Alpha Omega
Hands down the best selection of watches in Boston. From inexpensive Swatches to twenty-thousand-dollar Vacherons, you're sure to find your new timepiece here. Look for new additions such as Piaget, Ebel, and Corum alongside old favorites like TAG Heuer, IWC, and Rolex. Harvard Square Galeria, 57 JFK St., Cambridge, MA .
F. Kia
The majority of these specialty items are produced by local artists. From frames made of old printer's type to revamped dressers with industrial-size wheels in place of legs, you're sure to find a unique gift for that hard-to-buy-for person on your list. The tasteful, free gift-wrapping is a welcome service during the frantic holiday season. 558 Tremont Street, Boston, MA .
Trident Booksellers & Cafe
Trident houses an eclectic and interesting collection of books, as well as tarot cards, bonsai trees, and the little cafe area where you can look through magazines and have a cup of tea without being bothered. Try their vegetarian chili! 338 Newbury St., Boston, MA .
Cambridge Racquet and Fintess Club
Play high-speed racquetball or share the Gravitron with your crush, who is probably competitively athletic and making good money at Lotus or one of the other high-tech companies in the neighborhood. Then schmooze in the Jacuzzi or share an intimate dinner at the club restaurant. 215 First St., Cambridge, MA .
LouLou's Lost & Found
If you've always regretted that you didn't snitch that ashtray from your favorite restaurant in Paris, you may find it here, along with a slew of other restaurant and hotel chinaware, new and used silver, glass, and other interesting ephemera. 121 Newbury Street, Boston, MA .
Brooks Brothers
The button-down approach to tardy debtors means polite requests on engraved stationery (personally signed, of course) sent many months after payment is due. If you still refuse to respond, their seconds and yours will arrange a meeting on the Common at dawn. MA
Vince Doria, <em>Boston Globe</em> Sports Editor
Another fine year. Just one question, Vince: What did you mean by the subhead on your Latin American baseball special section that read, "The hunger and desire of young Latins . . . make their future impact . . . even more ominous"? Too much chicken and rice in the clubhouses, perhaps?
Daniel Bruce
More than 300 wine festival diners and he has yet to duplicate a menu. The chef not only foraged the wild mushrooms on your plate, but the sumac in the iced tea. When it comes to a passion for his craft, Bruce can't be beat. Rowes Wharf, Boston Harbor Hotel, Boston, MA .
Rowes Wharf Restaurant at the Boston Harbor Hotel
Jasper White's torch has been passed to chef Daniel Bruce. Many of the ingredients in your meal Bruce has either harvested, foraged, hooked, trapped, netted, and/or shot. Pass the Local Wild Mushrooms over Stoneground Cornmeal Polenta, please. 70 Rowes Wharf, Boston, MA .
Blue Nami
A solid sushi bar, with seasonal specialties like soft-shell crab, and traditional Korean dishes like bulgoki, cooked at your table and served with eight separate side dishes, including three kimchis. And you're on a ship docked in Boston Harbor! 310 Congress St., Museum Wharf, Boston, MA .
Mather-Williams Nuptials
Former Harvard professor Kirtley Fletcher Mather, eighty-nine, and Muriel Speare Williams, sixty-three, said "We do" on May 31, before a packaged house at Cambridge's Memorial Church. The happy couple is motoring cross-country on an extended honeymoon—an example to young cynics everywhere. MA
Winston Flowers
Winston has cornered the petal market west of Boston. Its bright blooms are consistently the freshest around, and whether you want rare lilies or timeless red roses, Winston always finds your flowers. Plus, its unique year-round arrangements and gourmet gift baskets make present-sending simple. 31 Central St., Wellesley, MA winstonflowers.com.
Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga Institute
Twenty bucks for yoga? Om, no. At Baron Baptiste's Monday and Wednesday community classes, $7 buys 90 minutes of eagles, dolphins, and downward dogs. Expect to lose about a gallon of sweat—though not your shirt—in the center's heated environs. 2000 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 2140, baronbaptiste.com.
Campus Night at Manray
Think young. Then subtract two years. That's the average age of a ManRay patron on Thursday "Campus Nights," which draw a 19-plus crowd of supersweet male eye candy and their admirers. Spectators are welcome, and young women (sexual preference uncertain) pour in by the hundreds to bump bodies with Ivy Leaguers in designer blacks. 21 Brookline St., Cambridge, MA .
Club Cafe
From dumpy to delicious, your options are unlimited at Club Cafe on Saturday nights. Guppies mingle around the piano bar or cruise the back lounges where music set at just the right volume stimulates conversation, and inexpensive drinks hasten lubrication. 209 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA .