North End News Found Elsewhere: Ward 8, Quattro Pizza and Businesses Prepare for the Holiday Rush

Thanksgiving was a week ago and less than three weeks until Christmas puts this Holiday season at a dead sprint. If you’re done digesting last weeks dinner, take a look at the review about Quattro on Hanover Street. If you haven’t heard about the newly opened Ward 8, take a look at some of their recipes and also see how North End businesses are preparing for the holiday shoppers. Rest assured, you aren’t the only one having trouble with taxes – if you’re having that much trouble, the weekend is just about here, celebrate the 80th anniversary of the ending of prohibition at the Corner Cafe!

North End Businesses Prep For Busy Holiday Season

North End business owners are scrambling to get ready as the weather cools down and the holiday season approaches. Read about how Kerri Cassidy, the owner of the local fish market Mercato del Mare, said the weeks leading up to Christmas are the busiest time for her. Customers seeking to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Italian-American “Feast of the Seven Fishes” tradition come in frequently, she said. During this meal families enjoy seven different kinds of seafood, which is representative of the seven days Roman-Catholics believe it took God to create the Earth. Read more at Boston.com

Dish of the Week: Fig, Arugula & Goat Cheese Pizza from Quattro

Check out this review raving about Quattro, the newly established North End restaurant on the corner of Hanover and Parmenter Street. The review not only talks about the great food, but also the friendly staff and warm atmosphere: After almost a week of nonstop turkey and Thanksgiving leftovers, chances are you need a slight break from comfort food. I, for one, had my fill of delicious Turkey Day fare, stuffing my face with mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and way too many buttered veggies. Sigh. But now that the day of eating and feasting has ended, it’s time to resort back to what we know best: Pizza. See more of this Dish of the Week at BostInno

Make Ward 8’s Squash Bisque

Don’t miss the recipes from the new Ward 8 Restaurant & Bar which opened on Monday, bringing a much-needed change of pace to the North End/Boston Garden-area dining scenes. Cocktail-concept eateries have flourished elsewhere in Boston: great cocktails, high-end beers, fine wines paired with gastro-pub fare amid a retro vibe. Not so much here. Ward 8 is named for an old voting district that inspired a signature Boston cocktail (whiskey, citrus and grenadine), closely associated with the former Locke-Ober. And, yes, the Ward 8 is on bar manager Mike Wyatt’s menu. Chef Kenny Schweizer joins Ward 8 from Bristol Lounge. Try his pan-seared cod bouillabaisse with fried oyster, braised short ribs with fried leeks or bacon-cashew caramel corn, a savory-sweet bar snack. Read more at The Boston Herald 

Happy 80th Anniversary, End of Prohibition: Celebrate by Drinking a lot For a Little 

The North End’s Corner Cafe was featured as one of the bars to drink a lot for a little.  Thursday December 5th marks the Eightieth anniversary of the United States federal government second-guessed itself on one of the loftiest pieces of legislation it has ever passed. And thank goodness. On December 5, 1933 the 21st Amendment was ratified, repealing the prohibition of alcohol which remained commonplace since 1920. Imagine 13 years without drinking? Woof. So to help you ring in the 80th consecutive year of drinkability and assuming the innards of your wallet are just as pathetic as mine, here are a few of the BostInno crew’s favorite watering holes where you can drink a lot for just a little. Drink up, or continue reading at BostInno

Holiday sales heat up

You gotta be a part of the North End’s annual Buon Natale Holiday Shopping Stroll happens Friday from 6 to 11 p.m. Nineteen neighborhood businesses will stay open late, many offering discounts and treats. Pick up a “passport” at any of the participating shops, get it punched at all of them, and be entered to win a gift basket with goodies from the shops. (They include A Matter of Face, Acquire, Cocoanuts, Ensemble, Exhale Spa, Fairmont Battery Wharf, Heart & Sole, Injeanius, LIT Boutique, Luke Aaron, Lulu’s Sweet Shoppe, North Bennet Street School, Officina 189, Savas Studios, Sedurre, Shake the Tree, Sol Optics Boston, Twilight, and The Wine Bottega.) The shops are on or near Hanover, Salem, and North streets and Battery Wharf. Read more at The Boston Globe 

Boston tax preparer pleads guilty to fraud, obstruction in tax return case

Don’t miss how a tax preparer from Boston’s North End has pleaded guilty to obstruction and mail fraud in connection with the misappropriation of nearly $800,000 in client income tax refunds.  Michael Edwards of Boston Financial Associates admitted Tuesday that he falsified income tax returns of two clients in 2009 and misled IRS auditors by giving them false documentation used to support the false entries on those returns and the large refunds he took. The U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS claimed Edwards misappropriated $573,518 from one client and $202,143 from another. Read more at the Boston Business Journal