Northshore Magazine (Digital) September 2023

On the way to the BONS event this past August, I decided to take the back roads from Andover to Beverly’s Tupper Manor for the spectacular celebration. I drove down 133, past the charming Stevens Coolidge Estate in North Andover, and wended my way through the bucolic town of Boxford, past rolling fields and farmland, and into Topsfield with its iconic Congregational Church built in 1842, and then past the Topsfield Fairgrounds. I drove by antique houses and mid-century Capes along the way. Into Beverly, I continued onto Hale Street to glimpse the ocean—the salty mist in the air is intoxicating. It’s an overcast day and the gray waves lap at the shoreline. The scenery is breathtaking. The towns and neighborhoods I traveled through each have their own personalities, yet there…

GLENN SCOTT / PAGES 50, 52 / Glenn Scott has been creating images at his GSP studio in Beverly’s downtown Arts District for more than 25 years. His favorite projects feature simple subjects complemented by inventive surroundings. See Glenn’s portfolio at glennscottphotography.com ALEXANDRA PECCI / PAGES 88, 104 / Alexandra Pecci grew up on the North Shore and writes about its people and places. Her travel, food, and lifestyle stories appear in Rachael Ray Every Day and the Washington Post. JEANNE O’BRIEN COFFEY / PAGES 22 / Jeanne O’Brien Coffey has been freelancing for more than 10 years, covering everything from hot New York restaurants for the Zagat guide to top luxury travel spots for ForbesLife. She is Northshore magazine’s food editor and travels the region taste-testing chefs’ dishes. DOUG LEVY / PAGES 98 / Doug Levy…

Barbara Lynch comes to Gloucester, Encore’s Rare Lounge, Tasty Ales Let’s begin by talking about the butter-poached lobster. Liberated impeccably from its shell, the lobster meat is plated to recall the real thing, tail stretching the length of the plate, claws reaching out to each side. The shockingly tender shellfish is blanketed with a hash of crisp sweet corn and salty, savory nuggets of chorizo, and the whole swims through a shallow pool of melted butter. It is at once simple and luxurious, classic and innovative. And, as such, it is precisely at home on the menu at The Rudder, the new North Shore eatery from Barbara Lynch, the renowned chef behind highly acclaimed and award-winning Boston restaurants including No. 9 Park, Menton, and B&G Oysters. We can’t go much further without acknowledging…

The humble chicken sandwich has taken a star turn of late. But few approach the high-low deliciousness of executive chef Megan Vaughan’s Fried Chicken Sliders at the new Rare Lounge at Encore Boston Harbor in Everett. The pair of palm-sized sandwiches each sport a piece of well-breaded and deep-fried thigh meat, topped with a house-made buttermilk dressing kicked up with kimchi, sriracha, and herbs, along with a spicy cabbage slaw and a refreshing pile of house-pickled cucumber and radish. This Asian spin offers subtle heat, with the creamy toppings a nice contrast to the crispy chicken. That’s just one of the playful offerings at Rare Lounge. Vaughan, whose resume includes high-flying spots like Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak in Seattle and Wolfgang Puck’s CUT in Beverly Hills, which earned a Michelin Star…

On the way to the BONS event this past August, I decided to take the back roads from Andover to Beverly’s Tupper Manor for the spectacular celebration. I drove down 133, past the charming Stevens Coolidge Estate in North Andover, and wended my way through the bucolic town of Boxford, past rolling fields and farmland, and into Topsfield with its iconic Congregational Church built in 1842, and then past the Topsfield Fairgrounds. I drove by antique houses and mid-century Capes along the way. Into Beverly, I continued onto Hale Street to glimpse the ocean—the salty mist in the air is intoxicating. It’s an overcast day and the gray waves lap at the shoreline. The scenery is breathtaking. The towns and neighborhoods I traveled through each have their own personalities, yet there…

Historically, North Reading hasn’t been known as a medicinal hub, where people would come from far and wide seeking remedies for bad health; the town’s biggest claims to fame are mostly shoes and apples. But just six-and-a-half miles away in Wilmington, once upon another period, farmers cultivated the bulk of the United States’ hops, so it’s only proper that North Reading today is home to one of the state’s newest breweries: Hopothecary Ales, founded by brothers Mike and Steve Gabardi in 2019 and in full operation as of late 2021. “I don’t know if there were a lot of medical establishments or apothecaries around this area, back in the day,” says Kevin McComiskey, Hopothecary’s brewmaster and one of its founding brewers, “the day” being the 1700s. “But all the hops were…