The Weekender: December 16 to 18
Prepare for the holiday season with a Mediterranean restaurant, a play by a CAS student, and a whimsical carousel ride

eat, shop, go
Finals week is underway, and we wish good luck to all our students who are finishing up their exams. If you need a short study break, here are some ideas for snacks, shops, and art around Boston that will give you a little boost to get across the finish line.
Servia
Servia, a Mediterranean restaurant with a modern twist, offers Italian-, Spanish-, Greek-, and Moroccan-inspired cuisines in Boston’s Financial District historic Cunard Building. Led by award-winning chef Claudio Cavalleri, Servia specializes in lunch, Saturday brunch, dinner, and chef’s table events. The menu includes shareables, bright crudos (seafood), and housemade pasta cooked to order, with a rotating menu of proteins like lamb cigar rolls and carpaccio (thinly sliced raw prime beef filet) served with local farm vegetables. Guests can also order from a meze (appetizer) menu with crafted cocktails or European wines at the bar.
Servia, 126 State St., Boston, is open Monday to Saturday from 4 to 10 pm. The bar is open Monday to Wednesday from 4 to 10 pm and Thursday to Saturday from 4 to 11 pm. Brunch is Saturday from 11 am to 3 pm.
Hummingbird Books
Thoughtfully curated displays of endless classics and adult and children’s titles await guests at Hummingbird Books, which features works from both local and widely known international authors. Founded by Boston native Wendy Dodson (COM’00) who also owns Valley Bookstore in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Hummingbird Books is Dodson’s return to her hometown. A beautiful custom tree installation, named the Great Oak Tree, serves as a gathering space for families and in-store programming, as well as a place for guests to spend the day getting lost in a great book. The store also hosts author visits (past guests have included romance novelist Elin Hilderbrand and data-driven pregnancy author Emily Oster), book signings, parties, and more.
Hummingbird Books, 55 Boylston St., Suite 5510, Chestnut Hill, is open Monday to Wednesday from 10 am to 7 pm, Thursday from 10 am to 8 pm, Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm.
OTP
This BU New Play Initiative production explores the lives of two 15-year-old best friends and their work writing for a fan fiction website; one of them sets out to write a story starring President Obama. The play is written by Elise Wien (GRS’23), a student in the Art & Sciences Playwriting Program, who won the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting in 2021. The show is produced by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and the CFA School of Theatre, and is directed by Enzo Gonzales (CFA’24).
OTP will be performed Friday, December 16, and Saturday, December 17, at 8 pm, and Sunday, December 18, at 2 pm. General admission tickets range from $10 to $35.
Metal of Honor: Gold from Simone Martini to Contemporary Art
The exhibition Metal of Honor: Gold from Simone Martini to Contemporary Art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum explores how four artists use gold to represent innovation and honor. For the show, the famous five-panel altarpiece by Italian artist Simone Martini (1284–1344) in the museum’s Italian room is brought down from its hanging spot to eye level for a better look; his smaller painting, Virgin and Child with Saints, will also be on display. Hanging on the wall in the room are pieces by Black American contemporary artists Titus Kaphar, Stacy Lynn Waddell, and Kehinde Wiley. Their portraits use gold to elevate and honor the Black men and women they depict, bringing new interpretations to the “style and medium of devotional imagery,” according to the exhibition’s website.
Metal of Honor: Gold from Simone Martini to Contemporary Art, in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Hostetter Gallery, will be on display until January 16, 2023. The museum, at 25 Evans Way, Boston, is open Monday and Wednesday from 11 am to 5 pm, Thursday from 11 am to 9 pm, Friday from 11 am to 5 pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Tickets are free for BU students with a BU ID, and $20 for adult general admission.
Greenway Carousel
The Greenway Carousel at the Tiffany & Co. Foundation Grove invites friends and family to ride atop native New England and mythical carousel creatures. The hand-carved characters include a peregrine falcon, a sea serpent, and a green sea turtle. Nearly a decade ago, students in Boston drew carousel creatures they wanted to ride. The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy used those drawings as inspiration for the carousel sculptures. The most ADA-compliant carousel in the region, the Greenway Carousel encourages people with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities to hop on, thanks to the help of the Institute for Human Centered Design.
The Greenway Carousel is open Friday to Sunday and select holidays from 11 am to 6 pm. A single ride is $4, and the rate for groups of 10 or more is $3 each.
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