<p>Hi guys,
I was looking over some files on my computer today and found a list of Boston restaurants and stores I started the summer before my freshman year here. I added more to it tonight to try and make it a good resource for incoming freshmen... hopefully it will give you a good feel for where stores and restaurants are around the city.</p>
<p>Please feel free to add anything I may have overlooked.</p>
<p>Restaurants
Cosi - <a href="http://www.getcosi.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.getcosi.com</a> - Government Center (Red to Orange State)
Cheesecake Factory - Cambridgeside Galleria or Prudential Center
Wendy's - 598 Massachusetts Avenue (Central Square)
Subway 745 Boylston (Red to Green Prudential) or 393 Mass Ave
Fire and Ice <a href="http://www.fire-ice.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.fire-ice.com</a> 50 Church Street (Red line to Harvard Square)
TGI Fridays 26 Exeter St (Red to Green Copley)
Pizzeria Uno On Boylston Street (Red to Green Copley)
McDonalds 463 Mass Ave (Central Square)
Burger King, Alpine Bagel, Anna's Taqueria - MIT Student Center
Ben and Jerrys Cambridgeside Galleria or Harvard Square
Lots of Italian restaurants in the North End Red to Green/Orange Haymarket</p>
<p>Pizza
Dominos (617) 577-0066 (takes MIT TechCash!)
Pizza Hut (781) 393-0404 (carryout only)</p>
<p>Clothes
Abercrombie and Fitch Cambridgeside Galleria (take free shuttle from Kendall Square)
American Eagle Cambridgeside Galleria
Limited - Copley Place (Red to Green Copley)
Express Copley Place or Cambridgeside Galleria
Victorias Secret Copley Place or Cambridgeside Galleria
Gap Cambridgeside Galleria or 533 Commonwealth Avenue (1.2 miles)
Sephora Prudential Center (Red to Green Prudential)
Macys 450 Washington Street (Red to Downtown Crossing)
Filenes Cambridgeside Galleria or Downtown Crossing
H&M Cambridgeside Galleria or Downtown Crossing</p>
<p>Other stores
Barnes and Noble Prudential Center (Red to Green Prudential)
Blockbuster 541 Massachusetts Avenue (Central Square)
Boston Library Copley Square
Bed Bath & Beyond 401 Park Drive (Red to Green Fenway)
Target Somerville, MA (2.5 miles near Green Lechmere)
Hollywood Video 899 Boylston (Red to Green Hynes)
Best Buy Cambridgeside Galleria</p>
<p>Markets
Star Market supermarket 20 Sidney Street (between campus and Central Square)
Trader Joes Boylston Street near Prudential or 748 Memorial Drive (healthy, cheap food!)
Haymarket farmers market on weekend mornings (Red to Green/Orange Haymarket)
Laverde's - MIT student center (kind of expensive, but undeniably convenient)</p>
<p>Haha, I did forget Legal -- I don't eat seafood, so it's not one of my faves. But other people like it. There is one in Kendall Square, and another at the Prudential Center.</p>
<p>I don't think there's an easy way to get to a Walmart by public transportation; the closest ones are in Lynn (up on the North Shore) and Quincy. I guess perhaps you'd have to find someone with a car.</p>
<p>I do know you can take the commuter rail to Plymouth -- there's a Walmart right behind the station. But that's a really long way to go for a Walmart!</p>
<p>Well, the Star Market is right behind Random and is a general supermarket. Prices can be kind of high, but I think that's true of most chain supermarkets. If you go at night, Cambridge West Saferide (the evening campus shuttle) goes right past it -- you can catch the shuttle and not have to carry your groceries home. ;) There's another Star Market between the Prudential Center and Copley Place malls.</p>
<p>Trader Joe's is more of a "niche" supermarket -- they carry a lot of private-label foods and I suppose are geared more toward people who want to eat healthy food. It's surprisingly cheap, considering how good the food is. I would recommend it to anybody. There's one right across from Prudential Center as well as another up Memorial Drive (go as far west on campus as you can on Memorial Drive, then keep going west for about a mile).</p>
<p>Haymarket is the farmer's market in the city on weekend mornings. You can get great deals on fruit, vegetables, bread, and meat (ie 5 pounds of potatoes for $1... that sort of thing)... however, you can also get stuck with bug-infested or moldy produce. Try to go to the stalls that let you pick your own selection, and keep an eye out for the signs of older/rotting food.</p>
<p>Laverde's is the grocery store in the student center. They have most of the stuff the average student needs on a day-to-day basis (and they take TechCash), but I wouldn't advise buying all your groceries from them if you plan to cook. They have a very convenient location for most MIT students, and their prices reflect this.</p>
<p>There is also a co-op called Harvest in Central Square (I think?), and many ethnic grocery stores (ie Chinese grocery stores in Chinatown)... I don't really know anything about this stuff, so anybody who does should chime in.</p>
<p>Another thing -- if you plan to buy a lot of groceries, you can do one of several things: steal a shopping cart (hey, I'm not advocating it, just saying people do it), buy a small shopping cart or share the purchase with friends (they sell them at Star for ~$25), or suck it up and carry your groceries all the way home. My favorite is option #2.</p>
<p>Good post mollieb. I always forget that I can take the saferide around MIT between Random/Star and Baker and so forth. Is it worth it to take the saferide from 77 mass ave to Kendall instead of walking? I noticed that it's on the path, but there's many stop in between.</p>
<p>I started trying to go through and memorize the saferide schedule. Basic conclusions (written in 1st person because I drafted it as an email to somebody else):
Extracting minutes from the saferide timetables, it's 3 minutes from 77 Mass ave to Random by C-East, so if I'm anywhere near the half hour it's worthwhile. Meanwhile, its 15 minutes from Mass Ave to Star by C-West, but 9 minutes back, so it makes sense to return using C-West if I have lots of groceries. On the other hand, it's still probably good to take C-East to Random and walk to Star from there. I've decided that it doesn't make sense to use safe ride to just go from say McCormick to Simmons, even if I pass by a bus.</p>
<p>It's 19 minutes on C-East to Kendall from 77, so that doesn't make sense. But it's only 6 minutes back, so I should definitely take a bus if it's there. I don't know where the saferide stop is at kendall square though..? Also its 2 minutes from EC to 77 mass ave from cambridge East, 23 minutes on the way there.</p>
<p>If it's near the half hour, it's definitely worth it to grab a B-East or a B-West across the river to Beacon Street, 3 minutes, and it's only a total of 10 minutes on B-East to Fenway, which is good. Then of course there's the fraterntities which should be accessed by saferide. I'm trying to figure out now if it's best to take saferide into boston and then walk to Prudential, or to walk to Kendall and take the T there (almost certainly the first, although I've never done it... have walked all the way to Prudential and back though). And Quincy Market / Chinatown / North End: subway has got to be the best method I assume.</p>
<p>-River</p>
<p>It would be worthwhile to go through and memorize the times that each bus stops at 77 mass ave (this is just on the half hour) or your place of residence, and get an idea for where they go (I should have done that before).</p>
<p>SafeRide operates 7 days a week from:
6:00 P.M. to 3:00 A.M. Sunday through Wednesday
6:00 P.M. to 4:00 A.M. Thursday through Saturday</p>