🤪💃 Why Gen Z should hit the club

🎡 Need a reason to leave the house after work? The Frostival ferris wheel is FREE to ride today from 12 to 8 p.m. Bonus points if you grab a B-Side Certified cup of cocoa from Cacao while you’re at it.

🍺⛳ This golf deal is a hole-in-one. Banners Kitchen and Tap is giving one lucky B-Side Member a Birdie Package Voucher including 90 minutes of TopGolf, a welcome cocktail, AND a handheld menu item. Members, we’re dropping this in the newsletter tomorrow. Open to Mass. residents 21+. Start a 30-day free trial to enter.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Young people are trading nightclubs for run clubs. After-work drinks for early morning fitness classes. Vodka for matcha. You get it. But according to Boston magazine, the shift is changing the way we socialize.

Here’s what to know: 

💆🏻‍♀️ Gen Z is all-in on wellness. Sure, Boston has never exactly been a nightlife hub, but these days, going out on a weeknight is basically a forgotten art, Marwa Osman of The City Lists told Boston. College kids are lining up for 5 and 6 a.m. workout classes, and events promising workouts and cold plunges can sell 1,500 tickets. “Instead of going out for drinks or meeting up for brunch, [young people are] all working out together,” said Barry’s instructor Kelly Whittaker-Cummings. 

🤑 At least, the ones who can afford it. To be clear: Shaping your social life around sauna sessions and boutique fitness studios ain’t cheap, and not just anyone has hundreds of dollars a month to shell out. Remedy Place, Boston’s first-ever “social wellness club” — where you can hang with your besties in a hyperbaric chamber or get IV drips together — will run you a cool $399/month membership fee. Even a monthly Barry’s membership costs $230. And yet, people are willing to pay.

🍷 Yes, cutting back on the booze is good for you. It’s hard to argue that swapping after-work drinks for quiet nights in is bad for us. New research is finding that no amount of alcohol is healthy to consume, and it doesn’t take a doctor to know that a Thursday morning workout class > a Thursday morning hangover. As Boston put it: “Their livers (and lifespans) are undoubtedly better off.”

💃 But the change may spell trouble for Boston’s nightlife industry. While local bars and restaurants have been struggling since the pandemic, these days, the industry is “under siege,” said Jackson Cannon, beverage and bar director for Eastern Standard Hospitality. According to him, Gen Z is hardly drinking, folks taking GLP-1s are opting for appetizers over entrees, and late night crowds are thinning out, all of which = a BIG problem for his bottom line.

👫 As for the rest of us … we’ll see. Wellness aside, there is probably a price to pay for trading fun for optimization, even if it’s not clear yet. Articles have speculated that the shift has made us lonelier or more likely to isolate, which (spoiler) is also bad for our health. “We have lost a little something,” Cannon said, “that’s going to be hard to calculate.”

🧠 Want to know more? Read the full story from Boston magazine here.

🐴🧧 The stars (and the Chinese zodiac) are aligned. On Thursday, Feb. 19, the Museum of Fine Arts is ringing in the Lunar New Year and Year of the Horse — a sign known for ambition, movement, and saying yes to plans. It’s all part of $5 Third Thursdays, where admission is $5 after 5 pm. Explore Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese art, catch lion dances and live performances, and make art with your hands for good luck. Consider this your sign to leave the house and start the new year right. 

🤖 Your next speeding ticket could come from a robot. Tucked inside Gov. Healey’s $63 billion state budget proposal is a plan to use cameras to dole out speeding tickets. This isn’t the first time Healey has floated the idea, but this version is scaled down, proposing them near school and construction zones only. Proponents say the move would lessen the burden on local cops and likely save lives (data shows the cameras cut serious crashes by 25%), but others worry about automated enforcement being used to over-police people of color. 

🎨 A Newbury Street shop is going viral for all the wrong reasons. If you’re anywhere near Boston TikTok, you’ve probably heard of Rainbows Pottery Studio, which is facing backlash after a viral video sparked a firestorm of allegations against the shop. Customers, former employees, and even neighbors have come out with WILD stories about traumatic run-ins with the owner, an employee with a history of sexual assault, and even lawsuits against customers who leave negative reviews. Meanwhile, at the shop, it’s business-as-usual. Read the wild story here.

💌  Have a love question? Tell-a-booth! You can officially interact with Boston.com’s “Love Letters” column IRL thanks to a new phone booth activation at the BPL’s Central Library. Picture this: A cute, red booth in the library where you can take a seat, pick up an actual phone, and pour your heart out (anonymously). Visitors can ask questions for the column, listen to the “Love Letters” podcast, or just talk, whatever their heart desires. Take a peek inside!

🏮 Celebrate Lunar New Year … by eating GOOD. Need suggestions? The Globe rounded up eight delish spots to try that have been around since the 90’s. There’s Grasshopper, the beloved vegan restaurant in Allston with monthly ~$16 all-you-can-eat buffets; Cambridge’s Koreana with its bibimbap, banchan and bulgogi; Taiwan Cafe in Chinatown with the best lunch deals around on dumplings, scallion pancakes, and noodle soup; and, of course, Kowloon. Here’s the full list.

🍿 Consider this your Oscars heads up. You have less than a month to lock in your predictions! Here’s how to watch or stream the nominated flicks from the comfort of your couch. 

🍹 Cheers to your new mixology skills. You’ll have lots to celebrate after Loco Southie’s cocktail-making class on Feb. 17. Included with your ticket: A welcome sip, two cocktails, small bites, and party tricks that last a lifetime. <3

🧘 Find your zen in the new year. YogaSix in Assembly Row is putting on an all-levels 60 minute Lunar New Year flow on Feb. 17 with themed giveaways and snacks. Bring your own mat or rent one for $3!

👯 Meet your new favorite girlie pops. Meaningful convos with strangers that don't leave you drained? That’s on the agenda at this all-women Skip The Small Talk night on Feb. 18. 

🎨 Paint away your winter blues. This laid-back women's watercolor social on Feb. 18 is the perfect way to get the creative juices flowing and meet new pals. Bonus: It’s under $25.

🐴 Ring in the Year of the Horse at the MFA. Feb. 19 = The museum’s Lunar New Year Third Thursday night. Just $5 gets you museum admission, lantern-making, live music, and a few other surprises and delights. 

🧶 Snuggle up in a cozy crafting circle. Specifically, the West End Museum’s winter social on Feb. 19, where you can learn, teach, or practice a craft with the gang (read: finally finish that scrapbook page). 

🥊 Learn to roll with the punches. Literally: The Fenway Community Center is hosting a free non-contact boxing class on Feb. 19 taught by Beantown Boxing that’s sure to spice up your winter workout routine. 

Whoever said Boston winters aren’t fun clearly forgot to tell Jack Tarca. For a brief, shining moment, Southie was home to a legit igloo courtesy of the 26-year-old and his roommates.

After seeing videos of parents creating igloos for their kids this winter, the group was inspired, buying 80 storage bins from Home Depot to make ice cubes, freezing them outside, and then quite literally building brick-by-brick. Twelve days, 100+ hours of work, and at least one dance party later, they’d not only built a giant igloo, but had gone viral doing it. You gotta see this thing.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t have a happy ending. Just days after the igloo was completed, Tarca says two grown men snuck into the backyard and broke it down. But he’s trying to put a positive spin on the situation. His takeaway? “It’s really about the journey.” 

You can read the whole story here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🧊 Thanks for reading! Now THAT’S how you use your free will.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for supporting local journalism and bringing culturally rich experiences to our city.

💏 The results are in: 62% of readers said they had a Valentine this year, and one reader brought a tear to our eye with their write in: “I met the love of my life in July and got her to subscribe to The B-Side! Kelly, I love you so much and I can't wait to spend Valentine's Day with you!!!” Love is real!

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