From three blocks down I can already begin to hear the conversations and see the pedestrians slowing down to gawk at the food being brought out to the patio diners.

The food, good as it is, is not what makes Tia’s Topside. Lori Lilly makes Tia’s Topside. She darts around the two floors, conversing with customers, laughing and swapping stories.

White tablecloths, handsome waiters, windows thrown open on a warm spring night— people call to one another in the street two flights down, and I hear the occasional snippet of Italian.

Jamie Mammano’s take on classic and contemporary Italian cuisine is neatly tucked away in a narrow stone building in Boston’s Theater District.

Few Boston destinations have more respect for their own history than the Oak Long Bar, inside the opulent Fairmont Hotel at Copley Plaza.