And a 2-hour search for parking if they are in fact brave enough to drive around Boston (or willing to pay $$$ for parking).
I think time is a premium for this trip.
Looks like that all day b’fast place is only .8 m from our hotel. H was already looking for a parking garage since we need a place to stash the car overnight.
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Is Flour bakery in Boston a not to miss place?
In the Joanne Chang canon, I consider only Myers+Chang not-to-miss.
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I bet it’s a reservation place. We can try to make a dinner one. We do love a good bakery though and Flour seems like it’ll have breakfast and lunch options.
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Did anyone rec anything near UConn? I think that might be the only campus left where we don’t know anything in that area…Thanks much!!
It does, I am a fan of their breakfast sandwiches. I have no sweet tooth myself but twice last year friends who had to wait out a medical procedure I was having so they could drive me “home” spent their time at a nearby Flour eating sweet things and drinking coffee (on me, of course) and loved it.
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Well, yes, parking is always a challenge in Boston. OP did say 10 minute drive from Northeastern/BU. The MBTA is always a possibility if they can get a decent rate at a parking garage.
Sometimes amazing things happen, even if you aren’t using the parking apps that show rates and availability in garages. I also understand there are some apps that purport to show available street parking spots.
We were at the Boston Public Library between Christmas and New Years with our son. We were struggling to find an place for lunch when the area was crowded with mostly locals, I’d assume, during that week. I have three joint replacements and can’t walk far. We were coming from Somerville. We really lucked out with a street metered spot right next to Friendly Toast in Back Bay. (side street) We had to wait in line to get a table at there (you can get on a wait list, they have an app for that) and were amazed that it all went really smoothly.
We also had a wonderful reunion with a college friend (whom we first met 50 years ago) just last week. He was at a condo on Commonwealth Ave in Back Bay. We drove in from Somerville (again, my joint replacements) and saw numerous open metered spots around 2 pm on a Monday. It was surprisingly easy and much cheaper than the nearby garages. And you can refill (oops, I guess I should said feed) the meter with an app, too.
Lucky stuff happens sometimes. Can’t count on it, but there are apps.
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Storrs is not a major urban area nothing sticks out in a quick search. One thing is considering your route - you may not want to eat in all the college towns and you may hust spend a couple hours there. there might be something better on your route or nearby Or, you might sample acafeteria or two -when I went to a conference at Cornell last summer we wound up doing all our eating in the college dining hall - our dorm had fresh cooked e. asian, halal and indian food along with many other options. Your kid might like to see that side of the college experience.
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Good point on eating in the campus dining halls. I 100 agree with you on road food in between that might be better than right around campus food. But we are leaving tomorrow and I just don’t have the time. That’s a much harder search to do.
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Yah you can do it as you go along. Hard to tell how long these visits will take or whether your kid will get an opportunity to sample the campus cuisine. Hope its a good experience and you tell is how it goes.
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Have a great trip! Sounds like go with the flow is the way to go. Please post any real-time questions and hopefully some Greater Boston Onions will chime in. I’ll try my best. Weather looks unseasonably rainy next week. 
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Coming from the PNW, we’re more comf with rain than with hot and humid. I am quite looking forward to some thunderstorms. I miss those!
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I’m going to be on the look out for the older editions. It will be interesting to see the evolution of the Moosewood style.
Harvard Square is not much more than any US mall without the roof. It’s only saving grace is some of the restaurants which admittedly tend be on the outskirts of what is considered the Square.
As I read your posts it looks like you may live in Somerville. Is that right? My sister lives in Arlington so we’re in the area pretty often. Have you been there a long time? We used to go to Steve’s Ice Cream before it sold out.
Some possible road food options for the CT leg of your college tour. Haven’t been to the UConn Dairy Bar myself but would want to check it out if I were there. Because ice cream.
Rein’s Deli in Vernon, CT is just off Rt 84 and might be a convenient stop for road food if it’s on your route. Caveat: It’s been years since we stopped there. We have our dog along on most road trips so we’re limited to drive-through stuff now.
Also McDonald’s iced coffee (we ordered with cream and no sugar) turned out to be surprisingly better than Dunkin (Donuts) coffee, when we recently needed an emergency caffeine pit stop off the highway.
And speaking as a Boston University alum, your son will have many off-campus food options available either around there or at Northeastern. So many students in Boston! My fave hangouts are long gone of course. Easy access to public transit—the T—makes getting around to other neighborhoods possible too. I loved being able to walk or use the T to explore.
Providence is a super food town too.
I hope that your son has fun deciding where he’ll study. You’re visiting lots of great schools!
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Yep, Somerville. I moved back to the Boston area after grad school in 1989, and I lived in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, and Arlington before we moved to East Somerville in 2002. Somerville is no longer Slumerville, it’s now Camberville. Really changed, some for the better, some not (Assembly Row has become a congested nightmarish outdoor mall; we live a few blocks away and stay away except for frequent trips to Trader Joe’s there). Our favorite restaurants are Oleana near Inman Square in Cambridge, and sister restaurant Sarma in Somerville, although we don’t get to them anywhere near often enough, and only a couple of times since early 2020. Rents and liquor licenses are much cheaper in Somerville than in Cambridge or Boston.
I didn’t make it to Steve’s ice cream before he sold out, but I did visit the original Bertucci’s in Somerville near Steve’s many times before the founder sold out. Bertucci’s was great 25 years ago. Completely mediocre now!
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Next time I’m in Arlington (probably in a week or two) I’ll have to get some restaurant recommendations as I think our taste may be similar. My sister is on a mission to get to Oleana but the stars haven’t quite aligned to get a reservation. She goes to Sofra regularly.
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We haven’t done much restaurant exploration ourselves in years, after we adopted an older child from foster care. I read about all the new restaurants, but reading is as far as I get. Our son does like Semolina Kitchen in Medford, as do his parents, so we mostly go there. Sandwiches, pizza, interesting specials, fresh pasta, Jeni’s ice cream. It’s owned by Dave’s Pasta shop (Davis Square, Somerville, near the Arlington border); free parking in the Tufts lot next door. You can see the specials on the “order takeout” menu.
I try to get to Sofra as often as possible for take out (that means, unfortunately, only a few times a year). Sarma in Somerville is outstanding; they accept walk-ins at the bar, where you can see the semi-open kitchen. Parking can be difficult there.
Oleana does accept walk-ins. I have no idea what it’s like these days, but years ago if you got there around 5, you were likely to get seated when they open at 5:30, and also with a chance to be seated in their beautiful garden. If you aren’t lucky enough to get the garden, try to be seated in the back room with the large windows facing the garden. Free parking across the street.
Oleana does offer take out online ordering for pick up…it’s buried under the “About Us” tab on the site. It’s not the entire menu, unfortunately…items on the dine in menu marked * are not available for take out and those include some of the dishes I am most coveting, such as the Bici Bici *Strawberry-Black Lime Granita, Roasted Strawberries, Rose Petal Syrup, Fairy Floss. We did take out a couple of times during the height of the pandemic, and I got to try the baked alaska for the first time. The caramel is a bit too sweet for my taste but the dish overall is fantastic if you take care to mix the caramel with the other elements. The spinach falafel, Sultan’s Delight, Topik, and deviled eggs have been among our favorites for years; I eat beef only a few times a year, and I would never miss a chance to get Sultan’s Delight. Topik sounds simple; it’s not! Very delicious. And any shellfish/fish/lamb dish by Ana Sortun is definitely worth trying.
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Thank you for the great info and descriptions. They only want me to try harder to get to Oleana.
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Note that the Cornell Ice Cream (they have a big Ag school) is served in the dorm cafeterias. Its pretty average in quality as you would expect - ag school is where you go to learn the standard industrial processes like sterilization, very important for example. my dad was a dairy science phd from Wisconsin. It you want to learn to make artisanal type cheeses or ice cream you will have to learn those specialized skills and maybe unlearn some industry dogmas, the absolute need for pasteurization, for example.
So I have my doubts whether UConn dairy bar would be any better but will be glad to be proved wrong!
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