This season, inventory of all types and in most price ranges continues to be
low, keeping buyers active and listings competitive, despite the rocky political climate. That’s both the good and bad thing about a strong local economy and a lack of buildable land to increase the housing stock. Interest rates remain low and stable—for now. In our area, it has been another great year for sellers and a challenging year for buyers. It’s hard to remember, in a market like this one, that things will shi! at some point; prices will go down and properties will sit longer on the market. At this juncture, it’s hard to see when we will reach that point. CONGRATULATIONS to our own Team Jen & Lynn, who won Best Real Estate Agents from Scout Magazine, and to everyone in the office for winning Best Real Estate Agency! We feel honored and will do our best to keep up the good work. Best Real Estate Agent
Best Real Estate Agency
New Listings 1 Summer Street #4, Somerville ~ $1,195,000 Chic unit in a renovated Gothic Revival church in the heart of Union Square. Features spacious, open living area with 45’ ceiling, and above it, a mezzanine master bedroom suite with spa bath and lo!ed study/yoga space. Below the living level are 2 bedrooms and another full bath. In-unit laundry, central air, elevator, and 2 garage spaces.
Commercial 34 Allen Street, Somerville ~ $1,800,000 Imagine the possibilities...masonry building on one level with 16’ ceiling height, just steps to the future Union Sq. Green Line Extension station. The 62’ wide x 42’ deep structure was constructed in 1985 of 12” thick concrete block with poured concrete, brick face, and flat steel roof with rubber membrane. Paved parking for 7+ vehicles. Currently used for martial arts classes by an Aikido dojo. S Building is currently in RB zone with a legal, non-conforming use (recreational/health club) approved by ZBA in 2008. Previous use as a factory was also legal and non-conforming.
Coming Soon
Thalia Tringo
President, Realtor ® 617.513.1967 cell/text Thalia@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Niké Damaskos
Residential Sales and Commercial Sales and Leasing 617.875.5276 Nike@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Davis Square Single Family
Spacious, renovated single with 4 beds, 2.5 baths, and driveway on a lovely street in an ideal residential location near the T.
Union Square 2-family
Beautifully renovated 2-family that could be converted back to a single. On a side street with parking and yard, steps to the heart of the square.
Free Classes Tuesday, November 28th or Tuesday, January 16th
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.943.9581 cell/text Jennifer@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Lynn C. Graham
Basic Home Maintenance:
preparing your home for winter
Jennifer Rose
6:30-7:45 pm
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.216.5244 cell/text Lynn@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Do you worry about pipes bursting? Ice dams? Clogged gu%ers? Broken downspouts? Heat loss? Damage from broken tree limbs? Heating system failure? Routine maintenance is the best way to prevent damage to your most important investment: your home. Come to this class to get a checklist and explanation of the things you need to do to maintain your home—and sanity.
Brendon Edwards
First Time Home Buyers:
an overview of the buying process Wednesday, January 24
th
6:30-7:45 pm
If you’re considering buying your first home and want to understand what’s in store, this is a quick and helpful overview. Led by our agents and a loan officer from a local bank, it includes a 45-min presentation and 1/2 hour Q&A session. Handouts and refreshments provided.
How to Buy and Sell at the Same Time: for homeowners contemplating a move Monday, January 29
th
6:30-7:45 pm
If trying to figure out the logistics of selling your home and buying a new one makes your head spin, this workshop will help make the process understandable. This workshop, led by our agents and a loan officer from a local bank, includes a 45-min presentation and 1/2 hour Q&A session. Handouts and refreshments provided.
How Individuals Can Buy Property Together as a Group: a primer for non-traditional homebuyers Tuesday, February 6th
6:30-7:45 pm
When two or more people, whether or not they are related, buy property together, what are their options for taking title? How do you determine each one’s financial contributions, percentage legal interest in the property, and expense allocation? What kind of arrangements can be made in the event one or more parties want to move on but others want to keep the property? What type of financing is available? We will address these and other questions in this class with a follow-up Q&A session. Lead by our team and a local real estate a%orney.
Eco-Friendly/Green Homes Tuesday, January 23rd
6:30-8:00 pm
If you’re dreaming of a home that’s the ultimate in energy efficiency, join us for a presentation about green homes, also known as passive homes. We’ll discuss the lingo associated with this technology, show various examples of homes that use the passive home design/standards, and the various programs currently available to retrofit your home. Presented by a local Architect/Designer, Tagore Hernandez with Group Design Build. 1 hour presentation and 20 minutes Q&A. Handouts and refreshments provided.
To reserve space in any class, please email Adaria@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com. Admission is free, but we appreciate donations of canned goods for the Somerville Homeless Coalition.
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.895.6267 cell/text Brendon@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Adaria Brooks
Executive Assistant to the President, Realtor ® 617.308.0064 cell/text Adaria@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
About our company... We are dedicated to representing our buyer and seller clients with integrity and professionalism. We are also commi!ed to giving back to our community. Our agents donate $250 to a non-profit in honor of each transaction and Thalia Tringo & Associates Real Estate Inc. also gives $250 to a pre-selected group of local charities for each transaction. Visit our office, 128 Willow Avenue, on the bike path in Davis Square, Somerville.
Dr. Daniel Wemple, M.D. has joined Somerville Family Practice!
Nancy Landry, R.N.
“I’m very proud to join the compassionate team at SFP, and I’m excited for the opportunity to continue my mission to provide patient-centered care rooted in a trusting doctor-patient relationship.” Somerville Family Practice has been a pillar of the Somerville community since 1979, and it is Dr. Wemple’s goal to provide health and wellness for another generation of patients. From newborns to the elderly, Dr. Wemple is accepting new patients for a variety of healthcare needs, including chronic medical conditions, routine health maintenance, urgent or sick visits, women’s health, minor surgical procedures, and more. Dr. Wemple completed medical school and family medicine residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and is board certified in Family Medicine. He is also fluent in Spanish.
Leora Fishman, M.D.
Maggie Satterfield, F.N.P.
Anna LeMahieu, F.N.P.
Christopher Woll, F.N.P.
Somerville Family Practice
N E W PA T I E N T S W E LC O M E • 1 0 2 0 B r o a d w a y • S o m e r v i l l e , M A 617.628.2160 • somervillefamilypractice.net
DR. KATIE TALMO received her DMD from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 2010. Upon graduation, she joined her father, Paul Talmo, in his practice located in the historic English Tudor house at 180 Highland Avenue on the corner of Highland Avenue and Benton Road. Dr. Talmo graduated first in her class from Tufts and continues to be involved in her alma mater where she teaches parttime as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Comprehensive Care.
Her patient-centered treatment philosophy focuses on prevention and conservative treatment modalities. She is a member of the American Dental Association and the Massachusetts Dental Society and is a fellow of the International College of Dentists. She is engaged in the community, serving as the Advisory Committee Chair to Somerville High School’s Dental Assisting Program. Dr. Talmo also travels to the Dominican Republic to provide dental care as part of a global outreach mission project. Schedule an appointment to visit Dr. Talmo in her newly renovated office space.
• FAMILY AND COSMETIC DENTISTRY • TEETH WHITENING
BEST DENTIST
• CROWN AND BRIDGE WORK • RESTORATION OF DENTAL IMPLANTS • VENEERS • CLEAR ORTHODONTIC ALIGNERS
2017 WINNER
2016 WINNER
2015 NOMINEE
2014 WINNER
DR . K AT I E TALMO , D .M. D . • 6 1 7 . 8 6 4 . 6 1 1 1 • 1 8 0 HI G HL A ND AVE N U E
NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2017 ::: VOLUME 48 ::: SCOUTSOMERVILLE.COM
Celebrating the Holidays
THE HOLIDAY ISSUE 20 // SANTA’S WORKSHOP, RIGHT IN WINTER HILL Step inside one of the homes on the Illuminations Tour, where Lenny Rigione brings wood to life. 26 // ONE CITY’S WORLD OF TRADITIONS Whether it’s the Gobble Gobble Gobble run or a Fluff ornament on your Hanukkah bush, Somerville tends to seep into residents’ holiday traditions.
21
30 // RECIPES FOR THE SEASON Local restaurants offer ideas for how to keep your table festive this winter.
contents 8 // EDITOR’S NOTE 10 // WINNERS & LOSERS Bow Market organizers booted Union Comedy out of plans for the complex. 12 // WHAT’S NEW? City officials are looking to rein in Airbnb rentals and Somerville’s getting its first medical marijuana dispensaries. 16 // NEWS: SOMERVILLE JUMPS ON BOARD VISION ZERO Somerville joins 27 communities across the country that have pledged to end traffic-related fatalities.
50 // SCOUT OUT: MEET REV. DAY Reverend Da Vita D. McCallister, the new lead reverend of First Church Somerville, has been out as a lesbian for as long as she’s been ordained, and the tensions between her sexuality and her faith run deep. 54 // SCOUT OUT: BRINGING FRESH FOOD HOME Winter Hill hasn’t had much in the way of nearby fresh produce—until now. 60 // CALENDAR 62 // SCOUT YOU
50
36 // HOLIDAY SNAPSHOTS Somerville sure knows how to celebrate. 38 // GIFT GUIDE Not sure what to get family, friends, and yourself this holiday season? We’ve got you covered. 48 // LOCAL SHOPPING DIRECTORY Shop these Scout sponsors.
Even as a person who has been out for 30 years, the idea of being in the pulpit in a tie ... touched all these places in me.”
Photo, top: Lenny Rigione builds decorations in his cellar. Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz. Photo, bottom: Reverend Da Vita D. McCallister has taken over as lead reverend at First Church Somerville. Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz. On the cover: The Juice Union’s Nut Noggin. Photo by Chris McIntosh.
EDITOR’S NOTE
F
all will always remind me of fresh starts, no matter how removed I am from elementary school’s exciting first days. It somehow feels more like the start of a new chapter than Jan. 1 does, as autumn air breathes refreshing crispness after the muggy days of summer. This September marked a fresh chapter for Scout. As our beloved former editor, Emily Cassel, moved to Minneapolis, a new team took the reins here. Tim Gagnon, our new staff writer and social media coordinator, is the one to thank for the wit in our newsletter and on our Winners & Losers and What’s New pages. Adrianne Mathiowetz’s stunning photos are there to Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz. bring these stories to life for you. We’re excited that she increased her role with us this fall and has taken on the job of photography director. Holli Banks Allien, our publisher, and Nicolle Renick, our trusty art director, have been rocks for us through this changing of the guard. Holli’s why we can make our mags available for pickup free of charge, and Nicolle’s why they look so good when you get your hands on them. Jerry, our circulation director, makes the final push to ensure they’re accessible in your favorite spots all over the city. To introduce myself—I lived in Somerville for years and recently moved to Cambridge, so I feel deeply embedded in both the communities we cover here at Scout. I’m looking forward to delivering what you want to read and what you need to know. This issue, which focuses on celebrating the holidays, has been an exciting first edition for our new team. Looking at the winter traditions this city holds dear, from the Illuminations Tour to the Gobble Gobble Gobble run, has let us pay tribute to the unique character of Somerville as we continue to develop our publication’s role here. Our new team has a lot of ideas for Scout, and we welcome your ideas as well. Please reach out—I’d be happy to speak or get a cup of coffee with anyone from the community.
Reena Karasin Reena Karasin, Editor-in-Chief rkarasin@scoutmagazines.com
PUBLISHER Holli Banks Allien hbanks@scoutmagazines.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Reena Karasin rkarasin@scoutmagazines.com ART DIRECTOR Nicolle Renick design@scoutmagazines.com renickdesign.com PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Adrianne Mathiowetz photo@scoutmagazines.com adriannemathiowetz.com CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jerry Allien jallien@scoutmagazines.com STAFF WRITER AND SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Tim Gagnon tgagnon@scoutmagazines.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Amanda Lucidi, Alejandro Ramirez, Catherine Seraphin, Kat Rutkin CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jon Beckley, Lauren Holahan, Chris McIntosh COPY EDITOR Amanda Kersey BANKS PUBLICATIONS 519 Somerville Ave., #314 Somerville, MA 02143 FIND US ONLINE scoutsomerville.com somervillescout
scoutsomerville scoutmags
Office Phone: 617-996-2283 Advertising inquiries? Please contact hbanks@scoutmagazines.com.
CORRECTIONS: The September/October Scout’s Honored issue misstates the size of the Artisan’s Asylum facility. It is 40,000 square feet, not 4,000. It also misstates the number of years East Cambridge Savings Bank has been running and the amount of grant money it has awarded due to a reporting error. Scout regrets these errors. 8 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
CIRCULATION 30,000 copies of Scout Somerville are printed bimonthly and are available for free at more than 220 drop spots throughout the city (and just beyond its borders). You can find sign up for home delivery by visiting scoutsomerville.com/shop.
SM
EAT, DRINK and
BE UGLY December 15th • 7pm Dark Horse Public House
499 Broadway, Somerville
Join Scout Magazines and Dark Horse Public House for a holiday bash to be remembered Meet Santa and his elves • Gifts for everyone Ugly sweater contest with prizes Complimentary Food & Cash Bar
Bundled Banking Makes for Happy Faces With our Special Select Banking Package, combine your checking and savings accounts and enjoy NO monthly service charges and NO ATM/Debit transaction fees.1
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Visit a banking center today!
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Member FDIC Arlington s Belmont s Cambridge s Chelsea Medford s Somerville s Waltham Member DIF
Personal deposits of Massachusetts residents only. Other fees may apply, please refer to our Schedule of Charges. Product offering may be withdrawn at any time. Fees and other conditions may reduce earnings on accounts; ask for details. For other terms and conditions, please refer to account disclosures available at account opening and upon request. 1. Please note other financial institutions and independent ATM owners may assess a surcharge for transactions performed at their ATMs. 2. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) and interest rates may change after account opening unless otherwise disclosed here or elsewhere. 3.These services require a separate application. 4. Online Banking required. East Cambridge Savings Bank does not charge a fee for our mobile banking services. However, data and text message rates set by your mobile service provider may apply. Check with your mobile service provider for details. Visit ecsb.com/Special-Select-Banking-Package-Savings for more information.
Cover is a donation to one of these two wonderful organizations:
secondchances.org
toysforlocalchildren.org
Helping homeless and lowerinco e eo le feel confident and al ed as the ta e their first ste s toward bri hter f t res. cce tin new or entl worn clothin . s eciall in need of new ac a es of ad lt size underwear and soc s.
a in the li es of local children in need a bit bri hter all ear lon . cce tin new nwra ed to s. s eciall in need of ite s for teens and tweens.
ASK US ABOUT SUPPLYING YOUR HOLIDAY PARTY! HOLIDAYS MEAN FAMILY WE SELL LIQUOR
Best Liquor Store
15 MCGRATH HIGHWAY, SOMERVILLE 233 ALEWIFE BROOK PARKWAY, CAMBRIDGE 2153 MYSTIC VALLEY PARKWAY, MEDFORD 48 BROADWAY, MALDEN
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scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017
9
W&L WINNERS
LOSERS
FOODIES Regardless of where you stand on Instagram-ing your food or dinner party conversations about new restaurants, the foodies of Somerville deserve a lot of credit for coming out to East Somerville’s 7th Foodie Crawl in droves last month. The Crawl helped raise nearly $30,000 for East Somerville Main Streets (ESMS), a 48 percent increase from last year. “The event continues to see tremendous success every year and is critical to the success of ESMS initiatives,” Teresa Vazquez-Dodero, executive director of ESMS, said in a press release.
OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD PLANES Somerville residents are just some of the many people that make up the Logan Aircraft-Noise Working Group (LANWG), which is addressing the increased aircraft noise from Logan Airport. “I would say that things have gotten so bad so frequently now that you could say the cascade of problems is enormous, although it has been difficult for certainly at least five years,” LANWG founder Maryann Aberg said, according to a Somerville Journal article. The group, which was formed this past summer, now has 50 members and meets “to assess options for noise abatement and ways to decrease the concentration of flight paths in the region.”
FLUFF Let’s face it: Marshmallow Fluff has stuck to history like … well, gooey Fluff in between your teeth. The most beloved condiment in Somerville has officially lasted through 100 years of lunch boxes and frigid winters, culminating in an absolutely packed Fluff Festival earlier this year in its birthplace, Union Square. The annual Fluff Festival went with a theme of “Inspiring the Next Century of Union Square Invention,” bringing out Somerville High School’s robotics team, Artisan’s Asylum, and the inventors of the 3Doodler, a 3-D pen made in Somerville. “Many people associate Fluff with childhood; it brings back all these childhood memories, but at the same time it really was innovative for its time,” event organizer Esther Hanig says. KEEPING IT GREEN Whether it was Captain Planet, Ms. Frizzle, Bill Nye, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson that first told you to do your part in protecting the environment, the sentiment is still (and always will be) painfully relevant. Luckily, the message is getting across in Somerville. Statue Park in Davis Square recently installed a reusable water bottle refilling station thanks to Somerville Energy Efficiency Now’s campaign in 2016. “By providing a way to refill water bottles at a central and accessible location, we are hoping to encourage everyone to reduce waste, whether they are passing through or enjoying the sights and sounds of Davis Square,” Environment Programs Coordinator Christine Andrews said in a statement.
CITY TREES Fall foliage is on par with any pumpkin festival or fair in terms of New England tourist attractions, but frequenters of the Beacon Street area were dismayed in the first days of October to find that the street’s trees had been cut down. The cuts happened without the knowledge of residents or city officials, and were related to a reconstruction project by Newport Construction that is not under contract with MassDOT, according to the Somerville Journal. “We haven’t gotten an answer about whether MassDOT told Newport Construction to do this or they took it upon themselves because they wanted to get things done fast,” Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston said, according to the Journal. ”[Somerville] doesn’t take down trees like this.” UNION COMEDY The developers of Bow Market, a Union Square complex that plans to bring small retailers and restaurants to a former storage building in 2018, severed plans with Union Comedy to open a studio in the new complex. Union Comedy’s organizers said the developers wanted a “more well-known institution.” Bow Market organizers told Scout that the “ability to support and drive traffic to the market as a whole” was the deciding factor for the complex’s marquee theater space.
Someone rustle your jimmies or tickle your fancy?
Let us know at scoutsomerville.com/contact-us, and we just might crown them a winner or loser. 10 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
SCOUT TO THE SOUTH Here’s just some of what you’ll find in the November/December edition of our sibling publication, Scout Cambridge.
THE ASIYAH JEWISH COMMUNITY POPS UP IN CAMBERVILLE Asiyah is a part of Aleph, the Jewish Renewal Movement that’s egalitarian and emphasizes gender equality.
RECIPES FOR THE SEASON Check out recipes and advice from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts for cooking this holiday season.
FROM THE CLOUD TO THE PAIGE: MEET HARVARD BOOK STORE’S ON-DEMAND PRINTER Written a book? Thanks to Paige, it could be in your hands within minutes. Scout Cambridge is available at Brass Union, Aeronaut, and hundreds of other places throughout Somerville and Cambridge. Head to scoutcambridge.com/pick-up-spots for a full list of locations!
Book our party room this holiday season to accommodate your extended family.
Best Italian Food
Zagat rated “extraordinary to perfection”
www.vinnysatnight.com 76 Broadway, Somerville
617.628.1921
TEMPLE B’NAI BRITH YOUR JEWISH HOME IN SOMERVILLE Welcoming • Inclusive • Egalitarian CELEBRATING SHABBAT
• Weekly Friday evening services at 6:00pm, with monthly vegetarian potluck dinners on: Nov 17, Dec 15 (Hanukah), Jan 19, Feb 16, Mar 16, Apr 20, May 18, June 15 • Weekly Saturday morning services • Monthly Tot Shabbat Service led by Rabbi Eliana
LEARNING
• Adult Education: Fall semester starts in November classes in Philosophy, Prayer Skills, Jewish Feminism • Weekly Torah Study: 8:00am Tuesdays at Porter Square Panera (no Hebrew needed) • Monthly Book Group: 7:00pm at Porter Square Panera • Weekly Children’s School K-8 (monthly pre-K)
For information about programs for young adults email TBB20s30s@gmail.com 201 Central Street 02145 | 617-625-0333 | www.templebnaibrith.org | tbb@templebnaibrith.org
scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017
11
WHAT’S NEW?
FALL FEASTING + FOOD UPDATES UNION SQUARE
THE INDEPENDENT
Known for its phenomenal taste in craft beer and food that betrays its classic, COMING MOVED “your British uncle’s favorite SOON pub for the last 50 years” exteriors, The Independent briefly went off the grid a few months ago, much to our shock and disappointment. After two months of renovations, the restaurant reopened with a new management team, sound system, and interior design, according to Eater Boston. “We are still the same Indo; we’re still a place for everyone in the neighborhood to eat, drink, and hang out,” the group’s COO Jess Willis said in a statement. “Hopefully people will find that the improved space feels a little more comfortable, warmer, more inviting.” ASSEMBLY SQUARE
SABROSO TAQUERIA
If you’re like us and believe burritos are the way the gods of late night food say they COMING MOVED love us, Sabroso’s new location SOON in Somerville will almost assuredly become a sacred place. With a “Burrito Grande” as its calling card, the Assembly Row spot serves alcohol and is right across the way from Mike’s Pastry. Praise be indeed. ASSEMBLY SQUARE
ZO
DAVIS SQUARE
CARAMEL FRENCH PATISSERIE
A
festive fall visit to Salem shouldn’t go without a stop at one of the area’s COMING many sweet shops, but Caramel French Patisserie owners and siblings SOON Sophie and Dimitri Vallier have brought their French-by-way-ofSalem sweet treat experience to Davis Square, according to Boston Magazine. Specializing in customary French desserts like macarons, flan, and eclairs, Caramel French also boasts seasonal treats like pumpkin cheesecake.
12 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
MOVED
If the Burrito Grande over at Sabroso Taqueria maybe sounds … well, a little COMING too “grande” for you, MOVED SOONor you’re looking for something a little more Mediterranean, Greek spot Zo might be your best bet for a new spot at Assembly Row. The restaurant offers gyros made with “authentic Greek rotisserie,” spanakopita (also known as spinach pie), dolmadakia (grape leaves), and a bevy of different salads.
Photo, left, courtesy of Caramel French Patisserie. Photo, top right, courtesy of Field & Vine.
UNION SQUARE
FIELD & VINE
The jump from pop-up shop to full-fledged restaurant sounds like a minor-to-majorCOMING MOVED league shift in theory, SOONbut Field & Vine flourished from such a transition. Formerly of Germaninfluenced bratwurst/beer garden Bronwyn, owners Andrew Brady and Sara Markey wanted to road-test their new restaurant idea, Company Picnic, in pop-up form with the ethos of “mindful sourcing for an ever-evolving menu,” according to Eater Boston. After two years of the pop-up life, Markey and Brady announced the leap to terrestrial location in June, claiming a Union Square space formerly occupied by high-end spot Journeyman. Field & Vine officially opened this fall. Going into the winter, the restaurant will continue offering veggie favorites from its pop-up days and selections like scallop ceviche, fresh oysters, and an incredible-sounding chocolate lavender pot de creme. DAVIS SQUARE
KOR TOR MOR
Come for the street food, leave with an education COMING SOON
on the cuisine of Bangkok. Kor Tor Mor’s name is an abbreviated nickname for the capital’s true name, which is 21 words long and loosely translates to “The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (unlike Ayutthaya) of God Indra…” and so on. Very complicated name origin aside, Kor Tor Mor offers straightforward Thai cuisine, according to Eater Boston, serving up its signature dish of khao na kai, “a Thai chicken, gravy, and rice dish.” EAST SOMERVILLE
SOME ’TING NICE
Amidst so many restaurant openings this month, the COMING Caribbean spot Some ’Ting SOON Nice announced its permanent closing after four years on McGrath Highway. Traditional Trinidadian cuisine like jerkseasoned chicken, ox tail, roasted plantains, and cassava flat bread were big attractions, as were the spot’s sunny location, bright murals, and fascinating staff (one chef was a former gold medal Olympian, the other a former soccer goalkeeper).
MOVED
MOVED scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 13
WHAT’S NEW?
WEEDING OUT THE DETAILS OF A LEGALIZED MASSACHUSETTS
W
ith recreational marijuana legalized last November, the entirety of Massachusetts is slowly figuring out how an economy with weed in the mix will take shape in 2018. But the state is still unrolling medical dispensaries—and as Somerville gets its first dispensaries it’s also seeing regulatory pushback.
DISPENSARIES
Eyes are on Boston to be an epicenter for any booms in marijuana over the next year, but right now, a quick WeedMaps check shows Somerville is leading the pack in terms of medical dispensaries in the area, with two sprouting up before year’s end. Revolutionary Clinics, located on Broadway, consists of a staff with backgrounds in “alternative medicine, technology, horticulture, law enforcement, and education,” according to its website. The clinic’s site also mentions a future Cambridge location. Meanwhile, Sage Naturals already has a location in Cambridge, but recently established a second spot on Elm Street in Somerville. The store’s site boasts that its cultivation facility is “the most sophisticated in Massachusetts.”
REGULATION
Speaking of legalities, opponents of the now recreationally legal substance like the Prevention Alliance are coming out of the woodwork in Somerville and elsewhere in Greater Boston, flooding Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) sessions intended for discussion over regulation and market structuring, according to the Somerville Journal.
14 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Although legalization is in the book, the Journal reports that the CCC needs to decide on matters like “the method and form of application for a marijuana license, qualifications for licensure and minimum standards for employment, requirements for record keeping and tracking marijuana, [and] minimum security and insurance standards,” among other health and safety regulations, which organizations like the Prevention Alliance plan on influencing. “The overarching point is that the Cannabis Control Commission needs to be very clear that this drug is not harmless,” Jody Hensley, policy advisor for the Prevention Alliance, told followers in an email, according to the Cambridge Chronicle. “Our government is here to protect us from the excesses of industry that could harm the public, and the Cannabis Control Commission is here to protect the people, not the industry.” The Prevention Alliance’s additional talking points focus heavily on the precedent set in Colorado, specifically the higher rate of marijuana smokers in the state after legalization. In turn, legalization champions like the Marijuana Policy Project have similarly flooded CCC meetings in retaliation against the Prevention Alliance. “It is likely that legalization opponents will show up and advocate for restrictive regulations that would harm the rollout of a safe, effective legalization system,” campaign director Matt Schweich wrote in a mass email. “We need as many legalization supporters as possible to balance the opposition messaging and to call on the CCC to meet their deadlines.”
DEVELOPING NEWS SHORT-TERM HOME RENTAL CRACKDOWN
Airbnb has emerged as one of the biggest apps for travelers looking for cheaper options to stay in cities and towns across the globe, but Somerville city officials are looking to restrain the rise in short-term occupants. Recent stories of Airbnb users starting out-of-control parties, doubts about the app’s user/host screenings, and the several hundred full homes available in the neighborhood each day are bolstering the potential legislation. Alderman Matt McLaughlin said in a recent interview with NBC Boston that he “gets a number of calls regularly” about short-term rentals, “mostly about partying, parking [and] excessive amounts of people.” McLaughlin also hinted at stricter regulations in the coming months after Cambridge passed its own ordinances for short-term rentals from the site. “We have laws about hotels, we have laws about short-terms rentals, and they just need to be updated to reflect the technology.”
THE PATH TO WIN AMAZON’S HEART
It’s basically a dating show setup: a suitor with some kind of financial or social capital is set up with a dozen or so contestants, pairing them down weekly until a season finale marriage that’ll assuredly end in divorce by the following season. In this case, the suitor is Amazon, the “financial or social capital” is… well, they’re Amazon and they want to build another headquarters, and, as of publication time, the number of contestants is up to 238 cities in the United States and Canada, according to the New York Times. Call it shameless, but Somerville is now sweetening its bid for the headquarters with additional spots in Cambridge and Boston.
Photo, top right, by Adrianne Mathiowetz.
The Boston Herald reports that Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is a major proponent of the construction, offering “large portions in Somerville’s Assembly Row and North Point” in the bid along with “North Station Tower, a planned office tower next to TD Garden, and a bus yard in Charlestown that is owned by the MBTA.” “We need to break out of our provincial and parochial mindset,” Curtatone said in a mid-October meeting, according to the Boston Herald. “We’re not a region of vast land, our neighborhoods permeate across our city boundaries.” The bid statement adds that a site along the Orange Line can “satisfy both the immediate need and the prospect of expansion over time by Amazon.”
FEELING THE BERN OR BERNED OUT?
Since the 2016 Democratic primary race ended in Hillary Clinton edging out dark-horsecandidate-turned-nationalicon Bernie Sanders, the 76-year-old Vermont senator’s progressive ideals and “yuge” grudge against the billionaire
class have remained everpresent in political discourse. He campaigned with the local candidates that Our Revolution endorsed in late October, and his appearance garnered large crowds. But some city activists found the appearance problematic. “[In relying] on the local Our Revolution organization to nominate candidates for endorsement, you lose control of the process they use and expose yourself to the risk that the local organization will nominate candidates based on their agenda and not yours,” read a letter with 27 signees, including state Rep. Marjorie Decker and former state representative and former Cambridge Mayor Alice Wolf, according to the Cambridge Chronicle. The letter also argued that a majority of the other candidates are “equally, if not more, progressive than the ones endorsed by the local [Our Revolution] branch.” Sanders campaigned with candidates including Matt McLaughlin, Will Mbah, Jesse Clingan, JT Scott, and Ben Ewen-Campen at the Our Revolution event.
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NEWS
SOMERVILLE JUMPS ON BOARD VISION ZERO
16 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
BY AMANDA LUCIDI | PHOTOS BY ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ
M
ornings in Somerville hum to sounds of commuters—squeaking car brakes, coworkers christening the morning with coffee, and an echoing ding from the bells of cyclists awaiting a green light. It’s a refreshing sight, dozens of adults biking to work, like the neighborhood decided to take a spin around the block. But despite the many cautious, helmet-wearing, light-reflecting, and traffic-abiding cyclists, accidents happen. Last year about 636 bicycle and pedestrian crashes were reported. Some were more gruesome than others, and a few were fatal. That was the case for a friend of Ken Carlson, who’s the chair of Somerville Bicycle Advisory Committee. Last year, just outside the border of Somerville, Carlson’s friend and co-worker Joe Lavins was hit in the Porter Square intersection. “He was killed by a collision with a tractor trailer in Porter Square on a beautiful day. It’s a pretty dangerous intersection—many cyclists go through Porter Square, and we’ve been advocating for a safer intersection for some time,” Carlson says. “That also sent shockwaves through the community. He was a friend of mine and someone I worked with at my company, and it just devastated our fellow coworkers. For people to die is incredibly emotional and real.” Somerville ranks sixth in the country in people who travel by bicycle. Thousands bike through Somerville each day, according to the League of American Bicyclists. Mayor Joseph Curtatone announced this fall that Somerville will launch Vision Zero—an initiative already adopted by 27 other communities in the United States. Vision Zero aims to improve infrastructure in order to eliminate traffic-related fatalities. The initiative was first implemented in Sweden in the 1990s. Its success across Europe has encouraged American cities to follow suit.
“Somerville strives to become the most walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly city in America, and if we’re going to get there, we must be bold, and we must bolster our dedication to safer streets,” Mayor Curtatone said in a statement. The Somerville Bicycle Committee’s action plan is based around five elements of transportation planning, which it refers to as the five E’s: engineering, evaluation, education, encouragement, and enforcement. “How do you have people get along, sharing a road, in a way that’s safe for everybody? It’s a pretty serious commitment to reducing serious injury or death on the city streets. It’s saying that it is unacceptable for anyone to die, be killed or seriously injured on our city streets. It’s a commitment to reducing injury and fatalities to zero,” Carlson says. One of the first steps the city has taken as a part of Vision Zero is identifying the most accidentprone areas in the city and figuring out how to reengineer these areas so bicycles have designated spaces like cars do. Somerville’s advantage is its data. Brad Rawson, head of transportation and infrastructure in Somerville, says the city tracks everything. Forty people go out annually to interview residents and collect data for the bicycle and pedestrian counting program. The city hopes to keep using the data and further some of the progress the city has already made, like where to put more protected bike lanes or where to control speed limits. “Many communities that are working on these low-carbon, human-scale transportation planning efforts I think struggle because their historical roots are all about the automobile,” Rawson says. “Communities that were built after World War II, the engineering and prioritization kind of denies people who walk or bike. But in Somerville that’s not the case at all. We are a much older community—most of our roads were built out by the 1900s and 1910.”
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17
NEWS Somerville Jumps On Board Vision Zero
The city has reduced the speed limit to 25 miles per hour, which Carlson feels is a huge step in calming traffic. Ensuring that all modes of transportation are moving predictably is essential to creating a safe city environment, he says. Somerville built its first protected bike lanes in Washington Square and is continuing to remodel streets to include these lanes. “So far, most of the bike lanes in Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston are painted bike lanes,” Carlson says. “Now, the real bike mantra in the community is protected bike lanes. And you’re starting to see more and more protected bike lanes in the city. When the construction on Beacon street is finished, we will have cycle tracks, which are protected bike lanes at the level of the sidewalk, from Porter Square down to Washington Street.” On the enforcement side, 18 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
“How do you have people get along, sharing a road, in a way that’s safe for everybody? It’s a pretty serious commitment to reducing serious injury or death on the city streets.”
one issue the city has struggled with is preventing Uber and Lyft cars from parking or idling in bike lanes. The Somerville Bicycle Committee plans to send a letter to Uber and Lyft and has gained support from other cyclist organizations. The city could create designated ride-share
parking to solve this problem. In terms of changes to vehicles, a local ordinance mandates that city trucks need side guards, which are skirts that go around trucks to prevent cyclists from being sucked beneath the wheels after being hit. Crossover mirrors are also
going up on city and school buses to help improve visibility. Come 2018, Somerville will release a Vision Zero action plan that will build on the steps the city has already taken toward pedestrian and cyclist safety. It will include technical planning and projected milestones stretching over the next five years. Until then, Curtatone says the city will launch a learning safety module to reinforce road safety practices. Rawson says the city also wants to step up its education and outreach efforts and hopes to increase community participation. “My wife and I relocated here in 2007 in part because we wanted a more walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented lifestyle compared to where we previously lived in Vermont,” Rawson says. “One of the things we hear from our residents is that choice matters and that people love that human feel—that rhythm.”
Thank you to the local businesses and organizations that support people in need in our community by hosting our clothing donation bins: Architectural Openings, Somerville City of Cambridge Delaney Uniform Services, Watertown Whole Foods Market, Arlington Whole Foods Market, River Street, Cambridge Whole Foods Market, Prospect Street, Cambridge Whole Foods Market, Somerville
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scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 19
THE HOLIDAY ISSUE
One City’s World of Traditions BY KAT RUTKIN
W
hen I was growing up, the holidays began Thanksgiving Day during the Macy’s parade, when our giant, old, fake tree would appear from the attic and I’d sort out the branches into color-coded piles. As I’ve gotten older and had kids, traditions have changed. Moving to Somerville six years ago gave us a new set of traditions: a tree from the Somerville High School sale at Foss Park, visiting the inflatable decorations several times a day, and so many new families to celebrate with. We spend less time watching the parade and more time hosting Friendsgivings with the neighbors—although I do miss the parade floats (and cable TV!). For many Somerville folks, the season officially starts with the Gobble Gobble Gobble, a four-mile race sponsored by the Somerville Road Runners. Starting in Davis Square, the race attracts many enthusiastic Somerville residents—in various states of turkey dressing—and benefits Project Soup. Roz Puleo is my Gobble Gobble Gobble running buddy. A long-time Somervillen
20 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
and a nurse practitioner, she owns a cycling education company with her husband. They’ve run every year as her family has grown, a familiar sight with the double running stroller carrying their children, ages four and one. Although they’re temporarily living outside Somerville, they’ll be returning for the race since it’s become an important family tradition. They’re not the only people to get the Somerville bug. For Kristen Strezo, co-chair of the Somerville Commission for Women, and her partner Robert Filippo, their Hanukkah bush is incomplete without a tiny ornamental can of Fluff to commemorate Somerville’s annual Fluff Festival. Union Square is an important part of the holiday season for Maggie Norcross Devin and Tim Devin, who begin December with a trip to Gracie’s for ice cream and then walk their tree home from Ricky’s in Union Square. The city and its rituals haved worked their way into holiday traditions for many families, regardless of whether they’re ’Ville transplants or natives.
Jessica Lee Green, middle, and her grandmother and daughter prepare for Armenian Thanksgiving. Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz.
scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 21
HOLIDAY ISSUE One City’s World of Traditions
Bringing Traditions Home
F
or Jessica Lee Green, who has lived in Somerville most of her life, the holidays start the weekend before American Thanksgiving. Green and her husband, Andre, who serves on the Somerville School Committee, live in her grandmother’s childhood home in Ten Hills. She says her mother grew concerned their Armenian traditions were fading as their family started to get busier and spend less time together for each holiday. “She implemented ‘Armenian Thanksgiving’ the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Now that she’s passed, my sister and I will be continuing that tradition. It’s sort of 22 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
the kick-off of the holiday season for us,” Green says. Armenian Thanksgiving isn’t all that different from our American tradition, save the food traditions passed down in Green’s family. Green’s great-grandmother, Varthui Torosian, brought these recipes to Somerville when she left Armenia after World War I. Preparations start months before then, in August, when Green, along with her daughter, sister, and grandmother, process 220 pounds of tomatoes into the tomato juice that provides the base for many of their family recipes. It is suspected that this particular tomato juice recipe is Armenian by way of Turkey, as Torosian worked for a Turkish doctor before coming to the United States.
“Pilaf is an important component of most holiday meals in our family. And I have no idea how to make it without tomato juice.”
Neighborhood Lights
F
or me, though, the season doesn’t truly begin until I’ve failed to acquire tickets for the Illuminations Tour, a popular Arts Council event that consists of trolleys driving through the most ornately decorated neighborhoods of Somerville. Tickets go on sale Sunday, Dec. 3 at 10 a.m. at the Blue Cloud Gallery. Most folks line up hours in advance, which is nearly impossible with small kids in tow. I polled my favorite mom group on Facebook, and the
nearly impossible-to-get tickets came up again and again. “One of my favorite traditions is sending a single child-free friend to stand in line for over an hour in Ball Square to get Illuminations Tour tickets,” Aili Contini-Field says. Meanwhile, Somerville parent Diana Jong resolves that 2017 will be the year she finally starts her new tradition: “I’m gonna get on that trolley this year!!” Abbe Cohen Dvornik and Bert Dvornik have been on the Illuminations trolley before, but now skip the tour for quieter, lightappreciating walks as a family. The pair, who Abbe describes as “American-mostlysecular-Jewish and Croatianfairly-traditional-Catholic,” met at MIT. When they had children, Abbe found herself
A Central Street home featured on the Illuminations Tour. Photo by Mary Kocol.
longing to do something Christmas-y, but not with the same Santa traditions that she and her husband hadn’t connected with as children. Growing up Jewish in New Jersey, Santa reminded Abbe of a holiday her family didn’t celebrate. Bert’s memories of communist Croatia didn’t have Santa, but “Father Frost,” who also wore a red suit but gave out presents on New Year’s Day. Both Bert and Abbe are engineers, software and mechanical/robotical, respectively. So they set about engineering a hybrid holiday they’d enjoy. Their Somerville holidays now involve a Hanukkah celebration with fried food and gifts including thrift store treasures, little free library finds, and shiny new tomes from Porter Square Books. This ritual pairs with a Christmas that features Midnight Mass, early morning presents, and then a breakfast of
the only lovingly homemade nativity set made by a crafty Jew using polymer clay in the entire world,” she says.
Evolving Traditions
B
ut for some, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Tiffany Costa is a lifelong Somerville resident and doesn’t have to go far to visit family these days—her parents live downstairs in their Winter Hill home. Her traditions are born from the mix of what she and her siblings loved and hated as kids. “Growing up, we had a love-hate relationship with the holidays,” Costa says. Visiting family was always fun, but meant foregoing playtime with new toys. Memories of fun days with her cousins at her grandparents’ were colored with the longing of unopened boxes at home.
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“Pilaf is an important component of most holiday meals in our family. And I have no idea how to make it without tomato juice.” cookies after the kids sleep in. No red-suited gift givers visit, but they do put up a tree. As a child Bert put up his tree on Christmas Eve, a tradition that needed some adjustment here. “We have long since learned that if you try buying a tree on the 23rd or 24th in a city where nobody else sets up on the 24th, you wind up with a Charlie Brown tree that they couldn’t sell,” Abbe says. So now they buy it early and stash it outside until they’re ready, then go to town decorating with cheesy music blasting. “Under our tree is possibly
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Christmas with her husband, Kenny, and their four kids now involves a big dinner on Christmas Eve while tracking and calling Santa on an app. Presents are opened Christmas morning. After breakfast downstairs with Nana and Papa, it’s back upstairs to take everything out of the box and play all day. Costa knows the importance of play, as she’s been director of a daycare center for many years. She laughs, “At some point, we take showers, get dressed, eat our own dinner ... but the kids are never taken away from their toys!” scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 23
THE HOLIDAY ISSUE
SANTA’S WORKSHOP, RIGHT IN WINTER HILL BY REENA KARASIN PHOTOS BY ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ
24 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Lenny Rigione
F
or many months of the year, the outside of 166 Central Street looks like any other Somerville home. It sits on a steep, quiet road between the two main streets of Winter Hill. But inside, in the cellar and attic and garage, beloved characters come to life. Santa and Mrs. Claus dance, an ogre bares his teeth, and Olaf reaches for a hug. Lenny Rigione started making his own wooden decorations in the ’60s, when a
friend got him into it. Soon he grew to love handcrafting the characters, and he whittled and tinkered in the evenings after his job where he worked with people with disabilities. When he and his wife, Candy, moved from elsewhere in Somerville to Central Street 25 years ago, he found that the kids on his street were awed by his characters. “Rugrats, little tykes used to be down the street. I put something out, and they all
would be out here, sitting on the sidewalk, ‘Oooh, look!’” he says. “I enjoy that, watching people enjoying themselves watching somebody else’s stuff. I have fun watching kids—the adults too, because half the adults are bigger kids.” Every Halloween and Christmas, Rigione brings his creations outdoors. His home has grown to be one of the highlights of the Illuminations Tour, a trip to the city’s most decked-out houses run by the Somerville
Arts Council each December. The magic starts in Rigione’s cellar, where he pores through design books, coloring books, and magazines for ideas. Usually he can figure out how to replicate the decorations on his own, but sometimes—like with a backlit pumpkin design that hollowly glows in the dark—he pays a small fee to get directions. He draws the designs on a clear plastic sheet, and then projects them onto wood so he knows where to carve. All of his scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 25
HOLIDAY ISSUE Santa’s Workshop, Right in winter Hill
creations are made of wood— convenient, since two of his sons work in the lumber industry. After he finishes carving the wood, it’s time to paint. Many of Rigione’s decorations are motorized. He learned quickly that he could get windshield wiper motors from junkyards cheaply, and so discarded car parts get a new life in characters that dance and
wave. Occasionally he’ll get even more creative: a rotisserie motor powers a mini Ferris wheel and an old jewelry store display case motor is now a rotating platform. “I was the first person in this area to do the Christmas decorations,” he says. “When we first came in, nobody had lights, nobody had nothing. I had [someone from] down the street come over, shake my hand. He
Bright Blockbusters
12 OTIS STREET JOHN RAGNO John Ragno actually decorates not one house, but three. His two daughters live on Otis Street too—one next door and one across the street—and each year he decks out all three addresses. His home is the place to go if you want to see more traditional, religious Christmas decorations, while his daughters prefer secular looks and have plenty of Snoopy imagery. Ragno even strings lights over the driveway between his home and his next-door daughter’s house.
7 AMES STREET ANGELO DIRUSSO During the holidays, Angelo DiRusso’s house is covered from the third floor to the ground with big inflatable Santa heads. Yes, you read that right. DiRusso’s been decorating the Robinson Street home for 45 years, and the Santa heads are from the 1960s. The spectacle takes three weekends to assemble, and includes a yard that features a Santa’s workshop and that Strutt says is “chock full of inflatables” including a pig and a merry-go-round.
25 PRESTON ROAD FRANK AND MARIA ARMATA Frank and Maria Armata, who are from Italy, managed to inspire all of Preston Road to light up at the holidays. About 10 years ago, Mayor Joseph Curtatone decided to make a contest out of the Illuminations Tour, and Preston Road won. “The spirit trickled over” from the Armatas, Somerville Arts Council Cultural Director Rachel Strutt says. Now, five or six homes on the street get into the decorating. “The whole street is pretty megawatt,” Strutt says. Frank and Maria usually dress up their dog as Santa and come outside to wave to people on the trolleys, and even have an inflatable merry-go-round.
23 HIGHLAND ROAD PAT AND DOMINIC OPPEDISANO Pat and Dominic took over decorating this home from their father, Anthony, who moved there in 1964. It’s gotten more elaborate over the years, according to Strutt, and always features a statue of the blessed mother. Strutt says the Oppedisano house is “one of the real blockbusters.”
Want a taste of what else the Illuminations Tour has to offer? Here are five more of the must-see homes on the annual tour. Trolley tickets are on sale Dec. 3 at Blue Cloud Gallery, and they often go quickly. If you miss out on a ticket (or getting up early on a Sunday isn’t your thing), you can pick up a $3 map and do a self-guided tour.
26 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
says, ‘Thank you. You’re making Christmas again for us.’ They’re all doing it now around here.” The Illuminations Tour, which was started in the late 1990s, is competitive in more ways than one. Popular time slots sell out quickly, and the decorators who are featured on the tour sometimes try to one-up each other, Cultural Director for the Somerville Arts Council Rachel Strutt says.
But ultimately the event is a celebration of light close to the winter solstice. “People think that to make art you have to go to art school, but that’s not really the case, and I think Illuminations showcases that—anyone who has holiday spirit and goes out and buys some decorations or makes some decorations and makes aesthetic decisions,” Strutt says.
53 SPRINGFIELD STREET CARVALHO FAMILY Only in New England do you see a lobster trap serving as a nativity manger. This Springfield Street home’s the place to go for music, an illuminated Santa climbing up a ladder, and this uniquely Boston touch.
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HOLIDAY ISSUE Santa’s Workshop, Right in winter Hill
“It’s a great example of art in the larger sense of the word in that it’s so public and it’s art that spills onto the street.” Rigione certainly meets that description, as he has no formal artistic training. “It’s something I enjoy doing. It’s like therapy. If I get too nervous, I go down in the cellar and I grab my paint brush,” he says. “I never went to school for it, I don’t think I’m an artist. I’m 28 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
gifted to be able to do some of this stuff.” Candy says she likes her husband’s unusual hobby, as it keeps him busy. Has she ever considered giving it a try herself? “Never.” While those original kids on Central Street are long grown up, kids know of the Rigiones’ house from passing it on the way to the Winter Hill Community Innovation School.
At Halloween, a giant pumpkin with human legs coming out of its mouth sometimes scares some kids from coming to the Rigiones’ front door. When that happens, the couple hands them candy in their front yard. Lenny and Candy’s five kids are grown up too—even the grandkids are “gigantic.” But Rigione, who says he’s “76 going on 25,” still gets to make presents for his three great-grandkids.
He makes sure to build Olaf decorations because they adore the “Frozen” character. And his decorations welcome the whole family when they come to Central Street for Christmas every year. “We have 20-30 people at the house. I told all my kids, ‘Christmas is the only time I want to see you all here.” A picture-perfect Christmas tree grows in the backyard.
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scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 29
THE HOLIDAY ISSUE
Recipes FOR THE
Season 30 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
BY CATHERINE SERAPHIN
Y
ou know what time of year’s coming up. Perhaps you’ll encounter the pre-Thanksgiving Market Basket hordes when you planned a quick trip for some Diet Coke and frozen pizza. Merciless Black Friday crowds might start swinging for the last 48” TV at Target. Or maybe you’ll get cornered at your holiday party by the coworker who smells like licorice and definitely double dipped earlier. Yes, it’s an exhausting time of year that will have you looking for excuses to stay in your apartment, away from the holiday hoopla. Well, here’s your excuse: make some killer holiday recipes from some of Somerville’s finest—all in the comfort of your home. So go ahead. Light a candle, put on some Bing Crosby, get cooking, and spend time eating and drinking with people you actually like.
Nut Noggin The Juice Union The Juice Union, located in Union Square, serves all-plant-based smoothies and juices, bowls, and snacks. Passersby can often count on seeing a seasonal drink offering on the chalkboard outside the shop, ranging from Fluff-themed creations for the annual Fluff Festival to pumpkin lattes that satisfy those autumnal cravings. Founder Diana Krefetz wanted to create a healthier, nondairy riff on traditional eggnog. Krefetz and The Juice Union team make unique nut milks for nitro lattes, which is done with cashews in this recipe. The flavorful cashew-milk base becomes decadently creamy when blended with a frozen banana. INGREDIENTS: • 1 cup filtered water • ¼ cup raw cashews • 1 medjool date • ½ tsp chia seeds • ¼ tsp vanilla extract • 1 tsp cinnamon • 1 tsp nutmeg • A pinch of salt • 1 large frozen banana, sliced before freezing INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Place all ingredients, except the banana, into a blender. Blend for 1–2 minutes. Next, add the frozen banana and blend until smooth. 2. For a caffeine buzz, replace water with cold coffee. Want to make it extra wild? Add bourbon or rum.
Prepared, styled and photographed by Chris McIntosh.
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scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 31
HOLIDAY ISSUE Recipes for the Season
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies Taza Chocolate These cookies combine rich, bold chocolate with the cool crunch of peppermint candy for the perfect holiday treat. Bake up a batch or two for everything from gifting, to hosting, to … eating them all by yourself while binge-watching your favorite holiday movies. We won’t judge. Taza makes stone-ground chocolate that has become synonymous with Somerville. Taza stone-grinds organic cacao beans into unrefined, minimally processed chocolate with bold flavor and texture. Taza’s factory store is on Windsor Street in Somerville, where the company also offers tours— chocolate tasting included. Hollah. INGREDIENTS: • 1/2 stick butter • 1–2.5 oz package Peppermint Stick Amaze Bar (a seasonal item from Taza), chopped. Note: a 60% Dark Dominican Origin Bar with ¼ tsp peppermint extract is a suitable substitute • ¾ cup all-purpose flour • ¼ cup light brown sugar • ¼ cup granulated sugar • ¼ tsp baking soda • 1 egg, beaten • ¼ tsp of salt • 2 oz peppermint candies INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. 2. In a small sandwich bag, crush peppermint candies with a rolling pin or frying pan. Place crushed candies in a small bowl and set aside. 3. In a small microwavable dish, heat butter and chocolate 30 seconds at a time, until no solid pieces are left (about one minute). Set aside to cool, but not solidify. 4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, and salt. Fold in melted chocolate mixture and beaten egg, and mix until dough forms. 5. Roll the dough into 12 evenly sized balls and press half of the ball in the peppermint candy. Place candy-side-up on lined baking sheet with about three inches between each piece. 6. Bake for 13–15 minutes, or until cookies have spread and the tops have begun to crackle. Remove from oven and let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for five minutes, then transfer to a rack or plate to finish cooling. 32 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Photo by Chris McIntosh.
Prepared, styled and photographed by Chris McIntosh.
scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 33
HOLIDAY ISSUE Recipes for the Season
Fish Aqua Pazza Dave’s Fresh Pasta An Italian Christmas isn’t really Italian unless you’re celebrating with the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Chef Jason Martin, who teaches classes at Dave’s Fresh Pasta, says his grandmother would make Aqua Pazza (which translates to “crazy water”) for his family on Christmas Eve. “As Italians, Christmas Eve was always the biggest night of our year,” he says. “I believe back in Naples they would actually use sea water to make the dish.” Hence the name. Dave’s Fresh Pasta is located in Davis Square, offering everything from wine and cheese to a sandwich bar and—of course— fresh pasta. Chef Jason and the Dave’s Fresh Pasta team are also behind the new Semolina Kitchen, which opened in Medford in July.
Potato Mille-Feuille Juliet
Is the holiday spread even complete if the potato doesn’t get some love? At first glance, this recipe for potato millefeuille (which translates to “thousand leaves”) can look daunting. It’s a tiny bit of a chore, but according to Juliet Chef Joshua Lewin, it starts to come together fairly quickly once you get into a groove. A bit of butter, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs all melt together with the potato, but the thin slicing and stacking create a wonderfully fun texture wrapped up in a lightly crisped shell. Too lazy to make the dish? Don’t worry. It will be available on the Juliet Steakhouse menu, a four-week celebration of what Lewin calls “mid-century opulence” between Nov. 24 and Dec. 23. Dinner at Juliet 34 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
is anything but standard—the menus are what they call “full productions,” focusing not only on the food, but the entire experience. INGREDIENTS: • 4 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced as thin as possible with a mandoline or knife • 1 cup plus 1 tbsp melted butter • 1 tbsp thyme leaves, all stems removed, coarsely chopped • 1 tbsp kosher salt • 1 tsp finely ground black pepper INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 2. Toss all ingredients (reserve 1 tbsp butter) together in a mixing bowl so that potatoes are evenly coated with butter and seasonings. Lay potatoes
flat, overlapping lightly, lining the entire baking dish. Press down lightly to compress before adding each additional layer. Continue stacking and pressing until all potatoes are used. 3. Cover with foil and bake until a cake tester or wooden skewer passes through the mille-feuille without any resistance, about 40 minutes. 4. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. 5. Brush the top of the cooked potato with remaining butter and lightly sprinkle with additional kosher salt and black pepper. 6. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 10 minutes or until the top of the potato is golden brown and crispy.
Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz.
INGREDIENTS: • 2 lbs sea bass, sole, cod, haddock, or pollock • 2 cups white wine • 1 large onion, sliced • ½ can of Italian cherry tomatoes • 3 sliced and peeled potatoes • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme • 2 sprigs of fresh parsley • 2 tsp chili flakes • 2 cups fish stock or clam juice • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil • Salt and pepper to taste INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 400. Heat a large saute pan; add oil and wait until it’s hot. 2. Brown the potato slices on both sides. Add the onion and cook for three minutes. Add the wine and reduce it by half. Add in the tomatoes, fish stock/clam juice, chili flakes, and thyme. 3. Place fish on top of the cooked potatoes, onion, tomatoes, etc., and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake about 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked. 4. Finish by drizzling extra virgin olive oil and parsley over the fish.
YOUR FUN, NEIGHBORHOOD PUB A few of your neighbors have taken over the space formerly known as On the Hill Tavern. We’ve updated the menu, brushed up the look and welcome you to come by and hang with us. 4 9 9 B R O A D WAY, S O M E R V I L L E
JOIN US AND SCOUT MAGAZINES DECEMBER 15, 2017 FROM 7PM UNTIL...
Bring new, packaged socks and underwear for adults for Second Chance or new, unwrapped gift for Toys for Local Children and enjoy the Christmas festivities! Raffles will also benefit these two wonderful organizations.
Wear your ugliest holiday sweater. Contest with prizes. Santa and his elves will have gifts for everyone! Complimentary food and cash bar.
THE HOLIDAY ISSUE
Holiday s t o h s p Sna
Left, top: The Somerville Public Library displays a table with winter-themed books for children. Submitted by the Somerville Public Library. 36 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
FAMILY RECIPES WITH MODERN TWISTS.
SERVING SOMERVILLE HAND-CRAFTED LATIN AMERICAN CUISINE MADE WITH THE FRESHEST INGREDIENTS
TACO TUESDAYS! ALL TACOS 3 FOR $10
Best Tacos
Find Daily Specials and ORDER ONLINE on our new website:
www.laposadasomerville.com
L
La Posada is Somerville’s spot for delicious, hand-crafted Latin American cuisine. Chef Johe Posada and his family crew develop and prepare ori inal meals ith the freshest in redients daily. he menu is filled ith unique family recipes and classic Latin American dishes. From perfectly crafted pupusas to tacos with distinctive garnishes, the menu is full of innovative and delicious offerings. Come in to get the La Posada experience, or get their delicious dishes delivered directly to your door.
Left, bottom, and Right: Brooklyn Boulders throws a Winter Wonderland party. Submitted by Brooklyn Boulders.
505 Medford St. Somerville • 617-776-2049 www.laposadasomerville.com scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 37
THE HOLIDAY ISSUE
GIFT GUIDE Photos by Adrianne Mathiowetz unless otherwise noted.
38 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
For the
Outdoorsman 1
2
STAINLESS STEEL OPINEL KNIFE
Sometimes you find a tool that can do pretty much anything. This stainless steel opinel knife is handy for whatever needs cutting, from wood to fish to cheese. It’s equipped with a beech wood handle and a safety lock. $14, Loyal Supply Co.
MINI SUCCULENTS
1 2
Plants can be hard to keep alive—especially in Somerville in the winter—but succulents are notoriously hearty. Nellie’s Wildflowers offers mini versions of these tough plants. $5, Nellie’s Wildflowers
For the Winter
Enthusiast
3
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HOLIDAY CANDLE
These candles are custom-made for Davis Squared with an “Entering Somerville” sign and a gold rim. You can make your home smell like first frost or white birch with these candles, not to mention brighten things up a bit as the days get shorter and shorter. $25, Davis Squared
3
MOOSE THROW BLANKET
What’s more New England than a moose? This super soft throw is sure to keep your giftee warm when the radiators inevitably aren’t doing the trick. $38, Davis Squared
4
For the
Cyclist 5
FRONT AND REAR LIGHT SET
Somervillens certainly love their bikes, but it can get dangerous—especially at night. This light set will help any cyclist stay safe. These lights are easy to install and can fit onto the handlebars, seatpost, or bike frame. $24.99, Wheelworks
Cyclist light set photo by Jonathan Beckley.
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GIFT GUIDE
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For
Tweens & Teens 6
MAX HESH ENTER HIGH SCORE SKATEBOARD DECK
Maximum Hesh, Somerville’s beloved skate shop, offers everything the skater in your life could need. This skateboard deck, which is designed by a Boston-area skater and artist, will let your giftee support their local skate shop in style. $40.99, Maximum Hesh
For
7
Kids
GREEN SHARK UKULELE
Magpie Kids is here to let kids jam in style. This 21-inch uke is fully functional, plus it has a shark on it. $66.99, Magpie Kids
For
8
Babies
ANA BANANA TEETHER
Teething is a pretty miserable experience for everyone involved, but this banana teether can help. Made of natural Hevea rubber, this soft teether is great for sensory play and can even go in the bath. $16.99, Magpie Kids
$25 OFF
first tim color cli e e with Tay nts lor Jennifer! &
For the
Techie 9
RECYCLED COMPUTER CLOCK
This clock gives a second life to bicycle gears and circuit boards, and each iteration of it is unique. Set against fragments of impressionist paintings, the recycled hardware makes this clock stand out. $80, Hacker Creations
For the
Art Lover 10
2018 SEASCAPES CALENDAR
2017 is almost over (which many people might cheer about), and this calendar’s the perfect way to ring in the new year. Local artist Sarah Hirsch makes this calendar with prints of her paintings, so you’re guaranteed gorgeous views all year long. $12-$14, Sarah Hirsch
Seascapes Calendar photo courtesy of Sarah Hirsch.
Happy Holidays from the HAIR by Christine & co Team Give the gift of beauty that will last year long! Gift Certificates available! BEST HAIR SALON: 2013–2017 BEST HAIR COLOR: 2016, 2017 BEST HAIRCUT: 2016, 2017
217 HIGHLAND AVENUE, SOMERVILLE • 617-776-6470 WWW.HAIRBYCHRISTINEANDCO.COM
scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 41
GIFT GUIDE
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For The
THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT...
Foodie
11
CUSTOM WOOD-BURNED SPOON
Every iteration of this gorgeous spoon is unique, but you can expect flowers, ferns, and birds to be burned into both sides. The spoon is safe for liquid and heat and is the perfect gift for someone who loves cooking. $35, Burned Furniture
BOOK 12 NIBBLE This book boasts recipes from Union Square’s cooks
alongside articles, first-person stories, and a food guide to the neighborhood. The book is part of the Somerville Arts Council’s Nibble program, which works to sustain and develop a diverse food and cultural landscape in the square. $15, Somerville Arts Council
13 SPIKED EGGNOG
Get in the holiday mood with this spiked eggnog chocolate from Taza Chocolate. Dark chocolate made with Dominican cacao is mixed with rum to warm you right up. $6 per disk/$66 per 12-pack, Taza Chocolate
ALWAYS VEGAN AS WELL AS GLUTEN, SOY AND DAIRY FREE We have over 20 flavors that make the ideal stocking stuffer and Yankee Swap gift GIFT BASKETS AND PARTY PLATTERS ALSO AVAILABLE 349 HIGHLAND AVE DAVIS SQUARE
100 HANOVER STREET AT THE BOSTON PUBLIC MARKET
WWW.QSNUTS.COM
For the
Bookworm
14
MARSHMALLOW FLUFF COMIC BOOK
Somerville is the proud home of Marshmallow Fluff, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary this September. This comic book features Fluff Boy, a hero who fights against bad sandwich materials. $5, Union Square Main Streets
modern gifts for modern kids CLOTHES, TOYS, BOOKS AND MORE!
For the
Bartender SHAKER SET 15 BASIC Know an aspiring bartender? This shaker set will
give them everything they need to get started on shaken drinks—a mixing glass, two types of strainers, and a shaker tin. $25, The Boston Shaker
16 HELLA BITTER FIVE FLAVOR BAR SET
Bitters are an important addition to any bar set, and this pack’s got a whole range. Your giftee’s sure to up their bartending game with these smoked chili, citrus, aromatic, orange, and ginger lemon bitters. $34.99, The Boston Shaker 95 Elm St, Somerville | 617-764-4110 | www.magpiekids.com
Bitters set photo by Jonathan Beckley.
scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 43
GIFT GUIDE
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For the
FUN, MODERN GIFTS FOR HIM, HER, HOUSE AND BABY.
Traveler 17
PRORASO TRAVEL KIT
People are often traveling around the holidays, and on-the-go shaving can get tricky. This travel kit includes pre-shave cream, shaving cream, aftershave balm, and a travel-size boar bristle shaving brush. $15, Razors Barbershop & Shave Parlor
For the Style
Icon
18 CONTEMPORARY ALUMINUM PENDANT NECKLACES
Men can be hard to shop for, but these handcrafted necklaces fit the bill. The aluminum necklaces come with a black satin cord. Artist Hiroshi Minato says they are geared toward men but that women often wear them as well. $32, Hiroshi Minato Jewelry
HAPPY AYS HOLID E TH FROM ! W D2 CRE
19 MEN’S WOOL & CASHMERE SOCKS
Socks are the perfect way to show a little style while also keeping warm in these winter months. Available in argyle, colored houndstooth, and stripes, these wool and cashmere socks are sure to add some flair to any outfit. $26-27, Davis Squared
20
617.666.6700 409 HIGHLAND AVE DAVIS SQUARE
DAVISSQUARED.COM
3D-PRINTED ROSE NECKLACE
This 3D-printed necklace is created right here in Somerville. Made out of an eco-friendly plastic, this necklace can surely spark conversation. $16, Winter Hill Jewelry
For the
Activist 21 PERSIST! NECKLACE
This necklace is perfect for the Elizabeth Warren fan in your life. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unwittingly sparked a hashtag-slash-motto when he said, after formally silencing Warren on the Senate floor: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” Ten percent of proceeds on this necklace will be donated to Warren’s reelection campaign. $79, Bethany Ericson
For
Pals with Pets 22 PETER LOVES PIZZA AND CHEESE LAPTOP SLEEVE
Have a friend who loves their dog more than life itself? This laptop cover is a stylish accessory for any animal-lover. If your giftee’s more into cats, don’t worry, Pawblo Picasso has plenty variations on this sleeve. $36.99, Pawblo Picasso
Aluminum pendant necklace photo by Hiroshi Minato. Wool and cashmere socks photo by Jonathan Beckley.
scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 45
GIFT GUIDE
For the
Proud Local 23 ENAMEL CAMP MUG
Winter may be coming, but at least you can sport your love of Union Square Donuts while sipping on a hot drink. Featured in People magazine’s 100 reasons to love America, this tiny but famous donut spot certainly makes a worthwhile addition to your mug collection. $10, Union Square Donuts
LIBERTY BOTTLEWORKS
24 SOMERVILLE WATER BOTTLE
What better way to show off your city pride than a gift that helps save the environment? This reusable water bottle features Prospect Hill Tower and is perfect for anyone who’s always on the move. $23, Magpie
25
SOMERVILLE GREETING CARDS
Send someone a little bit of Somerville this holiday season with these greeting cards. The cover depicts a map of Somerville with drawings of special parts of the city. $20 for a pack of six, Emily Garfield
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For the
Scout Lover SHIRT 26 SCOUT We love Somerville, and we hope you love us too. You can show off your local pride with this Scout shirt, not to mention support the publication you hold in your hands. C’mon, you know you want one. $25 for adult unisex and women’s/$20 for youth sizes, Scout Magazines Storenvy
Get the
Goods
BURNED FURNITURE etsy.com/shop/burnedfurniture TAZA CHOCOLATE (617) 623-0804, 561 Windsor St. www.tazachocolate.com SOMERVILLE ARTS COUNCIL (617) 625-6600 ext. 2985 50 Evergreen Ave. HACKER CREATIONS etsy.com/shop/HackerCreations
UNION SQUARE DONUTS (617) 209-2257, 20 Bow St. Unionsquaredonuts.com
LOYAL SUPPLY CO. (617) 996-6930, 21 Union Square loyalsupplyco.com
MAGPIE (617) 623-3330, 416 Highland Ave. magpie-store.com
NELLIE’S WILDFLOWERS (617) 625-9453, 72 Holland St. nellieswildflowers.com
WINTER HILL JEWELRY winterhill3d.com, 10 Tyler St.
THE BOSTON SHAKER (617) 718-2999, 69 Holland St. thebostonshaker.com
HIROSHI MINATO JEWELRY (857) 302-3011 hiroshiminatojewelry.com
BETHANY ERICSON imaginaryjob.com
DAVIS SQUARED (617) 666-6700, 409 Highland Ave. davissquared.com
EMILY GARFIELD/KEEP CREATING etsy.com/shop/keepcreating
SARAH HIRSCH sghirsch.com
46 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
MAGPIE KIDS (617) 764-4110, 95 Elm St. magpiekids.com MAXIMUM HESH (617) 666-0100, 378A Highland Ave. maximumhesh.com
UNION SQUARE MAIN STREETS (617) 955-0080 66-70 Union Square, Ste. 204 unionsquaremain.org RAZORS BARBERSHOP & SHAVE PARLOR (617) 625-4444, 308 Highland Ave. razorsbarbershop.com WHEELWORKS (617) 776-2100, 145 Elm St. wheelworks.com PAWBLO PICASSO society6.com/pawblopicasso SCOUT MAGAZINES (617) 996-2283 scoutmagazines.storenvy.com
Somerville Greeting Cards photo by Emily Garfield.
A HOT SPOT FULL OF HOT SPOTS
YOUR GO-TO SPOT FOR EVERYTHING HOLIDAY
ALL IN ONE NEIGHBORHOOD. 40+ OUTLETS
20+ DINING OPTIONS
J. Crew Factory
Southern Kin Cookhouse & Bar
Banana Republic Factory Nike Factory Store Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH
Papagayo Mexican Kitchen + Tequila Bar Earl’s Kitchen + Bar
LOFT Outlet
——————— » NEW ADDITIONS « ——————— Columbia Fragrance Outlet
FITRow
Yankee Candle
A cluster of boutique fitness studios under one roof
Sabroso Taqueria
Orangetheory Fitness
Caffe Nero
TITLE Boxing Club
———————
OshKosh B’Gosh
ENTERTAINMENT
Ann Taylor Factory Store
Club Pilates
Carter’s
AMC Assembly Row 12
Mike’s Pastry
barre n9ne studio
Brooks Brothers
LEGOLAND® Discovery Center
Lucky Strike Social*
Squeeze Juice Bar
Muse Paintbar
Zo Greek *coming soon
WWW. WWW. ASSEMBLYROW.COM ASSEMBLYROW.COM
LOCAL SHOPPING DIRECTORY Please consider shopping with these and other Scout sponsors. BLUE CLOUD GALLERY
713 Broadway, Somerville bluecloudgallery.com A unique gift shop that sells handcrafted gifts by 140 local artists.
CAMBRIDGE NATURALS
23 White St., Cambridge 617-492-4452, cambridgenaturals.com A curated selection of natural health and wellness goods, clean body care and ethical gifts!
QRST’S
561 Windsor St., Ste A301, Somerville 617-625-3335, qrsts.com Custom screen printing, embroidery and direct-to-garment printing.
PRACTICE SPACE
practice-space.com @makespaceforpractice A studio and a shop in Inman Square. Useful objects made by artists and designers.
WARDMAPS | MBTAgifts
1735 Mass Ave., Cambridge wardmaps.com Antique maps, MBTA-themed gifts and unique gifts that celebrate history of place!
THE UPS STORE
INMAN OASIS
SYD+SAM
SOMERVILLE GROOVES
290 Concord Ave., Cambridge 857-259-6172, syd-and-sam.com Lifestyle boutique offering beautiful objects that beg you to stop, wonder and appreciate the moment.
26 Union Square, Somerville 617-666-1749, Find us on Twitter and Facebook. Vinyl LPs and 45s, from classic to contemporary. Gift certificates available.
MAGPIE
SPINDLER CONFECTIONS
JOIE DE VIVRE
243 Hampshire St., Cambridge 617-491-0176, inmanoasis.com Offering massage therapy and hot tub soaks. Gift certificates available online.
416 Highland Ave., Somerville 617-623-3330, magpie-store.com
Unique jewelry, apothecary, art, edibles, housewares and more!
MAGPIE KIDS
95 Elm St., Somerville 617-764-4110, magpiekids.com Modern gifts for modern kids. Clothes, toys, books and more!
2257 Mass Ave., Cambridge 617-714-4871 www.SpindlerConfections.com Handmade chocolates & candies. Check out our candy museum!
BOSTON SHAKER
69 Holland St., Somerville 617-718-2999, thebostonshaker.com Smart shop featuring a range of cocktail-making supplies, books and mixology classes.
519 Somerville Ave., Somerville 617-591-0199, theupsstorelocal.com/4978
You buy it, we’ll pack it and ship it.
1792 Mass Ave., Cambridge 617-864-8188, joiedevivre.net Compact quirky shop sells a range of whimsical toys, jewelry, books and gifts in an upbeat atmosphere.
SALT & OLIVE
1160 Mass Ave., Cambridge 857-242-4118, saltandolive.com Unique tastes, ingredients and gifts from around the culinary world.
BALL SQUARE FINE WINES
RAZORS BARBERSHOP
Q’S NUTS
308 Highland Ave., Somerville 617-625-4444, razorsbarbershop.com Gift sets and gift certificates available. Order online or in shop.
349 Highland Ave., Somerville 617-764-3741, qsnuts.com Over 20 artisinal flavors of nuts and granolas. Gift baskets, snack packs and gift cards available.
HARVARD BOOK STORE
MAXIMUM HESH
PORTER SQUARE BOOKS
MUDFLAT GALLERY
BODHI LEAF
MASSAGE THERAPY WORKS
716 Broadway, Somerville 617-623-9500, ballsquarefinewines.com Well known for stunning selection and service. Made-to-order gift baskets and food platters too.
1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge 617-661-1515, harvard.com Locally owned, independently run landmark with extraordinary selection of new, used and remaindered books.
Porter Sq Shopping Center, Cambridge 617-491-7976, mudflat.org/gallery Handcrafted functional pottery and sculptural clay work by 46 Mudflat artists.
PICTURE RENEWAL
34 Everett Ave., Somerville 617-666-2080, picturerenewal.com Restore your personal and business photos and documents. Digitally. High resolution.
SUSANNA
1776 Mass Ave., Cambridge 617-492-0334, susannacambridge.com Women’s shop featuring clothing, jewelry, gifts and accessories for all ages since 1982. Free gift wrapping available!
378A Highland Ave., Somerville 617-666-0100, maximumhesh.com Skater owned and operated shop with skateboards for novices to life-long skaters of all ages.
1105 Mass Ave., Cambridge 857-285-6921 Family owned Tibetan store fostering a peaceful atmosphere. We carry unique Himalayan handicrafts.
BLACK INK INC.
5 Brattle St., Cambridge 617-497-1221, blackinkboston.com Vast array of greeting cards, artful gift wrap and great gifts to wrap in it.
SCOUT MAGAZINES
All over Cambridge and Somerville scoutmagazines.storeenvy.com Subscriptions and swag for the Scout lover in your life.
25 White St., Cambridge 617-491-2220, portersquarebooks.com Porter Square Books is your fiercely independent source for great books, magazines, fun gifts and more.
255 Elm St., Somerville 617-684-4000 massagetherapyworks.com 7 days a week we’re there for you. Give the gift of health.
DAVIS SQUARED
409 Highland Ave., Somerville 617-666-6700, davissquared.com Fun, modern gifts for him, her, house and baby.
HUB COMICS
19 Bow St., Somerville 617-718-0987, hubcomics.com Graphic novels, quirky minicomics, thousands of dollar books, and more in Union Square – Comics For Everyone!
SCOUT OUT!
MEET REV. DAY THE NEW LEAD REVEREND OF FIRST CHURCH SOMERVILLE, HOME OF “DRAG GOSPEL,” SHARES HER SPIRITUAL AND PERSONAL JOURNEY TO THE PULPIT. 50 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ PHOTOS BY ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ
“N
o matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” That’s a common refrain of the United Church of Christ, a community of Christians with more than 5,000 churches around the country. But it’s not something many young worshippers are used to hearing. These days, many of those journeys are a one-way trip out of their churches, often due to the anti-gay policies prevalent in many denominations.
According to a recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute, nearly one-third of millennials who left their childhood religion say they did so due to negative teachings about or treatment of the LGBTQ community. The same study found that 31 percent of LGBTQ Americans left their childhood religion to become religiously unaffiliated. Those feelings of frustration—and even feelings of fear—are familiar to Reverend Da Vita D. McCallister. The new lead
reverend of First Church Somerville, a UCC church, has been out as a lesbian for as long as she’s been ordained, and the tensions between her sexuality and her faith run deep. She was raised as a Baptist in Tampa, Fla., and her extended family members were Pentecostals—but she realized neither denomination had a place for her. It’s a bit too simple to say that she left the Baptist Church in which she was raised. “Rev. Day,” as she’s known, is a self-proclaimed “BaptiMethoCostal” of Christ. As she’s changed churches and congregations, she’s taken bits and pieces of each faith with her along the way. It’s a journey that brought her to the UCC, a place that she describes as being as familiar as home and as exciting and freeing as traveling abroad—a place that works with her methods of worship and her belief that the church needs to be involved in the world. Rev. Day, 47, has been ordained for more than 20 years and has felt called to the ministry for more than 30. At age 13, she realized she wanted to be a preacher; at the same time, she realized she was gay. “I was really excited that I happened to be part of a tradition that didn’t think that was crazy—to know early on that you wanted to work for God for a living,” she says. Such early callings were celebrated, and she participated in worship with readings and discussions. But she grew up in a conservative Black National Baptist family in the Tampa area that said her identity and her call to ministry were incompatible. Like many LGBTQ teens, she felt a lot of pain and pressure growing up. (That pain is still very real among today’s youth: in 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one-third of LGB youth have attempted suicide, compared to six percent of heterosexual teens.)
“It can feel like this is an inescapable curse, and things like taking your life, ending your life, seem like the most viable option to get out of that pain,” Day says. “I know what that’s like.” She tried to take her own life as a teen by stuffing pills into a jelly sandwich. But she spit the whole thing out (“It was disgusting!”) and realized that what she needed was to figure out a new path for herself—one that didn’t include the Baptist church. So she started searching. Her extended family had exposed her to the Pentecostal tradition as a preteen, which presented a new style of worship that excited her with music and celebration. That’s where she developed her love of worship. But the Pentecostal church is very strict, too, and often lacks an eye toward social justice issues. That eventually led her to the United Methodists, where she says there was at least a “conversation” about the topic. “Sadly, that conversation is still going on,” she adds. She became an ordained Methodist minister in Battle Creek, Mich., and was the first openly same-gender-loving member of that denomination. It was a huge moment for Rev. Day; this was a place where she could be gay and be a Christian. Yet she still had to live a “cloistered” gay life—she could be out but was expected to remain single. And then she learned about the United Church of Christ, or UCC. “Here was a church that understood a commitment to the world—that understood it mattered that people had health care, mattered that the water people drank wasn’t polluted,” Rev. Day explains. The UCC, a mainline Protestant faith, boasts a long history of support for progressive movements. It ordained an openly gay man in the 1970s, when most churches weren’t even discussing such topics. In 1987, it helped launch the concept of “environmental racism”—the idea that environmental policies result in racial discrimination or the creation of racial advantages. (In the UCC’s case, it found that people of color were more likely
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SCOUT OUT Meet Rev. Day
to live close to hazardous waste sites and facilities than white people were.) The church also allowed deeper discussion about biblical interpretations and encouraged ministers to question the Bible and its meaning. It even featured plenty of music, harkening back to Day’s experiences in the Pentecostal church. “For somebody like me, who really just more than anything wanted to be a part of the ministry and wanted to feel like that was an option, but didn’t want my identity to be the only thing I could do in ministry, the United Church of Christ was home,” Rev. Day says. First Church Somerville is relatively famous among UCC churches, according to Rev. Day. Its previous lead pastor, Rev. Molly Baskette, profiled it in the 2014 book “Real Good Church.” It was Baskette who first asked Rev. Day to speak to the church about her work back in 2015. The congregation was (and still is) mostly white, but Rev. Day appreciated how its members were willing to look around, notice the lack of diversity, recognize it as a problem, and seek to improve. “Here was a 52 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
“
church that was raising lady hats. Even baby girls their hands like, ‘We’ve wore fake mustaches. got work to do, will you The church is mostly help us?’” straight and cisgender, First Church Rev. Day says, “Here was a church which she admits Somerville later invited her back to that understood at first raised a few preach for the Drag concerns for her. She a commitment Gospel night, an even turned down annual, familyto the world—that the first Drag Gospel friendly crossinvitation, wanting understood it dressing event. Rev. to learn more about mattered that people the church and its Day was nervous. It was the first time had health care, understanding of she’d ever preached the art form of Drag. mattered that the Her concerns were from the pulpit while wearing a water people drank eased as she learned tie, and while she about the Drag wasn’t polluted.” more certainly knows Gospel festivities. how to rock one—on the morning The festival was invented by of our interview, she sported a local drag queen Serenity Jones bow tie with her slim-fitted suit (the onstage persona of James jacket—this was a new endeavor. Adams), who also contributes “Even as a person who has as a performer and liturgist. been out for over 30 years, the Additionally, the church visits idea of being in the pulpit in a tie, and works with Club Cafe, a being asked to queer the pulpit legendary social spot for New space in drag, touched all these England’s LGBTQ community. places in me. And I love that She soon accepted the about the church.” invitation. At other churches, Rev. Rev. Day remembers her first Day’s mere presence was “the Drag Gospel well. There was a radical conversation.” But “here picture of Jesus with lipstick. The was a church that was stretching associate pastor wore lipstick and me,” she says. “I love the idea that makeup over his beard. Men in there was a space where I could the choir wore boas and church both lead and learn.”
After the service, Rev. Day called up her partner and told her, “I would pastor that church.” As of this summer, she’s doing just that. Rev. Day’s still getting settled into Somerville, along with her wife and three children, but is eager to learn more about her congregation and their concerns about the local community, like housing issues. She says she’s honored to take over for her friend Rev. Baskett, under whom the congregation grew and became more social justice-oriented. Now it’s Rev. Day’s turn to play a role in the expanding, increasingly welcoming lineage of the church. “Here’s Molly [Baskett]— white woman, straight, married, mother—who’s making this bigger space so that a lesbian who’s married could be present. If I do this well, then this church will be prepared, years from now when I go, for someone who occupies a very different space on the margins to be present here,” Rev. Day says. “And when they come here, they will feel a welcome that is at its minimum an understanding of their blessing and inherent worth, and they’ll be able to make a bigger space for the person who comes behind them.”
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scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 53
SCOUT OUT Bringing Fresh Food Home
54 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Bringing Fresh Food Home
A
BY REENA KARASIN PHOTOS BY ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ
n expansive, deserted building sits on Broadway in Winter Hill. Even though the property has been vacant for 11 years, the sign’s imprint still points out to passersby that this was once a Star Market. The vacant grocery store looms heavily for the people of Winter Hill. The empty building and the lack of in-neighborhood grocery options it signifies come up regularly at neighborhood association meetings, according to Winter Hill resident Erika Tarlin. “It’s such a blighted thing to have in your neighborhood. What other part of Somerville has a huge hole in it?” she says. Broadway was once a vibrant main street in the Winter Hill neighborhood. But the end of trolley service in 1958 left the area largely car-oriented and cut off from other parts of the city. Bordered by I-93 and McGrath Highway and filled with streets that are structurally unfriendly to pedestrians, the area is “now seen as a place to pass through,” the city’s neighborhood plan says: “Broadway is seen as tired, past its prime, and a shadow of its former self.” While Winter Hill may have lagged behind the rest of the city in terms of change—Tarlin, who moved to the neighborhood over 20 years ago, says it’s virtually the same as when she arrived—it is still loved by many of its residents, including Tarlin. The Green Line Extension ultimately plans to restore transit to the neighborhood, but for now its residents need to eat. There are several small marts in the area, but fresh produce that doesn’t require a car or crossing a dangerous highway on foot is scarce. Enter Neighborhood Produce.
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SCOUT OUT Bringing Fresh Food Home
A Snapshot of Winter Hill Winter Hill is the neighborhood stretching between Interstate 93, McGrath Highway, and Medford Street. It has a housing vacancy rate of 8.7 percent, compared to 3.7 percent citywide. Winter Hill’s namesake incline reaches 128 feet tall—a daunting summit for Somerville’s many bicyclists and pedestrians. As the Winter Hill Neighborhood Plan says, “You don’t have to go to western Massachusetts to get a taste of the mountains.” The neighborhood has an average of just under one car per household. Winter Hill became largely car-dependent after streetcar service stopped in 1958. Eighteen percent of the neighborhood’s retail space is unoccupied, but there is no vacant office space in Winter Hill. Combined with the area’s distance from the T, the Neighborhood Plan argues that “potential office users overlook the Winter Hill area when locating new businesses.” The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Winter Hill is $2,048, about $300 under the citywide average. Barack Obama lived in Winter Hill from 1988 to 1991. Source: Winter Hill Neighborhood Plan, 2016
56 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
A Neighborhood Affair
O
n a morning in late September, Matt Gray sat on a cinder block in the store that would soon become Neighborhood Produce, a small market on Medford Street focused on providing Winter Hill with fresh fruits and vegetables. The floor was rough and the walls were unpainted. Gray, clad in a Neighborhood Produce shirt and a red flannel, had just discovered that the ceiling leaked. Over the following weeks, Gray transformed the store with his own two hands. He painted, he put in a new floor, he built wheelable display stands in his basement, putting to use the woodworking skills he learned at his high school in rural Ohio. Neighborhood Produce,
located at 415 Medford Street, is the culmination of extensive work and dreaming for Gray, who as a Winter Hill resident recognized the community’s need for healthy grocery options. Gray piloted his idea last summer and fall with a pop-up produce market in Winter Hill Brewery’s parking lot. A Kickstarter that raised nearly $22,000 made the brick-and-mortar location possible. About seven out of every 10 donations to the Kickstarter came from community members, according to Gray. “Essentially, the neighborhood funded this project for themselves,” he says. Two goals guide Neighborhood Produce: being a one-stop-shop for everything you need for a healthy meal and giving a second life to “ugly produce.” While about three-quarters of the store’s stock will be fruits
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and vegetables and Gray intends to largely stay away from boxed or canned items, the shop will offer staples like eggs, pasta, olive oil, and canned tomatoes. Gray got acquainted with ugly produce, also known as number two produce—or, as he prefers, “produce as nature intended”— while working in food acquisitions at the Greater Boston Food Bank. Number two produce is fruits and vegetables that are deemed too visually unappealing to sell. Those items are typically destined for processed foods, animal feed, or a trash can. Millions of pounds of produce are categorized as number two every day, according to Gray. It wasn’t always like this, he says—before World War II shoppers expected variation in their fruits and vegetables, but high competition among grocery stores raised the bar.
“When I worked at the Greater Boston Food Bank, we would take it in, and there would be nothing really wrong with it, other than maybe the sizing was off. It’s really completely cosmetic,” Gray says. Gray plans to sell local produce regularly, and aims to keep prices at or a bit below those at Stop & Shop. He’s able to do this because Neighborhood Produce, unlike large grocery stores, will have low overhead costs, as the 500-square-foot store will only need one or two parttime employees. Shape Up Somerville has been working with Gray along the way. The organization runs a mobile farmers market in several parts of the city to provide fresh produce. Director Lisa Robinson says Shape Up Somerville is excited that Neighborhood Produce will provide that kind of
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scoutsomerville.com November | December 2017 57
SCOUT OUT Bringing Fresh Food Home
access year-round and that the store could even eliminate the need for the Shape Up Somerville farmers market in the area. As the store gets up and running, Robinson says Shape Up Somerville plans to help Gray by spreading awareness about number two produce and promoting the store. Shape Up Somerville is also helping Gray go through the approval process to accept SNAP benefits.
What’s Next for Winter Hill
T
he city’s neighborhood plan for Winter Hill zeroes in on the vacant Star Market property. The Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development tried to find a grocery store to take over when the grocer moved out in 58 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
“Essentially, the neighborhood funded this project for themselves.” 2006, but between the building’s awkward size—too small for a large grocery store like Stop & Shop and too big for a company like Trader Joe’s—and its need for repairs, there were no takers. The building owner tried to fill the space with a discount store chain, but the Planning Board denied the deal based on zoning. The owner repeatedly
fought the city over the decision, and no tenant has been found. Using eminent domain to take over the land is an option as the city moves to revitalize Winter Hill, according to Melissa Woods, senior planner in the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development. The city also hopes to bring another grocer to the area. The
neighborhood plan explains that there is demonstrated demand for a 40,000 to 50,000-squarefoot grocery store near Magoun Square, and lists the Salvation Army at 483 Broadway, the Pini’s Pizza block at 511 Broadway, and a block on Medford Street as potential location options. City efforts to improve grocery access in the neighborhood will come alongside other area-wide changes including improving walkability, bikeability, and transit, lowering the speed limit, and an uptick in mixed-use development. And when the Green Line eventually extends to the area, it will relieve the effects of the trolley service’s termination that have been present in Winter Hill for nearly 60 years. But for now, Neighborhood Produce is making Winter Hill a bit more connected again—at least to fresh, healthy food.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I have spent decades working for Somerville, and I am proud to continue to serve as your Alderman at Large. I promise to continue to fight to: • Expand affordable housing opportunities for people of all income levels. • Preserve the city’s unique history. • Prioritize investment in Somerville’s public schools to strengthen our community. • Ensure our community’s local services are protected and keep property taxes low. • Bring the Green Line Extension to Somerville.
WE ARE STRONGEST TOGETHER. PLEASE WATCH MY FACEBOOK PAGE FOR DETAILS ON AN UPCOMING UNITY EVENT I AM PLANNING.
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CALENDAR NOVEMBER 8-20
DECEMBER 9
| FILM
NOVEMBER 23
DECEMBER 10-24
| FITNESS
Photo by Hans Wendland
| DANCE
| SHOPPING
HOLIDAY FLEA 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Free Arts at the Armory We get to enjoy the Somerville Flea all summer long, but once it shuts down we count down the weeks until the Holiday Flea. It’s the perfect place to get your holiday shopping done, plus its website boasts: “Oh yeah, beer and wine. Try that at a mall!”
DECEMBER 9 & 10
Photo courtesy of Cultural Survivor
| SHOPPING
CULTURAL SURVIVOR BAZAARS 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Free Cambridge Rindge and Latin School These cultural festivals connect Indigenous artists from around the world with U.S. shoppers. There will be artwork, accessories, jewelry, and more from a variety of cultures, in addition to performances, presentations, and demonstrations.
60 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
DECEMBER 15
| COMMUNITY
DECEMBER 16
| COMMUNITY
SCOUT PARTY 7 p.m., Charitable Donation Dark Horse Public House Ever wanted to get down with Santa? Scout and Dark Horse are throwing a party, and we’d love for you to attend! There’ll be an ugly sweater contest with prizes, photos with Santa, and gifts for everyone (regardless of whether you’ve been naughty or nice). There’ll be free food and a cash bar. The event will benefit Toys for Local Children and Second Chances, so we ask that you bring a donation for either charity (a toy, new underwear or socks that are not gift-wrapped, or cash).
THE SLUTCRACKER Times Vary, $29 Somerville Theatre Picture The Nutcracker with a burlesque twist. A Somerville tradition, the Slutcracker says it “brings together ballet dancers, burlesque performers, hula hoopers, belly dancers, and so many others with interests in flamenco, hip hop, pole, acting, and myriad dance forms.”
DECEMBER 3, 10, 17
| SHOPPING
HARVARD SQUARE HOLIDAY FAIR Times Vary, Free 50 Church Street The Harvard Square Holiday Fair can be a great way to knock some items off your gift list. From jewelry to pottery to clothes, this market—which turns 32 this year—is one you’ll want to catch.
GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE RUN 9 a.m., $30 Registration Fee Davis Square and Throughout Somerville Every year, 3,100 people run through Davis Square on Thanksgiving Day as part of the four-mile Gobble Gobble Gobble Run. Proceeds go to Project Soup and Somerville Track PAC. It sells out every year, but if you don’t get a bib (or running on Thanksgiving seems totally unappealing to you) the race always needs volunteers and spectators. Strollers are allowed in the run, but not pets.
DECEMBER 1-31
| COMEDY
LAUGHING LIBERALLY BOSTON 8 p.m.-9:30 p.m., $8 Arts at the Armory When politics are so depressing that you need a laugh, Laughing Liberally Boston is there to help. It describes itself as a “progressive, political standup comedy show” that has an ever-rotating cast of performers. The group performs at the Armory on the second Saturday of each month.
THE BOSTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL Times Vary, $16 Cambridge, Greater Boston The Boston Jewish Film Festival will host over 55 screenings and events in Cambridge and around Greater Boston this November. Organizers say the event “covers global themes across topics including post World War II Europe, disability, the intersection of sports and politics, immigration, complicated family dynamics, and more.”
Photo by Beth Driscoll
ILLUMINATIONS TOUR 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m., $15 Throughout Somerville The Illuminations Tour is a highlight of the season for Somerville. You can out the most decked-out houses in the ’Ville on this trolley ride, but tickets (available in person only at Blue Cloud Gallery on Dec. 3 at 10 a.m.) go quickly. If you miss out on the trolley, you can get a map of the tour for $3 and walk it.
DECEMBER 17-JANUARY 7
| THEATER
CHARLOTTE’S WEB Times Vary, $20 64 Brattle Street Essentially everyone knows the story of “Charlotte’s Web,” but it’s a special treat for the whole family to see it come alive onstage. The American Repertory Theater’s show will include graduate students from the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training.
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Cover is a donation to one of these two wonderful organizations:
Bring the family or treat yourself this holiday season to
secondchances.org Helping homeless and lowerinco e eo le feel confident and al ed as the ta e their first ste s toward bri hter f t res. cce tin new or entl worn clothin . s eciall in need of new ac a es of ad lt si e nderwear and soc s.
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SCOUT YOU
Photos by Lauren Holahan
A woman rests in between performances at HONK! Festival in Davis Square.
Erik Kofoed from Atlanta Georgia plays trombone while parading through Somerville’s streets.
A couple square dances to the tune of the Expandable Brass Band.
Women from the Filthy FemCorps from Seattle, Wash., perform in Davis Square.
Members of the Expandable Brass Band from western Massachusetts Children make lanterns out of plastic bottles at Hodgkins Park. perform in Davis Square. 62 November | December 2017 scoutsomerville.com
EAT, DRINK and
BE UGLY December 15th • 7pm
Dark Horse Public House • 499 Broadway, Somerville
Join Scout Magazines and Dark Horse Public House for a holiday bash to be remembered Meet Santa and his elves • Gifts for everyone Ugly sweater contest with prizes • Complimentary Food & Cash Bar Cover is a donation to one of these two wonderful organizations:
secondchances.org Helping homeless and lower-income people feel confident and al ed as the ta e their first ste s toward bri hter f t res. cce tin new or entl worn clothin . s eciall in need of new ac a es of ad lt si e nderwear and soc s.
toysforlocalchildren.org a in the li es of local children in need a bit bri hter all ear lon . cce tin new nwra ed to s. s eciall in need of ite s for teens and tweens.
‘Tis the Season to Get Cooking Whether you wish to pursue a culinary career or master your craft for home entertaining, our extensive programs in culinary and pastry arts will provide the springboard for your culinary ambitions. Impress your family and friends with your skills this holiday season and take the steps to make 2018 your year of culinary exploration.
PROFESSIONAL CHEF’S AND PASTRY PROGRAMS
Accepting applications for our January programs through December 22, 2017. • 4 Unique Programs: 16-week Culinary Certificate Program, 37-week Professional Chef’s Program, 16-week Certificate Pastry Program, and 37-week Professional Pastry Program • Talented instructors share their diverse experiences and deep knowledge during intimate classroom settings with no more than 12 students per instructor • Four commercial-grade, fully stocked kitchens host our classroom laboratories and seminars, providing ample space to work and learn • Lifelong placement services provide career guidance and support for all graduates within our expansive and ever growing CSCA network
ulinary #CambridgeC
RECREATIONAL PROGRAMS
For you: From technique-driven series to more social date nights, you’re sure to find the culinary adventure you crave within our class offerings. Visit our online class calendar to book. For them: Culinary classes make the perfect gift! Surprise your sweetie, sibling, parent, or BFF with a CSCA gift certificate, redeemable online toward any Recreational class.
PRIVATE AND CORPORATE EVENTS
Tired of the same old holiday party? Bring your co-workers to CSCA for an interactive, team-building cooking event. We host personalized events for corporate retreats, bachelor and bachelorette parties, birthdays, and family celebrations in our professional kitchens.
www.CambridgeCulinary.com 2020 MASSACHUSETTS AVE | CAMBRIDGE, MA 02140 | 617.354.2020
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