South Enders Expanding Ice Cream Business

Two South End residents are bringing their all-natural ice cream to the South Shore.

Two South Enders are expanding their all natural ice cream company all the way to the South Shore this summer.  Batch ice cream, crafted from scratch in Massachusetts using real local ingredients, is owned by Susie Parish and Veronica Janssens, both of the South End.  All seven-batch ice cream flavors contain a small list of ingredients, like fresh cream, organic evaporated cane juice, and eggs, brought together with hand-crafted caramel and real vanilla beans. Paris and Janssens get their chocolate from Dean’s Beans in Orange, Mass., their salt from Maine Sea Salt Co., their tea-flavors from Somerville, their fresh milk and cream from New England dairies, and their imported ingredients, like coffee, chocolate, and cane sugar, are sourced …

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Healthy Fast Food Restaurant Eyes Downtown Spots

California-based Lyfe Kitchen could soon be opening a franchise (or a few) in Boston.

A California-based company offering healthier fast food options could soon be coming to Boston. Lyfe Kitchen is looking for space in the city’s Downtown Crossing, Seaport District and Faneuil Hall areas in an effort to bring their quick-and-healthy restaurant concept from the West Coast to the East, the Boston Business Journal reports. The company currently has two locations in Culver City and Palo Alto, CA and is looking to expand to 250 restaurants nationwide, according to the BBJ. That could include up to 10 Lyfe Kitchens in the Boston area. Lyfe Kitchen’s menu items are all under 600 calories each, and the company promises “quality food using locally and sustainably sourced ingredients whenever possible,” according to its website, …

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New Puerto Rican Restaurant Opens in South End

Find out what's on the menu at the South End's newest Spanish restaurant.

15 years after he closed his Spanish restaurant business, chef and restaurant owner Angel Carrasquillo is right back where he started. A few weeks ago, Carrasquillo opened Mana Escondido Cafe at 68 Aguadilla St. in the South End, in the exact space that used to house his former restaurant, Pioneer, in the '90s.  Carrasquillo ran Pioneer for five years before deciding to sell it and start a 15-year career in the property management business in Boston. But three years ago when he was laid off from that position, his mind returned to owning his own restaurant again.  "The owner of the building gave me a call to see if I wanted to come back to the restaurant business, and I guess it was a perfect timing because that same week I was laid off …

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Lekker Home Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary

Find out what's lead to the South End retailer's continued success in the neighborhood.

When Lekker Home moved into its space at 1317 Washington St. ten years ago, most of the area was under construction, there were a few spread out businesses, and the sidewalks weren't even finished. Maybe not a great sign for a couple of first time small business owners. "It was the scariest thing I've ever done," said Curt Carpenter, who co-owns Lekker Home with his wife, Natalie, about opening up the store back in 2003. "But it was also the most exciting thing of my entire life." Both of the Carpenters had come from the corporate world, Curt, who worked in financial services in Boston, and Natalie, who worked for Ralph Lauren in New York. Wanting to take their lives in a different direction, and visiting Natalie's parents in Amsterdam, …

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South End's Skoah Expands to Back Bay

Owners Pete Dziedzic and Jay Judas say the South End skincare store has been so successful, they plan to open a Newbury Street location in May.

Where to Eat During Restaurant Week in the South End

Boston Restaurant week will be held next week, from March 17 to 22, and March 24-29, 2013.

Boston Restaurant Week is back and starts next week, from March 17-22 and March 24-29. In the South End, 18 restaurants are participating this round, up from 16 last summer. New to the lineup in the South End this year is Cinquecento, the newly opened Italian restaurant from the Aquitaine Group.  Another change new to the 2013 Restauarant Week in Boston is a slight increase in prices:  With more than 200 restaurants to choose from in the Boston and Greater Boston area, there's something for everybody. You can search by neighborhood at RestaurantWeekBoston.com. But to make it easy, here's some of our favorites in South End: Where else do you recommend? Tell us in the comments. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates

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Tadpole: A Modern Mom-and-Pop Shop on Clarendon Street

Owners of the children's store, Tadpole, are thriving as a family and as business owners in the South End neighborhood.

If your image of a mom-and-pop shop doesn’t quite match Tadpole, then you and David Hauck are of the same mind.  Mr. Hauck is half of the husband-and-wife team that owns the “modern children’s store” on Clarendon Street. But he’s not exactly the little old guy manning the register, and his business is no crowded hole in the wall. Yet as longtime transplants to Boston who feel grounded in a neighborhood they love, and have built both successful work and home lives around it, this mom and pop – Storey Hieronymus Hauck and David Hauck – have created a version of the American dream here, right in the South End. Neither of the Haucks set out to be brick-and-mortar business owners, much less Internet merchants. When Ms. Hieronymus Hauck’s high-…

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South End's Genuine Interactive Named One of Boston's Fastest Growing Businesses

The Boston Business Journal will recognize these '2013 Pacesetters'—and announce the No. 1 business in Massachusetts—at an event in April in downtown Boston.

The South End's Genuine Interactive has been recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies in Massachusetts by the by the Boston Business Journal.  More than 20 Boston businesses are being recognized as 2013 Pacesetters this spring for being among the 70 fastest growing private companies in Massachusetts—businesses that saw the most revenue growth over the past three years, with a revenue baseline of $1 million.  Genuine's executive creative director and co-founder Chris Pape, said he and CEO John Grayson founded the company seven years ago with a firm grasp on innovation through collaboration for the digital market.  "I wanted to create an agency that produced impactful digital ideas and to do that, we needed to have all of …

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Eat Your Way to Charity in the South End During the Greater Boston Food Bank's 'Super Hunger Brunch'

The annual brunch will allow patrons to "do good and eat well" in Boston on Jan. 26th and 27th.

If only there were more charitable events where all you have to do is show up and eat. For conscious-minded consumers in the South End, several neighborhood restaurants are offering the opportunity to do just that, through the Greater Boston Food Bank's Super Hunger Brunch on Jan. 26-27.  Dine at the South End's Stella, Darryl’s Corner Bar or Hamersley’s Bistro for brunch on the restaurant's fixed price menus and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Greater Boston Food Bank, which doles out nearly 41 million pounds of food and grocery products a year to 550 member hunger-relief agencies in Boston and eastern Massachusetts.  The event, in its 31st year, features 21 restaurants all over the city with prices set at $25, $35 and $50 per …

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Converse Relocating Headquarters to Boston

The move from North Andover will bring more than 400 Converse employees to the city by 2015.

They're a favorite of Kevin McHale and Larry Bird. Parisian girls wear them like they're the only sneakers on earth. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will rock them at the Golden Globes. And, soon, Boston will be the place they come from.  That's right: Converse Inc., the company behind the legendary Chuck Taylors, is moving its world headquarters to Boston as part of the $230 million redevelopment of the North End's Lovejoy Warf in Bulfinch Triangle.  The city announced on Tuesday that the North Andover shoe company will relocate its expanded world headquarters to the city by April 2015. Four hundred employees will work in approximately 187,000 square feet of new office space near the TD Garden, according to the city's announcement.  “They say …

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