Boston, MA
Boston’s Hottest New Cocktail Bar Just Opened Inside a Mall Food Court
The mall food court may not be the most obvious place to swing by for inventive cocktails from one of Boston’s top bar teams, or a glass of wine from a list curated by a master sommelier and alum of Boston’s vaunted steakhouse Grill 23 & Bar, but C-Side Bar is hoping to change that perception.
Ran Duan, of Blossom Bar, Birds of Paradise, and Baldwin Bar fame, has teamed up with Jon Rosse, also of Birds of Paradise, and Brahm Callahan, formerly the beverage director for the upscale Himmel Hospitality Group (Grill 23 & Bar, Harvest, Bistro du Midi), to launch C-Side, a new bar at CanalSide, the renovated food court inside the CambridgeSide mall in East Cambridge.
Wait a minute, the mall? Yep, that’s right. “We wanted to be able to do something that reflected [Ran’s] brand, and my brand, but in a place that maybe you wouldn’t think of seeing us,” Callahan says.
Walk into the newly re-launched food court as of October 25, and you’ll find over a dozen food vendors lined up around the perimeter. The businesses are familiar, well-liked local chains: Mexican restaurant Chilacates (opening soon), Sapporo Ramen, Mediterranean grain bowl go-to Anoush’ella, and others.
Right in the middle of the food court lies C-Side Bar, which serves all of the alcoholic drinks in the space. (This sets it apart from a food hall like High Street Place in downtown Boston, where some food vendors also serve their own beer, wine, and cocktails.)
On C-Side’s cocktail menu, Duan, Callahan, Rosse, and their team are leaning into ‘90s mall nostalgia. That translates into playful drinks like the Miami Vice, made with rum, coconut, and pineapple and topped with a pink-hued salted strawberry daiquiri foam, and a Fruit Salad Negroni with gin and Campari tossed with grape, pear, and Honeydew melon. Much of the cocktail list at C-Side is batched or kept on draft to quickly serve crowds of customers at the food court. It’s a new environment for the Blossom Bar and Birds of Paradise team, which is known for building elaborate cocktail-making stations inside tiny, 30- to 40-seat spaces.
On the wine side, Callahan curated a menu that ranges from $10 glasses of Pinot Grigio to $495 bottles of Champagne. In other words, this isn’t your typical food court beverage service. However, Callahan is betting that they’ll attract a range of customers with money to spend, from biotech workers to residents in nearby luxury real estate developments, who are looking for more places to eat and drink in the neighborhood.
CanalSide is one of just a few new food and beverage spots in the area, joining other newcomers like acclaimed Cambridge chef Will Gilson’s all-day cafe Amba and a second location of Brazilian coffee shop and breakfast spot Bōm Dough. Callahan’s hoping to reach people who don’t yet have a go-to cocktail bar or spot to buy a great bottle of wine in the neighborhood. “There’s a lot of people that live here and a lot of people that work here,” Callahan says. “And as this [area] gets developed, [we want people to] hang out here, have a nice glass of wine and make friends and be part of the neighborhood.”
It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
Federal immigration demands are once again centered on Massachusetts.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sent three letters to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden demanding, among other things, information on how many ICE detainers BPD has received and declined to honor from 2022 to 2026 and any communication between the three departments related to immigration.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “releasing repeat criminals back to the streets solely because of their immigration status is crazy, and that’s exactly what Boston is doing.”
But Democrats push back on that framing.
“You’re familiar with Jim Jordan and his antics,” said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “This is more circus, it’s more theater and it’s not making our community safe.”
A spokesperson for the City of Boston wrote, “the city has provided this information many times…” going on to say “…these policies are part of keeping Boston the safest major city in America.”
The letters call for the documents to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee by June 10th at 5:00 pm. District Attorney Hayden’s office told NBC 10 they are reviewing the letter, neither Commissioner Cox or Sheriff Tompkins responded to requests for comment.
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