Devra First's First Four-Star Review Goes to Menton

Globe food critic Devra First gave her first ever four star review to Barbara Lynch's Menton:

They are giddy. Drunk on knowledge. High on the conceit of what they are trying to do. Finest dining, here in Fort Point — modern yet lavish, refined and formal and beyond expensive. You are in their sights, and Menton’s minions are coming for you. From the right! A woman armed with more information about the wine she will pour than anyone would ever need to know. She is grinning. She is talking perfume and acid and soil and philosophy. She is pouring liquid, golden, into your glass....

When the girl from Southie walks into this restaurant in her old backyard and thinks, “I made this come true,’’ it must feel damn good.


 
http://www.boston.com/ae/food/restaurants/articles/2010/07/14/menton_menu_offers_maximum_pleasure_including_the_sweet_smell_of_excess/

Big Hammock on Rose Kennedy Greenway

A group of designers, artists, students, and volunteers is working on building a big hammock in the Rose Kennedy Greenway. They have funding from the Awesome Foundation and approval from the city.  They're currently looking for additional donors and volunteers to make the project a success:

theBigHammock.org

FPAC Park Party Wednesday

The Fort Point Arts Community invites you to celebrate with our friends and neighbors at the 4th annual Summer Park Party:

Summer Park Party
Wednesday, July 28th
5:30-8:00pm
Wormwood Park
(corner of A and Wormwood Streets)

Fun for Foodies: The Channel Café will be grilling, we'll have tasty tidbits from Barlow's, Lucky's, Flour, and Sportello beverages from Sagarinos and Terrific homemade morsels by YOU! Please bring food or drink to share
Contest: Participate in our first annual Fort Pointer's Molded Jello-Salad Contest
Fun for Kids: sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and more surprises
Network: Catch up with old friends, meet your neighbors-- Everyone is welcome

We hope to see you all there!

To offer to help out, or find out what we need, email Gabrielle at gsos@rcn.com

Small Business Spotlight: Floral Labs

One of things that makes Fort Point great is all of the neighborhood businesses.  We're going to start doing periodic posts highlighting some of them.  If you have a Fort Point business you'd like to be featured, please email us at: fortpoint@dewdrops.net. 

Floral Lab
326 A St., Unit 5b
Boston, MA 02210
617-413-9790 
www.florallab.com

Floral lab is a design studio that uses fresh and preserved flowers to create floral art for personal and business settings.  Carrie Chang founded the lab in 2007 with the intention to bring an artist's perspective to floral design: "Fine arts floral design is another kind of beauty that can both decorate a space and speak to the senses."

The preserved flowers are real flowers grown in Colombia and Ecuador where farmers use eco-friendly soil to produce these gorgeous blooms and re-use the stems will recycle to the field.   They are then preserved with a Japanese technique that keeps the flowers soft but brings out their vibrant colors.

Before doing floral design, Carrie was a professional graphic designer in Hong Kong and London for 15 years.  She holds a Master of Arts from Central Saint Martin College in London and Diploma in Floral Design from the Rittners School of Floral Design in Boston.

She is now experimenting with the floral scuplture on wood, wall and canvas frame, using both fresh and preserved flowers and other botanical materials; preserved flowers can last up to one year or longer under the proper way that floral lab care instructions.

Every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the lab is open for Fort Point neighbors to stop by.  Email her for more information: sales@florallab.com

rewind: Former FP Artists Show: Opening 8/12

When artists first began moving into the Fort Point Channel section of Boston, they were true pioneers, showing the way for communities nationwide to rejuvenate old manufacturing properties for use as art studios and meccas. The Fort Point neighborhood, with its warehouses and lofts, was the home of thousands of artists since approximately 1975.

Many of those trendsetters will return for “rewind: The Former Fort Point Artists Show" at the FPAC @12Gallery

rewind: The Former Fort Point Artists Show
August 1st through Sept 17th
Reception, Thursday August 12th, 5-8 PM
Made in Fort Point
12 Farnsworth St. (off Congress)

This show reviews the work of 27 artists who have lived and/or worked in Fort Point and moved out of the neighborhood in the last 35 years.

Studio Soto Concert Thurs (7/22)

CONCERT WITH KAFFE MATTHEWS (LONDON) AND DEREK HOFFEND (BOSTON)
THURSDAY JULY 22nd 7:30 pm
Art@12, on 12 Farnsworth St., Boston



On Thursday, July 22nd at 7:30 pm, Studio Soto presents the dynamic London sound artist Kaffe Matthews in a special Boston appearance. Joining her on the bill will be Boston's Derek Hoffend. Both artists share an interest in creating autonomous sound environments and special frequencies through sonic furniture, though this performance presents their concert works' modalities.

The concert is being held at and is produced in collaboration with the Fort Point Arts Community venue Art@12, on 12 Farnsworth St., Boston. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $10.

Kaffe Matthews - making architectural music to feel through your body as well as your ears.- was born in Essex, England and lives and works in London.

Since 1990 she has been making and performing new electro-acoustic music worldwide with a variety of things and places such as violin, theremin, Scottish weather, desert stretched wires, NASA scientists, melting ice in Quebec and the BBC Scottish symphony orchestra. Currently she is researching 3D composition through Hammerhead sharks in Galapagos and Atlantic salmon in Northumberland rivers. Acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of electronic improvisation and live composition, Kaffe has released 6 solo CD’s on the label Annette Works.

Often collaborating, her present projects are with sonic furniture project ‘music for bodies’ and climate change activist fan band The Gluts with Café Carbon.

http://annetteworks.com/
http://www.kaffematthews.net/


Derek Hoffend is a visual and audio artist who creates sound-sculpture installations and electro-acoustic music. Installations examine intersections between sound, objects, body, and environment, combining electronic, acoustic, recorded, and self-generative audio processes with found and constructed objects and spaces. Live performances traverse immersive, evolving, textural soundscapes, combining composed and improvised digital and analog processes for computer, hand-made circuits, and modified electronic and acoustic instruments. Recent work has explored immersive audio, multi-channel arrangements and sculptural forms (4 to 12 speakers), tactile interfaces, viewer participation, resonant objects and spaces, and architecture and site as instrument.

http://derekhoffend.com/
http://www.studiosoto.org/

Waterside Place Mtg, 7/26

Please be advised that there will be a community meeting regarding the
Waterside Place Project on Monday, July 26, 2010, 6:30 ­ 8:00PM, at the
Condon Elementary School, in the cafeteria, 200 D Street, South Boston. The
Core Development Group LLC, the Project Proponent, filed a Notice of Project
Change on June 30, 2010 for a phased approach to the Waterside Place
Project. Phase I, which will be located along Congress Street, is
approximately 372,300 square feet and will contain approximately 235
residential rental units, up to 185 parking spaces, approximately 72,000
square feet of retail, including a grocer and pharmacy, and approximately
14,000 square feet of office/flex space for entrepreneurial and developing
companies.

The 30-day public comment period ends on Friday, July 30, 2010.

Please mail comments to:
KRISTIN KARA
BOSTON REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
ONE CITY HALL SQUARE, 9TH FLOOR
BOSTON, MA 02201



or email to: kristin.kara.bra@cityofboston.gov


Kristin Kara
Senior Project Manager
Boston Redevelopment Authority
One City Hall Square
Boston, MA 02201
Phone: 617-918-4263
Fax: 617-742-7783

Casino Developer Wynn Eyes Seaport

Waterfront gambling
Casino magnate Stephen Wynn sizes up Seaport, eyes Fan Pier

By Thomas Grillo  |   Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Bay State casino game has shifted to South Boston’s waterfront as Las Vegas mogul Stephen Wynn eyes key sites for a gambling resort in one of the most prized development districts on the Eastern Seaboard.

Wynn, chief executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd., has hired a local lobbyist and public relations firm and raised the idea of building a Bay State casino with analysts in April.

“Our next project will undoubtedly be in China, unless we get involved in Massachusetts,” the billionaire said in the conference call with analysts.
Meanwhile, a source told the Herald that a Wynn representative has approached Joseph Fallon, owner of Fan Pier on the city’s waterfront, about the possibility of locating a resort casino in the Seaport District overlooking Boston Harbor on a portion of his spectacular 12-acre site.

The Fallon Co. broke ground in 2007 on a $3 billion neighborhood proposal spanning nine city blocks. While the first 500,000-square-foot office building is slated to open later this year, and a temporary building houses upscale retailer Louis and a restaurant, the project has stalled due to lack of tenants and financing.

Since the 1970s, Wynn has created some of the world’s most famous casinos including Bellagio, The Mirage, Treasure Island at The Mirage and the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, as well as the Atlantic City Golden Nugget and Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss. In April, Wynn opened Encore at Wynn Macau, an expansion of its existing casino with a new 414-room luxury hotel with restaurants and retail in a region of China.

While Wynn declined to comment yesterday, he is among those lobbying the Legislature to approve a measure to authorize resort-style casinos.
Development Associates LLC, a Wynn subsidiary, has paid nearly $400,000 to Boston lobbyist ML Strategies to advance the company’s interest in a casino here. In addition, Wynn has hired Howell Communications, a Boston public relations firm run by political strategist Ray Howell, to promote a bid.

Former City Councilor Michael J. McCormack, who represented Donald Trump in 1993 when the New York real estate developer sought to build a casino on Long Island in the middle of Boston Harbor, said if there’s to be a casino in Boston it should be built where people want to go. “What’s better than a casino with phenomenal views of the Boston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean?” he said. “I think it’s a fabulous location.”
Others agree. “The waterfront is a perfect location for a casino,” said Dean Stratouly, a Boston developer. “It’s close to the convention center, the airport and the downtown hotels. A casino at Seaport would bring more hotels and lots of entertainment venues.”
But Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association, said she’s not convinced there’s enough space for a casino and all the parking required for gamblers.
Concerns about a waterfront casino and its impact on the South Boston neighborhood have already prompted an ill-fated effort to quash such a development.
State Sen. Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat, introduced an amendment to the Senate’s casino legislation that would prohibit a casino in South Boston, the Boston neighborhood that includes the Seaport District. The measure never came to a vote because it was ruled unconstitutional, according to a spokesman for Senate President Therese Murray.
“I’m not surprised that a developer would consider the waterfront for a casino given its location next to the convention center,” said Hart. “But I think I speak for the majority of the people of the neighborhood when I say that folks would rather see a casino at Suffolk Downs.”
If Wynn secures a Boston site and the Legislature authorizes casinos, it could set up a high-stakes battle against at least two other development proposals for an Eastern Massachusetts license.
Suffolk Downs has proposed a $600 million resort casino that would feature a hotel, 5,000 slot machines, 200 table games, restaurants and shops at the 75-year-old racetrack. In Milford, David Nunes and Warner Gaming have proposed the Crossroads resort off Interstate 495. The 26-acre complex would feature a 267,000-square-foot casino, a 250-room hotel and amenities such as retail, bars and restaurants.
A law allowing casinos in Massachusetts is stuck in committee on Beacon Hill as lawmakers try to hammer out a compromise between House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, who also supports slot machines at racetracks, and Gov. Patrick, who doesn’t. Success for the gambling legislation would likely open a floodgate of bidders for lucrative Massachusetts casino licenses.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1268038

 

Silk Road BBQ on Greenway

As part of the Greenway's pilot program to bring in food vendors, Silk Road BBQ has setup a stand near Rowes Wharf. 

 
They're open Mon-Fri, 11:30 - 8 and serve Asian-style skewers of meat cooked over charcoal.