Bowsprit

New York City, particularly Manhattan, is a place where everyone rushes to get from here to there and back again. In Boston, we had the sense we had 'arrived'. We truly appreciated Boston's friendly, and comparatively, laid back atmosphere and are looking forward to another visit in the Spring.

You can read my very short trip report below. Thanks for the restaurant recommendations; we had lovely food and drink everywhere we stopped.

Bowsprit

We left Connecticut in the morning and watched as a myriad of cars spun out and connected with guard rails as we drove on the Mass Pike on our way to Boston. We took our time and had a safe, uneventful ride. We arrived at the Hotel Commonwealth at noon.

Our car was valet parked ($42.00 for 27 hours) and we were quickly given a room on the third floor that overlooked the sign for Fenway Park. The room was huge, updated and upscale, clean and stylish. Three NYC hotel rooms would have fit into this room. It was really big. Very nice.

The hotel has a 'Grand Hotel' feel about it but it isn't formal or pretentious at all. We'd stay here again. The convenience of having two really good restaurants (both with great bars) and another dedicated bar in the hotel is hard to resist.

We met our friends in the lobby and soon headed out into the snowy day. It was very cold in Boston on Saturday and the precipitation was more ice than anything else. We walked down Commonwealth, cut over on Massachusetts and started our walk down Newbury Street.

We stopped in Joe's American Bar and Grill and had a martini at the bar along with tender calamari, seared tuna, and crabcake appetizers. Everything was delicious. I don't know if this is a chain restaurant but we did enjoy ourselves! After we were sufficiently warmed up, we headed back out into the storm and did a little shopping.

The guys bought shoes at Allen Edmonds, I admired a gray flannel sofa in Jonathan Adler (single bench cushion, my favorite), we bought chocolate at Hotel Chocolat and olive oil at O and Co. We stopped in a few galleries but didn't purchase any art on this trip.

We crossed the street into the Public Garden and noticed that the lightbulbs illuminating the little footbridge didn't match. One of the lamp posts had a coil bulb and was giving off that awful blue light. Last month's holiday greenery decorating the bridge was a brittle brown. This charming little bridge, and one of the 'entrances' to the park, if you will, was rather sad and unimpressive. There were quite a few people in the park, some ice skating and some walking their dogs. We'll revisit this area in the spring when the park is perhaps, at its best. We didn't venture too far into the parks; it was getting colder and darker and we were having thoughts of drinks and dinner.

We headed back down Newbury, stopped into Joe's sister (or rather, brother) property, Charlie's and had fresh grapefruit and infused vodka drinks along with a few appetizers and thawed out. Boston's bars are truly very pleasant, aren't they?

We decided we had braved the storm long enough and took the easy way out while planning dinner. We stayed at the hotel and had dinner at Island Creek Oyster House, adjacent to the hotel. The restaurant was packed but we were quickly seated on a high top in the bar area.

The food was fresh, simply prepared, nothing too fussy or complicated but it was marvelous. We all ordered oysters to start, Chatham, Wellfleet, Puget Sound and PEI oysters. Chatham oysters 'won'. My lobster roll was delicious, the scallops were huge and delicious, someone else ordered halibut (very fine), and the squash soup with lobster knuckles was really good.

Service was interesting, slow to start, but quickly picked up and finished impressively. We enjoyed ourselves.

The restaurant started to clear out by 10:00. In NYC, 10:00 is just the start of the dinner hours on Saturday night! At our ages, we were glad of the earlier night!

We finished our meals with a few hot buttered rum drinks (cayenne pepper, brown sugar, and flavored butter kicked them up a notch), said goodbye to our friends (they were staying at an airport hotel for an early Sunday a.m. departure) and headed back to the room.

The convenience of staying close to the hotel for dinner on that snowy, cold night was a real treat. We'll experience the North End restaurants in April when we return to Boston and I've saved the recommendations given to me earlier.

After a good night's sleep, we really enjoyed breakfast at Eastern Standard (also attached to the hotel) the next morning. Check out was at noon.

We got the car, took a ride down Commonwealth while heading toward Charles and realized that this part of Boston is so very European in it's atmosphere. And the atmosphere on the street reminded us of the West Village in NYC. The vast restaurants we enjoyed on this trip were more similar to what's found in Chicago or San Francisco than to our NYC restaurants. Boston restaurants were a bit less expensive than what we're used to, as well. The food quality was excellent, however.

Boston is an interesting place and although we don't 'know' Boston, we can add this city to our list of favorite cities to further explore and we look forward to many more visits.

Thanks again for all your help. ~Bowsprit

Bowsprit

And the trip report turned out to be not so short afterall! Sorry about that! ~ Bow

emalloy

Sounds like a nice introduction to Boston, I'm sure you will have more trips in the future.

Thanks for the report.

cw

Thanks for the report and the review of the Hotel Commonwealth. It's certainly an advantage to have two good restaurants there. You were a good sport in the snowy weather and I'm happy you had fun.

In the Spring, walk right across the Public Garden. They change the plantings a few times a year and take a look at the duckling sculptures near the corner of Charles St. and Beacon.

I like Joe's American Bar too. It's one of the restaurants in the Back Bay Group. I believe they were recently sold but to another smallish group. Their food is always consistently good.

Looking forward to your next report!

china_cat

Thanks for the report, and I'm especially glad you liked ICOB.

So, I noticed on tripadvisor, that the Hotel Commonwealth is rated the top hotel in Boston, and even makes the top 10 in the US...I'm having a hard time buying that. I've not stayed there, but I've been in the hotel for events, and I've eaten in both restaurants. It seems very nice, and its a convenient location but the number one hotel in the city?? So did you think it was that nice?

Bowsprit

I would rate it a 4 star. They have complimentary turn down service, great tech support in the room, but no Keurig for early morning coffee. They had an extensive room service menu which we didn't use.

Towels were big and absorbent but rather rough. The mattress was old school with a thick mattress pad; nothing to write home about. The pillows were lovely.

The carpet was newish, unmarked as was the upholstered furniture. There is a substantial room safe, a few terry cloth robes, and a bar with snacks and drinks. Each room has a radio 'system', we weren't there long enough to bother with figuring it out but I'm sure our kids and gkids would have. The rooms are huge so good for families. etc.

The lighting in the room was insufficient in my opinion and the television was complicated to turn on and actually needed to be reset before it could be turned on. The shampoo and lotions were pedestrian but did the job.

However, none of that matters as the hotel is very comfortable in its location, atmosphere. The staff is competent and very easy going. The hotel is updated and the restaurants give it a young vibe rather than an old fogie vibe. Its parts are greater than the sum of its whole, I suppose. I haven't stayed anywhere else in Boston in years so I can't compare it to another property.

I don't trust hotel reviews generally and TA hotel reviews specifically. There is an innkeeper of a Cape Cod B&B who posts glowingly outstanding reviews of her own B&B (on TA and Fodors and Frommers and other travel websites) so how can reviews have any credibility at all? I guess the best way to get an idea of a place is to read numerous reviews and use one's own discernment and gut responses.

We didn't choose this hotel; one of our kids 'gifted' us with a night in Boston with dinner with friends. Nice gift!

Ackislander

Sounds like nice urban interlude. Comm Ave (Bostonians abbreviate everything) is very charming in the snow, and a walk down Newbury Street always a danger to the wallet. The Public Garden end is very upscale -- Cartier etc -- the middle has a lot of mall stores, and the outer end toward your hotel has a lot of funky boutiques. Lots of energy on a nice warm day.

Bowsprit

We really enjoyed ourselves. It was a perfect urban interlude. We always come back from our city visits more relaxed than we do from our resort excursions.

Thanks for your help, Ackislander. The Cape get hit with snow?

yk

Bowsprit, thanks for reporting back, and thank you for stimulating our economy! I honestly think you had a much better chance of getting great food right at your hotel than in North End.

Bowsprit

I was happy with our choice! We had delicious food.

sharona

Thanks Bowsprit for the trip report. It's nice when people come back to let us know what they've done after soliciting advice. I'm glad you were able to eat at both of the Hotel Commonwealth restaurants. Good food and very convenient for you. I agree with yk on probably having better food than in the North End. I've found many of the North End restaurants to be very hit or miss.