Best of the Best List 2024 – South Boston Winners

The Boston Globe just announced its Best of the Best List! Here are the winners from the South Boston/Seaport/Fort Point neighborhood! Congratulations!

Best Lobster Roll

Even if you prefer the cold lobster roll, betray your instincts and order the warm version here at Row 34’s Fort Point outpost (others are in Cambridge, Burlington, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire). Chef Jeremy Sewall has long been a big name in Boston’s seafood scene, first at the now-shuttered Island Creek Oyster Bar in Kenmore Square and now at the stylish Row 34. Heaping servings of sweet and tender meat, caught by Sewall’s lobsterman cousin, are tossed in warm butter and sprinkled with sea salt and cradled in a split-top bun. If you must go cold, opt for Ethel’s Creamy Lobster Roll, named for Sewall’s grandmother, who added a hint of zesty pickles to the mayo mix.

A window into New England’s historic charm against a no-frills backdrop, this family-owned spot offers an authentic taste of generations-old fishing traditions. Its famous cold lobster roll, served in tender brioche buns alongside fresh fries or coleslaw, comes overflowing with claws and tails mixed with crunchy celery bits. Elevate your experience with a side of rich clam chowder and some salt and pepper for an extra kick. Don’t worry about the line outside; it moves quickly and it’s a seal of quality.

Best Brewery

Harpoon cofounder Dan Kenary will be the first to tell you about how rough-and-tumble the Seaport was when Harpoon began brewing there in 1986. Much has changed since then: While there are still workers packaging seafood nearby, Harpoon’s beer hall now also bustles with bartenders serving up the brewery’s eponymous IPA, as well as hazy, UFO series wheat beers. An onsite pickleball league and events such as Octoberfest draw huge crowds. While handmade pretzels and Sicilian square-cut pizza are the only regular food options here (check the schedule for periodic food truck visits), they are frankly all you need.

The O.G.s remember lining up outside Trillium’s original, tiny Fort Point location to fill growlers with IPAs including Mettle and Congress Street. Those beers are still being made, and served at additional Trillium locations around the area — in the Fenway, outdoors on the Greenway in the summer (where food trucks visit), and more — where visitors can sip on styles ranging from stouts to wild farmhouse ales inside a modern glass-and-steel structure. Pro tip: Split one of Trillium’s special bottles. Trillium Fenway’s outdoor patio is key, as is proximity to the culinary options of Time Out Market next door.

Things to Do

There’s so much to love at the Institute of Contemporary Art, you need a ferry to see it all. At its main building in the Seaport, stroll the mix of contemporary works and soak in the breathtaking view from its glass overlook. The ICA Watershed (open from late May through Labor Day) across the harbor in East Boston deepens the experience. Housed in a former copper pipe factory, its seasonal, large-scale exhibits are immersive and free. A water shuttle ($20 for non-member adults, ticket includes general ICA admission) operates between the two.

Cheap Eats

It’s not officially the end of winter in Boston until Sullivan’s opens on Castle Island. Enjoy a juicy burger or snappy Kayem hot dog (add chili and cheese, because why not?) while taking in the gorgeous views, all without breaking the bank. Don’t miss the hand-cut onion rings, and top off your meal with a soft-serve ice cream. The iconic food stand has been around for more than seven decades, and there’s a reason for the constant lines out the door. Find a sister location in Hanover.

Fun Things to Do with Kids

The Children’s Museum is more than a play space: It’s a three-story learning hub where fun is noble work. Explore rotating exhibits as well as permanent attractions such as the popular bubbles room, where kids can make giant soap bubbles with a variety of tools, and the towering New Balance maze. Special events featuring local experts, such as improv workshops and meet-and-greets with artists and musicians, bring the city down to earth for its youngest visitors.

Best Rooftops

Seven floors up from the mouth of Fort Point Channel, the rooftop of the Seaport’s Envoy Hotel boasts a sweeping view of Boston Harbor — from the Tea Party ships past the Custom House Tower all the way to the Tobin Bridge. Reserve a table in the casual dining section or order at the bar and find your own seating on big striped sofas under broad umbrellas. Come winter, the rooftop even has “igloo” dining.

Best Seafood

Too stylish to be called a fish shack, but with many of the seafood classics you’d find at one: Maine lobster rolls, Ipswich clams, scallops. Owner Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli opened this spacious Seaport spot in 2023 with a fish market next door and a seating area outdoors. The crisp, golden brown fish and chips is a winner.

This locally-born restaurant empire was sold by Roger Berkowitz in 2020, but his obsession with quality and consistency remains. The menu is a greatest-hits album of New England seafood – excellent clam chowder, Maine lobster, oysters, scallops, mussels, and on and on – and the experience is a crowd pleaser. The three-level Seaport restaurant is the crown jewel, with floor-to-ceiling windows on the first two levels and topped by a hopping 225-seat roof deck with sushi, cocktails, and sweeping views of the harbor.

Best Breakfast

This Boston-area institution could also fairly be called “Butter,” serving up flaky, rich breakfast pastries such as a corn chili cheddar bialy, homemade Pop Tart, or, best of all, the supremely gooey “sticky sticky” bun. With nine locations across Boston and Cambridge, it’s easy to find an excuse to try the breakfast sandwich: custardy slabs of egg piled with tomato and cheese and slathered with dijonaise — a creamy, punchy mixture of mustard and mayonnaise that founder Joanne Chang calls her “secret sauce.” With locations all across the area, there’s always one near you.

Best Bookstore

On the outside, Porter Square Books is an unremarkable storefront in a busy shopping plaza. But the inside is a true escape: a menagerie of trinkets, cards, and, of course, books. You’ll find hand-picked reads, new releases, and themed sections that rotate regularly. Many of the staff are writers themselves and give fantastic recommendations. Oh, and the store offers complimentary gift wrapping. PSB wouldn’t be complete without its coffee shop, Cafe Zing. Don’t miss the peanut butter cookies or the fresh spring rolls. They go quick. (PSB also has a second location in the Seaport.)

Best Bowling + Games

Since it opened in Southie in 2022, rookies and hardcore “picklers” alike have flocked to PKL Boston’s five climate-controlled indoor pickleball courts, which are ringed by plush seating, enlivened with a full bar and craft cocktail menu, and accented with splashy murals from Boston’s own Blind Fox. Join a league, learn the rules from staff eager to offer pointers, or simply nosh tuna wontons in between serves. Add in shuffleboard, cornhole, trivia nights, and live music on Saturdays, and your neighborhood park never looked so boring by comparison.

Come to the Seaport to find a two-floor, 26,000-square-foot pleasure dome of putting. This is Puttshack, an entertainment complex with four high-tech, 9-hole mini golf courses — one hole resembles a giant Connect 4, another an interactive trivia game — thumping music, and a party atmosphere (it turns 21-plus after 8 p.m.). The comfort food is better than it has any cause to be — think Korean barbecue, lamb skewers, empanadas, an amazing burger made with short ribs. Each golf ball is embedded with a sensor, which automatically keeps score for you on video screens. No fiddling with tiny pencils keeps your hands free for craft cocktails and selfies. Natick Mall has a Puttshack, too.

Space is at a premium in Boston, so there aren’t many apartments with enough square footage to fit a Ping-Pong table. Enter SPIN, a table tennis restaurant and bar. You can rent a table for an hour at a time with up to nine of your friends. The decor is vibrant, the chicken sandwiches are juicy, and the staff do the hard work of chasing the balls that end up on the ground.

Best Movie Theater

Boston has its own version of the cinephile-friendly chain in the Seaport, complete with a lobby teeming with archival movie ad publishing plates. (Looking at them is addictive.) Enjoy dinner — and perhaps a boozy cocktail — with your movie, right at your comfy seat and without having to sit through a hundred ads and trailers. These folks are serious about movies: Talkers and cellphone junkies get warned, then evicted. Audience engagement is welcome at movie watch parties that include themed props — on a recent schedule: Jaws, Purple Rain, The Wizard of Oz, and more — among many other creative special events.

Nightlife

Nia Grace brings Southern soul to the Seaport with her eponymous restaurant-meets-jazz-bar. Leather seats and intimate tables face the cabaret-style stage, giving patrons the opportunity to chat over signature cocktails and chargrilled oysters or just sit back and listen. Come with the family for brown butter beignets at brunch (or oxtail and grits at dinner) — or stop by later in the night to see guests transform the dining area into a dance floor, twinkling under the lights. (The venue is 21-plus after 10 p.m.)

Comedy

At 300 seats, Laugh Boston is the biggest dedicated comedy club in Boston. It books a variety of touring and local acts, mostly stand-up but also some improv and podcast tapings, and is busy all week, but especially on the weekend. You can see some top local headliners, such as Will Noonan, and bigger names from further afield, like former Saturday Night Live cast member Tim Meadows and Cash Cab host Ben Bailey. It opened in the The Westin Boston Seaport District hotel in 2013.

To see the full list of winners, visit here!

Let us know what the Globe missed in the comment section below! The neighborhood was not included in Coffee, Italian, Burgers, Ice Cream, Pizza, Breakfast, Sushi.

Image via Hook + Line on Instagram