The Hi-Rise Bread Company

The Middle East Club, Cambridge

If you happen to find yourself in the trendy Harvard Square area in Cambridge with a hot date and nowhere to go, then you should head down to The Middle East Club. Not only does it own the restaurant ZuZu next door, but head past the perfect mural on the wall and downstairs or upstairs, and you’ll witness great live performances from indie bands, jazz bands, electro bands, you name it, all filled with college aged peeps to cool and wise thirty-somethings.

Hoopla sell recycled goodies

There’s some fun, environmentally friendly toys and cards on the Hoopla website, a new gift company based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. They get most of their goodies produced in New England and always use recycled and reusable materials. We asked co-founder Hannah Lavon to tell us about the philosophy behind the business: ‘Our mission is simply to enjoy the fun-ner things in life. We make products that you just can’t help but laugh at — and with. We strive to make even the grumpiest old grump show us those teeth. Or at least those gums. Or dentures. Dentures are definitely funner. Lots of fizzing water glasses and they double as castanets. Light bulb! We feel a new product line coming on …’

Alan Warburton’s food and politics series

Cambridge artist Alan Warburton collaborated with a non-art audience to produce this series of work in which he asked volunteers to use fruit to explain politics: ‘In Caracas, Venezuela, volunteers explained the complex and lively political scene using melons, and in Cambridge, diverse residents used locally picked apples to explain the issues that affect the city’, he says of how the series unfolded. Read more

One Ring Zero’s Recipe Project

What happens when you put your favorite recipe to song? Well, Brooklyn-based band One Ring Zero set on a mission to find out. The result? One Ring Zero’s Recipe Project: a compilation of recipes by the band’s favorite chefs sung out verbatim and set to the chef’s musical styling of choice. Read more

A dash of style with Adler salt & pepper shakers

Inspired by the already fabulous Jonathan Adler designs, these irresistible salt and pepper shakers add the perfect dash of style to any kitchen. The recently released chic shakers come in well-executed, creative shapes like whales, penguins, and Adler’s iconic fish. All are lovingly packaged in bright, inspired boxes, making them an overall sophisticated yet playful addition to your table.

Drip Maple Syrup

Throw out that notion of kitschy maple syrup bottles shaped as log cabins. Canadians now have Drip: a fresh, simple design that was handled with purity and thought, reflecting the product within. These luxury-inspired bottles, reminiscent of old school medicine jars, boast copy that echoes Drip’s concept — delicate, straightforward, delicious syrup. The bottles and its sweet contents are both worth heading north for, so bring on the pancakes.