A perfect day in Jamaica Plain under $30
Plus: ☕ PSA: $1 lattes!
Happy Friday, Boston!
☕ $1 lattes make us holla! Through April, Life Alive is serving up $1 espresso drinks with any entree purchase all month long! Our two cents: Pair it with a PB&J acai bowl.
🎉 And happy birthday to B-Side Member Becca! We know where you’re getting your birthday breakfast. 😉
👀 What’s on tap today:
- Measles at Logan
- Tulip mania is back!
- Walking to Logan …?
Up first…
BUDGET BOSTON
A perfect day in Jamaica Plain
Image: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe. Illustration: Gia Orsino.
If you’ve been sleeping on JP, it’s time to wake up! With tons of green space, a tight-knit community vibe, and eclectic small businesses galore, Jamaica Plain is the place to be this spring.
Here’s our perfect day in JP for under $30:
MORNING
🏃 Start your day with a jog or walk around the pond (FREE). Fun fact: Jamaica Pond is home to Boston’s only Parkrun, a free, weekly community run series that’s super popular in the UK. Show up at 9 a.m. any Saturday to run or walk the 3.1-mile course.
😋 Refuel at Cafe Siete (~$6.50). For a quick bite near the pond, we’d pick this cutie cafe. Your options: Grab a fresh pastry for under $5 (we’d grab an almond croissant), or get a day-old pastry for $1.50 and add a latte!
AFTERNOON
👖 Vintage crawl down Centre Street (FREE). Next, we’re heading toward the Arnold Arboretum, and hitting some of JP’s best thrift shops along the way.
- The Goodwill Store is one of the least picked-over locations in Boston, IMO.
- DIVERSITY Consignment ranges from trendy to timeless, and prices drop the longer clothes aren’t sold.
- 40 South St. Vintage has a chaotic-good assortment of funky clothes.
🌸 Take in the spring blooms (FREE). Spring is the ultimate time to hit up the Arboretum, a gorgeous, 281-acre living museum of trees. We’d time your visit to this free spring flower concert series, where musicians will play music inspired by spring flowers amongst said flowers, or Lilac Sunday.
EVENING
🌯 Grab a beefy burrito (~$11). Eater once called Chilacates Boston’s “homegrown Chipotle.” You can grab most of their Best of Boston-winning burritos for $11, and you’ll have plenty of leftovers to take home.
🎤 End the night with a show ($10). Iconic dive bar Midway Cafe is one of Boston’s most beloved queer watering holes, with concerts and karaoke basically every night that range from free to $10, and superb dive bar vibes. Check out the schedule here.
🤑 Total: ~$27.50
🗺️ Wanna save this itinerary? Here’s a Google Map of this perfect day!
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TOGETHER WITH MFA BOSTON
Where Monet meets bouquet
🌸🖼️ This spring, art imitates life (and flowers imitate art). From May 1–3, the Museum of Fine Arts is celebrating 50 years of Art in Bloom, where floral arrangements reinterpret iconic works across the galleries. Come see your favorite painting brought to life with fresh blooms that look (and smell) like spring. It pairs perfectly with Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination, a dreamy exhibition of tapestries, floral gowns, and garden-inspired art. Pro tip: grab your tickets now and swing by on April 30 to see it all before the weekend crowds.
CITY
Quick & dirty headlines
Image: Bloomberg
🤒 Sooo … someone with measles came through Logan. Apparently, a Rhode Island man with the virus passed through the airport on April 14. The good news: He immediately left the state in a private car, so unless you were in Terminal C between midnight and 2:30 a.m. that day, you’re in the clear. If you were there — especially if you’re unvaccinated — contact your doctor ASAP, since measles is highly contagious and can take up to three weeks to show symptoms. Moral of the story: Get your measles vaccine, people!
🏈 It’s a rough time to be a Pats fan. ICYMI: 2025 NFL Coach of the year Mike Vrabel has been caught up in a scandal after photos leaked of him holding hands and now, apparently kissing top NFL journalist Dianna Russini. (Yes, they’re both married.) Though they each initially denied wrongdoing, Russini has since resigned from her job, and Vrabel acknowledged the situation, saying he’s had “some difficult conversations” with family and the team. In fact, he’ll reportedly skip day three of the NFL Draft to seek counseling … yikes.
🫖 Out: Boston Tea Party. In: Boston Chai Party. This local chai company is taking Boston’s cafe scene by storm. In 2015, couple Vishal Thapar and Rohini Sen, immigrants from India who have consumed a combined 500,000(!) cups, set out on a mission to bring authentic, high-quality chai to the US by working directly with Indian tea estates. Fast forward a decade and their concentrate has become a staple at local spots like Café La Paz, Goldilox Bagels, Third Cliff Bakery, and now, all Flour bakery locations. Bonus: You can buy it online!
🌷 Tulip Mania is back in bloom. You can see 75,000+ tulips in full bloom in Wellesley at The Garden at Elm Bank annual Tulip Mania. Through May 3, you can tulip-peep to your heart’s content, and even pick a few of your own! See: Emily’s gorgina bouquet last year. It’ll only be open through May 5, so you’ll need to act fast. Tickets are on sale now for around $22 a pop. Grab them here! Can’t make it to Wellesley? Here’s where to flower-peep within city limits.
THINGS TO DO
Weekend plans
🕯️ Make a candle with your bestie. PSA: Wyllo has a two-for-one deal going for its April 24 candle-making class. Translation: You and bestie can make a soy wax candle for the price of one (with a side of candle trivia)!
☀️ Pretend it’s 70 and sunny. If you squint your eyes and hit Aeronaut’s spring fling patio party on April 25, you’ll almost forget you wore your winter jacket this week.
❓ Quiz yourself on the queen of beach reads. Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day AND prove you’re a real fan at Trident’s Emily Henry trivia night on April 25.
🍵 Meet strangers over matcha. This matcha meetup on April 25 is a *spontaneous* way to meet new pals. Just sign up here, then get booked for a res at a local cafe with four to six randoms.
📚 Book it to this pop-up fair. Head to Malden’s Cafe Reynard on April 25 for a pop-up book sale, Best of Boston-winning doughnuts and coffee, permanent jewelry, an open mic, and more!
🌸 Travel to Japan without leaving the Common. Boston’s Japan Festival is back this weekend with food and artisan vendors, cultural workshops, music, and … a cosplay fashion show.
🛍️ Shop and bop through Southie. April 26 marks Park City’s spring market, where you can sip your favorite PC cocktails (may we suggest the Dragon Glow) and shop local businesses.
🐶 Reverse plank with a rescue pup. Park-9 Dog Bar is back with another round of puppy yoga with Sweet Paws Rescue on April 26. Yes, the puppies are adoptable. Yes, there’s designated cuddle time.
ONE LAST THING
Walking to Logan > Ubering?
Illustration: Gia Orsino
You say you’ll do anything to avoid Ubering to Logan … but would you walk?
Well, Sam Westby actually did it, trekking 7.26 miles from Central Square to Eastie, and lived to tell the tale … on IG, of course.
Unsurprisingly, walking through the likes of East Somerville, Everett, and Chelsea got a little iffy (after all, they’re not exactly pedestrian paradises). See: A semi-truck parked on the sidewalk, and more often than not, no sidewalks at all.
Despite those moments, he did eventually make it in time for his flight, and the total journey took him around 2.5 hours. As for whether he’d recommend the walk: “No, that was a pretty bad experience,” he said.
That said, according to his follow-up ranking of ways to get to Logan, it’s somehow still not the worst way to get there.
— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario
🚶 Thanks for reading! Gia’s getting flashbacks to when she walked 4.5 miles to work to avoid the T shutdown.
💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for supporting local journalism and bringing culturally rich experiences to our city.
👩❤️💋👩 The results are in: 42% of B-Siders said they prefer to split the bill on the first date. One reader said: “One time my friend went on a date with Bill Gates’s son… and they split the bill.” Yeah … that’s a no from us, dawg.
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