The Consumer Index: January
What the Connoisseur staff is buying, wearing, eating, watching, reading, coveting, craving, fetishizing, and otherwise obsessing over this month.*
* Trust us. You'll like this stuff.
Scouring the movies for lousy Southie brogues is fun, but not as fun as seeing Boston impersonate NYC in frugal films. This month: Bride Wars, shot in the Leather District. See yellow taxis on South Street; see Kate Hudson in Faux-Ho.
$10.75 at the megaplex.
2. INTOXICATING BEAUTY
At new South Boston makeup studio Sarra, the staff is so low-key and the mod décor is so chic we'd chill there even sans the comp martinis. Promise.
$180 a lesson ($100 toward products).
Sarra, 840 Summer St., Boston, 617-269-8999; 104A North St., Hingham, 781-749-5599; sarraboston.com
3. SALTY DESSERTS
Savory, sweet, or both? Both. Troquet's dark chocolate soufflé with salted caramel ice cream , $11.75.
Troquet, 140 Boylston St., 617-695-9463, troquetboston.com.
4. POLE DANCING
If fashionistas like Betty Riaz and Anna Levitan say this has-been trend is back, we'll, uh, take that pole over there. The one at specialty studio Gypsy Rose on Boylston, $40 a class.
Gypsy Rose, 364 Boylston St., Boston, 617-421-0000, gypsyrosedancing.com.
5. LUNCHING
Dinner splurges: so last quarter. Better to hit L'Espalier midday, when prices let up and your boozy companion looks every bit "the client." Prix fixe plus martini, $47 per person.
L'Espalier, 774 Boylston St., 617-262-3023, lespalier.com.
6. POMELOS
Ditch the calamansi; lose the yuzu. A milder, sweeter (though just as aromatic) cousin of the grapefruit, this cannonball-sized beauty—pronounced "PAW-muh-lo"—is the vitamin c source du mois. Whole Foods, $4.99 apiece.
Whole Foods Market, 340 River St., Cambridge, 617-876-6990, and other locations, wholefoodsmarket.com.
7. BILE DETOX
Former Phoenix scribe David Denby's screed against all things snide has us scrambling to change our ways. Which means that's the only thing we've got to say about it.
Simon & Schuster, $15.95 hardcover.
8. BERETS
Lumberjacks, rejoice! You can have your trapper hats back. We've moved on. (Our pick: one of Eugenia Kim's cable-knit berets, $210 each, from Barneys New York.)
Barneys New York, Copley Place, Boston, 617-385-3300; The Mall at Chestnut Hill, 617-969-5354; barneys.com.
