Pet Shop Girls
12 Union Park Street, 617-262-7387
www.thepetshopgirls.com
Passing by Pet Shop Girls, you’re likely to see two neighborhood Great Danes outside the window lunging at Pedro Bandito, the cat who sits inside taunting the dogs of Union Park.
The shop itself is a bakery that makes dog birthday cakes from carob and yogurt. If your four-footed companion is being especially well behaved, you might treat him to a doggie garlic bagel for 99 cents.
Aunt Sadie’s Candlestix
18 Union Park Street, 617-357-7117
www.auntsadiesonline.com
Aunt Sadie’s Candlestix is a home store that has floors painted white, cocktail napkins displayed in a round-topped Philco refrigerator from the 1950’s, a section for urban men that sells Dean Martin CD’s and another room with piles of stuffed frogs for kids.
Sooki
505 Tremont Street, 617-536-080
www.sookiboston.com
Sooki is a women’s clothing shop where Jesse, a border collie who belongs to the shop’s owner, Suzan Griffith, will herd you inside from the sidewalk with lots of friendly licks; it’s also the kind of place that will excite the most jaded cosmopolitan shopper.
Sooki sells many cool things, including one-of-a-kind dresses from boutique designers in France and Japan.
Cyclorama @ Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont Street, 617-426-5000
www.bcaonline.org
Catch an avant-garde art exhibition or a contemporary play at the Cyclorama. This 23,000-square-foot rotunda is part of the Boston Center for the Arts, and also offers a range of community events and is home to the Community Music Center of Boston, the Boston Ballet Costume Shop, three small theaters and a rehearsal studio.
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
415 Summer Street, 617-954-2000
www.mccahome.com
The 1.6 million-square-foot convention and exhibition center was designed by Rafael Viñoly. It has become a magnet for developers. Old industrial buildings in the surrounding blocks are being turned into office buildings and condos. There are even plans for a luxury hotel.
Flour Bakery + Café
12 Farnsworth Street, 617-338-4333
www.flourbakery.com
Flour Bakery & Cafe is a small sandwich and pastry shop that serves pain aux raisins ($2.50) for breakfast and made-to-order salads for lunch. It opened behind the just-expanded and just-reopened Boston Children’s Museum (300 Congress Street, 617-426-8855; www.bostonkids.org), known for its science playgrounds and hands-on activities.
Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe
429 Columbus Avenue, 617-536-7669
This diner serves breakfast until 2:30 in the afternoon. You can twirl on stools at the Formica counter and eat fried eggs and bacon, fat English muffins and heaping stacks of blueberry pancakes — with Boston cream pie for dessert.
Orinoco Kitchen
477 Shawmut Avenue, 617-369-7075
www.orinocokitchen.com
A cozy Venezuelan restaurant, the tiny, tin-ceilinged room is packed with the South End’s beautiful people listening to Nuevo Latino music and drinking plenty of wine — malbec from Argentina, carmenères from Chile — as they wait for tables.
There isn’t a lobster roll in sight! The chef is Carlos Rodríquez, and his hearty food is not for calorie accountants. Order the arepas (grilled corn muffins stuffed with shredded meats and cheeses), or the empanadas (dough filled with beef, plantains and cheese).
The line is outside the door every night around 6, but you can skip the wait if you eat later; Orinoco serves until 11 p.m. on Fridays.
Stretch your post-trip legs by walking around and checking out the striking brownstones. Boston’s South End has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as having the largest Victorian brick-row-house district in the United States (www.southendhistoricalsociety.org).
