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This modest boutique hotel is in an old (1858) spice warehouse. Guest rooms have wood floors, exposed brick walls, oriental rugs, and traditional furnishings.

Boston’s outpost of the hegemonic rock ’n’ roll café has all the memorabilia you would expect, along with a hopping after-work bar scene. Thursdays bring local rock bands.

Ranked among the top domestic and imported India pale ales by Beer Connoisseur Magazine .

Unfiltered, Belgian-style brew, with fruity undertones.

In the 1790s, Harrison Gray Otis and James Mason transformed Beacon Hill from a hilly pasture into a chic neighborhood that embodies the Federal building style. Otis championed the architecture of Charles Bulfinch, and three of his Bulfinch-designed houses still grace Beacon Hill, including the one now known as Harrison Gray Otis House (see Harrison Gray Otis House).

One of the principal developers of Beacon Hill, Harrison Gray Otis (see Harrison Gray Otis (1765–1848))served in the Massachusetts legislature and gained a reputation for living la dolce vita in this 1796 Bulfinch-designed manse. Like a post-Revolutionary Gatsby, Otis ensured his parties were the social events of the year. After falling into disrepair, the property was acquired in 1916 by the historical preservation society and meticulously restored to its original grandeur.

Harvard’s three art museums, the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Sackler, may be radically different but they share the privilege of exhibiting one of the world’s finest collegiate art collections. While the Fogg boasts the city’s most extensive Picasso collection, the Busch-Reisinger leans toward the Bauhaus and German expressionist movements. And just down the block, the Sackler frequently rotates its impressive holdings of Egyptian and later Indian art (see Harvard University).

Next to a Red Sox baseball cap, no other clothing item is as fundamentally Bostonian as a Harvard sweatshirt. The Coop, in Harvard Square, is your one-stop shop for Harvard-related merchandise with a dizzying array of clothing, books, posters, prints, and even specially engraved Tiffany silver jewelry.

This nicely renovated former motor inn is, indeed, right on Harvard Square. The rooms are tastefully decorated and the tiny lobby has one computer for those who need Internet access.

Harvard Square’s bookstores are some of the most distinguished in the country. The intimate Globe Corner Bookstore (28 Church St) boasts a mind-boggling inventory of travel books and maps. The c.1932 Harvard Book Store (1256 Massachusetts Ave) stocks countless new and used titles. And the irrepressible Revolution Books (see Revolution Books) keeps the red flag waving with socialist and communist literature.