Anybody remember these restaurants? (Cincinnati, Kent: co-op, university, shopping center)

[tntnb]

Update: I got the word from Maury's owner Paul Yamaguchi himself--"We ain't closin'"

[globack]

The Glass Managerie was before Willie's in Ky. The Prime and Wine was in Kenwood before it's fire.

[goyguy]

Originally Posted by tntnb

Update: I got the word from Maury's owner Paul Yamaguchi himself--"We ain't closin'"

I'd ask you to tell him and Ben I said hi, but they knew me in the '70s and I've only been Goyguy for a few months

This is good news indeed. Too much space has been getting used up in the restaurant graveyard for that part of the county: Habig's, Rondo's, the Window Garden...

[Zezima]

Magic Wok is operating under several different names across the country, but I'm not sure about Cincinnati.

[cleanqueen]

I remember back in the mid 60's by dad who was in sales used to take his customers to the Massonette for lunch. I think it was downtown on 6th Street. I read on some reviews about Cincinnati restaurants and they said it wasn't that great especially for the high prices. They said there were better restaurants out there. I figured it had closed after all these years but I guess not.

[goyguy]

Maisonette did close - abruptly - a coupla years back. The employees were none too pleased, lol. Neither were my parents, who'd reserved a "deuce" for celebrating my mom's birthday.

[coach02116]

Greetings from Boston. Re the place flattened in 69' on Galbraith, does anyone recall The Upper Crust?

Originally Posted by goyguy

Prime & Wine was rebuilt - may even have the same name, but I'm rarely in Kenwood and don't remember that detail. I believe, though, that the same people run it as before. There was an "Enquirer" review which sniped that nothing had changed since the old place (in a negative way, as in "no change to the menu or appearance of the place.")

HoJo's is as good as extinct, no matter where you are. New England is where they used to "rule," and there's nary a single one to be found any more. As is the case with many mid-20th-century buildings, though, it's easy to spot a former HoJo's. The chain was bought out by an English (?) company that couldn't close down the food service division fast enough. The hotels, over time, have gotten scarce too.

Exrvi: You would've eaten at McIntosh's when the restaurant was "subtitled" Steak & Kettle. Some of us were discussing recently how long it lasted. My best recollection was that they'd quietly gone out of business sometime in the late '80s. Thanks for narrowing down that estimate to post-1986. (McIntosh's had originally operated on the opposite side of Galbraith Rd, but was flattened by a tornado in 1969.)

[blockhead]

And greetings from Dallas,

Loved the Upper Krust. The closest you could come outside of downtown to Izzy Kadetz. I remember, too, when the tornado knocked it down. What a shame. After that we had to go to Stanley's in Golf Manor (no comparison).

I go to Boston at least once a year. What's a good deli there?

[goyguy]

The Upper Krust - talk about a star-crossed business! Neither tornado nor robbery nor fire could stop it, only the owner's retirement could. Who could forget its mustard-yellow exterior on that 1890's-look wood building? It was still good when Meir Ovadia, maybe believing the original name had negative karma, changed it to Meir's Place. Point of info, it stood on the east side of Reading Rd between the green "brick" Sycamore Square office building and Porfidio's Wishing Well. Never again will there be sandwiches so delicious

As a Cincinnatian by birth and Bostonian by choice, I have to bear the bad news that there really is no good Jewish deli in Beantown. When Roxbury, western Dorchester, and Mattapan went the way of Avondale and Bond Hill and Roselawn (for the same reasons, at the same time) the kosher eateries largely didn't follow their primary patrons out of the city. They simply shut down. Brookline is down to two, not including the Eagles Deli - on the Boston line in Cleveland Circle - which is a student hangout and more of a general carbohydrate cafe. Rubin's has a following, but it's in a drab setting (former 1950's bank) and no one I've talked to who's been there thinks it's all that great. Zaftig's tries to replicate the old-school NYC deli feeling and does a fair job, but I can't exactly "kvell" about it. They make a fair brisket and have a long list of nicknamed sandwiches, and they even sell Dr Brown's sodas. Even at "off" times you have to wait for a table more often than not. That's more because they're just about the only game in town, though, not due to anything spectacular on the menu.

As my screen name implies, I don't have dietary "laws" to worry about. Yet I still get a good feeling when I see food labeling or a restaurant indicating "glatt kosher." My favorite place in that category to eat is Ruth's Kitchen on Harvard St. They're all about "Chinese-American" food, and man is it tasty - freshly prepared and inexpensive too. Most of their business is take-out, and their phone rings off the wall with catering gigs, but they have a few tables set up for dining on the premises. Word to the wise: Ruth's stays true to Jewish mandates in another sense, too, that being a 2 PM closing on Fridays and no resumption of business until the following Monday afternoon.

But, I digress. When Meir Ovadia departed for Israel for the last time, a seafood restaurant called Sweeney's took over the Upper Krust building and was in operation for some 10-15 years. (The owners were no relation to car dealers Jake and Tom, to the best of my knowledge.) I'd long since left town, and never got the chance to try it. Did anybody else here?

[coach02116]

Goy is right; Boston doesn't have any true traditional deli's like you'll find in NY, etc. However, there's 2 unique lunch spots for grab-and-run (or sit if you prefer) that I'd recommend -depending on what part of Boston you hit.

First is Sam Lagrassa's (www.samlagrassas.com) on Province Street -about a half block over from the old city hall/Boston Latin School. Humungous customized sandwiches are their specialty; folks line up outside onto the sidewalk just to wait when the weather's nice. Crowd is usually a mix of business/tourist/construction (high rise going up across the street). Definitely a good stop.

Second is Capone's down on Summer Street between Otis and Devonshire Streets (2 blocks down from the old Filene's Building). It's a combination italian deli/NYC-style pizza, lunch plates, as well as calzones the size of footballs. Big proportions at low prices; small and noisy like your typical lunch counter place -but noisy in a good-way.

Another decent deli-type spot is Plaza Deli on the back side of the John Adams courthouse. All kinds of sandwich concoctions as well as lunch plate specials. Lot's of italians (my 'people') working the counter with the usual order yell-outs; good moderate prices. Crowd at lunch is lawyers & secretaries.

Boston has some fantastic eats; however, the best fish and chips I've ever had comes out of Cinci. There's a UK-themed joint down on Walnut Street(?) between 7th and 6th streets that I try to hit whenever I get to Cinci on business trips (about 3-4 times a year). Can't think of the name of the place (anyone?). Nice, crisp batter that's tight to the fish, etc. Awesome eats.