Be warned, Starbucks addicts and people who like free bathrooms: The coffee shop will be closed tonight between 5:30 and 9:00 for an emergency training of its employees, or "baristas," as they are known. In a city where the Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts battle rages, Dunkin' Donuts is staking its claim by cutting prices on its small drinks to 99 cents until 10:00 pm, WBZ reports. Dunkin' Donuts is declaring coffee war, and it's......

Update: Adam notices that Rachael Ray is no longer on the Dunkies website. Perhaps her big mouth cost her a job? From what we gather, no one likes Rachael Ray's association with Dunkin' Donuts. And they will like it even less when they hear what she had to say about the beverage she is paid so handsomely to promote. A rumor has been swirling on the Internets, starting at New York Magazine, floating to Jezebel,......

The owners of Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square are on a mission. It’s pretty hard to miss… in fact, it’s conveniently spelled out on a poster behind the counter. They sell fair trade, shade grown, organic coffee and organic food “with an underlying agenda of social responsibility and environmental stewardship.” The counters are made of bamboo or crushed beer bottles; the ceiling tiles are made of 100% recycled material; the shop is illuminated......

Those who keep a vegan diet will probably tell you that eating a healthy breakfast out can often be a challenge, especially when hoping to get something quickly. Breakfast in America is heavily focused on animal products and often the only options involve bacon, eggs, milk, or all three! Enter the chain of Bagel Rising and Espresso Royale cafes in Boston. These green-leaning, eco-friendly, and vegan-catering cafes are warm, inviting, and most importantly, delicious!......

Bostonist finds that food makes a great gift for even the most difficult to shop for. Some of our favorite local food purveyors have made it easy for us with food-of-the-month clubs. We’d be thrilled to receive the gift of pork from Savenor’s, which has a bacon-of-the-month club. For something sweet, Pemberton Farms of Cambridge has a coffee-cake-of-the-month club and plenty of locally themed gift baskets. Formaggio Kitchen, famous for having its own cheese......

Charlie, Fletcher, and Special Ed of WFNX morning show The Sandbox invited Bostonists Korri and Caroline up to chat about the Smells of the T. Little did we know that smells would be the theme of the entire show. Callers were eager to share the smells they have encountered all over the state, such as peanut-butter factories, burnt coffee, prison feet, and pee simmering on radiators (ugh). For the record, the WFNX studio smells like......

Unofficial leaked lists started hitting the Internet late this morning. Fearful and optimistic at the same time, we started scanning them to see who was allegedly going to be on the MLB Steroid Commission's "Naughty" list. But then the 400-page PDF report arrived in our browser, and some of the worst rumors turned out to be just rumors. The most popular list circulating this morning named Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon and Julian Tavarez. None of......

Illuminations Holiday Tour Saturday, December 15 Tour times: 4:30, 5:00, 5:45, 6:15, 7:00, 7:30, 8:15, 8:45, 9:15 Tickets on sale at McIntyre and Moore Booksellers, 255 Elm Street, Davis Square More info Fighting off a raging case of Seasonal Affective Disorder? Somerville has a cure. The city's residents know how to decorate, and when it's the holidays they want to share their spirit with everyone. The Somerville Arts Council will be offering 45-minute-long trolley tours......

Well, the Twins aren't cooperating. Instead of being excited about the chance for yet another Minnesota star to come to Boston, they're dragging their feet on the inevitable Johan Santana trade. They now want Jacoby Ellsbury thrown in the mix, to counter Hank Steinbrenner's throwing-in of pitching prospect Phil Hughes. The Red Sox say maybe on Ellsbury, but that would mean no Jon Lester. The Yankees say if they don't hear from Minnesota soon, the......

Blue Velvet and The Twin Peaks Pilot Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge Monday, December 3 Tickets and showtimes It's not on any wall calendars, but December 3rd is David Lynch Day in Cambridge, at least according to the Brattle Theatre. Last year, Lynch debuted Inland Empire at the Brattle, and the Cambridge city council honored the director by giving him his own day. This year, the Brattle will celebrate by offering theatergoers a pair......

To say that the baristas behind Barismo.com are coffee fanatics is a little bit of an understatement. For example, Ben Chen, an engineer by day, actually bought his own coffee-bean roaster in Taiwan, and then started making modifications to it (drilling extra holes so flames could lick the beans directly; hooking it up to a computer to better monitor roasting conditions). So when Bostonist went to a Barismo coffee tasting (or “cupping”) last week......

Oldies station WODS (103.3 FM) is already playing holiday music. Laurel Sweet at the Herald wrote, "Admit it: You love it." No, we do not love it! At least it's easy to turn the FM dial away from the Trans-Siberan Orchestra's "What Is Christmas?" But what about the sudden appearance of Starbucks holiday cups? And what about Rachael Ray's uber-perky Dunkies ad? Amy at Boston Daily is already feeling irritated by Ray's self-proclaimed "million pounds"......

Let's give a hand, ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps even raise our Saturday morning coffee cups in a toast. To the new Celtics and basketball's new Big Three! Before we dive into Friday night's Celts season opener, we should take a quick trip back to May 22, when Boston gasped in horror over the hand fate had dealt. Fifth pick for what was then a terrible, wretched team. We were screwed. Ready to jump. Inconsolable.......

The people behind Diesel Café—which Bostonist has been a fan of since it opened in 1999—are charting (and caffeinating) new waters in Somerville’s Union Square. Bloc 11, which is located in a former bank, has a hip, industrial vibe similar to Diesel’s, but it plays to a slightly more mature crowd—it’s like Diesel, but eight years older. The sandwiches, which run from $6.95 to $7.50, are considerably more tony than Diesel’s, featuring ingredients like......

--It seemed as if the World Series put a cork in local gun incidents or the media (Bostonist included) was too busy with the Sox to notice. Now the cork is out of the bottle. The 45-year-old owner of Stalex Pizza in Dorchester was shot in the head this morning when he tried to go after an 18-year-old who robbed his shop. The man is in critical condition. The BPD announced that officers moved fast......

Well, the Red Sox proved that they can win even when Colorado finds its offense. So it's 3-0, and teams coming back from 3-0 is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. (We're engaging in a little post-2004 thinking, but don't think we're not engaging in all the superstitions, wearing the same cap, drinking the same coffee, wearing the same underwear, etc., in the meantime). The Sox came out blazing, slapping Rockies starter Josh Fogg around for six in......

STEP Fundraiser hosted by Taza Chocolate Thursday, October 25, 2007 Bloc 11 Cafe, 11 Bow Street, Union Square, Somerville 6:30 to 9 p.m., $25 suggested donation Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership can list a lot of fine reasons to extend the green line into the town that sits north of Cambridge like a jaunty sailor cap: pollution, population density, lawsuits, "revitalization". Bostonist has selfish reasons of our own, and they live in Union Square: crack-laced cream......

The Mayor's Office announced that Mayor Menino and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper have set up a bet. Depending on who wins the World Series, the losing mayor will ship foods native to that area to a local charity. The press release's language is precise: "When Boston wins the World Series" and "If the unthinkable should occur." The mayor is leaving nothing to chance when it comes to winning the Red Sox World Series, and we......

Dear Dane: We know that you have a lot on your plate, what with wrapping up "Bachelor No. 2," recording all these MLB commercials and keeping college kids in a frenzy. So we here at Bostonist wanted to help out. You see, the commercials you've been offering us between innings are driving us mad - as is your hair. We thought that, given the busy day you must have today, we'd help out out a......

We keep hoping a couple of tickets will drop like magic from the sky, but we've pretty much resigned ourselves to several more long nights with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver and several more mornings when coffee is all that stands between us and oblivion. Or you could sell everything you own and do what one guy did: pay $21,766 for two seats behind home plate, as the Globe reported this morning. The article also......

We're taking a brief jaunt south to Providence for this jawdropping Oddblotter entry. A woman didn't ingest her Dunkies coffee fast enough at a drive-thru, and she took it out on another woman in the drive-thru line. Laura Defazzio, 27, received her order, but she didn't drive off right away. Denise DeMedeiros, 36, honked the horn--a reasonable decision given the circumstances. Defazzio responded that she was going to take as much time as she bloody......

Sit back and imagine that you're with the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure, and it's your job to distribute disks chock-full of names and addresses for those who have professional licenses in the state of Massachusetts. You distribute these disks because marketing firms want them thanks to the public records law. That doesn't sound so hard. So you use the office's new software to gather and generate this information. Then you let it run and......

Say "au revoir" to the emergency small coffee at Au Bon Pain, T riders. The Cambridge Chronicle reports that starting this week, the MBTA will open their super-secret bathrooms to the public at Central, Harvard, Porter and Alewife stations. At the request of Cambridge City Manager Bob Healy, the T has has agreed to allow public restroom access at those stations for one year, as part of a pilot program. In other words, if......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

--Yesterday the Blotter mentioned domestic assault by ice cream in a coffee mug. Now the DA's office has released word of a Revere woman who attacked her boyfriend with a dog leash and a hammer. She also attacked her boyfriend with the aforementioned items knowing full well that the police was watching her. The office described a scene worthy of an episode of COPS when two police officers came upon Jacqueline Shannon and her......

--A man became Boston's 48th murder victim this year when he was shot in front of the Quick Stop Market in Dorchester last night. He has not yet been identified. --A hunter discovered human remains off Route 122 in Rutland on Monday afternoon. The body has been identified as Linieda Gonzalez, of Worcester, who has been missing since February. She also went by the name of Linieda Olivera. Gonzalez/Olivera may be the latest victim of......

Starbucks, schmarbucks. Dunkin' Donuts thinks it can rule the world. It's rolled out corny commercials with the likes of Naomi Campbell and Rachael Ray leaving skidmarks on a floor. The next step in world domination starts this month, when our beloved Dunkin' Donuts begins selling packaged Dunkin' coffee across the United States at Wal-Mart, Kroger, and other stores. This is excellent news for anyone who no longer lives in New England yet who still feels......

Flickr user Do you KNOW Clarence? (aka 42minus71) documented the weekend fire of Somerville eatery "Wicked Good Coffee" Check out his Somerville 7 set for all of the stark and powerful images from the fire. Our thoughts go out to the owners and patrons of this neighborhood spot. Editors Note: The image has been resized and replaced to show the original capture.......

Sometimes, we in Boston take our Sox for granted forget how good we've got it. That's why every so often, the Bostonist Sports Department likes to hit the road and investigate the conditions at other ballparks around the land. So we found ourselves in Pittsburgh this weekend, watching the woeful Pirates play the hapless Reds at the sublime PNC Park. We forget just how lucky we are, when we hear mutterings from a Pittsburgh......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did some research and found that Massachusetts bridges......