Category: Eats

A few thoughts for the week to make you hungry. It’s a great week (if you are in the snowblower business)

• Poetry In Unlikely Places – Via Wicked Local Beverly -Poetry readings in the shallow end of the Cabot St. YMCA Pool? I find this very cool and I am sure something has already been done or will be done in Gtown.
• Unique Deals Are Everywhere! Restaurants are really pulling out all the stops during this stormy season to get you in the door. Many are offering deals via social media good for that day. Minglewood  Tavern is blazing the trail by tweeting free pizza for first person in the door deals! Want to get quickfire deals?- you have to follow North Shore Dish on Twitter or Facebook. If you are a restaurant reading this and don’t know what I am talking about, I suggest reading this blog now.
• Groupon and others hit the North Shore! Joey C has been posting these deals from Groupon, where you pay $25 dollars for $50 worth of goods. Lattitude 43 did a Groupon that sold an astonishing 1721 deals! The way they work is that Groupon takes ~50% of the value paid. So a small business is selling $50 dollar worth of goods for ~$12.50. This is really paying to get people in the door, hoping for repeat customers, banking that they drink a lot and hedging a few bets that these will expire. This is an amazing business model for Groupon and can be a great boost in your business. With purchasing these just be sure you are going to use them. LocalGinger (now Where) is a Groupon clone where you can get some deals on the North Shore as well.
• Check out Ceia Kitchen in Newburyport – Every once in a while the wife and I love to get out and have a true dining experience. One where we aren’t cutting pizza into 1/20’s or cleaning rice and beans out of my 2 year old’s ears. Last Friday, we hit Ceia Kitchen in Newburyport. From start to finish it was one of my top dining experiences here since I moved from NYC.  The decor, the service, the wine, the menu, the food, and presentation are top notch. What I loved the most was the owner stopping over and spending time to listen and engage with us. She is committed to using social media (CeiaKitchenBar on twitter) and really doing a great job with it. They already have a new menu and I am hearing great things from many sources about the young chef. I can’t wait to go back to Ceia again soon! Here are some pics:

Finally – Can we stop using 2 overused terms in 2011 – Foodie and Craft Beer?

Thanks – Patrick!