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The weather has been eight shades of stubborn, but spring is slowly starting to make its presence felt around the region. A sure sign that warmer times are ahead is the return of MayFair, the annual Cambridge music and arts festival that fills Harvard Square with good vibes across multiple stages and roadways. The Harvard Square Business Association has revealed the lineup for MayFair’s 38th edition, set for Sunday, May 7 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and it’s another stellar and eclectic collection of bands, artists, and performers.

Leading the way at the Main Stage at the “Super Crosswalk” are Zola Simone (pictured), Jake Swamp and the Pine, Other Brother Darryl, Koliba, Albino Mbie, Vibe Check, and Rumboat Chili. Drummer and percussionist extraordinaire Jonathan Ulman will be joining Simone and Swamp for their sets, as well.

Over on the Irving House Passim Stage at the intersection of Brattle and Church streets are Sweet Petunia, The Talking Hearts, Andrew Sue Wing, Almira Ara, Maurizio Fiore Salas & Sofia Chiarandini, Mark Erelli, and Roman Barten-Sherman.

The nearby Dance Stage welcomes Fourth Dimension, Rebecca McGowan, Rising Step, Neena Gulati, and more than a dozen others. There’s a lot more on the overall program, including participating restaurants and food vendors, more than 30 artisan booths, and a new entry for this year, the the Asian Street Food and Music Festival, organized by the Harvard Square Philippine American Alliance. Hit the link for all the details.

In “Good Will Hunting,” Matt Damon ’92 shares a late-night pickle with his love interest. Behind them, a red sign spelling out “Tasty” glows neon in the window.

Although it is unfamiliar to students now, the Tasty Diner, a 24/7 hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop, was once an all-hours gathering place for Cambridge residents and Harvard students.

“You know, we’re old, we were all around before social media. You needed spots where you could find each other. And if you were out late at night, the Tasty was a good option,” Chris W. Moore ’89 recalls.

Now, CVS stands in the Tasty’s place, and El Jefe’s Taqueria has overtaken the small diner as the de facto late-night Harvard haunt. Students today associate “Tasty” with Tasty Burger, the Boston burger chain located down the street. Yet alumni and Cambridge residents have found ways to preserve their memories of the Harvard Square watering hole.

In 1997, renovations conducted by the Cambridge Savings Bank forced the Tasty to close after 81 years in business. When he heard it was shutting down, Moore, a producer of “Good Will Hunting,” pushed for the Tasty to be immortalized as a backdrop in the movie.

“It literally was the worst place ever to shoot because it’s tiny,” Moore explains, describing the diner’s cramped 12-seat arrangement. The scene was shot during the daytime, when it was less hectic. “I’m glad it’s on film somewhere,” Moore says.

But “Good Will Hunting” was not the only film to portray the Tasty. Cambridge local Federico Muchnik preserved snapshots of the diner’s night-to-night life in his documentary “Touching History: Harvard Square, The Bank, and The Tasty Diner.”

Muchnik captured the space in unfiltered vitality in a documentary that Tasty-goers could hold on to even as the neighborhood morphed. In the weeks before the shop’s closing, Muchnik would order a couple of hot dogs, sit in the corner of the room, and begin to film. He trained his camera on the Tasty’s liveliness: the cooks jovially teasing customers, the never-ending conversation, the constant patter of clattering silverware.

Cambridge residents and Harvard students alike were loath to lose the gathering spot.

“I documented the taking apart of the Tasty, and that was a pretty emotional day for many people,” Muchnik says. Cambridge activists railed against the diner’s removal, protesting at City Hall, all of which Muchnik captures in his film. The Tasty, he says, was a “crossroads place because it was open and it was accessible and nobody judged you.”

Muchnik remembers the Tasty was a place of spontaneous togetherness, where unhoused people, Harvard students and professors, and working-class Cambridge locals convened on equal footing. A map of pins on the wall traced customers’ origins and travels. Hearing the stories of other customers’ travels, Muchnik says, felt like traveling with them. There was something transporting about the Tasty.

“If you were there, you were part of the Tasty community,” Nick P. D’Arienzo Jr. ’83 says. “You were in Harvard Square. You were in Cambridge. You weren’t really at Harvard anymore.” He “fell in love” with the establishment, he says. “I found I didn’t want to dress as preppy the more I went. It’s like we cared more about fitting in at the Tasty than about fitting in at Harvard.”

Harvard alumni who frequented the burger joint carry a sort of oral history of Tasty stories. Almost every person we interviewed sent us the names of more friends, promising fresh fables.

Many tell stories of Charles Coney, the diner’s central figure and cook, who…

Support local artists and small businesses this summer at one of the city’s many artisan markets.

When the warm weather finally descends upon Boston, there’s no shortage of ways to get out of the house. Visiting one of the many outdoor artisan markets that’ll soon pop up in Boston neighborhoods and beyond is one of the most affordable ways to experience the city this season. Some markets, like the Somerville Flea or SoWa have years-long legacies of assembling vendors who purvey artisan goods — others, like the Harvard Square Open Market or the Greenway Artisan Market, are in their first few years.

Head to a market on weekends this summer to meet your neighbors, grab bites from a food truck, and support local makers and small businesses. Here are a few worth checking out.

SoWa Open Market

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays from May 7 through October 29, head to 500 Harrison Ave. in the South End to find dozens of vendors along with food trucks, beer gardens, and a farmers’ market at the SoWa Open Markets. You’ll find over a hundred purveyors of art, jewelry, specialty food items, housewares, and locally grown produce. The detailed food truck schedule is here. Head next door to Thayer Street to visit more art galleries and shops. 

Greenway Artisan Market

On both Saturdays and Sundays, visit the Rose Kennedy Greenway for the outdoor Greenway Artisan Market powered by Somerville Flea. Dozens of vendors sell art, jewelry, and other handmade goods on Saturdays from May 6 through October 31 and on Sundays from May 28 through October 8. Food trucks will line the Greenway this summer, too.

Harvard Square Open Market

The Harvard Square Open Market returns to Church Street for the second year this summer, taking place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays from June 4 through October 29. The outdoor market will host a mix of artisans, vintage dealers, makers, artists, and small business owners right in the heart of bustling Harvard Square.

Somerville Flea

While the Somerville Flea has collaborated with the Greenway for the Greenway Artisan Market, they also have their own outdoor artisan/flea market each summer. Now in its 12th year, the market will bring around 50 vendors to Davis Square on Sundays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. from August 6 through October 29 for a total of 13 markets. Visitors can expect vintage dealers and designers alongside artisans and artists, along with a live DJ and fresh produce from Kimball Fruit Farm.

Downtown Boston BID Arts Market

The Downtown Boston BID Arts Market returns on Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. starting May 4 and wrapping October 11. The market brings a rotating lineup of artisan vendors, craftspeople, and makers to pedestrian Summer Street in the heart of Downtown Crossing, so visitors have plenty of shopping and restaurants nearby after visiting the market.

Big, satisfying sandwiches, named for locations around town, are still on the menu

Where to Roust Cafe on Mt. Auburn Street in Harvard Square.

Why To see what was going on in the former Darwin’s Ltd., a fixture since 1993.

The backstory Late last year, Darwin’s Ltd. owners Steven and Isabel Darwin closed their four Cambridge coffee and sandwich shops as workers voted to unionize. (There is an initiative by some former staffers to open a worker-owned cafe; they operate as the Circus Cooperative Cafe Crew on GoFundMe.) In February, the original Harvard Square location became Roust, owned by Valentin Hefco, who also owns Tokava in Jamaica Plain (drinks only). Roust’s manager is Mike Spires, who was the general manager when the space was Darwin’s. Where the old spot always seemed a little jammed and harried, Roust is more laid-back. Hefco and Spires are rolling it out slowly. The right-hand side of the storefront has 19 seats; as the weather warms, there will be more out front. The other has groceries, prepared foods, and eventually wine and beer when the license is transferred. Roust is “an invented name,” says Hefco. “I wanted to have a name of my own. I imagine that this name is to invite everyone in the morning for a cup of coffee and a bagel and a sandwich. Roust you out of bed with a cup of coffee.”

What to eat Pick a sandwich, all named for geographic locations in the area, and you’ll be delighted. Breads come from Iggy’s and Nashoba Brook. On the breakfast list, the Harvard Yard starts with toasted sourdough, and holds two eggs, bacon, cheddar, and avocado. Honestly, it’s enough for two, as are most of the choices. The Inman is built on seven-grain bread with eggs, red peppers, cheddar, and tomato. Lunch sandwiches include Darwin’s Mt. Auburn, the only combination exactly as it was before: turkey, Swiss, avocado, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and vinaigrette on sourdough. A delicious messy affair. The Highland stacks ham with pear, pickled onions, and arugula on toasted grainy bread. Hefco is smart to keep the menu short. Everything is nicely made, very satisfying.

From 1959 to 2020, people went to 12 Bow St. in Harvard Square for a sense of community. The reason why was the Spanish-styled Café Pamplona, a favorite haunt for students, artists, writers, and other locals. So, when Faro Café opened last December on nearby Arrow Street, those who knew Café Pamplona expected a revival. And it is in a sense.

Faro’s owner, Henry Hoffstot, 32, shares the same goal of establishing a community environment, but his methods are new. “We’re lighting our own torch,” he says.

A warm, cozy space filled with light, Faro offers skillfully crafted frothy coffees made with beans from local roasters, such as Broadsheet in Somerville and Tiny Arms in Lowell. Croissants, pastries, and other breads come from La Saison, a well-regarded Cambridge bakery. It is common to see the indoor tables filled with students and remote workers hunched over laptops (there’s outdoor seating, too).

Hoffstot plans to hold talks, art exhibits, events, music — perhaps even chess nights in the future. And time with “no laptops so people can get off the keyboard and converse,” he says.

Hoffstot lived and worked in finance in Buenos Aires for four years. He was inspired by the city’s vibrant coffee scene, where people used cafés to relax with a cup of coffee rather than work. He opened his shop after returning to the United States, naming it after the Spanish word for lighthouse. Lighthouses are of course meant to shine a light and guide.

5 Arrow St., Cambridge. Open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Flavor Flav was recently a guest lecturer at Harvard University. During his guest tenure at the Ivy League, Flav lectured on hip-hop culture and history. Before stepping off campus, he donated one of his famous clocks to the university.

Flavor Flav was a guest lecturer at Harvard University on April 4. He also visited the school on April 5, completing a two-day visit and lectures on hip-hop.

“How many of y’all had Flavor Flav going to HARVARD on ya bingo cards,” he shared in a Twitter post. “YEAH BOOYYYEEEE”

CAMBRIDGE, MA – 

Flavor Flav has donated his iconic clock chain to Harvard University after the Public Enemy rapper spent the day meeting with students.

Flav visited the Ivy League institution on Tuesday (April 4), and at one point even led a table read of Emily Dickinson’s 1896 poem “A Clock Stopped,” before thematically tying the poem into some of his lyrics.

Flav concluded the reading by handing off his legendary jewelry piece to Professors Henry Louis Gates and Tommie 

https://www.tmz.com/videos/2023-04-04-040423-flavor-flav-poetry-1592305-285/

https://www.tmz.com/videos/2023-04-04-040423-flavor-flav-1592297-319/

Dee-1, DJ Stretch Armstrong and Khaliah Ali, the former wife of late boxing legend Muhammad Ali, also stopped by Harvard, as well as Lupe Fiasco, who previously taught at the esteemed university before he was appointed an MLK Visiting Professor at MIT.

Lupe was most recently named a Saybrook Fellow at Yale University, marking the lauded lyricist’s latest honor in the world of higher education.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqoZVFevhku/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=c14fa590-6561-435e-b4c5-8ea2c2e2a79a

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Supermodel Tyra Banks was spotted recently at a popular local ice cream shop: J.P. Licks in Harvard Square.

A well-known international model who has also enjoyed success on the shows, “America’s Next Top Model” and “The Tyra Banks Show,” Banks also has a local tie to Cambridge.

According to The Harvard Crimson, Banks received a certificate from Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program, a nine-week program featuring an application which asks prospective participants for their annual compensations but does not inquire about GPAs or test scores.

And, the popular supermodel-turned-entrepreneur has a love for ice cream.

Banks has launched SMiZE & Dream ice cream, “an inspirational, theatrical, dream-fulfilling company where entertainment and ice cream collide on a global scale,” according to the company’s website.

“Founded by Tyra Banks, SMiZE & Dream’s ice cream has a hidden truffle surprise in every cup, called the SMiZE PRiZE. Strategically located at the bottom of every luxurious serving, the SMiZE PRiZE is a tasty reward after some serious digging – a fun & delicious discovery that appeals to the kid in all of us,” the company said.

The SMiZE PRiZE also “symbolizes what our company stands for: empowering our worldwide community to dig deep and help each other reach for their dreams via our SMiZE & Dreams mentorship programs,” the company said.