Last week Boston Magazine hosted The Taste of Boston at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. While the photos above clearly show me having a lot of fun with my good friend and blogger, Frenchie and Yankee, overall the event left a lot to be desired, and I hope that Boston Magazine can do better next year.
While the venue was beautiful, The Mandarin Oriental really didn’t have appropriate space for the event. Tables were spread throughout four rooms (some quite tiny) and accessing many of the tables proved troublesome. However, perhaps the biggest disappointment was the food (or maybe I should say the lack of it). There were too far too few restaurants serving food, but this may have been in part due to the limitations of the space, which were significant.
Lest you start to think of me as a glass half full kind of guy, I’ll shift gears and tell you what I think Boston Magazine did right. As the photos at the top of the post show, the “Chef’s TV Booth” was both a great idea and clearly the hit of the party. We may not all be celebrity chefs, but it certainly was fun pretending.
Bobie’s Candy Bar also proved to be extremely popular. The lines near the end of the evening were not however, and allowing people to access this colorful candy bar from both sides would have gone a long way in making this less crowded for attendees.
When it came to my favorite foods, I have to tip my hat to Post 390. They served a delicious house smoked salmon, garlic chive goat cheese with a touch of jalapeno jelly (below left). Asana also deserves a nod for the bay scallop sashimi with a bacon vinaigrette and togarashi kale chips (below right). These combined for my favorite dishes served at an otherwise lacking tasting. 
I hope Boston Magazine moves to a more open and larger venue next year. It will make it far easier to access the tables and allow for more options for people to truly get a “Taste of Boston”.
Toys for Joys Boston is one of my favorite (and one of the most social) holiday parties held each December. Thanks to the organizers, sponsors and the community this party donates thousands of dollars of gifts for children, but to attend this party you must register. To tempt you into coming, I’ve included photographs from the 2011 Toys for Joys party in Boston, here.
BosGuy 