Back Bay

Reviews

Heather V.

The Best of Downtown

Back Bay has rows of brownstones, historic institutions and clumps of skyscrapers. It’s home to the tallest buildings in Boston, the Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center (fun fact: the Pru has its own zip code!), and beautiful buildings like the Boston Public Library and Trinity Church.

It’s fun to visit or live here, but more fun when you have extra cash to spend because rent and dining are not cheap. There’s a farmer’s market in Copley during the summer and the fall, oodles of chic bars, restaurants and independent coffee shops, in addition to the token Dunkins and Starbucks.

Green space is plentiful, with the nearby Public Gardens, where you can rest your feet and your wallet after shopping in the many boutiques and high-end chain stores on Boylston and Newbury Streets and in the Prudential Center mega-mall. Like anywhere in Boston, there are at least 3 colleges in the area (Emerson, Suffolk, Berklee College of Music, etc.) so college students abound.

But there are also plenty of families and young professionals so it’s generally a very safe neighborhood.

What's awesome

Restaurants, parks, churches, easy transportation

What's not so awesome

Rent, noise, crowded

 Mallory C.

Not just a black hole for your money…

Whenever I would visit Boston in my high school days and even later when I was in college in Boston, I would come right to Back Bay to do some serious shopping damage. I only ever thought of it as a place to spend money: shopping, eating, drinking.

And oh how well I spent my money on these things. Ok, enough of that. Needless to say, I never thought of Back Bay as a place to live until I took an internship on Newbury Street and began meeting people who lived in the nabe.

More recently, one of my very own nearest and dearest moved into Back Bay and I began spending lots of time there-so much so in fact, that I feel like an honorary resident. The apartments are great.

They have “Back Bay character” as I like to call it, they have history and many of them have amazing bay windows. To me, it’s reminiscent of London with the brown stone lined sidewalks, trees (that are exquisite in Spring, by the way) and grassy paths.

So lovely! So there you have it, not just a place to shop (although this is the best Boston shopping) and eat (it does boast some of the best restaurants in town). This is a great nabe to live, and I mean live in the big sense: great apartments and living space, local restaurants, and shopping-the works!

The only downfall? (Because there are has to be one) It’s not cheap. None of it. You can find tiny, windowless basement studios for $1500 but you can also find spacious, bright, airy apartments for the same price in other lovely nabes in Boston.

Don’t forget to take that into consideration!

 Zachary B.

About ten years ago I worked in Back Bay while commuting from Jamaica Plain(affectionately known as “JP”) by train. It was the perfect place for eating, drinking and hanging out after work. There were no worries about getting home as the orange line at Back Bay Station was right there to take me back to my shared flat in JP. The proximity and centrality of the Back Bay area to transport and cultural activities such as the public park and theatre district next to Boston Common, Newbury Street, Boston Public Library, Red Sox games at Fenway Park, good cheap food inChinatown and the Prudential Shopping Mall made ideal for entertaining clients from work as well as hanging out with friends.

I no longer work in Back Bay but I started living here in the spring of 2010. This has opened up new vistas I didn’t recognize so much when I was working here. The Southwest Corridor park is great for walking and biking heading out towards Franklin Park and the Arnold Arboretum.

All of the nightlife and activity I enjoyed as a corporate employee in this area are still here but as a resident I have recognized the richness of the food culture here. Markets of all sorts abound from the typical (Shaw’s), to the trendy (Whole Foods), the cool (Trader Joe’s), the ethnic (Super 88 and bodegas) and the list goes on and on.

It is also interesting in such a high rent district that there is so much public housing in the neighboring South End and this gives the whole area a more integrated multicultural feel.

Because of the somewhat commercial aspect of the neighborhood, the close community feel of other more local areas is lost a little bit. However, it is spotty and the residents in my condo are quite friendly and polite.

Most people that live here work a lot. If you can afford it, it is a darn nice place to be!

 

Celia N.

Boston's Main ‘Hood

As a Emerson College student, I lived on Boylston St. for a year and now visit on a daily basis. Of course, it depends which end of Bolyston St. you’re on — it extends from Chinatown to Hynes Convention Center, but the area is abundant with things to do and places to eat.

Places of interest include: City Place (food court), Loews Cinema, the Boston Common, Copley Square and the Prudential Center. The street features restaurants such as Boloco (casual burrito fare), Back Bay Social Club (delicious burger!) and Golden Gate (chinese) and stores such as Apple and Paper Source.

Smack dab in the center of downtown and connecting some of the best places in Boston, Boylston is a great place to visit and, if possible, live. It is served by the green line: Boylston & Copley, and is close to the Prudential and Hynes stops as well.

Red line Park St. and Downtown Crossing are also nearby.

 Alessandra S.

The Boylston Necessities

Four things are essential to a Bostonian’s workday: the T, coffee, food, and shopping escapes for after 5 p.m. Boylston Street has it all, and better yet, it has variety. Near various T stops, including (surprise) the Green Line Boylston stop, this street teems with people ranging from college grads to businessmen.

The close proximity to both Emerson College and Newbury Street make Boylston a destination for partiers and workaholics alike, and as a result, it hosts some of the best variety in Boston. Example 1: A Starbucks resides on one street corner, and across the street, and Dunkin’ Donuts boasts its coffee.

Example 2: Boylston hosts Grub Street, a nonprofit creative writing group, as well as leads you to Copley, the posh shopping center of the city. Yes, polar opposites, but somehow, this neighborhood makes it feel cohesive.

Boylston stretches throughout a good chunk of Boston, and walking down it brings you from the heart of the Suffolk/Emerson bubble all the way out near Mass Ave. A great place to connect with friends or get from one destination to the other, Boylston can basically bring you to any point in this part of Boston that you desire.

If you’re in the mood to drink a bit and sit in plush booths in the heart of the city, check out Gypsy Bar. Walking distance from the Boylston T stop and adjacent to Emerson College, Gypsy Bar boasts deep lighting and a huge dance floor, perfect for letting loose in a hideout.

If you’re DD’ing, the Boston Common Garage is a great, cheap find for parking, especially if you enter after 4 p.m. My favorite spot on Boylston, though, is the spot right after all the greenery.

Pass the Garden and walk down Boylston straight and you’ll find a residential area, with statues and flowers. Picturesque Boston? I think yes.

 Roberto G.

Boylston, a surrealistic Bostonian scenario

It depends on where you’re standing or sitting down, but as your eyes timidly scanBoylston Street horizontally and/or vertically you’ll realize that you are where you are supposed to be, at the core of Boston’s life, where everything converges and turns into a surrealistic scenario.

Turn one way and you’ll find bars and restaurants, turn around you’ll see a homeless guy talking to himself about politics, run away backwardly and you’ll stumble upon a group of neatly-dressed businesspeople heading for a meeting. Stop at the Boston Public Library, an architectural and historical treasure that unites people of all sorts.

After being intellectually stimulated, head towards the Copley park and take a deep breath; look around you, people of all races, dressed in uneven styles; people of all places, exhale a universal vibe; tall buildings will block the horizon, but later on you’ll realize that all they do is try to reveal the night-sky, opening the doors to some decent nightlife.

In Boylston you can find a little bit of everything. Restaurants and bars of all price ranges however rent is always high. Street parking is nearly impossible, but there are a few parking lots close enough.

There is convenient access to the Green line T. Also, Newbury St. runs parallel, offering the best shopping and dining options in Boston. The Boston Common and Copley Park illuminate the urban scenario giving it a slight organic feel.

If you like the accelerated lifestyle of a city, Boylston Street is a great place to live in, extremely convenient because of its location and wide range of options, but I wouldn’t recommend it to relax with the family.

 Mike F.

Boylston Street

Boylston Street is a Mecca for college students and young people looking to carve their first fresh niche in the Boston professional scene. It sprouts from the historic Boston Common and Theater District all the way to the Fenway neighborhood, running through Copley and Kenmore Squares, Fenway Park, many of Boston’s most notable college campuses, and countless shopping and dining staples along the way.

Just beyond the Public Garden, a tourist snare that doubles as a getaway for residents to walk their dogs and Emerson and Suffolk students to catch up on their reading, is a modest but more-than-adequate strip of shops, stores, and restaurants, with a few night life options sprinkled on top.

There is something for everyone: shopping fiends can scratch their itches in Gucci or Lord & Taylor while technology buffs and students can keep their hardware working and up-to-date at the Apple Store.

And anyone can punctuate a long day of shopping or sightseeing with almost any kind of delicious, albeit usually expensive, meal. Boylston Street’s dining options range from California Pizza Kitc