING

A very Massachusetts late night

Wednesday night’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” was for the Massholes. The show’s two guests for the night, Cambridge native Mindy Kaling and Mass. Gov. Maura Healey, brought some big New England energy to the show. 

Topics of discussion included: Being a Celtics fan, the blizzard of ’78, Dunkin’, and, separately, the DunKings. Plus, Healey dropped a cute anecdote about her grandmother bringing a literal bag of dirt to her Maryland birth to ensure that she was born “over New England soil,” and did her fair share of dunking on President Donald Trump. It was wild!

You can check out Healey’s convo here, and Kaling’s here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🍩 Thanks for reading! In the world of iconic Mass. events that no one else cares about: the Great Molasses Flood > The Blizzard of ’78. Sorry!

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Indy Pass, for supporting local journalism and giving independent ski resorts the spotlight they deserve. 

🤧 The results are in: 58% of B-Siders say that they won’t be caught without their meds this allergy season. One reader said: “I already started microdosing Claritin in preparation.”

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