The Sunday Globe paid homage to a changing Mission Hill, crafting a tale of real estate redemption around gregarious City Councilor Mike Ross. Ross split Beacon Hill for the neighborhood, buying "a modest townhouse" (an apt adjective, given Mission Hill's median sales price of $328,000, much lower than much of the city's) and now reps it on the council.
The Globe's Kathleen Pierce writes of "a gastronomic tour" that cleverly weaves in Ross' optimism (which we read as a newcomer's appreciation for a tidily progressing gentrification):
Walking down Tremont Street toward the Longwood Medical Area, Ross points out signs that the so-called "wrong side of Huntington Ave." is back.The Mission Bar and Grill, jutting into Brigham Circle, is the first.
The second is Penguin Pizza, right across Huntington:
There are a dozen pie slingers in this pocket of the city, but none like Penguin. If it were in Boston proper, you would be hard-pressed to find a seat. But because this welcoming tavern with yellow and blue walls sits on a jangle of train tracks at a busy intersection, you can sneak in at midday, blend in with Northeastern students, and enjoy the best pizza this side of New Haven."I'd put it up there with Regina Pizzeria," says Ross, knowing that in Boston city politics those are fighting words.
Hoh boy. Presumably stuffed, Ross and Pierce walk, then drive, the streets of Mission Hill: "[W]e are back in his Volvo cruising down Terrace Street, where this neighborhood-in-transition comes into view. Vacant lots, some weed-choked, give way to landmarks of renewal such as the Diablo Glass School. Inside the low-slung building with a corrugated steel and orange facade, owner Sean Clarke pulls out molten glass from a furnace, blows into a metal rod, and demonstrates the alchemy of the craft. Students make wine glasses, stained glass, and learn how to cut, fuse, and blow glass into artistic keepsakes in a weekend. Monthly wine and cheese tastings are among the most eclectic in the city."
Wine and cheese. In Mission Hill. See what we mean?
· High Hopes Bloom on Mission Hill [Globe]