😅❤️ We just saved Valentine’s Day

😭 Bad news: This was live footage of us Monday morning. 

🌇 Good news: We’re officially in 5 p.m. sunset land, and 6 p.m. sunsets are less than four weeks out!!!

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Sooooo … you haven’t made Valentine’s Day plans yet. Don’t worry, we’re not here to shame — we’re here to help! 

For this edition of B-Side Hotline, we rounded up last-minute V-Day plans for our Type-B baddies (no tacky gifts included):

🍴 Snag a last-minute dinner res. Finding a table now is basically an Olympic sport. But we love a good challenge … so we cracked open our Resy apps and found that Mimi’s Chūka Diner has plenty of seats for its $49/person prix fixe special, as does Tall Order if you’re cool with a small plates-and-cocktails vibe. 

🛏️ Use your dinner fund for a staycation. As several of you noted, the $200 you budgeted for V-Day dinner could easily cover a romantic staycation. We found a room for ~$130 in the South End’s Revolution Hotel on Feb. 13, which saves you some cash for a drink at Spy Bar downstairs.

🧖 Get steamy with your sweetheart. After a recent sweat/cold-plunge sesh with her hubs, Emily is convinced Moki Sauna offers the ultimate V-Day outing trifecta: Not just dinner, an approachable price point, and just the right amount of sexy (you’re in a bathing suit). You’ll leave refreshed, relaxed, and with the whole night ahead of you (which obviously = takeout and binging the new season of “The Pitt”).

💃 Watch some “Dirty Dancing.” We mean the movie … obviously. The Brattle’s showing it twice on Feb. 14. Gia would suggest pairing it with a glass of wine from the concessions stand, followed by a slice at Pinocchio's and a romantic walk down the Esplanade (just be sure to bundle up!).

This month’s expert is Kara Baskin, a journalist and correspondent for The Boston Globe who has written endlessly about Greater Boston’s food scene.

🍝 Head to an old-school sauce spot. There are still traces of old-school Somerville at Vinny’s Ristorante, where the hair and heels are tall, the aroma is pungent, and the prices are oh-so reasonable. Enter through the convenience store out front, savor a slab of $22 eggplant parm that’s easily shareable, and people-watch if your conversation stalls. It’s a nostalgic delight.

🌮 Take a trip to Waltham. There is zero ambience at Taqueria el Amigo, and candlelight might send the shoebox-sized storefront bursting into flames. But you know what is spicy? A silky, supple $3.75 pork and chili taco in soft corn tortillas, dribbly and delicious, with pops of diced onion and cilantro. The chips are sturdy, the guacamole is chunky, and queso-oozing chile relleno is designed for sharing, Lady and the Tramp-style.

📸🎭 These artists have been doing it for decades. Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self explores how creators since the 1920s have used characters, avatars, and myth to question identity itself. On view Feb. 19–May 10 at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the exhibition spans 80+ works that time-travel, gender-bend, and blur reality. Catch the opening night conversation with artists and the co-curators, or swing by on a Thursday when the museum stays open late until 9 p.m. Tickets are limited, so plan ahead.

❄️ A(nother) snowstorm is coming our way. And yes, you’ll need the shovel again. A system is expected to blow through starting Tuesday afternoon and will likely linger through part of Wednesday. The Boston area is looking at around 1-3 inches of snow — likely on the higher end of that range, but nothing we haven’t seen before. That said, the timing of the storm could make for a messy trek home. So consider this your permission slip to WFH today. <3 

⚽ The White Stadium reno finally has a price tag: A cool $135 million, to be exact. Last week, Mayor Wu dropped her official estimate for how much the controversial project will cost taxpayers, and it’s nearly three times the initial estimated cost. Wu blamed the increase on tariffs and the choice to make a few bougie additions based on community input (like a grass field or community room). And while the final figure isn’t quite as high as some had floated, the hefty price tag still adds fuel to the fire for the project’s opponents.

🔮 Gen Z is looking for love … in the stars. Interest in astrology-driven romance is on the rise among Gen Z and Millennials, according to Eventbrite, with a 21% increase in zodiac-inspired events and 22% jump in attendance nationwide. You can chalk it up to a mixture of dating app fatigue, hunger for IRL experiences, and Gen Z and Millennials’ shift toward “mystical services” for guidance in this chaotic moment. In dating, “astrology offers an alternative that feels personal, not algorithmic,” per the site.

☕ This week in foodie news: $24 coffee and a tiki Kowloon. Dunkin’ lovers will be horrified to know that a $24 cup of coffee has touched down at Boston’s George Howell Coffee, which = roughly 70 cents a sip. While Howell himself says it’s worth the cash, the Globe’s Beth Teitell isn’t so sure. In other foodie news, Kowloon, the iconic Saugus Chinese restaurant-slash-cultural touchstone, is opening a location on Revere Beach with a new theme: Kowloon Tiki on the Beach. Bring on the flaming pu pu platters!

🍕 If you like free pizza … Become a B-Side Member and enter our giveaway for a $150 Gift card to da LaPosta. Our mouths are watering looking at the menu! We’ll send you the link when you start a free trial.

Mark your calendars: We have a “Real Housewives of Rhode Island” premiere date! The iconic franchise’s first New England-based installment will drop on April 2, and it looks JUICY.

Though we’ve known about the show for a minute, Bravo dropped the official trailer and cast list last week, and from the three-minute trailer alone, it appears we’re in for a major cheating scandal, several screaming matches, and at least one family crisis. In other words: A Tuesday night on Bravo.

For the true Bravoholics, Andy Cohen described it as similar to the early New Jersey seasons (think: Italian women flipping tables). Consider us sat.

Watch the full trailer here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

👠 Thanks for reading! We have high hopes for this fight in particular.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, for supporting local journalism and bringing culturally rich experiences to our city. 

🚘 The results are in: 50% of B-Siders said they’d rather not get in a self-driving car. But one reader had an interesting counter-point: “An algorithm couldn’t drive much worse than most human Boston drivers??” Fair enough!

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