Golemo’s

Gala Foods on Main st. is a good option for Latino supermarket.

I like Bahnan's for Middle Eastern groceries. Ed Hyder for gourmet with a middle Eastern leaning. Gala for Spanish groceries (incredible selection of dried chilies among other things) and Tom's and Golemos for Polish groceries. You can find both Lithuanian and items from Ukraine at the last two.

• I forgot that Big Boi is good for Brazilian items. **Forgot Kalamos over on June Street for Greek food and pastries. The owners are super nice

Crown butcher off of gold star boulevard is a great Brazilian butcher. They have awesome rib eyes. They also have cases and cases of frozen Brazilian treats to take home. A whole case of pao de Queijo in different flavors and sizes

I'm helping organize a mid-size tabletop gaming convention, you can see I posted about the previous one in my post history! The next one will likely be on January 12th in the evening. We do board games, all kinds of tabletop one-shots, and lots of DnD. Last time we actually partnered with That's Entertainment as a vendor, which is an awesome group that another commenter suggested getting involved with. We had over 60 people show up for 11 tables, and we're hoping to top that this time!

We're hoping to make this a monthly thing, and we've already had several ongoing games spawn as a result of contacts from the first event. If you want, you can join our discord server and get updates: https://discord.gg/XDZBbbuV

The other places mentioned are great. My wife is Korean and gets all of her staples from the ubiquitously named Asian Supermarket on Mill St. I haven’t come across a bigger Asian super market in the area. There are also a few great Indian grocers along rt 9 in Shrewsbury.

Indian grocers in Shrewsbury, KT Grill has amazing selection of spices and fruits and vegetables and restaurant

Mekong in main street is good for Vietnamese and Asian specialties, super cheap produce.

Seconding Bahnans, too

Ed Hyders and Bahnans are both just a block away from each other on Pleasant St. Both have great food + drink. The freshly made hummus and baba ganoush at Bahnans and their baklava are a staple in my household. I pick up all my specialty wines and beers from Ed Hyders.

This is more Scandinavian as I'm of Swedish heritage, but The Bean Counter on Grove St. has some recipes from the old Crown Bakery (Swedish bakery that closed a few years ago), so they have some options for amazing Swedish baked goods. This time of year they might not have the stock as readily available, as I think all the local Swedes are tapping into their food roots for Xmas, but if you go on their website you can place an order ahead of time for pickup. Highly recommend their cardamom rings with cinnamon, if you're looking to pick up something for a small crowd.

That's right, I love all their products.

also want to add that what I'd do with my family in winter time is go to the Auburn rink and skate for a while, then we had inner tubes and would go sledding on the hill behind the rink, to make a whole fun wintery day out of that location, so if it snows during the holiday, you're golden for a perfect day. I have so many fun memories doing that growing up.

Tons of ice skating options in and around town if that's your thing, great for all ages imo (and if you're worried about the 3 year old, honestly, start em young!!! I started skating at 4 years old and honestly it helped build me into a confident skater).

There's the Worcester Ice Center, the Buffone Arena, and there's the rink outdoors at the Worcester Common this time of year that's small but sort of chaotic if it's at a peak busy time, but is very cute and quaint. I grew up going to the Horgan Arena in Auburn as a kid, so I'm biased toward them, but haven't gone in years + it's farther away than these other options in town. All locations should have rentable skates.

Check the websites for these places when public skating is and if they might have extended public skate hours cause of the holiday.

This is really good reading, Thanks.

Me and the roomie are working on getting a bigger space so we can start hosting nights but, absolutely would love to get involved with a group if something is already established.

https://www.discovercentralma.org/articles/patriots-day-worcesters-role-in-the-american-revolution/

You should ask around That’s Entertainment on Park Ave. l would imagine they have some customers that are looking for a game.

Lowell Makes used to host games out in Lowell. There is a hobby store on Rt. 9 either in Northborough or Shrewsbury, I forget, but they used to have like a hundred people or something!

I used to play twice a week, both games every Sunday, both in Worcester and in person.

I ran a game on and off for 4-5 years. Before Covid, we were experimenting with the revived campaign and meeting frequently, but then when the lockdowns hit. We went on a hiatus, because I personally hate online play.

We then met outside in the spring, and we played like that until it got far too cold to be outside. For the following two years we played with a 7 month on, 5 month off schedule. I think it was a healthy balance.

The Sunday Night group was one that I was a player in, I played with people with whom I used to work. We met for nearly 3 years, almost every Sunday.

Now, I am not in any games, because I am temporarily living in Germany.

I intend to start up my game again, but we are moving onto Noir as a genre. So, I have a few years to develop my ideas before we play.

Several things here I didn't know!!

Add Near East Rice Pilaf to the list.

The Banner. Eggnog cocktails were great!

Thai House of Holden has a great winter drink menu

Humana was the first group of people to start super for profit hospitals atleast in the south

I have a family member, a retired RN in Florida who worked for Humana, Humana is big down south they're every where. Way before the pandemic (1990s) Humana cut staffing and this resulted in RNs pulling one 24 hr shift a week and a 12. When she told me this I thought it was a joke, Humana and others got away with it then, don't know how it is now. This is not limited to the medical profession, all employers will push things as far as they can. I once worked for a large non profit that did a lot of shady things and we were told not to discuss any of these things with our coworkers or anyone outside of the workplace. We all had to sign NDAs and anytime there were rumors going around you knew they were true because we'd get memos reminding us not to talk about one thing or another. I think the most telling thing about this organization was that all of the board members were attorneys. One of the open secrets was this organization hired a lot of illegals who they treated badly. One day I decided I'd had enough and left. This by the way is not an exception regarding non profits any one of them that receives government money is suspect.

Worcester Art Museum, World class hospital, public medical school and 8 (I think) colleges and universities.

I never knew that.