While most of Boston was glued to a television set for Super Bowl XLVI, he was one of the few who were not. Swaths of the city that would usually be humming on a Sunday were so deserted that a few rolling balls of tumbleweed would not have looked out of place.
Newbury Street had plenty of free parking spaces. Shops were open, but the only people inside most of them were bored-looking sales clerks.
At Town Nails & Skin Salon, a lone woman, Mary Shaw, 29, was getting a pedicure and reading a magazine. Did she care about the game? “Well, not really.’’ She had something of an excuse: she was visiting from Dublin.
Down the street at Ben & Jerry’s, Kate Pipa, 21, was giving out football-themed stickers from behind the counter - or would have been, if she had customers to take them.
“It feels like Boston has been a ghost town all day,’’ she said.
Typically the shop would stay open until 10, she added, but the employees were planning to leave at 7:30, partly because they were worried about rowdy crowds and partly so they could watch the game themselves.
At the AMC Loews Boston Common cinema, moviegoers Jay and Francoise Theise said they might watch the game later, but they were not hurrying home. “We’re going to take a walk,’’ said Francoise Theise, 63. “We may have a drink, and then we’ll see.’’
“We’re just not devotees,’’ said Jay Theise, 66.
Restaurants around the city and surrounding areas were practically silent. Craigie on Main, the Cambridge restaurant where tables can be notoriously hard to come by, had 8 p.m. reservations available. (Sorry, foodies, but O Ya, the exclusive Leather District sushi joint, was completely booked as always.)
Rudy’s Café and Tequila Bar, a Mexican restaurant in Somerville, and Brick & Mortar, a bar in Cambridge’s Central Square, did not have any open seats. But that is because both places were closed, and the employees were having Super Bowl parties.
