As a tour guide, I get this question quite a bit “So what do you do for fun outside of Wellesley” for which I reply: I study in various coffee shops/ libraries. I am currently curating a list of the best ones when it comes to hitting the big three (drinks, food, ambiance). I hope you are excited to learn about my favorite study spots in Boston!
My last blog post was very serious, but rest assured this blog post will be more lighthearted and fun. Coming from high school, I never did much studying in coffee shops or libraries because I had such limited time to do my school work being a student athlete. But since coming to college, the doors of cafes and libraries on weekends have been opened to me. I have been to SO many cafes in the Boston area ranging from Weston to Back Bay and everything in between. I have explored these coffee shops in Boston when I had free time during the week or weekends. I would invite a friend or two to join me and try different places out. I have kept a running list of every coffee shop I have tried since coming to college. One of them is even in Rhode Island, and yes we did drive all the way there for one coffee shop. Do any of you readers know which one I am referring to? (photographed below)
During my first year, I mainly stuck to Newbury street and the surrounding area because this was the place that I knew the best and felt most comfortable navigating. I was not very familiar with the trains and the different lines. I felt a bit intimidated and scared to explore these places without someone who was more familiar. Little First-Year Chelsea still had fun though. Below are a list of First-Year Chelsea’s favorites:
- Central Perk on Newbury Street which is a Friends (the show) inspired cafe. It had plentiful seating areas from couches and benches to table top areas, alongside relatively inexpensive coffee, sandwiches, and pastries.
- Capital One Cafe on Boylston Street. This space is beautiful with wooden sleek architecture and so many places to sit. College students will flock here as it is very central to the other parts of Newbury street, and people who use Capital One also get discounts on the coffee, pastries, and food items.
- Trident Booksellers & Cafe on Newbury Street. This is a very cozy place to get a good sandwich/meal and to get some work done. Although this is not your typical cafe, it has a wonderful atmosphere with large window areas that let in such wonderful natural light. My favorite memory was going to Trident with my good friend Chloe, and we both ordered a sandwich and sat by the window while it was pouring rain outside. We were able to hear the rainfall while doing our homework.
For all of these locations, my friends and I would go early in the morning and take the 9 AM locomotion bus, which goes from Wellesley’s campus to the city, out of Wellesley to get to Boston by 10AM. We would be at the cafe all day and then take the 4 PM bus back to Wellesley. The locomotion made traveling to these different coffee shops so easy and convenient.
During my sophomore year I began to expand my horizons to cafes in the greater Boston area. I became more comfortable being alone and using various public transportation. I have a more extensive list and a wider range of coffee shops around the greater Boston area. They are listed down below:
1. Boston Public Library Green Room (BPL) + a Blank Street Matcha. The matcha on the left is a banana bread matcha (my personal favorite) and to the right is a daydream matcha which is lavender and vanilla matcha. To note, both the BPL and Blank Street are on Boylston Street. Blank Street if you are coming from the Marlborough Market stop (where the locomotion drops students off) or you are coming from the commuter rail side (Back Bay stop) they are both very close to both stops. Blank Street and the BPL are right across the street from one another, which makes avoiding Blank Street impossible. Especially when I tell myself I am not going to get a matcha, I always end up getting one because it is “right there.” The green room is filled with students from other Boston universities. I occasionally see my classmates and friends there, which is quite funny.
2. Maruchi Select in Brookline. THE BEST MATCHA IN BOSTON. Unarguably the darkest and the greenest matcha ever. If you are a matcha hater, do not come here because it has a very deep matcha flavor which to many tastes like “grass”. It is so strong to the point where I cannot drink the matcha past 2 PM or else I will be up until 2 AM unable to sleep (totally not speaking from experience). They also sell onigiri with various fillings that are really delicious. The seating is difficult to get at times. If you go during peak hour, you are never going to get a seat. I have always gotten lucky because I walk in when someone is leaving. I would take the commuter rail, get off at South Station (last commuter rail stop), then I would board the green line at Kenmore and get off at Coolidge Corner. All together roughly an hour commute.
3. Phinista Cafe. I visited this coffee shop while walking around Porter Square. I was with a friend of mine (Julia), and we decided to stop in Phinista for a quick strawberry matcha to pick me up. This establishment, although a bit small, had a plethora of seating options. The matcha was delicious, it wasn’t too sweet but not too bitter either. The strawberry syrup was also made of real strawberries. We knew this because there were real strawberry chunks in the drink. Phinista is located on Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge. And if you are hungry…there is one of my favorite Thai restaurants a bit further down the street called Sugar and Spice. I would take the Wellesley locomotion bus and get off at the Kendall Square T stop and board the red line and get off at the Porter stop.
I do have two honorable mentions. Both of these places are closer to Wellesley, but Wellesley students cannot access these places easily with the commuter rail or the Loco motion. These places are listed below:
1. Charles River Coffee House. This coffee shop is located in Natick, a quick 10 minute drive from Wellesley. They have such unique drinks. My favorite is a seasonal one but it is the peppermint stick iced coffee. It is sold only during late November through late January. They also have an iced hazelnut coffee that is delicious. It is a small shop but there are a good amount of places where people can sit and study. It is relatively quiet too. In this picture, Cecilia got the Peppermint stick iced coffee, and I got the gingerbread iced latte.
2. The Half Cookie. This coffee shop is located in Chestnut Hill. This is a woman owned business, so my friends and I like to go and support them (by buying their cookies). They have such unique cookie combinations for flavors. It is similar in size to a Levain cookie if you have eaten one before (large and a cookie mound). Their coffee flavors are also unique. Pictured above, I was drinking the cookie butter iced latte, and Julia has the s’mores iced latte.
Those are all of my recommendations, thanks for reading! I hope that you try some of these shops if you are in the Boston area! Brewing up the next post—don’t miss it!
Warmest wishes,
Chelsea