📚💅 This weekend? We’re booked.

Happy Friday, Boston!

🥨 If a cookie and a pretzel had a baby …  It would look something like Chip City Cookies’ new “Chocolate Chip Cretzel” (which looks like a true miracle of science). It’s available this weekend only in honor of National Pretzel Day. Here’s where to get one.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Behind on student loans? Listen up!

• Another weekend of T shutdowns

• Your Uber driver is famous

Up first…

TELEPHONE TAG

Indie bookstores <3 indie bookstores

Happy (almost) Indie Bookstore Day! The last Saturday in April doubles as an annual celebration of independent bookstores. Here in Boston, we have a pretty epic — and constantly growing — collection of them. 

For this month’s edition of small biz telephone tag, we asked local indie bookstores for their favorite local indie bookstores. Here’s what they said:

📚 Narrative Bookshop wants you to shop at Side Quest Books & Games. As a mission-based bookstore owner, Mila Hossain of Narrative Bookshop can appreciate a well-curated library. And you’ll find exactly that at Side Quest, a Bow Market shop dedicated to amplifying marginalized voices in fantasy (including *romantasy*). “There's just a lot of thought and intention put into the curation,” Hossain said, not to mention the “immaculate” vibes. Her favorite purchase there to-date is a cozy fantasy called “The Spellshop.”

📕 Side Quest Books & Games wants you to shop at All She Wrote Books. This intersectional feminist and queer bookstore in Somerville has been a “continual source of joy and support … for queer folks in the community,” said Side Quest’s owner Caroline Sheridan. Plus, as we heard from multiple folks in this telephone tag, owner Christina Pascucci Ciampa is “always ready to support other booksellers.” If you go, don’t miss its non-fiction section, where there’s “a book for every topic, every question, every feeling you might be feeling.”

📖 All She Wrote Books wants you to shop at Frugal Bookstore. Boston’s only Black-owned bookshop is “an amazing and beautiful space to find books from different perspectives,” said Pascucci Ciampa. And the best part? When you buy a book at Frugal, you know your money is going to be reinvested in the community, she said. You can usually spot Pascucci Ciampa at Frugal looking for anything by Bell Hooks that she hasn’t read. Her fave: “Ain't I a Woman”. 

📙 Frugal Bookstore wants you to shop at The Silver Unicorn Bookstore. There aren’t many indie bookstores Frugal owners Clarrissa Cropper and Leonard Egerton would go to bat for, but The Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton is one of them. They appreciate the way the store has fostered community, supported their mission, and continues to check in. If you’re stopping by, Cropper recommends you check out their unique selection of children’s books, which takes care to feature local authors.

👀 Want more? There are over 15 other indie bookstores to check out in metro Boston alone. 

QUICK QUESTION!

📚🎥 Would you rather read the book or see the movie?

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

💸 Behind on your student loans? Listen up! After a five-year break, the Department of Education is going to resume collecting money from the 5 million-plus folks with long-unpaid student loans starting May 5. They’ll begin with “involuntary” collections (withholding tax refunds, federal salaries, or Social Security). Then notices for “wage garnishment” (withholding up to 15% of paychecks) will be sent out later this summer. If you’re getting billed from a student loan servicer, you should be in the clear. But if you’ll be impacted, you should get emails soon. Here are some resources that can help.

🚃 Blue and Green liners, brace yourselves. You already know it’s shutdown time. The Green Line will be MIA between Government Center and Medford/Tufts as well as  Union Square this weekend. There will be shuttle buses unless you’re heading northbound at Haymarket or to Union Square — in those cases, walk to Government Center or take the 109, 91, or 87 buses. Blue Liners: From 7 p.m. tonight through Monday, Bowdoin station will be closed, so you’ll need to schlep to Government Center for service. Good luck out there!

✊🏾 MLK III is speaking on the Common. On April 26, Martin Luther King III will be joining community leaders for the 60th anniversary of the 1965 Freedom Rally on Boston Common, hosted by Embrace Boston. The group hopes to gather over 10,000 people to march down Boylston Street in remembrance of the original rally. Need a lift? Free buses leave from the Josh Kraft Mattapan Teen Center at 10:45 a.m. and the Yawkey Club of Roxbury and Berkshire Partners Blue Hill Club in Dorchester at 11 a.m., thanks to Friends of the Public Garden.

🍺 This weekend’s theme: Pints and pups. This week, Cisco Brewery’s new Fenway location officially opened for biz with live music, indoor and outdoor dining, and a beer garden. It’ll be open daily (here are the hours), plus two hours before every game and concert at Fenway Park. As for the pups, Park-9 at The Station, Boston’s only dog-friendly beer garden, is reopening for the season today. Not into beer? (Or dogs?) Lovestruck Books’ new wine patio (OMG) isn’t far behind, with its grand opening on April 26. 

THINGS TO DO

Weekend plans

🇯🇵 Spend your day off in Kyoto … in Boston. This weekend, Japan Festival Boston is taking over the Common with food, shopping, art, performances, cosplay, and MORE. Did we mention it’s free?

📚 Show your local bookstore some love. You already know Indie Bookstore Day is coming, so grab a passport and tap into Boston’s official Indie Bookstore crawl for some sweet prizes.

🥳 Get LIT … at 9 a.m. No joke: NYC’s The 9am Banger is for those of us who love the club scene minus the late nights and hangovers. It's coming to Big Night Live on April 26.

🧘🏾 Try pilates without the intimidation factor. The Soulful Sister Collective, a community dedicated to Black women’s wellness, is hosting an all-levels pilates class and social hour at Time Out on April 26.

🌷 Shop ’til you drop in Dot … at Dorchester’s neighborhood flea market on April 26! Think: 20+ vendors, clothing swaps, free books, plants, and more. It’s happening rain or shine!

👯 Spin round and round. Take a free mini pole dance class at Fly Together’s open house at its Watertown studio on April 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Register here to enter a raffle for a three-pack of classes!

🌶️ Give your taste buds a workout. Castle Island Brewing’s free Hell Night Hot Sauce Market on April 27 should do the trick. Try spicy bites from a special menu and sample sauces from around New England.

🌎 Plan your spring ‘fits. It's outdoor market season again, and FOUND is celebrating with an Earth Day-themed vintage market on April 27 with tons of clothes, food, drinks, and a DJ.

LOCAL DISCOUNT

15% off NA drinks!

B-Side members get 50+ discounts and freebies at some of Boston’s trendiest spots, including 15% off non-alcoholic drinks at Tilde, the unassuming Cambridge wine and coffee bar that brings a locally-focused edge to the coffee and natural wine scene. They’ve got board games, an impressive menu of snacks and drinks, and laid-back cozy vibes to turn an average night into something special. 

Join the B-Side Membership to claim this discount!

ONE LAST THING

A famous Uber driver

If you’re regularly ubering in Boston … there’s a real chance you’ve been in the car with Ayo Edebiri’s dad, Dele.

Ayo was on an episode of “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney,” when she casually dropped the nugget as part of a conversation about whether she’d been … thrown into a car. (To which she answered: “I’m from Boston — stuff be happening,” BTW). 

Anyway, it’s true: Dele is currently driving Ubers around the city, and once picked up SNL alum Leslie Jones when she was filming a movie here almost 10 years ago — that could be you! 

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🚗 Thanks for reading! If you end up in Dele’s car, please tell him his daughter is a national treasure.

🥴 The results are in: 43% of B-Siders say they need four or five drinks to be three sheets to the wind. Which, as two major lightweights, Emily and Gia find extremely impressive. One reader said: “In this economy, eating light before drinking saves my wallet.”

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