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What does it mean to be the Best of Boston? Three Winchester residents can tell you since they’ve made this year’s list.
“It’s so exciting,” said Stefanie Mnayarji. “I am over the moon. I still can’t believe it. I’m still not sure someone isn’t going to knock on my door and tell me they made a mistake!”
Mnayarji’s company, Luxxie Boston, was named the 2025 Best Earth-Conscious Loungewear.
Residents Philip Frattaroli and Garrett Harker also picked up awards for 2025. Frattaroli’s Cunard Tavern was named Best Neighborhood Restaurant, East Boston, while Harker’s Standard Italian was named Best Neighborhood Restaurant, Fenway-Kenmore.
“Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston is ubiquitous, it’s an award I have always held in the highest esteem,” Frattaroli said, of the honor. “My father won with Ristorante Lucia and it is a recognition I have aspired to since opening my first restaurant. I am thrilled to win and so proud of my team at Cunard Tavern! I still have a ways to go to take the lead in my family!”
The Best of Boston is in its 50th year. Boston Magazine published its first list, “The Best and The Worst of Boston,” in 1974.
This year’s list of winners represents more than 250 categories that include dining, shopping, service, city & arts, kids, home and wedding and features both the suburbs and the Cape & Islands.
“Every year, our editors and writers spend months testing and debating the city’s finest restaurants, bars, salons, and more,” said Chris Vogel, editor in chief of Boston Magazine in a released statement. “We’re excited to once again unveil the places that should be on every Bostonian’s must-visit list this year.”
Quite a year
Mnayarji called the Best of Boston “the biggest deal in Boston.”
“In fashion, there’s nothing like it in Boston,” she said. “To be in that category, the Most Eco-Conscious Loungewear…well, it can’t get better than that.”
Mnayarji added it’s been an exciting year, beginning with her School Committee win on March 22 and then receiving a Best of Boston plaque in July.
And she almost missed it.
“They sent me an initial email and I missed it,” Mnayarji said. “Then I got another email a few weeks later, asking me if I was coming to the soiree and I was like, ‘For what?’”
But she made the July 16 ceremony, along with the other Winchester winners.
The July edition of Boston Magazine, along with the online site, features all 250 winners.
What’s Luxxie?
If you’re trying to figure out the Best of Boston categories, restaurants are pretty self-explanatory. But if you’re trying figure out why Mnayarji won, it’s all about being comfortable and revolutionizing what was once thought as your grandmother’s undergarment: the slip.
An economist in her life prior to being Luxxie Boston’s CEO and founder, Mnayarji recalled being on a business trip in Sydney, Australia with a client when a gust of wind whipped up her wrap dress. Of course, she was the only woman there.
“I was mortified!” Mnayarji said. “That night, I called my mom and told her what happened and she said, ‘Why didn’t you wear a slip?’”
It seemed simple, but Mnayarji couldn’t find a slip to save her life. Not in stores. Not online.
“There were plenty of sexy things or Spanx,” she said. “That’s when I decided to make something that wasn’t only comfortable, but also cool.”
Being a woman, Mnayarji said she often found herself in professional clothes that were uncomfortable. And she would wonder if her male colleagues ever felt uncomfortable in their clothes.
And don’t even mention the shoes.
In 2012, Mnayarji got to work researching how to put her ideas into practice. She put together a prototype, sending it to Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City to see how it worked, and then to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge to see if they could give her advice on the material.
“I wanted it to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter,” she said. “And it had to be green.”
Mnayarji said the fashion industry is the second largest polluter, next to oil, and she wanted an organic material manufactured in the U.S. with ethical labor standards.
A tall order? For sure, but with one of the most successful Kickstarters ever, Mnayarji raised $25,000 to fulfill all the pre-orders — and sold out.
And that’s not all. Soon the media came around to tell the story of her success and a company that was growing beyond slips to other products women couldn’t buy fast enough.
In fact, Mnayarji said 2020-21 was Luxxie’s biggest year so far. That’s right, in the middle of the pandemic, women were buying camisoles to wear with their blazers as they worked from home.
“Honestly, it’s been a wild ride and I’m so grateful,” Mnayarji said. “I’ve come to value being comfortable. I would tell women that to be successful, you don’t have to be uncomfortable.”
