Off the Beantown path

WORDS BY Ethan Gilsdorf

No tourist likes to fall prey to the typical traps. Yet guidebooks send out-of-towners to the same sites in droves. In the case of Boston, this means a swan boat ride in the Public Garden, a stroll through Harvard Yard and a march along the Freedom Trail while munching a Fenway frank. But plunging into lesser-known neighborhoods is a better way to get under the skin of Beantown. Discover these six unfamiliar sites for a more bona fide Boston experience—and much better eating than hot dogs, beans and chowder.

Bar hopping in Central Square

Want a change from Boston’s usual beer-and-sports nightlife? The typical set-up is half a dozen beers on tap and a flat screen gushing sports at the end of the bar. But in Cambridge, not far from been-there, done-that Harvard Square, is Central Square, one of the city’s most diverse neighborho ods for bars. Here, you’ll find a watering hole to fit almost any taste, age group or mood, all within walking distance. So leave your car behind and take the Red Line to Central Square.

Early evening, it’s still quiet at The Enormous Room (567 Massachusetts Ave), where loungers might score a seat on the raised platform, sprawl on pillows, munch on chicken skewers and sip a cocktail called a Bad Babysitter. By midnight, the place is crawling with twenty-somethings swaying to house music and video projections. Mid dlesex (315 Massachusetts Ave), by contrast, has a post-industrial sleek look, and the beautiful crowd is older and better dressed. A more traditional Irish pub atmosphere can be had at The Phoenix Landing (512 Massachusetts Ave), but even here DJs spin discs along day-of-the-week themes. Lovers of live music should head to The Middle East/ZuZu complex (472-480 Massachusetts Ave) where there are f our stages covering a range of genres: soul, Latin, alt-country, punk, belly dancing or speed metal.

Brainwave!

Everyone knows the Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art and Harvar d’s art collections. But if you’re looking for a museum with more surprising exhibits than Monet’s “Haystacks,” a more interactive option is waiting for you over at the MIT Museum.

The MIT Museum, on the edge of the university’s Cambridge campus, offers an experience closer to a playground than a portrait gallery. The exhibits are modest, but they do give intriguing glimpses of important adv ances—mainly, 150 years of exploration in science, engineerin g and technology, largely connected to work by MIT researchers.

The first few rooms are dedica ted to robotics and AI(artificial intelligence), such as early mecha nical arms and android-like robots. A hologram exhibit and “Gestural Engineering”—a collection of kineti c sculptures—bridge the science-art divide. In a tribute to Harold Edgert on’s groundbreaking stroboscopic photos (his bullet through an apple shot is his most famous), visitors can make their own frozen shadow po rtraits. Body movements direct a ball through the Metafield Maze, a giant and highly addictive video game. By the time you leave, any back pain from a previous museum shuffl e should be cured. While y ou’re in the area, it’s also worth wandering around MIT’s collection of modern architecture. Begin at the s tunning Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center and pick up a map for a self-guided campus walking tour.

A moving memorial

It’s a stop on the Freedom Trail most tourists don’t expect. Even the location, adjacent to some of Faneuil Hall’ s most notorious bars, seems jarring. But there is no denying the power of The New England Holocaust Memorial, designed by architect Stanley Saitowitz at the request of Bost on-area survivors of Nazi concentration camps.

Outside, a black granite walkway connects six glass towers, each 54 feet tall and etched with six million numbers—one for every victim. A pit rests beneath each tower, named for a death camp. Carved into the rock are poign ant quotes from Holocaust survivors and heroes.

By day it’s haunting enough. Visit on a cold night and the towers gleam, eerie steam rises from the gra tes, and below, in the chambers, crystals glimmer and flicker.

Foodie heaven

You’re an epicurean in need of a fine food fix. Perhaps you can’t live without a pinch of smoked Viking salt ($12) or a vial of 40-year-old balsamic vinegar ($89). Whatever your gastronomic tendencies, try South End Formaggio, one of the city’s best-stocked specialty food shops and delis.

Fortunately, plenty of prices ar e down to earth at this heavenly store. Many local residents frequent the sh op, which is bursting with gourmet goodies.

“This is the only food store where everyone is knowledgeable,” says Lucie Beauchemin, 42. Their expertise is such that top restaurants turn to Formaggio to assemble cheese plates from some 150 varieties. Cheeses are produced by both local and Eur opean artisans, and new ones are sourced by manager Ar cher des Cognets on his annual pilgrimages to the continent.

South End Formaggio gives you an excellent excuse to wander the brick lanes of this upstart neighborhood. Work up an appetite and swing by for a grilled panini or order a dinner to go, such as roasted haddock with salsa verde.

Back in the store, little tags and photos of the producers — a wine vintner from the Rhone, a butcher fr om Florence—give you the story behind the food. This personal touch is what Formaggio is all about.

Artistic spirits

Sculpture walks, poetry readings and outdoor concerts are second nature in city parks. But in a cemetery? Once visitors enter Forest Hills’ neo-gothic gateway, they may easily forget that this is, first and foremost, the final resting place for Boston’s most celebrated citizens—not an open-air m useum or 250-acre arts park.

Forest Hills deserves the title Most Cutting-Edge C emetery in America. Scattered among its meandering paths and majestic trees are works by Victorian sculptors such as Daniel Chester French (who designed the massive statue of Abr aham Lincoln that sits in the Lincoln Memorial) and by contemporary artists like Leslie Wilcox (whose poignant mesh “Nightshirts” hang from trees above gravesites).

“This place is just amazing in the way it lets life ent er these gates,” says Mary Graham, 57, a Jamaica Plain artist who recently exhibited in the cemetery’s Forsyth Chapel.

Dogs, bicycles and picnics are welcome, yet the grounds are far quieter than the nearby Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park. Spirits of local poets ee cummings and Anne Sexton, and the playwright Eugene O’Neill, all bur ied here, would no doubt approve of what’s going on.

Taste of Chinatown

The carts keep circling, the servers k eep dishing out the dumplings. Working on the assumption that you have a basic knowledge of Chinese, they off er yet another basket of steamed… something. The best strategy is to smile, and nod, and not look alarmed when, momen ts later, the table is covered with a dozen little baskets, the c ontents of which are a complete surprise.

Welcome to dim sum (in Chinese it means “touch your heart”) at Hei La Moon, a Chinatown institution. The buzzing dining room is huge and packed with local Chin ese patrons.
Like an Asian version of tapas, the dishes are tin
y. So no worries: even if you can’t recognize the dumpling or finish everything you order, you’re never spending too much money on one dish. Besides, it’s fun guessing which migh t be the fried taro cake, steamed chicken feet, or soybean jello.

Once you’ve eaten your fill, enjoy exploring this compact, downtown district’s groceries, bakeries and trin ket shops.