For generations, Bostonians were identified by their neighborhoods. The aristocrats who spoke with a Harvard “a” lived on Beacon Hill. Irish immigrants settled in South Boston where they became known as “Southies,” while Italian immigrants lived in the North End and immigrants from China moved into Chinatown. The Back Bay was the home of the rich and the newly rich who couldn’t get onto Beacon Hill, while Fenway was, for much of Boston’s history, a smelly swamp.

Today Boston’s neighborhoods have become much more diverse but most maintain some of these characteristics, with the exception of Fenway, which is now home to many of Boston’s 250,000 college students and the Boston Red Sox. In all these neighborhoods visitors to Boston can eat at some of the finest restaurants in the country; shop at trendy boutiques and major department stores; visit bars, pubs and clubs and find food and entertainment that fit every budget during the 89th International Convention in Boston Friday, June 30 to Tuesday, July 4.

Beacon Hill—Still the Home of Boston Brahmins
Many of the oldest Yankee families still live in this area of brick Federal-style residences, narrow streets, gaslights and private gardens that can be glimpsed from sidewalks. It is a wonderful area in which to walk and visit the many outstanding antique shops along Charles Street. In addition to American furniture, silver, jewelry, paintings and the like, shoppers can find European and Asian antiques, some of which were brought by New England ship captains in the 19th century. Many tourists as well as locals visit the Cheers Bar (formerly Bull & Finch Pub), the model for the popular television show. Be prepared—it doesn’t look at all like the TV set.

In the Footsteps of History in Downtown Boston
Many of the key historical spots on the Freedom Trail—the 2.5-mile walking path through the important sites of Revolutionary War Boston—are in the downtown, Fanueil Hall or financial districts. This is a popular shopping area with the well-known bargain store Filene’s Basement and Macy’s department store as well as a number of shops in Quincy Market. There are also a number of famous restaurants, many of which opened nearly 180 years ago. For those on a budget, Quincy Market, which opened in 1826, offers dozens of low-cost food stalls. Upstairs is the moderately priced Durgin Park restaurant that opened in 1827, where diners eat at long communal tables. It is famous for New England food, including Yankee pot roast, Boston baked beans and Indian pudding plus its brusque food servers.

Also in the area are the elegant and expensive Locke-Ober Restaurant—a favorite with John F. Kennedy; Parker House, famous for developing Parker House rolls and the Boston cream pie and, it is said, where the young Ho Chi Minh worked briefly; and the Union Oyster House, another Kennedy favorite that also opened in 1826. Les Zygomates is an outstanding French restaurant and there are a number of Irish bars that cater to the office workers and visitors including Black Rose, Hennessy’s of Boston, Kitty O’Shea’s and Paddy O’s.

The North End Maintains an Italian Atmosphere
Puritans arrived in this section in 1630, followed by Irish in the middle of the 19th century, but it is the Italian immigrants who came by early in the 20th century who have left the greatest mark on the neighborhood. There are a number of historic sites in the area, including Paul Revere’s House and Old North Church, but the Italian restaurants are an equal draw. Many of the restaurants are along Hanover Street or the narrow streets nearby. Among the popular restaurants are Mamma Maria for excellent and expensive northern Italian food, Giacomo’s for seafood, Lucca Restaurant & Bar, Mother Anna’s and Pomodoro plus many places specializing in pizza and pasta. For dessert, locals and visitors alike stop at Mike’s Pastry, Modern Pastry Shop and Maria’s Pastry Shop.

Shopping the Back Bay
Hynes Convention Center, which will be the site of the District Governors-elect Seminar and the convention headquarters hotel, is located in this area that was once a bay in the Charles River. Starting in the middle of the 19th century Back Bay was filled in with land, wide boulevards were laid out based on a Parisian model, and Victorian style houses, many of which are now expensive condominiums, were constructed. Today this area looks very different from much of the rest of Boston.

Newbury Street, one of the finest shopping areas in the city and country, has been called Boston’s Rodeo Drive. Many art galleries, including the International Poster Gallery, and fashionable boutiques are located here. Other prime shopping areas are around Copley Place and the Prudential Center. Shoppers can dine at a number of upscale restaurants including Stephanie’s on Newbury; the excellent French restaurants L’Espalier, Aujourd’hui and Clio; and Turner Fisheries. Among the moderately priced restaurants is Legal Sea Foods. Known for it fresh seafood, it has branches elsewhere in Boston, even at Logan International Airport where you can purchase clam chowder with cold packs to take home. Ethnic restaurants include Davio’s, Pho Pasteur, Kashmir, Café Jaffa and Bangkok City. There are many bars in Back Bay including Clery’s, an Irish pub.

Fenway
The Emerald Necklace, a series of ponds and parks that wends its way for five miles providing a lot of green space, dominates the Fenway neighborhood. A number of universities and outstanding museums are located here, along with many apartment buildings and Fenway Park, the oldest baseball park in the US, home of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox.
With a lot of resident college students and visiting sports fans, it is one of the biggest bar areas in Boston. Here you can find sports bars such as Jillian’s, Boston Beer Works and Cask ‘n Flagon. There are also a number of ethnic restaurants, including Elephant Walk, a French-Cambodian restaurant; the Japanese Naha Cafe; and the Thai restaurant, Brown Sugar. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum also has a nice café for lunch.

South End
Many of the red-brick Victorian row houses of the South End were gentrified in the last decades of the 20th century. Today it is a diverse area populated with young professionals and the descendants of many immigrant groups including Irish, Hispanics and African-Americans. It is also a hot area for visitors because of its restaurants and pubs such as the jazz bar Wally’s Cafe. Restaurants range from the very expensive Icarus and Aquitaine to the moderate soul food found at Bob the Chef’s Jazz Café to Nashoba Brook Bakery, on the border of the South End and Back Bay.

Chinatown—the Fourth Largest in the US
This small neighborhood is jam packed with restaurants, food and gift shops. Those looking for dim sum—Chinese breakfast or brunch featuring a variety of buns, rolls, dumplings and other fried or steamed foods—might try Empire Garden Restaurant or Chau Chow City. Other Chinese restaurants include East Ocean City, Jumbo Seafood and Cindy’s Planet. Increasingly non-Chinese Asian restaurants have opened in Chinatown, such as Penang, Ginza Japanese Restaurant, Pho Republic and Buddha’s Delight, a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant.

There are also many restaurants, clubs and bars in the nearby Theater District, including the French bistro Pigalle and the Roxy concert and dance club. Dessert lovers would argue that no trip to Boston would be complete without a visit to the Finale Desserterie in Boston or Cambridge.

South Boston/Waterfront/Seaport and Other Areas to Visit
The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is located in South Boston, which is very different from the trendier South End. South Boston is across the Fort Point Channel from Chinatown and most of Boston. For more than a hundred years a bastion of the Boston Irish who began arriving in the 1840s and 1850s, South Boston is beginning to change as a result of the arrival in the last decade of non-Irish looking for less-expensive housing plus the addition of the convention center and hotels and restaurants that are accompanying it. Locals and movie buffs congregate at L Street Tavern made famous by the movie Good Will Hunting.

Boston, famous for its seafood, has a number of outstanding restaurants serving fresh fish, clams, lobster, crab and other delicacies. Among the most popular is South Boston’s No Name Restaurant, which has been called the best seafood restaurant in Boston by Emeril Lagasse of Food Network fame. Well-known seafood restaurants in other Boston neighborhoods include the Barking Crab, East Coast Grill and two venerable institutions—Jimmy’s Harborside Restaurant and Anthony’s Pier 4.

Venturing Farther Afield
Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston, is dominated by the two great universities located there—Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There are many fine boutiques and outstanding restaurants, as well as lots of bars and hangouts teaming with young people. The Harvard Square area is alive night and day with throngs of people, street performers and sidewalk musicians. The most popular student hangouts include Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage that boasts more than three-dozen types of burgers and John Harvard Brew House where, on many Monday nights, you can play trivia with Harvard students. It is also the home of L. A. Burdick’s, a small café that features some of the world’s best hot chocolate, handmade chocolates and pastries and Hi-Rise Pie Co. where you can eat or take out a gourmet sandwich, bread and unusual pastries including adult versions of Oreo cookies and Hostess Cupcakes.

Cambridge also boasts fine French restaurants including Craigie Street Bistrot and Sandrine’s Bistro and the upscale American restaurant Harvest. Between Harvard and MIT is Oleana, an outstanding restaurant serving Arabic and Turkish-influenced Mediterranean cuisine. Cambridge has a branch of the French/Cambodian restaurant Elephant Walk and of Legal Sea Foods and a number of very good Indian, Thai and other Asian restaurants, including the Cafe of India and Bombay Club.

Cambridge also has many small boutiques and galleries, including the Cambridge Artists’ Cooperative, which features the work of many local artists specializing in glass, jewelry and textiles. It is the home of a number of clubs such as Club Passim, a coffee house that has been presenting live music for 35 years; the Nameless Coffeehouse; and ImprovBoston. It also has one of the largest concentrations of bookstores in the United States, including the incomparable Harvard Coop.

Also drawing diners from miles away is Blue Ginger, the restaurant of Ming Tsai of TV cooking show fame. This Asian fusion restaurant is located in Wellesley.