The barman at Trillium Brewing widens his eyes and puffs out his cheeks. If a look could answer the question of how dramatic the changes have been in Boston’s Fort Point district, then this is it. It’s an expression replicated by staff in the now-numerous coffee shops, restaurants, galleries, bars and venues in an area gaining a reputation as the new entertainment hub of one of America’s oldest cities.
Fort Point’s rise has come amid eight years of a skyline of cranes, new office blocks and warehouse conversions. There is consensus on the reasons behind the boom – accessibility, investment and a food scene driven by chefs and restaurateurs such as South-Boston local Barbara Lynch (Menton, Drink, and Sportello), Ming Tsai (Blue Dragon) and Jeremy Sewall (at ultra-hip oyster house, Row 34). Where you won’t find accord is over what the area is called: some say Fort Point, others, Seaport. There are those who want to call it the Innovation District because of its draw for creatives – centred around the civic space of District Hall. Just don’t call it The Waterfront; Boston had one of those before this zip got hip.
The district’s emergence is linked to the city’s much-delayed Big Dig public works project, which put a stretch of highway I-93 underground. This generated the urban parks of Rose Kennedy Greenway and made it easier for Bostonians to reach, and enjoy, this part of their city. According to a waiter on the restaurant-laden Congress Street: “This used to be where people parked their cars before they walked across the bridges to work.”
The 2006 opening of the Institute of Contemporary Art was an invitation to other organisations and a nod to the district’s creative heritage. On Summer Street, a sign reads “Welcome to Fort Point: New England’s largest and oldest artistic community”. And, although the new offices sound their own warning for that lower-rent spirit of creativity, galleries remain in the wharf buildings of A street and at Channel Center, among them the Made in Fort Point store.
In and around Summer and Congress streets are newer coffee shops, such as Barrington Coffee and Flour Bakery, along with the Yadda Yadda Bakery and seafood shack The Barking Crab that were here well before the recent rise. Seaport Boulevard and Northern Avenue nod to the future with harbourside restaurants, walkways and green spaces close to construction sites.
Hubway, the city’s bike-sharing scheme, has Fort Point stations but exploring on foot is easy. A stroll from the beer-hall trappings of Harpoon Brewery to the Boston’s Children’s Museum at Fort Point Channel takes less than 30 minutes. Grab a bench outside the museum and it’s possible to catch a snapshot of Fort Point from across the water where the gleaming, sail-inspired windows of the InterContinental Boston hotel reflect the boats moored alongside the Boston Tea Party museum. Not revolutionary, perhaps, but a perfect blend of old and new.
• For more information on holidays in the USA, visit BostonUSA.com and DiscoverAmerica.com
