The Red Line is in its messy era

It’s Thursday, Boston.

🍽️ Waterfront restaurants usually feel like tourist traps. But if you’re on a quest for a dinner spot with water views that has more locals than fanny packs, Globe food writer Devra First assembled this list of places that are worth checking out this summer.

👀What’s on tap today:

• Speed humps: Incoming
• A good week for bargain hunters
• The history of the Cool Dog

Up first…

TRANSPORTATION

No rest for the Red Line

Image: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe

Buckle up, Red Line riders. Your rough public transit week is about to get a whole lot worse. 

Thanks to a partial 16-day shutdown to nix some slow zones, Camberville will be a shuttle bus city starting Friday through July 28.

Here’s how to get around without completely losing your mind (no promises):

Let’s start with the weekends …

📝 Starting Friday around 8:15 p.m. … Red Line service will be replaced with shuttle buses between Alewife and Kendall/MIT through the end of service. The changes extend to JFK/UMass on Saturday and Sunday. Rinse and repeat the above for the weekend of July 27-28.

🚌 The bad news: You might be shuttle bus hopping during these two shutdowns. Shuttle buses will make all station stops between Alewife and Park Street both weekends. But another shuttle bus will be making all stops between Park Street and JFK/UMass. Meaning, if you’re looking to go beyond Park Street, you’ll need to transfer from one shuttle bus to another *shudders*. 

🚂 The good news(?): There are plenty of non-shuttle bus options. See:

1. Commuter rail service will be free between Braintree, Quincy Center, JFK/UMass, and South Station, and on the Fitchburg Line between Porter and North Station. 
2. The 77 bus that travels from Arlington Heights to Harvard will also be fare-free within Cambridge.

Now, onto the main event …

😫 Brace yourselves starting July 15. Red Line service will be suspended between Alewife and Kendall/MIT that Monday through July 26. The shutdown will then extend to Park Street during the weekdays after 8:30 p.m. and on the weekend of July 20-21.

🚌 Thankfully, you can choose your fighter on the alternative transit front:

1. Local shuttle buses will stop at all closed stations. They’ll extend to Park Street on weekdays after 8:30 p.m. and the weekend of July 20-21.
2. Express shuttle buses will make stops at Alewife, Porter, and Kendall/MIT on weekdays before 8:30 p.m.
3. A shuttle bus “loop” will stop at Harvard, Central, and Kendall/MIT on weekdays before 8:30 p.m.
4. The 77 bus will continue to be free within Cambridge.
5. The Fitchburg Line between Porter and North Station will again be fare-free. Plus, there will be another “shuttle train” operating hourly between both stations, meaning trains will operate every 30 minutes between Porter and North Station on weekdays.

🚃 But it wouldn’t be a proper MBTA shutdown with just ONE shutdown … Just to spice things up, shuttle buses will also replace Green Line service between North Station and Medford/Tufts on July 13-14 for track work that’s meant to prevent temporary speed restrictions caused by hot weather conditions (timely!). Union Square riders: Use the 86, 87, or 91 buses to connect to shuttles or the Orange Line.

Thoughts and prayers!

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TOGETHER WITH TOAST 

Tired of arguing over where to eat?

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CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

Image: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe

⚠️ Boston is on the way to becoming speed hump city. The city’s mission to install around 2,000 speed humps (not to be confused with speed bumps) on mostly residential roads is now underway. The humps are part of the larger citywide “Safety Surge” project aimed at protecting neighborhood pedestrians and cyclists, and they’re supposed to keep traffic under 20 mph. If you want to see if humps are coming to your streets, you can check here. And if your street is fated to be humpless, don’t worry, there will be future iterations of the project.

🏅 The Olympic Men’s Basketball team is looking very … green. The Celtics’ Derrick White is set to join his teammates Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday on the Olympic team after Clippers guard Kawhi Leonard pulled out due to long-brewing injury concerns. This addition means one-quarter of  the 12-person team is made up of Celtics, and makes White the only non-NBA All-Star on the team (he is in our hearts!). Although exhibition games kicked off July 10, White will have about two weeks to settle in before the official Olympic Basketball games start July 27.

🛍️ Budget-friendly shopping on Newbury Street? In THIS economy? If you’re the type of Newbury Street shopper who’s only hitting up the Zara sale rack, we have great news. The street’s H&M is officially set to reopen on July 18 at noon after a significant renovation, meaning we finally have another spot to hunt for cute, inexpensive clothes while still getting the Newbury Street shopping experience. And as a bonus: If you’re one of the first 100 customers to line up on opening day, you’ll get an up to $250 gift card(!).

🎟️ Theater kids, this is your Super Bowl. Faneuil Hall’s BosTix location, the iconic discount ticket booth, officially reopened Wednesday after closing during the pandemic. Open Wednesdays through Saturdays, the booth sells day-of tickets to shows around the city at a discount. As a welcome-back gift, the booth is offering $49 orchestra tickets to the much-hyped show, “The Queen of Versailles” starring Kristin Chenoweth NOW through July 13 (or while supplies last). Full price tickets are around $160, so if the only thing you love more than a good show is a good deal, run!

MEDIA SPONSORSHIP

An Evening on the Esplanade!

B-Side is a proud sponsor of the Esplanade Association’s Annual Summer Dock Party held on Thursday, July 18 from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Hosted on Community Boating, Inc.’s docks, this event will raise funds to support the Esplanade Association’s mission of enhancing and maintaining the beautiful Charles River Esplanade. Enjoy an evening filled with food, drinks, dancing, sunset views, door prizes, and so much more! Buy your tickets today.

ONE LAST THING

The history of the Cool Dog

Image courtesy of Dan Weil

If the words “Cool Dog” conjure up more for you than a cold hotdog, let’s take a journey together. 

ICYMI: During an interview with Seth Meyers last month, Boston icon Ayo Edebiri dug deep into the New England nostalgia archives when she shared her favorite dessert: The Cool Dog, a hot dog-shaped ice cream treat featuring a sponge cake bun and chocolate “ketchup.” And ever since, Bay Staters have been on a collective trip down memory lane.

You might be asking yourself: “Where did they come from? When did they go away? Are they really as good as I remember?” Well, Boston.com has answers. 

They did a deep dive into the history of the treat, from its inception to eventual disappearance, and TBH, it’s worth a read for the nostalgia alone.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🌭 Thanks for reading! The hunt to try and find a Cool Dog also led me to this ice cream blog, which reviewed the Cool Dog in 2012, and still runs today. Delightful!

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Toast, for supporting local journalism and making dining (or taking out) in Boston easy. 

🍜 The results are in: 31% of readers think that we should check out Jahunger for our next edition of B-Side Certified. One reader said: “Or you could try all of them   ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)” to which we’d reply: Don’t tempt us.

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