Hey,
Welcome back. The response to Issue #1 was genuinely overwhelming and I'm grateful for every one of you who opened it, shared it, and replied.
This week I found a restaurant with a backstory so strange I had to double-check it was real. Let's get into it.
🍽️ THIS WEEK'S EAT
Peppino's Dosa, 434 Moody Street
There is a chef on Moody Street with one of the most unusual life stories in Greater Boston. His name is Shingara Singh but everyone calls him Peppino. He was born in India, grew up in Germany, learned to cook Italian food from a family he boarded with as a teenager, spent decades as a respected Italian chef in Boston, and then opened a South Indian dosa restaurant on Moody Street.
That last part is the one most people miss.
Peppino's Dosa has been quietly serving some of the best Indian food in the western suburbs for years. The menu covers both North and South Indian cooking, the dosas are made fresh to order, and the kitchen runs two separate operations. One is fully vegetarian and vegan, the other is for meat dishes, so everyone at the table is covered.
On Monday nights they do an all-you-can-eat Dosa Night for $18.95 per person, up to five dosas each made to order. That alone is worth knowing about.
Most people walking down Moody Street head straight for the more obvious spots. Peppino's Dosa is the one the people who actually know the street go to.
📍 434 Moody St. Open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. (781) 547-6099
📅 3 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND
1. 10th Annual Waltham Breezers Ball - Saturday March 14, 6:30pm at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation on 154 Moody Street. Ten years running, which tells you everything about how good this event is. If you have been meaning to check out the Museum building, this is the perfect excuse.
2. Annual Easter Bunny Celebration - Saturday March 21, 10am to 12pm at Waltham Common. Free, family-friendly, and one of the city's most attended spring traditions. Get there early for the best spot on the Common.
3. Movie Night at Waltham Public Library - Thursday March 26, 6 to 8pm at 735 Main St. Free admission, snacks provided. A genuinely good low-key Thursday night if you want to get out of the house without spending anything.
🛍️ LOCAL FIND
Prospect Hill Park
There is a hill in the middle of Waltham with a Civil War monument tower at the top and a view that stretches across the Boston skyline on a clear day. Most people who have lived here for years have never been up it.
Prospect Hill Park sits off Prospect Hill Road and the walk to the summit takes about 15 minutes. The tower was built in the 1800s to honor Waltham's Civil War veterans. The view is free. On a clear day you can see the Blue Hills, the Prudential Tower, and the full sweep of the western suburbs laid out in front of you.
It is the kind of place that makes you feel like you live somewhere worth living.
📍 Prospect Hill Rd, Waltham. Free, open dawn to dusk.
💬 ONE GOOD THING
Most people know the Charles River runs through Waltham. Fewer people know that the Massachusett people who lived along its banks for thousands of years before European settlement called it the Quinobequin, meaning "meandering." English settlers renamed it after the River Cam in Cambridge, England, which is how we got Cambridge, Massachusetts as well.
This weekend, while Boston fills up for Saint Patrick's Day, Waltham's stretch of the Charles will be quiet, walkable, and genuinely beautiful. The river path from Moody Street toward Newton takes about 40 minutes round trip and is one of the best free walks in the entire metro area.
Most people drive past it every day without ever stopping. This weekend is a good time to change that.
See you next Thursday,
Pankhi
The Waltham Insider
P.S. Know someone who'd love this? Forward it - it's free.