Artist Spotlight

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the best bartender in Worcester

Absinthe on the Rocks at Nick’s Bar and Restaurant

I thought it would be green and make me wax poetically like Lord Byron. Instead, it was milky white and gave me cramps. Bartender Sean Courtney warned me to stick with Tanqueray &Tonic! (JFJ)

Most regrettable restroom

Nick’s Bar and Restaurant

There’s a lot of Nick’s nostalgia floating around these days, but if I’m being honest, their restrooms never impressed me. Every time I tried to use them, Sean Courtney, the bartender, insisted on waking me up. It’s called a “rest” room for a reason, Sean. (SCS)

Best pothole in the Ralph’s Rock Diner parking lot

The Big One By The Train Tracks

There are two kinds of people who park at Ralph’s Rock Diner: People who hate their car’s suspension, and cowards. Low riders have been known to order a taxi just to get to the front door. The Railer is a special beast because it is located at an unavoidable pinch-point between that haunted carpet factory and a lifted truck from Lickspittle, Pennsylvania. It’s lined with rocks that must dent one thousand rims in order to escape Samsara. It can’t be driven around, it must be charged at from the front like some kind of weird sexual bullfighting metaphor I’ll think of later. (MS)

Best local beer for drinking in your basement

Double Down Brewing Co’s ‘Sugar Plum’ Sour

Allow me to sing for you the praises of the sensually complex sour beer, like really good fruit juice that’s been locked up in the Château d’If for a decade. Sour beers are incredibly mouth-loud and deliciously fruity, just like yours truly. There’s one brew which towers over the opposition, in the field of “consumed in secret, while hiding from one’s family,” and that’s Double Down Brewing Co’s “Sugar Plum” Sour. Ideal for sipping while cramped behind a water heater, or discreetly poured into a Big Gulp during a videocall that should have been an email. (MS)

Liquor store with the best music

WoMag columnist Sarah Connell Sanders and her bearded husband, Jake, at

Armsby Abbey. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

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Webster Square Liquor Store

Let me tell you about Webster Square Liquor Store: Every square inch of this place is covered in quality product. Do you need $2 tallboys? Booze jellies? Pocket bongs? Sex powders? They’ve got that, and their music? Incredible. Do I know anything specific about the music, like which country it’s even from? No, I could have asked the employees, but I tried not to be weird about it so hard that I got sweaty and frightening to behold. Webster Square Liquor Store, know that I pine in secret for your funky playlists. (MS)

Best street to admire the nip bottles in the gutter

Millbury Street

If you keep your eyes down while walking this historic boulevard, you will be treated by a glittering display of art and desire. It glitters in the sun. You will see a variety of nip bottles on the ground, gathering together to tell an exciting tale of abandon and despair. The amazing thing about it is that this art installation is always growing. There are many volunteers contributing to the piece by downing and dropping a new bottle on the concrete canvas. Another brushstroke of genius. Be careful where you step.

Art is everywhere. (DM)

Best hook up joint

Worcester Police Department

With eight different college and universities in the area, along with the general rejuvenation the city, it’s no wonder this is a place where singles come to meet and find love for at least one night. Worcester has the best pick-up joint, but it’s only good if you like it rough. It’s a place where everyone gets in but not everyone gets out and handcuffs are involved, so it’s not for them faint at heart. (SJ)

Nostalgia

Best place to sing ‘No Diggity’ and cry over your wasted youth

Skylite Roller Skating Rink

Another gloomy, gray day? That’s the perfect time to get all dressed up and head to the most nostalgic spot in Worcester … if you happened to have come of age anytime between 1981 and the 2010s, and could get a ride. Celebrate the funeral of your youth while

Malt Schlitzman “being a werewolf” in the woods at Hadwen Arboretum. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

humming “No Diggity.” Gaze wistfully at the brightly painted husk that once was Skylite Roller Skating Rink. You can almost hear her ghostly siren call, “Pizza slices! Skate at your own risk! You have to wear socks with those rental skates!” This is definitely 2022’s “Best Place to Have One Tear Roll Down Your Face While Dressed Wildly Inappropriately for This Time of Day,” you weirdo. (NL)

The best mural that is no longer present advertising a business that is also no longer around

Heidi’s Hippie Hideaway

For years, while driving on 290, I would see the quaintly illustrated mural for Heidi’s and be filled with joy and hope. The idea that Worcester had such an Eden was groovy. Every time I saw the mural I was enticed with the thought of pulling off the highway and checking it out. What kind of bar or coffee shop would be so perfectly named? In fact, the store was a thrift shop and it’s been out of business for many years. Now, the mural is also absent and our chance to make Worcester a hippie paradise is fading like so much sandblasted paint. (DM)

Best place in Worcester to buy your back-to-school clothes that no longer exists

Maurice the Pants Man

“Come on down!” If you were a teenager in the ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s and heard that invitation on the radio, you did just that. You came on down, maybe with your mother as your chauffeur (and in charge of your finances) and bought some genuine Levi’s dungarees at Maurice the Pants Man at Millbury and Lamartine streets. In its heyday, Maurice the Pants Man was a goldmine of durable, five-pocket, denim jeans with copper rivets and a small red tag on its back pocket. The store was founded in 1923 by Maurice J. Ravelson, and his son, Arnold H. Ravelson, took over the family business at the age of 22 after his father was injured in a serious car accident. The store went from being a simple Army and Navy supply store to becoming a legendary, one-stop location for brand-name casual wear and jeans at off prices. With the help of their catchy radio spots, Levi’s became all the rage for Worcester’s middle-class suburbia. Mothers were more than happy to cough up the dough at Maurice’s for a genuine pair of Levi’s. (CSS)

Most missed service for cancer patients

Hope Lodge, 7 Oak Street

First opened in 1985, Hope Lodge provided free housing to cancer patients and caretakers from across the globe. In addition to free lodging, the program included daily transportation for guests to and from multiple local hospitals. A home away from home for thousands of people facing the medical challenge of their lives, the Lodge was a beacon of hope for more than 30 years before it was closed at the end of 2016. No joke here. It’s just really missed. (DMcG)

Best bar playlist

The Dive Bar

It is and always will be Ricky Nelson’s from the Dive (RIP). A great mix of nostalgia, genres and moods. It wasn’t just the bar, it was that playlist, too. (SC)

Getting Out and About

Most obscure repurposed factory

North Works You want to live in a former envelope

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factory? Loom factory? Shoe factory? A recycled wool factory? You’ve come to the right city. Worcester is filled with repurposed manufacturing buildings. I especially can’t get over the barbed wire factory. Seriously, I tried. It was painful. (SCS)

Best vacant parking lots to visit that used to be the home of beautiful Catholic churches

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church

Worcester is the demolished church capitol of New England. Where else can you point to a pile of rubble and say to your child, “I married your mother there.” Symbolism notwithstanding, it can be a little unnerving, to say the least. Then again, we live in a city with no churches on Church Street. We used to have a church standing on Church Street, the majestic Notre Dame des Canadiens, which stood for 150 years before being shuttered. In fact, two beautiful churches have been demolished in recent years, three, if you count Sir Morgan’s Cove. But spirituality is something you find from within. You don’t need a church, a cathedral, a monastery, a temple or an All-You-Can-Eat Steamers night at Funky Murphys to feel a oneness with God. That’s why whenever I have a spiritual crisis and need to talk to the Almighty above, I pull my car over at the vacant lot on Mulberry Street and spill my guts. (CSS)

Best park for being a werewolf in

Hadwen Arboretum

This spot has everything. Plenty of suburban houses nearby, so lots of freeroaming cats to prey on. Good moon visibility from the attached baseball field, also ideal for Important Pack Meetings. It’s also attached to a nearby lake via a whole other park, meaning you can cool off with a refreshing swim after concluding your Werewolf Business. The attached hilltop hospital is also perfect for sinister medical experiments, so if you wanted to be a werewolf with a laser eye, you need to hoof it to Hadwen. (MS)

Best view from a cemetery you have no family buried in

Woodlawn, Clinton

Walking through cemeteries can be a somber experience, but here it doesn’t always have to be. Once you get over the fact that you have to pass by hundreds of dead people, there is a great piece of lovely eye candy: At the top of the hill, toward the very back, the trees open up and give way to a sprawling view of my hometown, where we are still very proud of having the most bars per square mile. We don’t, but it’s pretty damn close. I think. It really might never have been. Bars aside, Clinton is home, and this point really shows off its charm. (LR)

Most unique trash at a playground

Castle Park

Castle Park far and away has the most unique non-playground items at it. I have found a yellow paint can, numerous car batteries, two guitar stands and just a bicycle frame, no wheels. I truly don’t believe any of these things are left there because people think it is a dump. I believe in my heart of hearts, they were all just having a whole lot of fun on top of that hill in Main South. (SC)

Best sledding

Belmont Street

Belmont Street coming from Shrewsbury into Lincoln Square: During a snow flurry, just put your car in neutral and let it fly, baby. DPW won’t be there till morning. (SC)

Best athletic event

Softball on Mountain Street

Comedian Shaun Connolly is looking for “unique trash” at Castle Park. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

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Do yourself a favor and go watch softball being played over on Mountain Street near the corner of Great Brook Valley and Lincoln Street. There’s always grilling, always great music, and these softball players hit bombs. Best part is, it is free! Nice try WooSox. (SC)

Insurance companies’ favorite rotary in the city

The Kelley Square Peanut

Whether it be the seven double lanes in or out, or the mere risk of a scooter barreling through, not adhering to any of the driving rules, insurance companies love this rotary, one fender-bender at a time. I wonder if some of the scooter riders have even ridden in a car before, but one thing is for certain: They don’t have insurance and are best avoided at all costs. Although no longer the top crash site in the state, we still reign at No. 8, and I do believe with the rejuvenation of the area and the pandemic winding down, we will reclaim our No. 1 spot. (SJ)

Best walkable street

Richardson Terrace

It’s actually only walkable. It’s adorable and it’s short. You can make your way to Duffy Field afterward and go play catch or read in the sun. It is Richardson Terrace. It’s only a sidewalk, it isn’t wide enough to even push a wagon. And it is an official street! You can figure out exactly where it is on your own. (SC)

Best place to park downtown

Pearl Street Parking Garage

It’s only a dollar and a short walk to the Hanover Theatre. (SJ)

Best place to park near the New Polar Park

???

There isn’t. Take an Uber. (SJ)

Best free parking

???

You think I would tell you this? Absolutely not. Get over yourself. (SC)

Locals

Best reason to consider moving from your current apartment

The Neighbors

Having a beer with an off-duty police officer, I mentioned my address. The offduty police officer became animated and said, “Oh, I know that building. That’s right next to that place where we busted those guys who were setting up a

Humorist Joe Fusco Jr. and owner Annie Jenkins at Annie’s Clark Brunch.

ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

bomb-making operation. We got them. You don’t have to worry anymore. Drink your beer.” (DM)

Best next-door neighbor in Worcester

Paul

For 30 years, Paul has tried to circumvent my adversarial relationship with machinery. Whenever I open the hood of the car, the door of the garage or the cover of the pool, he walks over, shakes his head, and saves the day. If not for Paul, we’d be renting again in a heartbeat. God bless him! (JFJ)

Most customers named ‘Joe’ in a Worcester breakfast spot at the same time

Annie’s Clark Brunch, 934 Main St., Worcester

Last Thursday, while devouring my hash omelet and well-done raisin toast, Annie greeted five other customers besides myself with the salutation, “Hey, Joe!” … thus breaking the previous record of three, “Hey, Joes!” established on April 8, 2018. (JFJ)

Best place to watch the city council meetings

Worcestery Council Theater 3000

Shameless plug, but Bill Shaner, Brendan Melican and WOOtenanny stream the meeting on their Twitch channel. It’s called Worcestery Council Theater 3000 and they all just comment and talk about what is happening to make inane public service meetings more palatable. (SC)

Local band most likely to instigate a literal riot

Sapling

Here’s the most terrifying thing you can say about Sapling: They live their politics every day. They live their art every day. They kick ass because music should kick ass, because kicking ass is the one thing the entertainment-industrial complex remains too scared to colonize. When the weight of our sins heaps up like wet hay and ignites, it will start in a Sapling show. The fires will rage across an empty city as we watch from a distant hill. “They have saved us from ourselves” we will say in unison. (MS)

Ugliest downtown building

175 Main Street

In the 1970s, AT&T built a windowless five story building on a historic stretch of Main Street known as “Goddard Row.” The brutalist structure was designed to house hardware rather than human employees. Back then, AT&T needed all that room for gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, but today’s technology takes up the equivalent of a broom closet. I’ve heard the building is haunted by the ghost of Robert Goddard. It seems like a perfect place to haunt if you ask me. There’s plenty of room. I bet he never runs outer space. (SCS)

Life in Worcester

Best place to visualize a postapocalyptic world ruled by fancy plants

Seed to Stem

Who thought the rubble of civilization would be so shiny? As I enter to replace the last succulent my brown thumb doomed to slow death, I contemplate its plot for revenge: Is that monstera near the table about to strangle me or make me its meat-servant? Where did all these bird bones come from? Will I be eaten by the carnivorous plant section before I can find the fancy bath salts? Is the taxidermy bear a spy for its green overlords spilling out of file drawers, or just a trophy of their bloodlust? (LCD)

Best mystery that always felt like something specifically about Worcester was at its core

“SHOT JUCE”

Any time I see the “SHOT JUCE” tag — that bridge over 190 comes to mind, but it shows up everywhere — I wonder who those bombers are and are they still active. (Also, where is “starchild” now?) I’m sure people know, but I don’t want to. It reminds me of the grittier Worcester I frankly prefer to what it’s becoming. (Leave me in the dark, please. I prefer the mystery.) (TB)

Best bathroom stall for hiding from your bullies

Burncoat Middle School Music Room Storage Closet B

I was not lucky enough to attend the prestigious Burncoat Middle School. But if I did, and I were the type to be bullied by cool kids in Thrasher shirts, I would absolutely hide myself behind a

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tuba in Music Room Storage Closet B. We all know the radio-friendly Closet A. But B is for the real music closet connoisseurs. It’s got that stain in the drop ceiling that looks like a depressed rabbit. The carpet isn’t adhered to the floor anymore, so you can crawl under it and pretend to be a roly-poly isopod. Plus, sometimes, people drop nickels. (MS)

Best movie seats on a matinee Wednesday for senor citizens

Blackstone Valley 14 Cinema de Lux

The front row at Showcase Cinemas in Millbury where the Four Old Guys get soaked if the actors are sweating onscreen! You haven’t lived cinematically until you’ve seen the hairy mole on Stallone’s neck in the final scene of “Rambo 13-Last Drop of Blood” up close and personal. (JFJ)

Best place to get a pedicure while the workers talk in Vietnamese about the crazy old guy in chair 4

Tip Top Nails on Grafton Street

I take off my shoes, loosen my tie, and watch “Ellen” on the big-screen as my bunions are filed away. “Clear polish, please!” (JFJ)

Best dentist office to prove you’re a klutz in, embarrassing your daughter

Allure Dental Leominster

For some time now, we have been taking our children here for their dental needs. The staff is very welcoming, and the doctors do a great job of easing one’s fears of metal objects poking around in their mouth. What else is the staff aces at? Putting up with clumsy parents who are working “from home,” while taking their anxiety riddled teenager in for a cleaning. As I walk up to the window, laptop open, I reach for my wallet to grab my card and make my copay. What ensued was a hilariously pathetic chain of events that saw me drop my wallet, my debit card, my charger, my charger again, forget my debit card at the window, and cause my daughter’s face to turn a very crispy shade of crimson. Throughout the entire ordeal, everyone remained pleasant and patient, except one person: My beautiful daughter, who then had to deal with metal objects poking around in her mouth. It was a most lovely experience, for me anyway. (LR)

Best place to discard pizza boxes on trash-day in Worcester

???

Phoenix Ramos, 16, is embarrassed by her father, comedian Lou Ramos', inability to hold on to things. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM &

GAZETTE

After 37 years, I’m still not sure. Put them under the yellow bag, not picked up. Put them in the green bin, not picked up. Put them with the other cardboard, not picked up. Hand them to the sanitation-worker, handed back! (JFJ)

The best indicator that business in Worcester is tough

The Ripped Grand Opening Sign on Pleasant Street

There on Pleasant, is the hulk of general store. The name is not clear. In the window is half of a Grand Opening sign. It seems that someone attempted to rip it off, but only got a rough half of it removed. It is there to remind you how close the Grand Opening is to the Going Our of Business. There are so many questions. Was it open for a very short time? Did they just forget to take the Grand Opening sign off? Could they have just moved to a better location? And is anything ever going to go into that space? (DM)

Contributors: Tony Brown, Sarah Connell Sanders, Shaun Connolly, Lea C. Deschenes, Joe Fusco Jr., Serenity Jones, Niki Luparelli, David Macpherson, David McGrath, Lou Ramos, Craig S. Semon and Malt Schlitzman.

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CITY LIVING

CANNABIS CONFIDENTIAL

Tower Hill hosts online symposium on science of cannabis

Eric Casey

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Last week, Tower Hill Botanic Garden dove straight into the weeds in an online symposium that took an extensive look into the botanical science behind the cannabis plant. In doing so, it was among the first few major botanical gardens in the country to host a cannabis focused event, providing another example of how cannabis is being embraced more and more by mainstream institutions.

“There hasn’t been a lot of mainstream horticultural focus on [cannabis],” said Jessica Pederson, Tower Hill’s director of education. “There’s a lot of people who know about the horticultural components of cannabis but it’s long been not in the eye of the public garden world, so we felt like it was time to explore the horticultural components of cannabis and hemp.”

Founded in 1986, Tower Hill Botanic Garden is located in Boylston, and is owned and operated by the Worcester County Horticultural Society, the country’s third oldest horticultural organization. The 171-acre property features 17 different gardens, a number of greenhouses, and miles of walking trails that wind through woodlands and meadows.

Last week’s event represented the first cannabis-themed event for Tower Hill. The focus of the event was to attract people who are generally interested in horticulture, as well as people whose interest in horticulture originated with the cannabis plant.

“There wasn’t much out there,” said Pederson in regards to other cannabis focused events being hosted by similar organizations, “so it felt like something that there was a need for and was worthwhile to pursue.”

The symposium featured a number of academic experts discussing the latest scientific research regarding the cannabis plant, including lectures from Dr. Monique McHenry, director of the Medical Cannabis Center for Research and Education at the University of Vermont, and Ernest Anemone, a lecturer at Tufts University who has been an instructor for several cannabis related courses. Examples of some of the topics of presentations include the “Genetics and Taxonomy of Cannabis” and “Cannabis in Context: Botanical Medicine in the 21st Century.” Approximately 50 people attended the virtual event that was spread over two nights.

The fact that there were even academic professionals who were able and willing to speak at a cannabis event shows that the stigma toward the plant has also begun to fade in the world of academics. Even though no university has ever lost federal funding as a result of participating in cannabis research or marijuana focused events or organizations, this fear has been cited by numerous educational institutions in the past as a reason to avoid any involvement with the plant.

Tower Hill’s cannabis symposium is just the latest example of local mainstream institutions embracing — or at the very least, acknowledging — legal cannabis. In the sports world, Worcester’s arena football team — the Massachusetts Pirates — have been sponsored by local dispensary Resinate for the past two seasons, while the Worcester Red Sox’s foundation recently signed a deal with Southbridge-based dispensary Green Meadows to jointly host events that benefit veterans.

Partnerships between traditional mainstream institutions in the area and cannabis companies show how much cannabis has been destigmatized in the last few years — although it certainly didn’t happen overnight. Even in the first few years after legalization, it could be next to impossible for a cannabis business to find willing advertising partners, or to even to find a nonprofit that was willing to accept a financial donation. Organizations that rely on any sort of federal funding have been particularly fearful of potential ramifications of accepting money from an industry that is still illegal under federal law.

While the stigma around cannabis in Massachusetts has diminished, strict laws and regulations still limit what organizations can do. The WooSox were quick to note that Green Meadow’s partnership was with their foundation and not the actual ballclub; Minor League Baseball does not allow clubs to have sponsorship deals with cannabis companies, and it's also possible that such a deal would run afoul of the state’s cannabis advertising regulations, which state that 85% of the audience of any cannabis advertisement must reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older.

Similarly, Tower Hill was considering an event where artists would sketch various types of cannabis events live on-site, but had to re-consider due to concerns over the legality of such an event.

Still, with the success of this online symposium, Tower Hill is interested in possibly making this event an annual occurrence or hosting future exhibitions that are focused on different aspects of the cannabis plant.

“We have outlined other formats that might work for doing educational programming on cannabis,” said Pederson.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden presented a symposium last week featuring academic experts discussing the latest research on the cannabis plant. GETTY IMAGES