Mass Appeal

Cambridge, Massachusetts has been and will always will be a college town. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a grown-up time, starting with a stay at the year-old Hotel Veritas. 


Until recently, pickings were slim for visitors to Cambridge seeking stylish lodgings: either embrace the eclectic mise-en-scène of mom-and-pop inns, or head back over the bridge to Boston proper. Things changed, however, with last year’s introduction of The Hotel Veritas, which, like most new businesses around Harvard Square, has one foot in the past, but the other one is bounding towards a more contemporary take on the city. The on-demand Nespresso in the lobby should be thoroughly enjoyed, especially while the minimalist fire burns quietly in the background. But at Veritas, modernity is by no means synonymous with coldness; the staff couldn’t be warmer — they proved amenable to a request for a glass of milk at midnight (a childlike ritual not yet outgrown).

Veritas doesn’t have a restaurant, which is all the more reason to explore the area’s growing food scene. The critic’s choice for dining in the neighborhood would be Rialto, but the people’s choice would be The Plough & Stars. It’s part restaurant, part bar, part music venue — but much more than just the sum of these parts. Order the duck confit and a Belgian ale and watch the scene unfold around you. For breakfast, the Spanish anise-flecked tartas at the hotel might tide you over if your appetite is light. But to start your day with a real caloric jolt, set out for LA Burdick (more commonly known as just Burdick’s), a chocolate shop and café on Brattle Street. Ordering a cocoa is a given, but deciding between orange-scented chocolate madeleines and a perfectly caramelized canelé might prove challenging — as will finding a seat. Come early to beat the undergraduate crowd. Finally, you can’t leave Cambridge without dabbling in a bit of academia. Since the Coop — the campus bookstore  — isn’t what it used to be, poke around the Le Corbusier-designed Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (his only building in the US) instead. Or head to the Harvard Museum of Natural History for Massachusetts’s best display of sticks, stones, rocks and bones.

Tablet’s Hallie Davison was schooled in Massachusetts but denounces New England sports teams entirely. (Go Giants!)