Latest news with #GetWinterSoupClub
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Tiffani Faison's Bubble Bath opens in the Back Bay; New England BIPOC Festival announces an all-star lineup
Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up Events : Head to New Hampshire for the free, fifth annual New England BIPOC Festival on Sunday, Aug. 17, kicking off at noon at the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth (14 Hancock St.). Advertisement Vida Cantina owner David Vargas oversees the event, with stalls from local social justice organizations, live music, dance, and plenty of food from spots like Ansanm , Coastline Seafood , Flame Jamaican Cuisine , Mei Mei Dumplings , Nine Winters , Pagu , Tulsi , and many more. Check out the full lineup at Performers at the annual New England BIPOC Festival in Portsmouth, N.H. David J. Murray, ClearEyePhoto Food recovery powerhouse Spoonfuls launches Battle of the Bites , a charity cooking competition series with esteemed chefs. First up: Jamie Bissonnette ( Somaek , Temple Records , Zurito ) versus Drew Grosse (Cape Cod's Lobster Trap ) on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at South Boston's Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant (425 West Broadway), beginning at 6 p.m. Advertisement Tickets ($50) include appetizers, a drink, tastings of the rival dishes, and more. Get them at Kara Baskin can be reached at
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
On the South Shore, a new generation of specialty food shop owners puts down roots and gains a following
Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up 'Plymouth County has so much to offer young and growing businesses,' says Fletcher Souba, who co-owns Slack Tide with brothers Zac and Max Carpman. 'For Slack Tide, it's the sense of community that stands out the most, and that's a core pillar of our mission.' Advertisement Hardly Saints Donuts owners (and husband and wife) Camden Moya and Anissa Davidson in Duxbury. They both changed careers to open their doughnut shop in Duxbury. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Anissa Davidson and Camden Moya of Hardly Saints say local businesses are rooting for them. 'I feel like all of Duxbury has come by,' Davidson says. 'Even the people who own Oysterman (a nearby restaurant) have come over and said, 'If you ever run out of ice, come on over!'' Advertisement Julie and Christian McGourty, of Happy Jan's, are beneficiaries of the 'pay-it-forward' philosophy. Slack Tide's owners are entrusting the pre-existing ice cream space to the entrepreneurs after Marshfield's Raspberry doughnuts wait to be dipped in chocolate at Hardly Saints Donuts. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff The McGourtys are also gaining operational advice from their friend Nichole Theriault of Souba, who oversees Slack Tide's coffee roasting, finds the ice cream's flavor profile impressive. 'It's [with] a peaberry coffee, medium roasted, with earthy notes and a berry sweetness that shines through beautifully,' he says. Orders ready to be picked up at Slack Tide Coffee Roasters in Kingston. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff That these business owners are millennials is not surprising. 'We have a natural aging of the industry,' says Stephen Clark, president and CEO of the Plymouth County has experienced that shift for another reason, observes Dan Hassett, who co-owns Levitate with his wife, Jess. They recently remodeled and expanded Levitate's 'Backyard' bar and pizza restaurant to a live music venue. Fletcher Souba, co-owner at Slack Tide Coffee Roasters in Kingston, on Saturday. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff 'The suburbs around Boston have changed a lot over the past decade, particularly since COVID,' says Hassett. 'People are able to work remotely, at least part-time, and they want the amenities and culture that you previously had to drive to a major city for, but with the elbow room and relaxed atmosphere of the suburbs. It makes for a nice lifestyle, and is a good opportunity for retail, culinary, and experiential businesses popping up outside the city.' Advertisement There's no easy way to measure food service growth in Plymouth County; officials suggest calling each municipality for data. But Massachusetts' Office of Travel and Tourism and the Department of Revenue, respectively, report small county growth on food service spending (4 percent between 2022 and 2023) and meal taxes (3.7 percent in three quarters between 2024 and 2025). Coffee to be purchased is on display at Slack Tide Coffee Roasters in Kingston. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff What distinguishes these new businesses is a keen attention to detail. Slack Tide, which also leases a cafe inside Slack Tide's owners are, naturally, proud of owning their first property: a former Italian pizza deli converted to suit their needs and opened in late May. 'With Marshfield, we knew almost nothing in regards to an efficient setup,' recalls Zac Carpman. 'After six years [in business], we know a ton. We knew what we wanted with this new building, and we knew what we needed.' Slack Tide Coffee Roasters in Kingston. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Davidson and Moya, who have nine employees, including a seasoned barista, are equally meticulous. They perfected their doughnut recipe over eight months, tearing through 300-pound bags of King Arthur flour and straining their KitchenAid stand mixer. They've lost track of how many iterations of brioche dough they made and fried in their home kitchen while honing their recipe. 'I love the chew of our doughnut,' says Moya. 'It's a substantial doughnut with mouth feel. I didn't want something that dissolves in your mouth like sweet air.' He pauses, then confesses: 'We're pretty bratty about food.' Advertisement Customers line up at Hardly Saints Donuts in Duxbury on Saturday. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Davidson and Moya ventured into the doughnut world because they missed the craft doughnuts that make Texas' doughnuts famous. The couple met in high school in El Paso and remained together through his US Army tour in Afghanistan and graduate schools in Boston: New England Law School for her and Suffolk University's finance program for him. They married in 2021. The name 'Hardly Saints' is a riff on Davidson's upbringing as a Mormon in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which discourages coffee use. The shop typically has nine to 13 varieties of hand-cut and hand-glazed doughnuts, including the popular Cinnamon Cream Cheese, Chocolate Oreo, filled Boston Cream, and regular glazed. The menu includes a savory kolache: the Czech filled and wrapped dough rolls popular in Texas. Ronan Therrien, 8, with his ice cream at Happy Jan's Ice Cream in Kingston Saturday. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff The couple brought a following with them to Duxbury after operating a food truck around the South Shore for a year and a half while searching for a permanent home. That hunt took on urgency as Davidson's pregnancy entered the final trimester. They secured a store after the town's popular The McGourty's baby boy arrived in February, about the time they were trying to persuade their Slack Tide friends (and former Marshfield High School classmates) to let them run the attached ice cream stand. They've long wanted to start their own family and own business, and believe this shop is compatible with both. They're also realists. Advertisement Happy Jan's Ice Cream owner Julie McGourty, serving up ice cream in Kingston on Aug. 2. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff 'We both have very analytical minds,' Julie McGourty says about herself and Christian. He's a graduate of UMass Dartmouth and is now an accountant. Julie holds undergraduate and graduate math degrees from Wake Forest University in North Carolina. And she loves ice cream. 'I have no self-control when it comes to it,' she admits. Happy Jan's is named after Christian McGourty's late and much-loved hippie grandmother Janice. The logo is a combination of a heart and peace sign in homage to the woman who supported the couple's ambitions but died before meeting her grandson. The stand opened in June and has 15 employees, mostly high school and college teens from several towns. McGourty likes to remind her young staff to relax. 'This is ice cream, and people are happy when they get it,' she tells them. 'You're going to make them happy.' All three spots will make people happy. There's so much care and effort behind them. Now everyone can join the locals already in the know. If you go . . . Slack Tide Coffee Roasters , 269 Pembroke St., Kingston; Also 1871 Ocean St., Marshfield. Open daily 7 a.m.–3 p.m. Also 283 Columbia Road, Hanover. Open daily 7 a.m.–3 p.m. Hardly Saints Donuts , 282 St. George St., Duxbury; Happy Jan's Ice Cream , 269 Pembroke St., Kingston; on Instagram @happyjansicecream. $4.25-$11. Open daily noon-8:30 p.m. Peggy Hernandez can be reached at . Follow her on Instagram @peggy_hernandez Advertisement
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
The FDA is targeting orange juice. Here's why, and what the science says.
Orange juice contains nutrients including calcium and Vitamin C. But some nutritionists argue that's not enough to make up for the unnecessary calories and natural sugars. 'Juices are a dilemma,' said Peter Lurie, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates for a healthy and safe food supply. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends instead eating real fruit, which contains more fiber than juice. The association advises against giving fruit juice to infants except to manage constipation. It also advises limiting how much juice parents should give older children, such as no more than 4 ounces per day for kids 1 to 3 years old. Advertisement 'If you're going to have a small amount of juice, it's not going to be anything that anybody's going to worry about,' said Marion Nestle, a retired professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University who called fruit juices 'delicious.' 'When you worry about juice is when it's in large amounts,' she added. Advertisement Even though leading orange juice brands do not contain added sugars, high levels of natural sugars can still be harmful, some experts said. 'Orange juice is sugar water,' said Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. 'Every juice is essentially sugar water.' Once touted as part of a balanced breakfast, Americans are souring on orange juice. Consumers have gravitated toward other beverage options seen as healthier. Prices have risen. Production has stalled. And this has become a problem for Florida's orange producers. The sugar content of the fruit grown in the state has been steadily dropping due to a bacterial disease afflicting the crop, exacerbated after Hurricane Irma struck in 2017. In 2022, Florida trade groups representing the state's citrus growers and citrus juice industry petitioned the FDA to lower the minimum fruit sugar levels for pasteurized orange juice. The FDA sets a minimum standard for the sugar content in order to call a drink 'pasteurized orange juice,' the kind commonly sold at grocery stores without added sugars. If manufacturers fall below that threshold, they are essentially no longer allowed to call their products 'pasteurized orange juice." Florida orange industry groups said lowering that threshold would protect their business and reduce orange imports from other countries while going unnoticed by consumers. Sugar per serving would lower from 18 grams to 17 grams, according to nutritional label samples provided to the FDA by the industry. Other nutrients would be largely unaffected to the change. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary both pledged to examine this proposal during congressional hearings when pressed by Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Florida). Advertisement Some nutrition experts said if Kennedy wanted to advance his 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda, which included pledges to improve the diets of children, he should champion more sweeping regulations broadly targeting sugars and sodium. 'If one is serious about sugar in the American diet, we need an across the board approach,' Lurie said.
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
The tables have turned. Restaurant workers offer 8 ways to be a better guest.
Advertisement In the interest of fairness, I'm turning the tables this week. Here's what professionals wish that we, the dining public, did better. Take note. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up Don't ghost. Can't make your reservation? Please, have the kindness to cancel. Showing up with a smaller party than expected? Also let the restaurant know in advance, so they can open up more seats to other reservations. 'Guests don't realize how important it is to restaurants to call and cancel your reservation if you are unable to keep it, especially with smaller restaurants,' says Think of it this way: 'What would happen if you planned a dinner party in your home, friends RSVP'd, you prepared the food and were ready to put it all in the oven, and no one came? That's what happens every night in the restaurant business,' says Advertisement Treat your server like a human, not a robot. Lots of industry professionals complained about customers who greet a friendly 'hello' with a response like 'Diet Coke!' or 'two tacos to go.' 'It would be nice if all patrons started with, 'Hello; how are you doing?' instead of just barking their orders when approached,' says Steven Peljovich from Michael's Deli in Brookline, speaking on behalf of many. Enjoy the spread, but don't spread out. Basically, don't treat a dining room as your own Offer specific feedback. Instead of absentmindedly saying that a dish is 'good,' consider this your chance to play amateur food critic. Adore the vinaigrette? Think there's a little too much garlic in the sauce? Say so, concisely and conversationally. It all helps the kitchen. 'While we always appreciate hearing that 'everything is good,' more detailed and specific feedback goes a long way in helping us grow. Insights on the quality of food, drinks, or service allow us to better understand what's working well and where there's room for improvement. Your input directly helps us create a more enjoyable and memorable experience for all our guests moving forward,' says Stephen Chan, who owns Advertisement See an empty booth? Prefer it over your own? The restaurant isn't trying to torture you. There might be a very good reason that it's unoccupied. Shown here, a prime spot at Contessa. Barry Chin/Globe Staff Don't assume any table is yours for the taking. See an empty booth? Prefer it over your own? The restaurant isn't trying to torture you. There might be a very good reason that it's unoccupied, such as an impending bridal shower or a business meeting. 'While it's certainly OK to ask [for a different table], not every empty table is available; the team might be working to manage seating arrangements for the evening for all the parties that are expected to come in that night,' says Adam Resnick, chef at Specify allergies with your reservation. This gives everyone — you and the restaurant — peace of mind. But it also offers the restaurant a chance to surprise and delight. 'Recently a woman reached out to me with many allergies. I was able to print a menu specifically for her and she told me through tears in her eyes that she'd never had so many options at a restaurant. Help us give you that level of experience. Reach out in advance with your allergies. Help us keep you safe,' urges Abigail Taylor, who manages North Cambridge's Please parent your children. Yes, even outside. In composing this piece, I fielded several tales of kids running wild al fresco. Remember: Patios are an extension of the dining room, not after-hours summer camp. Advertisement 'A patio area is outside, but that doesn't mean it's a playground. It's dangerous for both kids and staff, and distracting to other diners trying to enjoy a night out. For some reason, many parents still don't understand this, though it seems like common sense,' says a Jamaica Plain restaurateur who asked to remain nameless (perhaps for obvious reasons). 'Really, I don't want your kid cracking their head open on the concrete steps. Then, if we have to intervene, we get complaints about being 'hostile to families.'' Relatedly, please include babies in reservation numbers, even if they'll slurp milk, not martinis. 'Your child or infant is a human and should count as such when making a reservation. ... They are taking space, and we need to know,' one server says. Critique in person, not online. Catty online reviews won't improve your dining experience in real time, and they can make or break a business. Instead, offer feedback in the moment, both to give the restaurant a chance to make things right — and to preserve their reputation. After all, how would you like it if colleagues could leave Yelp! reviews after a boring work meeting or friends could anonymously ring in on TripAdvisor about your messy car? 'Almost all restaurants would rather try to improve your experience in person, hear your feedback, understand it, and learn from it and have you leave happy, as opposed to reading about it after the fact online. At that point, there are limited options left to a business to make you feel whole once you have left the building,' says Marc Sheehan from Canton's Advertisement South End restaurateur Jack Bardy (The Beehive, Kara Baskin can be reached at
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
We asked Globe readers about their restaurant pet peeves. They did not hold back.
Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up 'Waitstaff that says, 'How are we doing this evening?' and, 'What will we be having?'' — Maureen Cavanaugh, Wayland Advertisement 'QR codes. I think this is an extension of the tableside payment system. Let's dispense with tech in the dining area and focus on the food.' — Susan Healy, Brattleboro, Vt. 'My husband always finishes his meal before I do. I don't like it when the waitstaff tries to clear his plate, silverware, and glass while I am obviously still eating. It seems like they are trying to rush me. Do they need his plate for another customer?' — Robin Schwartz, Centerville Advertisement 'Those silly one-word hip names that are popping up all over the city. Names like Eat, Dish, Ink, Chef. Maybe they're trying to save money on signage?' — Steven Paliotti, Rochester, N.Y. 'My biggest pet peeve is servers who don't write down the order. They think they're impressing me, but it only makes me more anxious because I know there's a good chance of the order being messed up ... and I'm usually correct. — Barry Leavitt, Minneapolis One reader doesn't like it when sandwiches are referred to as "handhelds." Here, the Italian sandwich at Pizza Project in the Speedway Building in Allston. Lane Turner/Globe Staff ''Handhelds.' Seriously? This sounds like something you do when nobody else is around. A sandwich is a sandwich.' — Anonymous, West Roxbury 'When the food runner arrives at the table with no idea of who gets what. ... Hearing 'Who has the steak?' makes me want to put a fork in someone's eye.' — Bryan Klinck, Sandwich 'The server leaves the check and with a big smile says, 'Good night' and goes to a remote part of a restaurant where I likely will never see them again unless I walk into the bus station and interrupt them while they're checking their Snaps or Insta.' — James Pierotti, Hanover 'Being ready to leave and waiting forever for the check. Recently, I ate at a restaurant in The Arsenal and thought maybe I was being held hostage.' — Dave Wilson, Watertown '[Being asked]: 'Have you dined with us before? No? Well, here is a menu. It has appetizers at the top, followed by salads. Those are smaller plates. Then, farther down, are larger plates. Those can be considered entree-size.' It's like: Today is not my first day on Earth, and this is not my first time ever at a restaurant.' — Anonymous Advertisement 'Being referred to as 'you guys': 'Are you guys ready to order?' I'm not a guy.' — Meg Dickerson, Davidsonville, Md. Kara Baskin can be reached at
