Beacon Hill

This is the incredibly beautiful world of Good, a jewelry and home goods store as clean, minimal, and simple as its name.

When a hotel is as beautiful as the XV Beacon and the history is as storied and the restaurant is as wonderful, you wouldn’t predict that the real reason to stay here is none of the above. If there is one thing that puts this hotel a few clicks ahead of the others it’s the staff in general and the concierges in particular. This is a team that is thoughtful and competent and—a word not often associated with concierges—kind. Ask them for help with anything and they will deliver—and then they’ll go about three steps beyond. The XV Beacon’s other stock in trade is the building. A stunning, Beaux-Arts mansion originally owned by a well-to-do merchant, the building dates back to the 18th century and has also played home to the Boston Transit Commission and School Committee during its life. Since 1999, the XV Beacon has been working as a 63-room boutique hotel that puts a premium on cozy with fireplaces and soft cashmere throws and Frette sheets in the guestrooms. For those traveling with a pack, you’re in good hands: pets are welcome, kids are greeted with cookies…

Regular classes aside, Beacon Hill offers real yoga workshops, because sometimes you may want to skip the Saturday brunch line and spend two hours stretching and decompressing, and maybe even learn how to do a handstand. The instructors are hands-on and will adjust you throughout the class to ensure you’re getting the most out of it. There is no pressure to keep up, and it’s calming and friendly. Classes are small (around ten people), so there’s none of the usual scrambling for mat space.

In Irish, “follain” means wholesome, and this word is certainly an apt descriptor for Tara Foley’s beauty emporium. The legal professional turned clean-beauty entrepreneur has turned her frustrations—the dearth of nontoxic beauty products—into a brick-and-mortar business in Boston and seasonal pop-ups all over. The store itself, with its rustic farmhouse vibe, is the kind of place you instantly feel comfortable. Bright and beautifully merchandized with white subway-tile walls, deep sinks stacked with cotton towels for trying and washing off products, and shelves lined with plants and products by the likes of goop-approved Tata Harper, May Lindstrom, Pai, and True Botanicals to name a few of the over fifty lines Follain stocks. More often than not, Foley herself is on hand to offer advice and point you and your skin concerns in the right direction.

On picturesque Charles Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill, Dress is the boutique for the pieces we never knew we wanted. All the bases are covered with clothing, outerwear, shoes, accessories, fragrance, and jewelry. Dress champions smaller, more niche designers, with significant square footage allotted to Americans brands, like Clare V, Nili Lotan, and Janessa Leone. The store itself is a serene space to shop, with extra-roomy dressing rooms we wish every store had.

December Thieves could be described as a home and lifestyle store infused with an international aesthetic. (The owner, Lara Barakat, was born in Lebanon and raised in Jordan.) Loose Japanese-style clothing and unusual bags and shoes set the store apart from others on Charles Street—Dress is just a few elegant doorways down. We’re especially partial to the interesting selection of both delicate and chunky jewelry studded with rare gems—the kind of interesting jewelry you pick up while traveling and rarely see in the US. Barakat’s boutique is the perfect place to pick up gifts or something to make your own home coffee table or bathroom more exciting, with the candles, Turkish soaps, towels, and French ceramics at the top of our list.

If you’re going to blow it out for one meal in Boston, No. 9 Park is the place for it. The jewel in restaurateur Barbara Lynch’s crown, this fine-dining spot is worth the long wait and the many pennies. The restaurant is tucked inside a townhouse, and the food is refined but not fussy. Lynch sticks to Italian cuisine, using traditional American ingredients and giving a generous nod to her East Coast roots. Spring pea agnolotti with crisp fried artichoke, Berkshire pork with fiddleheads (the fronds that can be foraged only in the spring), we could go on. If you don’t want a full sit-down supper, the bar menu is the best in town. The seared hanger steak is so tender, you could almost eat it with a spoon, perfect with a robust glass of wine. Each staff member is trained by the in-house sommelier Cat Silirie, and given the length and breadth of the wine menu–full of old-world labels and a selection of interesting new-world American wines–diners will probably have a few questions. Just leave room for the cheese course. It’s too good to pass up (we recommend…

In 1981, at the age of twenty-six, ice cream-lover Vince Petryk opened J.P. Licks in his Jamaica Plain neighborhood outside of Boston (hence the initials J.P.). Today, there are thirteen locations in and around Boston—including the original in Jamaica Plain, Cambridge, Mission Hill, and Fenway/Kenmore—making this a go-to spot for locals and visitors alike. Part espresso bar, part bakery, part ice cream shop, J.P. Licks's awesome rotation of soft-serve frozen yogurt may be its best selling point, particularly in a city where scooped ice cream largely dominates the scene. Although...the ice cream cakes and chipwhiches at J.P. Licks are really good, too.

Originally built as a jail in 1851, the Liberty Hotel is one of Boston’s architectural landmarks, thanks to the fact that the dramatic space was reimagined by a team of designers and architects who collaborated closely with both historians and conservationists.

Owner Paul Niski is personally responsible for the artful merchandising of this shop, which changes all the time. Currently, he’s focusing on local, hand-made pieces with what he likes to call a “New England Modern” aesthetic. You’ll find antique homeware and pottery, leather satchels, new hand-crafted furnishings, and beautiful vintage jewelry, all falling under this made-up category of his own invention.