😘🥩 Your hot grill summer starts now

🌭 PSA: The hot dog fanny pack is BACK! This sweeeeet Red Sox ticket deal comes with this beauty AND a Fenway Frank. Snag tickets here! We’re still obsessed with ours.

🐟 OH, and come to our ~freshest~ Supper Club yet. We’re beating the heat for our next B-Side Supper Club with a curated raw bar meal at Island Creek Oyster Bar in Seaport on July 28. Expect tuna tostadas, caviar corndogs, fish and shrimp tacos, and fresh oysters for just $40 all-in (or +$10 for a drink pairing). 

🥳 And a special HBD to B-Side Member, Lyzz Zinn! You’re OUR catch of the day. ;)

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

This is your sign to get out of your restaurant rut. ‘Cause Boston magazine and Boston.com know *just* the spots, giving us their guides to the best new bites around the city this month.

Here’s what’s on their list: 

🍨 Gori & Co., JP. This cute new spot is literally serving up summer in a bowl. Enter: Kakigōri. This Japanese-style shaved ice is so light and fine that it’s like eating a cloud of snow. And you can add fun toppings and flavors, including matcha, mango, and strawberry cream (their July special ft. real berries and crumbled wafers!). If you need to balance your sweet tooth, they also have a few Japanese savory snacks, like spicy tuna onigiri, that you can grab and go.

🍽️ Things to try:

🥪 FAI Canteen, South End. New brunch spot alert! This takeout-only breakfast-and-lunch nook in the South End might be soooo tiny, but their menu looks unreal. Sandos and salads look like the name of the game (plus a few desserts), and we’re already drooling over this mortadella and stracciatella sammie and blackberry brown butter cake. Not to mention, this might just be our new go-to spot for an egg and cheese, ‘cause they’ve got *killer* flavor combos. Chicken sausage & chimichurri?! We’re sold. 

🍽️ Things to try:

🥩 Jinjee, Allston. Watch out, there’s a new KBBQ diva in town. Sanbada, a.k.a. Boston mag’s 2026 pick for best Korean restaurant, has a hot new sister next door who’s serving up some seriously tender wagyu beef, premium pork, and generous banchan. This experience is definitely more upscale than some other KBBQ spots, but the quality of their meat might just make the price point worth it. I mean, look at the marbling! But don’t worry, they have a more affordable tier (and lunch prices!) if you’re a baddie on a budget.

🍽️ Things to try:

🧑‍🍳 Wonder, multiple locations. If you’re new here, Wonder is a food delivery app that’s partnered with 20+ restaurants across the country. And their brick-and-mortars — like its newest location in Kendall Square that just opened last week — are not like normal food halls. Customers can order from alllllll the different restaurant menus, in ONE transaction. The goal? Make more chef-driven, delish food accessible. Want to try celeb chef Marcus Samuelsson’s fried chicken? Or Bobby Flay’s famous steak? Well, now you can order both at once!

🍽️ Things to try:

😋 Hungry for more? Check out Boston.com and Boston magazine’s full lists.

🎶 🎤 Berklee is making history on Sept. 19 with its inaugural Homecoming Block Party — a first-of-its-kind daylong celebration bringing together powerhouse alumni to perform in one place. Susan Tedeschi, Tiwa Savage, Fabiola Méndez, Dreion, Dogs in a Pile, and more music luminaries are coming home to Berklee, with additional artists to be announced leading up to the event.

Homecoming isn't just for alumni — everyone's invited to witness artists who've shaped the music industry perform at the institution that helped launch their careers. Mark September 19 on your calendar, and stay tuned for the box office opening on June 16. Tickets on sale now!

🥵 Extreme heat coming (again) in 3, 2, 1… Mayor Michelle Wu just issued another heat advisory for Tuesday and Wednesday, and we’ll definitely be cookin’ in near-100-degree temps both days. The good news: The city’s got tons of cooling resources for ya, and the heat should fade gradually this week, leaving us with another weekend in the 80s. The (other) bad news: There will be a chance of rain Saturday and Sunday, so be prepared to adjust your weekend plans.

🩺 Brigham nurses are STILL waiting for a new contract. Nurses just went back to work on Monday, after what was THE biggest nursing strike ever in Mass. Now, the union wants to get back to negotiations soon, but it seems wages are the main sticking point. ICYMI: 4,000 nurses went on strike last week over pay and insurance costs, and then Brigham locked them out of work for another four days. Wu even invited both sides to City Hall to talk shop last Thursday, but alas, no deal was made.

🧋 Big tech TEA is coming for Mass. Huge Chinese tea brands like Heytea and Molly Tea are rapidly expanding across the state, and have no plans of slowing down. These chains have grown wildly popular worldwide by chasing trends (think: cheese foam) and always changing their menus. Heytea alone opened two locations just last year in Boston and another in Natick, with two more on the way. And Mixue, a.k.a. THE world’s largest food chain with 49,000+ stores globally (yes, it beat McDonald’s), is also planning to franchise in Mass. 

🖨️ The 3D printing industry is BOOMING. Though 3D printing was getting wayyyy too much hype for a while, there are now lots of Mass. companies raising investments and building new factories around the Boston area. Take Somerville-based Formlabs, which generated more than $250 million (!) in revenue last year, and VulcanForms from Newburyport, which has big plans for a factory in Mass. One big growth area for this industry? Military use. These printers are already being used to create parts for machines like drones, and its potential is only growing …

We have a couple spots left at our meetup at FORMAT's South Boston studio on July 16. Sign up here for a 50-minute strength class followed by a post-class wellness hour on the rooftop with local freebies, including Culture Pop soda, Hamersley’s Pantry bites, Night Shift’s Levity sparkling water, custom Crumb Baked Co cupcakes, and more! Plus, try out recovery tech like Theraguns and Normatec boots. Save $15 with the code BSIDE. Sign up here!

Of COURSE, John Krasinski has a phone voice … We just didn’t expect it to be of a “bitter Boston guy.” Let’s explain.

Matt Damon starred on “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” last week, and naturally, they covered a lot of Boston lore, like “Good Will Hunting” and the 2004 Red Sox World Series win. But our fave moment? Damon sharing how Krasinski leaves a voicemail. 

Here’s the bit: If Damon doesn’t pick up the phone, Krasinski goes full Boston on him, with a passive aggressive, condescending attitude about Damon’s success. 

“Good fah you, nah I’m sure you’re real busy, with ya big life and everything,” Damon said in a thick accent on the podcast, mimicking Krasinski. 

Apparently, the guy gets “more upset the better your life is,” Krasinski once said.

And the impressions seemed to hit HARD for locals in the comment section. One even wrote, “I think Emily Sweeney needs to be part of this conversation.” We’d be SAT.

— Written by Kelly Chan

🚗 Thanks for reading! We’re still rewatching Krasinski’s Smaht Pahk commercial.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Berklee Homecoming, for supporting local journalism and giving us all the reasons to be concertgoers this summer.

🍃 The results are in: 73% of B-Siders are absolutely against the anti-pot ballot Q, and many argued it's no different than booze. One reader wrote: “Because prohibition worked so well 100 years ago 😭” And you know what … you kinda ate with that.

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