May 17, 2025 • 28 mins
The weather is warmer, the pollen is flying, trees are blooming... it's the perfect time to get out and explore all that New England's outdoors has to offer! If you're looking for a new hike to try, or a new restaurant to check out when you're done getting your wilderness fix, Marc Hurwitz can help. He's the man behind Boston's Hidden Restaurants and Boston Restaurant Talk, but he also leads hikes for the Appalachian Mountain Club throughout New England. Marc returns to the show to share some of his favorite spots and provide an update on the local restaurant industry.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend,
where each and every week right here we come together
we talk about all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. So good to have you
back with us this weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. I've been
listening to an audio book while stuck in traffic lately,
and it's kind of made me laugh because sitting in
traffic on the lower deck of ninety three, it doesn't
(00:29):
really make me think about being in the woods and
hiking and transcendentalism and all that stuff. But this book
that I've been listening to a Walk in the Woods
by Bill Brice, and it has me thinking, well, maybe
I should get out there and go hike part of
the Appalachian Trail. I am certainly not going to do that,
because at least at this point in my life, I
(00:50):
am not in the shape to do that. But I
know a guy who happens to hike quite a bit
with the Appalachian Mountain Club, and he's been on the
show a few times before to talk about doing just that.
So let's talk about it again, because you know what
we're getting into. Great hiking weather. Mark Hurwitz he is
back on the show, and I got to tell you
before we really get into this, You've got a great
group of people with the Appalachian Mountain Club that you've
(01:12):
been going out with lately.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah. So I lead hikes for the Appalation Mountain Club,
the Local Walks and Hikes division, which is part of
the Boston group, and I am also a committee member.
I used to be chair, but no more so I'm
basically just leading hikes and almost every weekend and we
just try to get people out basically i'd say within
an hour of Boston or so, so a lot of
(01:36):
hikes on the North Shore, western suburbs south of Boston.
We also do Boston itself, So just kind of get
people out of their houses and go to these places
that usually aren't too difficult for hikes, but really really
beautiful places.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Now the weather, of course is getting warmer, but then
it means you have things like black flies and no
sums and rattlesnakes and stuff like that. If somebody wants
to get out there and start hiking, you know, what
do they need to know about going into the woods,
especially if they're kind of a first timer.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, first of all, if they're not going with us,
they shouldn't be hiking alone. Hiking alan is not a
good idea for many reasons, and not just animals. You know,
the most dangerous animals humans and you know, if you're
alone in the woods and you encounter a person who's
not a good person, you could be in trouble. So
we always say, don't hike alone, you know, hike with
us or hike with friends. As far as equipment in
(02:29):
the hiking in the Boston area, not a whole lot.
You know, maybe hiking poles if you have them, sturdy shoes, definitely,
bug spray. You know, you want to have sunblock, do
layers if it's cold. But you know that's of course,
water and food. But that's about it really, And.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
We've talked about this before and this is what I
really appreciate about our neck of the Woods Massachusetts. We
have so many different types of trails. So even for
those of us who are you know, complete and total newbies,
it doesn't mean that you have to be a hiking
expert to get out there and just take it all.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
In, right. I mean, some of the easiest hikes are
the most beautiful, and some of them are you know,
five ten, fifteen miles from Boston, so basically roll out
of bed and you're there in a few minutes. And
a lot of them are level, so you don't really
need much in the way of skills. So we're lucky
to live in the Boston area because you got it all.
(03:26):
You got hills, you got rivers, you got lakes, a
lot of woods and fields, and it's kind of a
little bit of everything around here.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, and then of course you get out to places
like the White and Green Mountains, You've got southern Maine,
you can walk along the water, and then you've got
out west the Berkshars. I mean, there is, as you said,
a little bit of everything, and we'll kind of touch
on all of those. But I do want to start
with some recommendations around the Boston area. And I know
that we've got some really nice trails right along the coast.
(03:55):
What would you suggest for people to go check out
if they haven't already in the Boston area for trails.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
First of all, for ocean walks. One of the best
I may have mentioned this before, but I don't think so.
It's Rafe's Chasm, which is in Magnolia, which is part
of Gloucester, and you can make it from Ravenwood Park.
You can make it a round trip of maybe four
or five miles, but you can also park at a
lot about five or ten minutes from the chasm itself,
(04:20):
which is out in the Atlantic Ocean. It's very rocky.
It looks like the coast of Maine. But we're talking
forty five minutes from Boston, so that's really nice. And
on the south Shore you can hike at Howse Neck
and Quinsy. You can go out to the very type
of house Neck, which is about two or three miles
out to sea from Quincy Center, and there are beaches
(04:43):
there and there's rocky coastline, and there's also this it's
like an mwra dike that goes through a salt marsh
that you can walk along to get to the ocean.
So you can actually almost walk from Quincy Center to
the ocean, and it's absolutely gorgeous out there.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
There's one other trail, and I'm totally blanking here. You've
told me about this in the past, but I wanted
to bring it up again. I don't know if it
runs through not Dorchester, but I feel like there was
a trail on the south Shore that you've mentioned to
me that is relatively easy for those of us who
are newbies and still provide some great views.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
That could be The Neponset River Greenway.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Could be it. I think that's it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah. It straddles the line between Dorchester and Milton, and
you can start at the was a Poke John Paul
Park right off ninety three and then just start walking
west and you can walk all the way to Mattapan
Square and most of it is marshlands and fields and
deep woods, and you never know that you were in
(05:40):
the city.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, I mean the beauty of the Emerald Necklace. And
I love that we live in a place where green
space is so important and it's so well maintained.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's so true, especially compared to other cities around the country.
I won't mention names, but I've been to cities that
they don't have any green space or they've done it
all the wrong way. But Boston's an old city and
they did it right, pretty much right from the start.
So you do have beautiful green spaces all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
The Base Circuit Trail. You and I have talked about
this a couple times now, but I am still just
so intrigued about this trail because it seems to go
everywhere and you don't have to go that far to
find yourself on it. So for people who may have
again this might be their first time listening to us
talking about hiking. Tell me a bit about the Bay
Circuit Trail, where it goes and where people can find it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's about two hundred miles long and it basically, well,
it is a circuit. It loops around the Boston area
kind of picture maybe midway between Route one twenty eight
Route four ninety five, and much of it goes along
inside those highways. Some of it goes outside four ninety five,
but most of it's in between those two highways. And
(06:53):
it goes all the way from Duxbury and Kingston on
the south shore, all the way up to newbury Port
and newbury an Ipswitch on the north shore, and through
all that, you know, you go to places like Sharon Medfield, Framingham, Conquered,
Tewkesbury North andover. So it just it's this enormous loop,
(07:15):
and it's all these interconnected trails. And we are actually
on May thirty first, Applache Mount Club is doing the
entire Bay Circuit Trail and pieces with about I don't know,
maybe twenty or thirty hike leaders to cover the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Oh wow, that is going to be a pretty impressive feat.
Do you know if anybody's done that before, or are
you guys kind of doing this for the first time.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I think it might be a first. I know people
who've hiked the whole thing, but this is different where
hike leaders on the same day are covering the entire trail.
I don't think it's been done, and I may be
part of it. I might do a piece of it,
but I'm not sure at this point. But some really
good leaders are going to be out there bringing people
on the trail.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Now, if somebody wants to join for this big hike
that you all are doing, I mean, do I have
to have any experience or should I just I don't know,
drive up or bike up to the base Circuit trail
and show up and say Hi, I'm here to go
hike this portion of the trail.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Well, most of the hikes, they aren't. There's not much
in the way of hills. The one thing though, is
most of these hikes are pretty long, so you might
have ten to twelve mile hikes. If I do one myself.
It might only be six or seven miles, but most
of them are very long, so it's not I wouldn't
call it like beginner hikes. But if you're pretty good
(08:30):
with endurance and you don't really have much skill in
the way of hiking, you could still do it. But
these are long hikes. Somewhere on May thirty first, so
if you don't want to do a long distance, I
say get out there with some friends and just do
a piece on your own, maybe two three, four miles,
because there are some great spots that are short hikes.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
The most beautiful thing about talking with you about hiking
is that you also know where to go eat when
we're done. So let's talk about goods along the Bay
Circuit trail. For example, where do you recommend that people
go get dinner or get a lunch after they're done
with their hike for the day.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
There are so many places, that's the thing. So Newburyport,
let's start on the north part of it. The Grog.
The Grog is an old restaurant. It's in a historic
building and they just have a fireplace and dark woods
and just Newport. Report's a great place. But this is
one of those old school restaurants in New Greatport, which
(09:30):
they don't have too many of, so that's a good one.
Moving a little further toward the west along the Bay
Circuit trail, a restaurant I just went to actually an
and north andover called tavern On High which is in
this historic mill area and it's casual, up scale. You
could go after hike, I think, and it's comfort food
(09:51):
and just beautiful mill building. And then if you continue
on and you start to head toward the west, a
bunch of places, you know, Bedford Conquered Acting. You could
go to True West Brewery or Wrap Scaling Brewery, both
of them are in act and both have really good
food and good beer. And then continue down to Midfield, Wallpole, Sharon, Easton.
(10:19):
Easton has uh if I talk about dive bars a lot.
Easton has a place called Buddies Union Villa, which is
a very good spot for bar, pizza and super casual,
perfect place to go after hike. I've done it before
after hike. And then finally is to get to Pembroke, Duxbury,
Kingston Hansen. Pembroke has a restaurant that's a treehouse. It's
(10:44):
got its own treehouse. It's called yeah, it's called what
is it? I think it's a town treehouse tavern or
town tavern treehouse. And it's in Pembroke. It's really close
to the Base Arc trail maybe a quarter mile maybe
half a mile most and you can actually walk up
into the treehouse and it has a bar. You can
get burgers and pizza and drink beer and just look
(11:04):
at the pond below. It's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So then heading out to central and western mass where,
of course, you know, we have a ton of great
DCR properties. We could talk about those all day. But
I guess if people want a special hike, and you've
been out there quite a bit, give me a few
places that you would recommend for people who are looking
either for you know, a really nice hike that they
could enjoy that they may not have seen, or somewhere
(11:27):
where they can start with the more hilly or mountainous
areas that you would recommend.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There's one in northwest Massachusetts right en Route two. I
don't know if you know the hairpin turn in North Adams. Yeah, yeah,
just before the hairpin turn there's a parking lot and
a trailhead and it's maybe a six mile round trip hike,
very little in the way of climbing, because you're starting
(11:52):
around two thousand feet and you're really going up only
to maybe twenty four hundred and it's part of the
Hoosack Range and three miles out three miles back. One
of the only trails I know where there's views from
start to finish, and some of the views from the
Oapen ledges there's some of the best you see in
all of New England. No one knows about this hike,
(12:12):
but it's right out there on the North Adams Florida Line.
I think there is a Florida.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Mass Yes, Sana, Peru yea and Peru.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, exactly right next to Florida, I think, yeah. And
it's it's just a beautiful, beautiful trail. So that's definitely
one of the better ones out there. I'd say another
one is Monument Mountain, which is between Great Barrington and Stockbridge,
and that's a loop trail and the top of it's
a little dicey. It's not difficult to climb up there,
(12:42):
but once you get up to the top there are
these cliffs you have to be a little careful, but
you have five six seven eight hundred foot drop from
the cliffs, which is spectacular. But you do have to
be a little little careful on that trail, but it's
very nice and I think most people could do that
one if they're a little careful.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Okay. And when I think of restaurants, when you were
talking about the Hairpin Turn, I think there's a restaurant
right there. I think it's the Eagle or the Golden
Eagle or something. It's right there by the Hairpin Turn.
Have you been there? Have you? Because I would imagine
if you're just coming from that hike, it's a restaurant
literally right there.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I went to it a long time ago when it
was another place. I think it was called something else.
But now I've been trying to get there, and I
think they're only open for dinner these days. It's kind
of tough to get out, Like if I'm hiking out there,
I can't really do a lunch out there. I don't
think they're open for lunch at least not as if
now so. But that's what a view from that place.
(13:38):
It's really gorgeous out there.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It stunning.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So we when we're in that part of the state,
the people's pint and green Field is a good place
because it's just offer too and it is it's kind
of it's it's a bru hub. They have their own beer.
But the food is fantastic. I mean they have grilled
cheese with tomato soup, and they have burritos, and they
(14:02):
have breakfast dishes and very comfortable, kind of an old
thatch and bar with dark woods and right in Greenfield.
So that's a nice stop after a hiker in that area.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
And then let's head to New Hampshire and Vermont.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
One place I recently went to in central Vermont. It's
in Woodstock, which is one of the closest places from
Boston to get to. It's just over two hours. Woodstock
has two mountains that's surrounded, one to the north, Mount
tom which I did a couple of years ago, and
one to the south called Mount Peg. And they're so
close to the town center you could actually do two
(14:38):
in one day. But Mount Peg is it's only like
a five hundred foot climb from downtown Woodstock, but it's
just endless mountains and fields and farmlands and you would
think you were in almost like Switzerland, but you're only
about fifteen minutes from downtown Woodstock. It's an amazing place,
(15:00):
so easy to hike it. It's definitely a beginner hike.
Soun Apiece a good one, actually, you can. One thing
you can do is during the summer, you can either
take the chairlift to the top and hike down, or preferably,
I would say, hike up sun Apee. There's a trail.
You don't have to go up the ski trails. You
can go up a trail to the right of the mountain.
It'll take you to the summit with great views, and
(15:21):
then you can drop to the other side where there's
a cliff overlooking Lake Solitude, which is spectacular. And then
you come back to the summit and you can take
the chairlift down to your car. So that's kind of
a nice hike there.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I mean, that's the best way to return to your vehicle,
I'd say, is having somebody do the moving for you
after hiking all the way up there.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, instead of climbing down, why bother your knees, Just
sit in the chairlift and go down.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Then the food side of things, what do you recommend
for food around the sun Apee area.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know, Sunypea doesn't have a whole lot. There's a
very little in a way of restaurants in that area.
In fact, Groude eighty nine from conc to Lebanon or Hanover. Yeah,
there's just not much out there. It's so isolated, so
not a whole lot in that area. But actually getting
back to Woodstock, which is not too far from sun
(16:13):
of Pete's maybe forty minutes Worthy Kitchen which I might
have mentioned Worthy Burger and South Royalton once, But we're
the kitchens, kind of their test kitchen where they experiment
with different dishes and it's a very comfortable place and
they have your famous Vermont beer's there and sometimes they'll
have a maple creamy for dessert, which is a very
(16:35):
nice thing. Yeah that's Oh, you can't wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, you really cannot. And now I'm super hungry for
one of those. Okay, So I mean getting involved in
all this hiking. Look, you've been all over New England.
You've really taken advantage of this. What sort of resources
do you onlyan to find new hikes or how do
you get out there and just know where to go
to enjoy all this?
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Well, a lot of it is the fact I've been
hiking since I was in high school, so I've done
a million hikes in New England. But nowadays so my
friends and I a lot of us have these apps,
either Strava or all Trails or a couple others out there,
and we sometimes when we're bored at night, we'll just
(17:20):
go to a New England map on and say all
trails and look for areas that look interesting, and they
actually rate the hikes. It's almost like going to Google
or you Yelp for restaurants, and if you see a
hike that's got a review like four point eight out
of five, then you take it seriously. If you see
something that's three point two out of five, you can
ignore it. But that's one way. So we've found a
(17:41):
lot of hikes that ordinarily wouldn't have been found by
going to these apps, and it's a lot of fun
trying to find. There's so many we'll never be able
to do them all. There's so many out there.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I know that you're the food correspondent, but I like
the fact that you're the hiking correspondent now too, because
you've got so many stories about all these different places.
I mean, I would love to see a book from
you about that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh yeah, if I could break myself into two people,
that would be perfect. If I could somehow do that.
I know, I know, Yeah, it's tough. I started to
write a book during the pandemic on hikes, but it
was too much. I couldn't finish it. It was just
too much stuff and I was too busy, so it
didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, you're just going to have to stick with us
radio people. Then, sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I think.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So, so let's kind of segue, because again, food is
your other thing, and people know you. I think best
for your food blogging and your food work. I wanted
to talk to you really quickly about a check in
of the restaurant industry, of course, but with the economic situation,
the tariff situation, and the tourism situation, there's a lot
of situations right now. Tell me about what you're seeing
(18:50):
when it comes to our local restaurant industry and what
people are talking about when it comes to all this.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I think people are a little nervous, and I've been
saying that for years, but now it's not just before
it was inflation and lack of work or helpers workers.
It's still a lack of workers and it's still a
little inflation, it's not quite as bad, but now it's
more like the fear of the unknown. So you know, yeah,
what happens if tariffs do come back in a play?
(19:16):
Right now, it looks like tariffs are a little off
the shelf, But what if it does happen. What if
inflation starts up again? What if we go into a recession?
You know, if a ton of people are out of
work but a lot of them don't want to go
back in the restaurant industry, which that's what happened during
the pandemic. So a lot of questions and also, I
think diners or customers, whatever you want to call them,
(19:39):
people who ordinarily would go out to restaurants two or
three times a week, maybe there may be going out
one time a week or not even because they're a
little worried about their jobs. They're a little worried about
the futures. So I've been going to restaurants lately where
even on a weekend, they're half empty.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And that's really tough for the restaurant owned because there's
only so much that you can lower your price, because
you've got to do payroll, you've got to pay for
the food, and it all just kind of adds up.
But I'm sure a lot of these restaurant owners are
taking some pretty big hits just to try to stay open.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, a lot of them are. And I think the
chains are taking major hits. They've been taking hits since
the pandemic, so a lot of chains are either going
under they're in deep trouble. But the neighborhood restaurants are
you know, they're having trouble too. So you almost have
to have some kind of uniqueness about you. You don't
want to just open another generic restaurant because there's a
million of them out there, sure, So you want to
(20:35):
have some kind of a niche. So, for instance, one
of my favorite places is the Pleasant Cafe in Rosendale.
It's completely old school, with the wooden handling and the
really nice servers to call you honey and sweetie, and
you know, excellent food at cheap prices and drinks like
Tom Collins and Brandy Alexander's that you never see anywhere.
(20:59):
So they have a niche and they do well. But
if you're just a restaurant doing the same old thing,
you might be in trouble.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
But then, I mean, how do you reinvent yourself after
all this time, and and then you know, with the
price of everything and the cost of everything, and then
I think about tourism and how a lot of Canadians
and a lot of others are just not coming anymore
because of you know, the political situation or whatever you
want to, you know, say. The reason is, it seems
like just a perfect storm for our restaurant industry. And
(21:30):
I just I feel so deeply for these restaurant owners
who have already been hit from COVID and the restaurant
workforce as well. It just seems like it's just not stopping.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I know, they're just getting back on their feet from COVID,
and then all this happens. And you know, I think
the tourism thing is a big issue with Canada, with
other countries, especially you know, Cape Cod the Cape and Boston.
Boston has a huge tourist industry. And I know we're talking,
we're going to talk about the Michelin Star, but I
(22:01):
feel like that that could be a big deal because
Meat Boston, which is Tourism Board, they finally approved of
the Michelin coming to Boston. Because that kind of gives
this feel that maybe Boston's a world class setting that
you can go there and get some outstanding food. So
at least there's stuff like that happening. But it is
(22:23):
tough out there right now.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
It is, so let's kind of talk about that, which
is a more positive side of the situation. We could
use some good news. I mean, Michelin stars in Boston.
Part of me is kind of like, well, why has
it taken so long? But I understand obviously there's a process.
Tell me about what you know about all this and
what we can expect from it.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
The Michelin system, it's paid to play initially, So in
the case of Boston, meet Boston finally decided, okay, we're
going to pay money for Michelin to come here and
check out our restaurants. And I think they connected with
Cambridge Tourism Board and maybe others by not sure. But
once they do that, once they do the pay to
play part, then all these unknown reviewers are going around
(23:06):
in the Boston area to check out restaurants to see
if any of them are worthy of a Michelin star.
We don't know these people. It's not me. I'm not
one of them. I'd love to be one that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
All people come on.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I know, I know I had heard about it, but
it's okay. But I think, you know, there's there's a
good side and a bad side to it. I think
the good side is that, you know, it does show
that Boston is a serious city when it comes to dining.
And if they when they do give Michelin stars to restaurants,
those restaurants are probably going to do really well because
(23:42):
all of a sudden they're on the map. But also
hurts restaurants that don't get the stars, and also puts
pressure on restaurants because they know the Michelin reviewers are
here and they want to make sure everything's perfect, and
that puts pressure on the workers and the cooks and chefs.
So there's definitely pros and cons. But I think ultimately
it's maybe a net plus.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
We have so many award winning chefs here already. You know,
we've got James Beard award winners or at least nominated chefs.
We've got celebrity chefs like Tiffany Faison who are here
in Boston. This is just another confirmation, like you said,
that our city does have a food game. And look,
don't count Boston out. Because we have a lot to
offer more than just baked beans and clam chowder, although
(24:25):
you know we do those pretty well, but still there's
a lot more when it comes to our food. There's
a lot more depth and there's a lot more to
offer than people might think.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It's true. You know, there's so many there's so many
top tier restaurants in the Boston area that haven't really
gotten noticed, maybe because well they you know, some have
gotten James Beard Awards, but the Michelin does really put
them on the map a little more. And Michelin's not
just high end restaurants. So yeah, the one, two, three
star restaurants usually they're higher end restaurants, but they do
(24:54):
have another category where they look at restaurants that are
good values. So my guess, I'm just going to throw
this out there. I'm thinking maybe eight to twelve restaurants
in Boston area we'll get Michelin Star's probably all one star.
We'll see maybe two, maybe three, I doubt it, and
then probably another ten to fifteen we'll get the Value Award,
(25:17):
which the name is escaping me. Is it, Bib Grimond,
correct me if I'm wrong?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
If you at yes, Bib Gourmond.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, so that would be places like like Gango and Brookline.
You know, Ganko's one of the most amazing restaurants I've
ever been to. It's a Roman place and it's cheap beats.
So maybe, you know, they might not get a Michelin star,
but they could be part of the big Gorimond. So
I think ultimately we'll be seeing twenty or twenty five
restaurants that are featured by Michelin.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
How many dunkin Donuts are going to get a bib Gourmond.
There's got to be at least one.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
If that happens. You know, I'll be thrilled. I'm not
even a huge Dunkin Donuts fan, but I'd be thrilled
by that because it's such a Boston thing.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
It's a cultural thing. I mean, if you're going to
embrace Michelin stars here in Boston, you got to take
all of us right exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I know people are horrified listen to us right now,
but I.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Don't mean it. If you're here and you're from Michelan,
do not do that. Or if you I mean, if
you do, tell us which one so I can go
get my coffee there.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, real the original one, go to the one in Quinsy. Yeah,
maybe maybe that would be a bib Garmando. I don't
think so. No knock against dunks, but the food doesn't
really rank up there with saying.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Probably I go, you know, just saying all right, my friend, Well,
where can people find the work that you're doing and
how can they connect with you? Again, that beautiful Facebook
group of yours, so many great people in there, tell
us a bit more about how people can find your work.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Definitely through that group Friends of Boston Sit and Restaurants,
which is nearing fifty thousand people. I think it's about
forty five thousand people. Now. A lot of chefs are there,
a lot of restaurant food critics, and a lot of
real food nerds and just you know, every day people
are there looking asking questions. So Friends of Boston Sit
and Restaurants on Facebook, that's one. As far as my
(27:07):
blog is Boston Restaurant Talk, which is also syndicated by NBC,
and I also have a food column in an on
NBC where I mostly review Hidden Jam's neighborhood restaurants. Yeah,
and I'm on other social media too, but I think
those are the big.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Ones okay, and then if people again just circling back
to this hike of yours May thirty first, and this
is the Base Circuit Trail. If somebody wants to get involved,
how can they do that.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
If someone is interested in joining a hike, they can
go to the Appalachian Club website, which is Amcboston dot
org and they can just search for hikes that say
Base Circuit Trail. It's all May thirty first, so they
should do a search key date May thirty first, and
(27:56):
they'll find anywhere from twenty to thirty hikes all along
the Bass Arca Trail. And again, most of the hikes
are very long, but they're not very hilly, so it
should be a great day. It'll be a lot of fun.
Hopefully the weather's good.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I hope so too. Fingers crossed. All right, Mark Herwitz,
always a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks
so much for all your knowledge and your time, and
we'll have you back again soon.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Thank you. Nicole.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Be sure to stay
dry out there and join us again next week for
another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ
News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend,
where each and every week right here we come together
we talk about all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. So good to have you
back with us this weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. I've been
listening to an audio book while stuck in traffic lately,
and it's kind of made me laugh because sitting in
traffic on the lower deck of ninety three, it doesn't
(00:29):
really make me think about being in the woods and
hiking and transcendentalism and all that stuff. But this book
that I've been listening to a Walk in the Woods
by Bill Brice, and it has me thinking, well, maybe
I should get out there and go hike part of
the Appalachian Trail. I am certainly not going to do that,
because at least at this point in my life, I
(00:50):
am not in the shape to do that. But I
know a guy who happens to hike quite a bit
with the Appalachian Mountain Club, and he's been on the
show a few times before to talk about doing just that.
So let's talk about it again, because you know what
we're getting into. Great hiking weather. Mark Hurwitz he is
back on the show, and I got to tell you
before we really get into this, You've got a great
group of people with the Appalachian Mountain Club that you've
(01:12):
been going out with lately.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah. So I lead hikes for the Appalation Mountain Club,
the Local Walks and Hikes division, which is part of
the Boston group, and I am also a committee member.
I used to be chair, but no more so I'm
basically just leading hikes and almost every weekend and we
just try to get people out basically i'd say within
an hour of Boston or so, so a lot of
(01:36):
hikes on the North Shore, western suburbs south of Boston.
We also do Boston itself, So just kind of get
people out of their houses and go to these places
that usually aren't too difficult for hikes, but really really
beautiful places.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Now the weather, of course is getting warmer, but then
it means you have things like black flies and no
sums and rattlesnakes and stuff like that. If somebody wants
to get out there and start hiking, you know, what
do they need to know about going into the woods,
especially if they're kind of a first timer.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, first of all, if they're not going with us,
they shouldn't be hiking alone. Hiking alan is not a
good idea for many reasons, and not just animals. You know,
the most dangerous animals humans and you know, if you're
alone in the woods and you encounter a person who's
not a good person, you could be in trouble. So
we always say, don't hike alone, you know, hike with
us or hike with friends. As far as equipment in
(02:29):
the hiking in the Boston area, not a whole lot.
You know, maybe hiking poles if you have them, sturdy shoes, definitely,
bug spray. You know, you want to have sunblock, do
layers if it's cold. But you know that's of course,
water and food. But that's about it really, And.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
We've talked about this before and this is what I
really appreciate about our neck of the Woods Massachusetts. We
have so many different types of trails. So even for
those of us who are you know, complete and total newbies,
it doesn't mean that you have to be a hiking
expert to get out there and just take it all.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
In, right. I mean, some of the easiest hikes are
the most beautiful, and some of them are you know,
five ten, fifteen miles from Boston, so basically roll out
of bed and you're there in a few minutes. And
a lot of them are level, so you don't really
need much in the way of skills. So we're lucky
to live in the Boston area because you got it all.
(03:26):
You got hills, you got rivers, you got lakes, a
lot of woods and fields, and it's kind of a
little bit of everything around here.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, and then of course you get out to places
like the White and Green Mountains, You've got southern Maine,
you can walk along the water, and then you've got
out west the Berkshars. I mean, there is, as you said,
a little bit of everything, and we'll kind of touch
on all of those. But I do want to start
with some recommendations around the Boston area. And I know
that we've got some really nice trails right along the coast.
(03:55):
What would you suggest for people to go check out
if they haven't already in the Boston area for trails.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
First of all, for ocean walks. One of the best
I may have mentioned this before, but I don't think so.
It's Rafe's Chasm, which is in Magnolia, which is part
of Gloucester, and you can make it from Ravenwood Park.
You can make it a round trip of maybe four
or five miles, but you can also park at a
lot about five or ten minutes from the chasm itself,
(04:20):
which is out in the Atlantic Ocean. It's very rocky.
It looks like the coast of Maine. But we're talking
forty five minutes from Boston, so that's really nice. And
on the south Shore you can hike at Howse Neck
and Quinsy. You can go out to the very type
of house Neck, which is about two or three miles
out to sea from Quincy Center, and there are beaches
(04:43):
there and there's rocky coastline, and there's also this it's
like an mwra dike that goes through a salt marsh
that you can walk along to get to the ocean.
So you can actually almost walk from Quincy Center to
the ocean, and it's absolutely gorgeous out there.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
There's one other trail, and I'm totally blanking here. You've
told me about this in the past, but I wanted
to bring it up again. I don't know if it
runs through not Dorchester, but I feel like there was
a trail on the south Shore that you've mentioned to
me that is relatively easy for those of us who
are newbies and still provide some great views.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
That could be The Neponset River Greenway.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Could be it. I think that's it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah. It straddles the line between Dorchester and Milton, and
you can start at the was a Poke John Paul
Park right off ninety three and then just start walking
west and you can walk all the way to Mattapan
Square and most of it is marshlands and fields and
deep woods, and you never know that you were in
(05:40):
the city.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, I mean the beauty of the Emerald Necklace. And
I love that we live in a place where green
space is so important and it's so well maintained.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's so true, especially compared to other cities around the country.
I won't mention names, but I've been to cities that
they don't have any green space or they've done it
all the wrong way. But Boston's an old city and
they did it right, pretty much right from the start.
So you do have beautiful green spaces all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
The Base Circuit Trail. You and I have talked about
this a couple times now, but I am still just
so intrigued about this trail because it seems to go
everywhere and you don't have to go that far to
find yourself on it. So for people who may have
again this might be their first time listening to us
talking about hiking. Tell me a bit about the Bay
Circuit Trail, where it goes and where people can find it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's about two hundred miles long and it basically, well,
it is a circuit. It loops around the Boston area
kind of picture maybe midway between Route one twenty eight
Route four ninety five, and much of it goes along
inside those highways. Some of it goes outside four ninety five,
but most of it's in between those two highways. And
(06:53):
it goes all the way from Duxbury and Kingston on
the south shore, all the way up to newbury Port
and newbury an Ipswitch on the north shore, and through
all that, you know, you go to places like Sharon Medfield, Framingham, Conquered,
Tewkesbury North andover. So it just it's this enormous loop,
(07:15):
and it's all these interconnected trails. And we are actually
on May thirty first, Applache Mount Club is doing the
entire Bay Circuit Trail and pieces with about I don't know,
maybe twenty or thirty hike leaders to cover the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Oh wow, that is going to be a pretty impressive feat.
Do you know if anybody's done that before, or are
you guys kind of doing this for the first time.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I think it might be a first. I know people
who've hiked the whole thing, but this is different where
hike leaders on the same day are covering the entire trail.
I don't think it's been done, and I may be
part of it. I might do a piece of it,
but I'm not sure at this point. But some really
good leaders are going to be out there bringing people
on the trail.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Now, if somebody wants to join for this big hike
that you all are doing, I mean, do I have
to have any experience or should I just I don't know,
drive up or bike up to the base Circuit trail
and show up and say Hi, I'm here to go
hike this portion of the trail.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Well, most of the hikes, they aren't. There's not much
in the way of hills. The one thing though, is
most of these hikes are pretty long, so you might
have ten to twelve mile hikes. If I do one myself.
It might only be six or seven miles, but most
of them are very long, so it's not I wouldn't
call it like beginner hikes. But if you're pretty good
(08:30):
with endurance and you don't really have much skill in
the way of hiking, you could still do it. But
these are long hikes. Somewhere on May thirty first, so
if you don't want to do a long distance, I
say get out there with some friends and just do
a piece on your own, maybe two three, four miles,
because there are some great spots that are short hikes.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
The most beautiful thing about talking with you about hiking
is that you also know where to go eat when
we're done. So let's talk about goods along the Bay
Circuit trail. For example, where do you recommend that people
go get dinner or get a lunch after they're done
with their hike for the day.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
There are so many places, that's the thing. So Newburyport,
let's start on the north part of it. The Grog.
The Grog is an old restaurant. It's in a historic
building and they just have a fireplace and dark woods
and just Newport. Report's a great place. But this is
one of those old school restaurants in New Greatport, which
(09:30):
they don't have too many of, so that's a good one.
Moving a little further toward the west along the Bay
Circuit trail, a restaurant I just went to actually an
and north andover called tavern On High which is in
this historic mill area and it's casual, up scale. You
could go after hike, I think, and it's comfort food
(09:51):
and just beautiful mill building. And then if you continue
on and you start to head toward the west, a
bunch of places, you know, Bedford Conquered Acting. You could
go to True West Brewery or Wrap Scaling Brewery, both
of them are in act and both have really good
food and good beer. And then continue down to Midfield, Wallpole, Sharon, Easton.
(10:19):
Easton has uh if I talk about dive bars a lot.
Easton has a place called Buddies Union Villa, which is
a very good spot for bar, pizza and super casual,
perfect place to go after hike. I've done it before
after hike. And then finally is to get to Pembroke, Duxbury,
Kingston Hansen. Pembroke has a restaurant that's a treehouse. It's
(10:44):
got its own treehouse. It's called yeah, it's called what
is it? I think it's a town treehouse tavern or
town tavern treehouse. And it's in Pembroke. It's really close
to the Base Arc trail maybe a quarter mile maybe
half a mile most and you can actually walk up
into the treehouse and it has a bar. You can
get burgers and pizza and drink beer and just look
(11:04):
at the pond below. It's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So then heading out to central and western mass where,
of course, you know, we have a ton of great
DCR properties. We could talk about those all day. But
I guess if people want a special hike, and you've
been out there quite a bit, give me a few
places that you would recommend for people who are looking
either for you know, a really nice hike that they
could enjoy that they may not have seen, or somewhere
(11:27):
where they can start with the more hilly or mountainous
areas that you would recommend.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There's one in northwest Massachusetts right en Route two. I
don't know if you know the hairpin turn in North Adams. Yeah, yeah,
just before the hairpin turn there's a parking lot and
a trailhead and it's maybe a six mile round trip hike,
very little in the way of climbing, because you're starting
(11:52):
around two thousand feet and you're really going up only
to maybe twenty four hundred and it's part of the
Hoosack Range and three miles out three miles back. One
of the only trails I know where there's views from
start to finish, and some of the views from the
Oapen ledges there's some of the best you see in
all of New England. No one knows about this hike,
(12:12):
but it's right out there on the North Adams Florida Line.
I think there is a Florida.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Mass Yes, Sana, Peru yea and Peru.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, exactly right next to Florida, I think, yeah. And
it's it's just a beautiful, beautiful trail. So that's definitely
one of the better ones out there. I'd say another
one is Monument Mountain, which is between Great Barrington and Stockbridge,
and that's a loop trail and the top of it's
a little dicey. It's not difficult to climb up there,
(12:42):
but once you get up to the top there are
these cliffs you have to be a little careful, but
you have five six seven eight hundred foot drop from
the cliffs, which is spectacular. But you do have to
be a little little careful on that trail, but it's
very nice and I think most people could do that
one if they're a little careful.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Okay. And when I think of restaurants, when you were
talking about the Hairpin Turn, I think there's a restaurant
right there. I think it's the Eagle or the Golden
Eagle or something. It's right there by the Hairpin Turn.
Have you been there? Have you? Because I would imagine
if you're just coming from that hike, it's a restaurant
literally right there.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I went to it a long time ago when it
was another place. I think it was called something else.
But now I've been trying to get there, and I
think they're only open for dinner these days. It's kind
of tough to get out, Like if I'm hiking out there,
I can't really do a lunch out there. I don't
think they're open for lunch at least not as if
now so. But that's what a view from that place.
(13:38):
It's really gorgeous out there.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It stunning.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So we when we're in that part of the state,
the people's pint and green Field is a good place
because it's just offer too and it is it's kind
of it's it's a bru hub. They have their own beer.
But the food is fantastic. I mean they have grilled
cheese with tomato soup, and they have burritos, and they
(14:02):
have breakfast dishes and very comfortable, kind of an old
thatch and bar with dark woods and right in Greenfield.
So that's a nice stop after a hiker in that area.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
And then let's head to New Hampshire and Vermont.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
One place I recently went to in central Vermont. It's
in Woodstock, which is one of the closest places from
Boston to get to. It's just over two hours. Woodstock
has two mountains that's surrounded, one to the north, Mount
tom which I did a couple of years ago, and
one to the south called Mount Peg. And they're so
close to the town center you could actually do two
(14:38):
in one day. But Mount Peg is it's only like
a five hundred foot climb from downtown Woodstock, but it's
just endless mountains and fields and farmlands and you would
think you were in almost like Switzerland, but you're only
about fifteen minutes from downtown Woodstock. It's an amazing place,
(15:00):
so easy to hike it. It's definitely a beginner hike.
Soun Apiece a good one, actually, you can. One thing
you can do is during the summer, you can either
take the chairlift to the top and hike down, or preferably,
I would say, hike up sun Apee. There's a trail.
You don't have to go up the ski trails. You
can go up a trail to the right of the mountain.
It'll take you to the summit with great views, and
(15:21):
then you can drop to the other side where there's
a cliff overlooking Lake Solitude, which is spectacular. And then
you come back to the summit and you can take
the chairlift down to your car. So that's kind of
a nice hike there.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I mean, that's the best way to return to your vehicle,
I'd say, is having somebody do the moving for you
after hiking all the way up there.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, instead of climbing down, why bother your knees, Just
sit in the chairlift and go down.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Then the food side of things, what do you recommend
for food around the sun Apee area.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know, Sunypea doesn't have a whole lot. There's a
very little in a way of restaurants in that area.
In fact, Groude eighty nine from conc to Lebanon or Hanover. Yeah,
there's just not much out there. It's so isolated, so
not a whole lot in that area. But actually getting
back to Woodstock, which is not too far from sun
(16:13):
of Pete's maybe forty minutes Worthy Kitchen which I might
have mentioned Worthy Burger and South Royalton once, But we're
the kitchens, kind of their test kitchen where they experiment
with different dishes and it's a very comfortable place and
they have your famous Vermont beer's there and sometimes they'll
have a maple creamy for dessert, which is a very
(16:35):
nice thing. Yeah that's Oh, you can't wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, you really cannot. And now I'm super hungry for
one of those. Okay, So I mean getting involved in
all this hiking. Look, you've been all over New England.
You've really taken advantage of this. What sort of resources
do you onlyan to find new hikes or how do
you get out there and just know where to go
to enjoy all this?
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Well, a lot of it is the fact I've been
hiking since I was in high school, so I've done
a million hikes in New England. But nowadays so my
friends and I a lot of us have these apps,
either Strava or all Trails or a couple others out there,
and we sometimes when we're bored at night, we'll just
(17:20):
go to a New England map on and say all
trails and look for areas that look interesting, and they
actually rate the hikes. It's almost like going to Google
or you Yelp for restaurants, and if you see a
hike that's got a review like four point eight out
of five, then you take it seriously. If you see
something that's three point two out of five, you can
ignore it. But that's one way. So we've found a
(17:41):
lot of hikes that ordinarily wouldn't have been found by
going to these apps, and it's a lot of fun
trying to find. There's so many we'll never be able
to do them all. There's so many out there.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I know that you're the food correspondent, but I like
the fact that you're the hiking correspondent now too, because
you've got so many stories about all these different places.
I mean, I would love to see a book from
you about that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh yeah, if I could break myself into two people,
that would be perfect. If I could somehow do that.
I know, I know, Yeah, it's tough. I started to
write a book during the pandemic on hikes, but it
was too much. I couldn't finish it. It was just
too much stuff and I was too busy, so it
didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, you're just going to have to stick with us
radio people. Then, sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I think.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So, so let's kind of segue, because again, food is
your other thing, and people know you. I think best
for your food blogging and your food work. I wanted
to talk to you really quickly about a check in
of the restaurant industry, of course, but with the economic situation,
the tariff situation, and the tourism situation, there's a lot
of situations right now. Tell me about what you're seeing
(18:50):
when it comes to our local restaurant industry and what
people are talking about when it comes to all this.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I think people are a little nervous, and I've been
saying that for years, but now it's not just before
it was inflation and lack of work or helpers workers.
It's still a lack of workers and it's still a
little inflation, it's not quite as bad, but now it's
more like the fear of the unknown. So you know, yeah,
what happens if tariffs do come back in a play?
(19:16):
Right now, it looks like tariffs are a little off
the shelf, But what if it does happen. What if
inflation starts up again? What if we go into a recession?
You know, if a ton of people are out of
work but a lot of them don't want to go
back in the restaurant industry, which that's what happened during
the pandemic. So a lot of questions and also, I
think diners or customers, whatever you want to call them,
(19:39):
people who ordinarily would go out to restaurants two or
three times a week, maybe there may be going out
one time a week or not even because they're a
little worried about their jobs. They're a little worried about
the futures. So I've been going to restaurants lately where
even on a weekend, they're half empty.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And that's really tough for the restaurant owned because there's
only so much that you can lower your price, because
you've got to do payroll, you've got to pay for
the food, and it all just kind of adds up.
But I'm sure a lot of these restaurant owners are
taking some pretty big hits just to try to stay open.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, a lot of them are. And I think the
chains are taking major hits. They've been taking hits since
the pandemic, so a lot of chains are either going
under they're in deep trouble. But the neighborhood restaurants are
you know, they're having trouble too. So you almost have
to have some kind of uniqueness about you. You don't
want to just open another generic restaurant because there's a
million of them out there, sure, So you want to
(20:35):
have some kind of a niche. So, for instance, one
of my favorite places is the Pleasant Cafe in Rosendale.
It's completely old school, with the wooden handling and the
really nice servers to call you honey and sweetie, and
you know, excellent food at cheap prices and drinks like
Tom Collins and Brandy Alexander's that you never see anywhere.
(20:59):
So they have a niche and they do well. But
if you're just a restaurant doing the same old thing,
you might be in trouble.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
But then, I mean, how do you reinvent yourself after
all this time, and and then you know, with the
price of everything and the cost of everything, and then
I think about tourism and how a lot of Canadians
and a lot of others are just not coming anymore
because of you know, the political situation or whatever you
want to, you know, say. The reason is, it seems
like just a perfect storm for our restaurant industry. And
(21:30):
I just I feel so deeply for these restaurant owners
who have already been hit from COVID and the restaurant
workforce as well. It just seems like it's just not stopping.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I know, they're just getting back on their feet from COVID,
and then all this happens. And you know, I think
the tourism thing is a big issue with Canada, with
other countries, especially you know, Cape Cod the Cape and Boston.
Boston has a huge tourist industry. And I know we're talking,
we're going to talk about the Michelin Star, but I
(22:01):
feel like that that could be a big deal because
Meat Boston, which is Tourism Board, they finally approved of
the Michelin coming to Boston. Because that kind of gives
this feel that maybe Boston's a world class setting that
you can go there and get some outstanding food. So
at least there's stuff like that happening. But it is
(22:23):
tough out there right now.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
It is, so let's kind of talk about that, which
is a more positive side of the situation. We could
use some good news. I mean, Michelin stars in Boston.
Part of me is kind of like, well, why has
it taken so long? But I understand obviously there's a process.
Tell me about what you know about all this and
what we can expect from it.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
The Michelin system, it's paid to play initially, So in
the case of Boston, meet Boston finally decided, okay, we're
going to pay money for Michelin to come here and
check out our restaurants. And I think they connected with
Cambridge Tourism Board and maybe others by not sure. But
once they do that, once they do the pay to
play part, then all these unknown reviewers are going around
(23:06):
in the Boston area to check out restaurants to see
if any of them are worthy of a Michelin star.
We don't know these people. It's not me. I'm not
one of them. I'd love to be one that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
All people come on.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I know, I know I had heard about it, but
it's okay. But I think, you know, there's there's a
good side and a bad side to it. I think
the good side is that, you know, it does show
that Boston is a serious city when it comes to dining.
And if they when they do give Michelin stars to restaurants,
those restaurants are probably going to do really well because
(23:42):
all of a sudden they're on the map. But also
hurts restaurants that don't get the stars, and also puts
pressure on restaurants because they know the Michelin reviewers are
here and they want to make sure everything's perfect, and
that puts pressure on the workers and the cooks and chefs.
So there's definitely pros and cons. But I think ultimately
it's maybe a net plus.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
We have so many award winning chefs here already. You know,
we've got James Beard award winners or at least nominated chefs.
We've got celebrity chefs like Tiffany Faison who are here
in Boston. This is just another confirmation, like you said,
that our city does have a food game. And look,
don't count Boston out. Because we have a lot to
offer more than just baked beans and clam chowder, although
(24:25):
you know we do those pretty well, but still there's
a lot more when it comes to our food. There's
a lot more depth and there's a lot more to
offer than people might think.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It's true. You know, there's so many there's so many
top tier restaurants in the Boston area that haven't really
gotten noticed, maybe because well they you know, some have
gotten James Beard Awards, but the Michelin does really put
them on the map a little more. And Michelin's not
just high end restaurants. So yeah, the one, two, three
star restaurants usually they're higher end restaurants, but they do
(24:54):
have another category where they look at restaurants that are
good values. So my guess, I'm just going to throw
this out there. I'm thinking maybe eight to twelve restaurants
in Boston area we'll get Michelin Star's probably all one star.
We'll see maybe two, maybe three, I doubt it, and
then probably another ten to fifteen we'll get the Value Award,
(25:17):
which the name is escaping me. Is it, Bib Grimond,
correct me if I'm wrong?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
If you at yes, Bib Gourmond.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, so that would be places like like Gango and Brookline.
You know, Ganko's one of the most amazing restaurants I've
ever been to. It's a Roman place and it's cheap beats.
So maybe, you know, they might not get a Michelin star,
but they could be part of the big Gorimond. So
I think ultimately we'll be seeing twenty or twenty five
restaurants that are featured by Michelin.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
How many dunkin Donuts are going to get a bib Gourmond.
There's got to be at least one.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
If that happens. You know, I'll be thrilled. I'm not
even a huge Dunkin Donuts fan, but I'd be thrilled
by that because it's such a Boston thing.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
It's a cultural thing. I mean, if you're going to
embrace Michelin stars here in Boston, you got to take
all of us right exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I know people are horrified listen to us right now,
but I.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Don't mean it. If you're here and you're from Michelan,
do not do that. Or if you I mean, if
you do, tell us which one so I can go
get my coffee there.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, real the original one, go to the one in Quinsy. Yeah,
maybe maybe that would be a bib Garmando. I don't
think so. No knock against dunks, but the food doesn't
really rank up there with saying.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Probably I go, you know, just saying all right, my friend, Well,
where can people find the work that you're doing and
how can they connect with you? Again, that beautiful Facebook
group of yours, so many great people in there, tell
us a bit more about how people can find your work.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Definitely through that group Friends of Boston Sit and Restaurants,
which is nearing fifty thousand people. I think it's about
forty five thousand people. Now. A lot of chefs are there,
a lot of restaurant food critics, and a lot of
real food nerds and just you know, every day people
are there looking asking questions. So Friends of Boston Sit
and Restaurants on Facebook, that's one. As far as my
(27:07):
blog is Boston Restaurant Talk, which is also syndicated by NBC,
and I also have a food column in an on
NBC where I mostly review Hidden Jam's neighborhood restaurants. Yeah,
and I'm on other social media too, but I think
those are the big.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Ones okay, and then if people again just circling back
to this hike of yours May thirty first, and this
is the Base Circuit Trail. If somebody wants to get involved,
how can they do that.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
If someone is interested in joining a hike, they can
go to the Appalachian Club website, which is Amcboston dot
org and they can just search for hikes that say
Base Circuit Trail. It's all May thirty first, so they
should do a search key date May thirty first, and
(27:56):
they'll find anywhere from twenty to thirty hikes all along
the Bass Arca Trail. And again, most of the hikes
are very long, but they're not very hilly, so it
should be a great day. It'll be a lot of fun.
Hopefully the weather's good.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I hope so too. Fingers crossed. All right, Mark Herwitz,
always a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks
so much for all your knowledge and your time, and
we'll have you back again soon.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Thank you. Nicole.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Be sure to stay
dry out there and join us again next week for
another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ
News Radio on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com