Kenmore Square is known to most Bostonians as the place adjacent to Fenway Park and the home of the CITGO sign, that born and raised Bostonians have grown to possess a strange love for. Kenmore Square is located smack in the middle of two aspects of Boston, education and shopping. On one side is Newbury Street, Boston’s version of Los Angeles’ Robertson Boulevard; while the opposite direction leads to Boston University’s self obnoxiously stretched out campus, and even further down are the student populated neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton.
While there may not be much to do in Kenmore Square in comparison to other areas of the metro Boston district, it is still a notable section of the city for its ever popular night club and bar-hopping zone, particularly Landsdowne Street where classic clubs such as Avalon, Axis, and new Rocket Bar reside, while just around the corner are restaurants and the 70,000 square foot Jillian’s Boston. Avalon is known as not only one of Boston’s premier clubs, but also acts as a decent concert venue that has brought the likes of all kinds of music artists such as KoRn, Fergie, Rufus Wainwright, Joss Stone, Dropkick Murphy’s, T.I. and my personal favorite, Amy Winehouse, and most shows held there are sold out in mere days. Revered DJs such as DJ Tiesto host weekend parties for the masses.
To all the newbies in Beantown and for the love of one’s sanity, please watch out for days when the Red Sox are in town to play and whether you are walking, driving or taking the train, if you can, skip Kenmore Square all together. Then again, if you are new to the hub, it’s worth checking out just to see the craziness of excited fans, venders hocking T-shirts and banners on the street, the random people passing out pamphlets and any other random things you’ll probably laugh at. Kenmore Square on game day is a sight to behold as the flood of bodies looks like a stampede of rabid fans instead of bulls. Well, then again…
Along the street by Fenway Park the are several bars to choose from for adults and newly crowned twenty-one year olds alike. Further down is Blink for the emerging artist, painter and cartoonist, and then Regal Cinemas for the kids who can stay out late but can’t catch a break when trying to get into a club that happens to be a twenty-one plus night.
Back on the other side of Kenmore Square, while a relatively small area, lays a middle ground where high education and shopaholics meet. There is a big Barnes and Nobles that is well stocked with nearly everything. Bertucci’s is here, the Uno’s restaurant is placed on a rounded corner, which seems to have been there forever and the newly opened fast food joint Popeye’s (which we’ve missed since the last one I can remember was located at the Arsenal Mall in Cambridge. It closed in the mid ’90s). Convenience market Store 24 closed this past summer despite its twenty year plus run, the ever ubiquitous McDonald’s is present and another new restaurant that seems a lock to remain a mainstay for a while called Eastern Standard. Eastern Standard is packed every night with prospective dates and snazzy dressers dining inside or outside in the cool weather.
On a more alternative front, there is the used music store Nuggets that also carries a small selection of books, many mint condition vinyl records, DVDs and VHS tapes, and lots of now deemed old school goodies of music such as cassettes, jukebox, 45s, record players, and also sells past dated magazines like Spin, Q, and Rolling Stone. They carry Rolling Stone publications as far as the 70s for reasonable prices, and have lots of them from the 90s. Nuggets is a great store for young and old music lovers alike, so if you’re looking for an album, just go to the only counter in the store and ask for it. Odds are it will be yours for less than ten dollars. Along that same street as Nuggets are a few more places to eat and drink, and look out for the lit up Eiffel Tower replica statue. On the end of this street is one of few comic book stores in metro Boston, Comicopia that carries lots of comics and graphic novels to nourish of your inner geek.
In the center of Kenmore Square is a nice little park with apartments on both sides. The traffic is always nuts, but Kenmore Square can be quite lovely in its easy approach and friendly appeal. Though you may not spend your whole day here as you may be able to at other places, Kenmore Square is cool to hang around for awhile if you need something to drink, want to pick up an album you haven’t heard since fifth grade, or just to pass through as you go on with the rest of your day.
Another note: take a picture of the CITGO sign for fun. While it may seem like nothing, that sign rivals actual Massachusetts landmarks that have real meaning, but hey it’s been there for years despite the fact that there is no CITGO station to accompany it. The people even protested once to keep right there where it should be. A strange love that is weird, but true.