🌷🤫 This secret garden is blooming soon

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🥐 Here’s a sweet Hump Day deal: Lakon Paris Patisserie (the bakery known for these viral cube croissants) is offering folks a free cup of coffee with the purchase of a pastry at its Brookline location on Wednesdays. You’re welcome. <3

👀 What’s on tap today:

• A stadium court drama

• Carbo-loading on the menu

• Boston’s luckiest concert

Up first …

THINGS TO DO

Boston in bloom

We can’t believe we’ve saying this, but … the first day of spring is TOMORROW. To celebrate, we asked local creators (and, fine, ourselves) to share their favorite activities to add to your spring bucket list:

🌷 Peep, primp, or pick tulips. Tulip hunting is Kate Weiser a.k.a. @bucketlistboston’s fave spring to-do. Option one: Make your own springy floral creation at one of Rococo Floral Co.’s springtime series classes. Option two: Pick your own tulips! If you have a ride, try MassHort’s Tulip Mania in Wellesley (it should open in mid-April), or with a little prior planning, Wilson Farm is MBTA-accessible.

🚲 Take a BlueBike adventure. While it's still cool enough to go on non-sweaty bike rides, Gia recommends grabbing a $10 BlueBikes day pass, popping in a headphone, and hitting the road with a fun destination in mind. Two of her best trips from last year: Take the Esplanade up to Charlestown and grab a brew on Dovetail’s patio. Or, hit the North End and grab a huge sandwich (think: Monica’s or Table Mercato) and sit by the water.

🧗 Learn how to boulder. No joke. Darren Josey, the brains behind The Great Malden Outdoors, recommends Waitts Mountain Park, a 15-minute walk from the Oak Grove T stop. Request a guided tour of the wall or equipment from nearby Rock Spot Climbing, and learn about bouldering, top roping, and trad climbing. If bouldering isn’t your speed, bike, run, walk, or skate along the Northern Strand Trail, which runs from around the Assembly T stop all the way to Lynn. Check out the “bike kitchen” for a cheap tune-up, or catch any of these events.

🚣 Row, row, row your boat down the Charles. Paddle Boston is one of the city’s most underrated spring activities, said local things-to-do creator Emi McSwain. For $32, you can grab a kayak and spend 90 minutes paddling around the Charles. McSwain usually starts at the Allston/Brighton location, packs a “salty snack,” and sets sail. Pro-tip: Request to drop the kayak off at a different location — like Cambridge or Somerville — and turn it into a day trip.

🌹 Stop and smell the flowers. Specifically, the roses at the Kelleher Rose Garden in the Fens. At least that’s what Emily is doing. In early June, 1,500 roses behind tall green hedges reach peak bloom, transforming into a secret rose garden just minutes from Fenway Park. C’mon, just look at it. There are rose bushes, statues, an eden-like fountain, these gorgeous arched trellises — and yes, it’s free to visit. But make sure to get there while the gettin’ is good — peak bloom only lasts around three weeks!

TOGETHER WITH THE 2025 ISU WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

From Boston ice to the world stage

⛸️✨ Step aside, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck — Beantown’s got a new power duo. US Pairs Champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, who train right here in Boston, are set to “wow” at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships on March 26–27 at TD Garden. Come watch them spin, jump, and balance their way to (hopefully) a World Champion title. Before the pairs perform, there will be a special tribute to the victims of the Jan. 29 plane crash, many of whom were members of The Skating Club of Boston. Sessions are selling out — be sure to secure your tickets before they’re gone.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🏟️ To stadium, or not to stadium. That is the question as the fight over renovating White Stadium landed in court on Tuesday. ICYMI: The stadium is in MAJOR need of repair, so the city entered a private-public partnership with the group behind Boston’s incoming NWSL team to get the job done. But some residents and advocates sued, arguing the development proposal violates a section of the state Constitution (Article 97, if we’re being specific), among other things. One judge already sided with the city, allowing the demo to begin. The trial is expected to last ~two weeks. 

🚗 It’s a rough time to be a Cybertruck in Boston. Or really, any Tesla. If you’ve been seeing weekly protests at the Back Bay Tesla dealership, they’re not just random one-offs. They’re actually part of a nationwide movement to discourage folks from buying anything Tesla following Elon Musk’s actions in the Trump admin. The Back Bay protests have grown from just a handful of demonstrators to over 300 in about a month. And while organizers hope Musk will face accountability at some point, right now, the goal is to keep growing the movement. 

⚽ Out: BOS Nation. In: … TBD. In other soccer news: Remember when Boston’s incoming NWSL team absolutely botched its name reveal with this super cringe “Too Many Balls” campaign? Yeah, we’d prefer to forget it, too. So they’re wiping the slate clean with an announcement to replace the “BOS Nation” team name in the coming weeks. The team decided to rebrand after convos with fans and stakeholders, as well as surveys and other analysis. Their first game is slated for next year. We’ll keep you posted on the new name when it drops!

🥯 Boston’s food scene is in its carbo-loading era. If taking over your FYP weren’t enough, PopUp Bagels appears to be taking over the Boston area after announcing plans to open another location in Cambridge later this year. Assuming its opening in Assembly Row goes to plan this summer, Greater Boston will be home to three PopUp locations at some point this year (and yet, still no In-N-Out). In other carb-related news, a highly regarded Italian restaurant that was a former North End hot spot is now (kinda) back.

QUICK QUESTION!

👀 What would you rename Boston’s NWSL team?

ONE LAST THING

The luckiest St. Paddy’s surprise

Picture this: Ed Sheeran wearing a Celtics jersey while performing at an Irish pub in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day. 

No, it’s not ChatGPT’s response to “what’s the most Irish thing to ever happen in Boston?” It literally happened at The Dubliner pub on Monday. Let us explain …

The folk-slash-pop star teased the appearance on his IG stories earlier that day, writing “Meet me in the pub tonight” with Boston tagged as the location (all accompanied by the song “Galway Girl” obv). He also added: “(It’s okay to admit you like this song today bruh).” Seen.

As promised, he rolled up to The Dubliner to a packed crowd for a surprise concert, performing hits like “Nancy Mulligan,” “Shivers,” “Perfect,” and “Don’t.” And this video of it all going down is actually WILD.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

😭 Thanks for reading! To those who were blessed enough to see this IRL: How does it feel to live my dream?!

💜 Special shoutout to today's sponsor, the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, for supporting local journalism and bringing world-class skating to Boston. 

👀 The results are in: 72% of B-Side readers agree: Broker fees are a scammy cash grab and should be tossed. And they did not mince words. One reader wrote, “nothing like paying thousands of dollars to some rando from apartments.com who just unlocked a door for me.” PREACH.

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