A few weeks ago my favorite North End boutique, Shake the Tree, sent an email about the 5th annual Buon Natale Holiday Shopping Stroll. The email mentioned that the event would offer free food and drink as well as shopping discounts at over twenty locations in the North End. Sold!
Now that I work a short, five minute walk from Hanover Street, I knew I could interest my co-workers in joining me on the stroll.
Last night, four of us headed from the office over to the North End. We walked under the beautiful, blue, holiday lights in Christopher Columbus Park to get to Commercial Street.
Since it was only 5:45pm and the stroll didn't officially begin until 7:00pm, a co-worker suggested we stop at Bottles on Commercial Street. Bottles is an independently owned liquor store that has wine tastings every Friday. Jackpot!
In the tasting we got to sample four different wines (two red, two white) and I wound up buying one of them, a bottle of Michel Gassier Cercius white wine.
I loved Bottles because in addition to being a local business that does free wine tastings, they also have cool decor in their store like this beer mobile:
After Bottles, we enjoyed our wine at our co-worker's Battery Street apartment before heading back out to shop.
The first stop on the stroll was Shake the Tree. I feel like the buyer for Shake the Tree lives inside my head and stocks the store with things that epitomize my personal style. I just adore browsing there!
In Shake the Tree we got our holiday stroll passports. If you visited every stop on the tour and turned in your card, you would be entered to win a chance to receive a gift from every single participating store! How cool is that?
Shake the Tree was offering special discounts on dresses just for the stroll.
I was obsessed with this cappuccino colored, sequin, party dress up front:
After Shake the Tree we went to another boutique, Twilight.
Twilight had so many gorgeous dresses an entire wall of jewelry!
In honor of the stroll, Twilight was serving Christmas colored cupcakes and Moscow Mule cocktails.
Next we went to the LIT Boutique. They too had an impressive wall of jewelry.
They also had a rack of fur coats:
At the back of the store they were serving peach martinis.
Up front at the counter a group of bracelets really caught my eye. I love these!
Our last stop was the Filthy Rich costume jewelery shop.
Though nothing in the store appealed to me, I loved their little themed displays, especially the ones that paid homage to Kate Middleton and Blair Waldorf!
After our boutique stops, we headed to Bacco for dinner. Bacco is my favorite North End restaurant and I never tire of eating there. Unlike every other place on Hanover Street, Bacco had no wait and we were enjoying bruschetta, arancini and risotto before we knew it.
The holiday stroll was a really fun way to end the work week. All of Hanover Street looked beautiful and I discovered a few new boutiques I'd never been to. If you missed it this year, keep your eyes peeled for the stroll announcement in 2012!
