If you know, you know: the best places to sweat, shop and shuck from Nantucket to Newburyport.
Faroe Island salmon at The Banks Fish House
DINE As a collaborative venture in the works for several years, restaurateur Chris Himmel and chef Robert Sisca have finally introduced The Banks Fish House (thebanksboston.com) to fellow New Englanders. Here, the Atlantic Ocean is in their backyard. Offering two floors of seafood-focused dining in Back Bay, the first floor consists of a 26-seat bar, high-top tables and an expansive raw bar. Upstairs, there’s an open-kitchen dining room and private-party spaces. From Taunton Bay oysters to classic New England lobster rolls, The Banks is a Boston seafood experience you can, well, bank on.
A leather office chair from Herman Miller
WORK There were many hard lessons to learn during the pandemic. If you were working from home, then you quickly discovered that dining room chairs were never crafted with comfort in mind. But Herman Miller (hermanmiller.com) chairs are. The first name in thoughtfully designed office furniture has opened its seventh retail store in Seaport. Known for its customizable designs, Herman Miller offers seating with health-benefiting postural distributions of weight, light suspension materials and backrest adjustments. Head into the 1,500-square-foot shop to test out the brand’s perfect performance seats and return your dining room chair to its rightful place.
A look from Zadig & Voltaire, featuring the brand’s new Cecilia bag
SHOP Following a series of ongoing pop-up shops, Parisian fashion house Zadig & Voltaire (us.zadig-et-voltaire.com) is finally planting a fashion flag in Boston this fall with a new permanent boutique in Copley Place. Fusing a rock ’n’ roll attitude with casual cool, the label’s contemporary collections feature bold-printed jackets, punchy sweaters and edgy tees for every occasion this October.
SWEAT Bridgette Hynes, a Nantucket resident of 18 years and an avid marathon runner, recently opened Nantucket Run Centre (nantucketruncentre.com), the first store of its kind on the island. Head here to score tried-and-true specialty brands like Saucony, Brooks, Asics and New Balance, as well as emerging performance apparel and accessory brands like Rabbit, Janji, Ciele and Article One. Looking for a little competition? The sports shop is gearing up for the annual Nantucket Half Marathon Oct. 10 with weekly Saturday morning runs.
Greco’s new Agora by Greco store is filled with hard-to-find Greek goods.
DINE As your Instagram feed probably reflected this summer, Greece was the ultimate travel destination in 2021. For those who wanted a taste of Santorini closer to home, the team behind Greco (grecoboston.com) just opened a third outpost of its contemporary Greek eatery within Midwood’s One Milk redevelopment in Seaport. With 24 seats across the roughly 2,000-squarefoot space outfitted in marble and lime (a nod to ancient Greek design), Greco is focused on familiar favorites like classic gyros and build-your-own pitas. Owners Demetri Tsolakis and Stefanos Ougrinis have also opened the new Agora by Greco timed with the latest location. Their modern Greek market concept, at Seaport’s Pier 4, is lined with carefully sourced goods for home chefs who want spanakopita like Yaya used to make.
Sample local oysters and craft beers at the new Oysterfest.
SHUCK New Englanders have a couple of things in common, and oysters are one of them. On Oct. 2, Newburyport’s FISH (newburyportfish.com) hosts the first-ever Oysterfest in the Port. Restaurant owner Fred Derr decided to stage the event to not only bring the community together for an afternoon of sipping and slurping but to raise awareness for local oyster farms and fisheries. Riverwalk Brewing is providing bubbly craft beers, and Joppa Fine Foods is on tap with wine pairings.
Photography by: Courtesy of The Banks Fish House; Courtesy of Herman Miller; Courtesy of Brand; Barbara Zachary Photography; Courtesy of Venue; Maya Katkova/Unsplash
