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Longform

City Life

The Boston Bierhaus That Burned Down. Twice.

It was a total loss from the start. On June 24, Boston fire crews rushed over to Jacob Wirth, a restaurant on Stuart Street about […]

Life & Style

Inside the New World of Luxury Kids’ Parties, Where Parents Are Plus-Ones

Forget the Met Gala—today’s soirees of the century are where VIPs still raid their parents’ closets for couture. From bubble artists to custom teepees to […]

City Life

From Heartbreak to Hope: A Maine Father’s Unlikely Journey, One Year After the Lewiston Massacre

Arthur Barnard sits alone in his car just outside a vacant, low-slung building on the edge of the Androscoggin River in Lewiston, Maine. Not so […]

City Life

How October 7 Galvanized Boston’s Jewish Community

Mia was a high school sophomore living north of Boston when her life changed in an instant on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas militants […]

City Life

The James Rodwell Case: A Somerville Man Fights for His Innocence

The stark lamplights of East Somerville’s industrial district cast an eerie glow on the gold Buick Electra, its engine still purring in the cold December […]

City Life

Charlie Baker’s (Still) Got Game

Once upon a time, Charlie Baker says—before he was governor, before he was in politics, before he was anything, really—he wanted to be, of all […]

City Life

The Fractured, Surprising, and Sobering Truth About Kids and Smartphones

It was a miracle: My seventh grader was at the Burlington Mall with friends. I double-parked in front of Nordstrom for pickup, eagerly awaiting tales […]

Arts & Entertainment

Is Candlepin Bowling a Dying Pastime?

It’s 6 o’clock at night, and inside East Boston’s Central Park Lanes, the late-summer air is heavy and humid. Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, […]

City Life

Oral History: The 1999 All-Star Game That Saved Fenway Park

In 1999, before the seemingly endless parade of championships in this town, Boston sports fans were longing for a win—any win. The Patriots were in […]

City Life

How Yuppies Shaped Modern-Day Boston

One day a few months ago, I happened to be in the South End when I started noticing, in a way that I never have […]

City Life

Is Boston’s Economy Doomed?

From the gleaming office buildings that tower over Boston’s Financial District—including an upper-floor conference room at One Financial Center, where a who’s who of the […]

Restaurants

An Insider’s Guide to South Shore Bar Pizza: A Regional Massachusetts Phenomenon Goes Mainstream

On a frigid February evening in Randolph, all is quiet. At least, all is quiet as I stroll across a dark parking lot outside an […]

City Life

Why I Kayaked the Entire Charles River

At dawn, fog rose from the surface of the Charles River. On that morning last autumn, songbirds darted over the water as I kayaked downstream […]

City Life

Confessions of a Moll: A Boston Gangster’s Long-Time Girlfriend Speaks

When Shirley Grispi walked into a room, heads turned. Lots of them. But on that day in 1969, when the fit, tanned knockout strode into […]

City Life

A Conservative Thought Experiment on a Liberal College Campus

On the first day of class in September, Tufts University undergrads scurry into Room 104, Barnum Hall, to grab a spot in one of the […]