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Discussed all of 4 days ago. But that's OK 'cause this thread goes WAY back and nobody with a life would be expected to read through the whole thing.
What really put Shrewsbury on the map was Spag's. Never mind that one of the few things they didn't sell was prepared food. "Home DeLowe's" and the other big-box stores which killed it just aren't the same.
Since this thread is intended to cover the entirety of the Bay State, I appreciate the westward diversion of its focus. Now it's time to take that ball and run with it all the way to the Pioneer Valley. Out there the places I remember (and now lament the loss of) include:
Taco Villa (Amherst & Northampton): I've found no other "Mexican-American" joint anywhere that serves crispy crunchy crinkle-cut fries along with burritos, enchiladas, or whatever.
Goten's (North Amherst & Hadley): A yummy and unique take on Japanese food. Because their free-standing restaurant was considered expensive - and wasn't near a PVTA bus route - I never got to it. But they had a take-out window at Hampshire Mall where I wolfed down many a snack or meal.
Carbur's (Hadley): A kinda fun place for college kids to play grown-up in (and hope their fake ID's worked ) with its "dressy casual" atmosphere and high-backed chairs. The menu was extensive but not too expensive, the food good but not memorably so.
Beardsley's (Amherst): The big, bright yellow, Victorian house just around the corner from the common on Main St still stands. But the slightly yet "accessibly" upscale place-to-take-your-parents inside is a thing of the past.
JB's Roast Beef (Amherst): This hole in the wall was toward the east end of the row of shops directly opposite the common, and BOY were the sandwiches and shoestring fries deelish there! It got lots of love, but was in existence for three years if that.
Paddington's (Northampton): It wasn't named for the English teddy bear, but for the Hampshire College graduate who had some money to throw around and decided to watch it disappear by opening a pizzeria. The product was served on little pedestals resembling those which bakeries use to display cakes, and even if you were alone and ordered a "large" there were rarely leftovers. The za's were that good. But Ms Paddington Matz's business acumen wasn't, and her eponymous restaurant was history before long.
Sze's (Northampton & Springfield): The "awesomest" fake Chinese food, anywhere, ever!
The Ground Round was great when I was a kid. They used to serve peanuts and everyone threw the shells on the floor. I remember in some of the locations they had a movie screen setup and they would show classic cartoons.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goyguy
Discussed all of 4 days ago. But that's OK 'cause this thread goes WAY back and nobody with a life would be expected to read through the whole thing.
What really put Shrewsbury on the map was Spag's. Never mind that one of the few things they didn't sell was prepared food. "Home DeLowe's" and the other big-box stores which killed it just aren't the same.
Spags was the BEST. It was just one of those quirky local places. They never took credit cards and they didn't have bags for you to take home your merchandise in.
Rosie's in New Bedford. Had a FANTASTIC seafood jambalaya with scallops, shrimp, little necks, sausage, all full size. Tried some jambalaya places in Boston and they didn't try very hard at all. But Rosie's was the real deal.
Discussed all of 4 days ago. But that's OK 'cause this thread goes WAY back and nobody with a life would be expected to read through the whole thing.
What really put Shrewsbury on the map was Spag's. Never mind that one of the few things they didn't sell was prepared food. "Home DeLowe's" and the other big-box stores which killed it just aren't the same.
Since this thread is intended to cover the entirety of the Bay State, I appreciate the westward diversion of its focus. Now it's time to take that ball and run with it all the way to the Pioneer Valley. Out there the places I remember (and now lament the loss of) include:
Taco Villa (Amherst & Northampton): I've found no other "Mexican-American" joint anywhere that serves crispy crunchy crinkle-cut fries along with burritos, enchiladas, or whatever.
Goten's (North Amherst & Hadley): A yummy and unique take on Japanese food. Because their free-standing restaurant was considered expensive - and wasn't near a PVTA bus route - I never got to it. But they had a take-out window at Hampshire Mall where I wolfed down many a snack or meal.
Carbur's (Hadley): A kinda fun place for college kids to play grown-up in (and hope their fake ID's worked ) with its "dressy casual" atmosphere and high-backed chairs. The menu was extensive but not too expensive, the food good but not memorably so.
Beardsley's (Amherst): The big, bright yellow, Victorian house just around the corner from the common on Main St still stands. But the slightly yet "accessibly" upscale place-to-take-your-parents inside is a thing of the past.
JB's Roast Beef (Amherst): This hole in the wall was toward the east end of the row of shops directly opposite the common, and BOY were the sandwiches and shoestring fries deelish there! It got lots of love, but was in existence for three years if that.
Paddington's (Northampton): It wasn't named for the English teddy bear, but for the Hampshire College graduate who had some money to throw around and decided to watch it disappear by opening a pizzeria. The product was served on little pedestals resembling those which bakeries use to display cakes, and even if you were alone and ordered a "large" there were rarely leftovers. The za's were that good. But Ms Paddington Matz's business acumen wasn't, and her eponymous restaurant was history before long.
Sze's (Northampton & Springfield): The "awesomest" fake Chinese food, anywhere, ever!
I'm interested in knowing when those places were around. I lived in Amherst from '91 to 2000. I never ate out anywhere in Hadley and really didn't spend much time in Northampton, so some of those restaurants could have been around when I was in the area without my knowing. I'd know places in Amherst, though, but none of these sounds familiar. That makes me curious about whether they were there before my time, or have come and gone in the 14 years since I've left the area.
I'm interested in knowing when those places were around. I lived in Amherst from '91 to 2000. I never ate out anywhere in Hadley and really didn't spend much time in Northampton, so some of those restaurants could have been around when I was in the area without my knowing. I'd know places in Amherst, though, but none of these sounds familiar. That makes me curious about whether they were there before my time, or have come and gone in the 14 years since I've left the area.
Aside from the places which didn't last through my tenure out there (until the summer of '87), every single one of them had vanished by the early '90s. Such is the nature of many a business in a college town. However, "Am Chi" (Amherst Chinese) and Judie's are still around in Amherst, while Fitzwillie's ("the birthplace of 'potato skins'") and Joe's Pizza - same as it ever was - endure in Noho.
Discussed all of 4 days ago. But that's OK 'cause this thread goes WAY back and nobody with a life would be expected to read through the whole thing.
What really put Shrewsbury on the map was Spag's. Never mind that one of the few things they didn't sell was prepared food. "Home DeLowe's" and the other big-box stores which killed it just aren't the same.
Since this thread is intended to cover the entirety of the Bay State, I appreciate the westward diversion of its focus. Now it's time to take that ball and run with it all the way to the Pioneer Valley. Out there the places I remember (and now lament the loss of) include:
Taco Villa (Amherst & Northampton): I've found no other "Mexican-American" joint anywhere that serves crispy crunchy crinkle-cut fries along with burritos, enchiladas, or whatever.
Goten's (North Amherst & Hadley): A yummy and unique take on Japanese food. Because their free-standing restaurant was considered expensive - and wasn't near a PVTA bus route - I never got to it. But they had a take-out window at Hampshire Mall where I wolfed down many a snack or meal.
Carbur's (Hadley): A kinda fun place for college kids to play grown-up in (and hope their fake ID's worked ) with its "dressy casual" atmosphere and high-backed chairs. The menu was extensive but not too expensive, the food good but not memorably so.
Beardsley's (Amherst): The big, bright yellow, Victorian house just around the corner from the common on Main St still stands. But the slightly yet "accessibly" upscale place-to-take-your-parents inside is a thing of the past.
JB's Roast Beef (Amherst): This hole in the wall was toward the east end of the row of shops directly opposite the common, and BOY were the sandwiches and shoestring fries deelish there! It got lots of love, but was in existence for three years if that.
Paddington's (Northampton): It wasn't named for the English teddy bear, but for the Hampshire College graduate who had some money to throw around and decided to watch it disappear by opening a pizzeria. The product was served on little pedestals resembling those which bakeries use to display cakes, and even if you were alone and ordered a "large" there were rarely leftovers. The za's were that good. But Ms Paddington Matz's business acumen wasn't, and her eponymous restaurant was history before long.
Sze's (Northampton & Springfield): The "awesomest" fake Chinese food, anywhere, ever!
WOW. Taco Villa. I still long for their tastey food because nothing compares. In the '80s I used to go there on my lunch hour from work, stand in line, and pay very little for some of the best food on earth. Where did it go? Why can't there be another place like that?
Also Beardsley's on Main St. Northampton in the late '80s where my ex and I used to go for a fancy brunch. Small, dimly lit place where you sat in ancient oaken booths and were waited on by people in long white aprons, IFRC. It was frequented by Smith College students. I don't know how a great place like that could have closed, maybe it was just too small and too good? Their food and service were perfect, the atmosphere was intimate and quiet so you could talk and not be distracted. It was like being in another world.
And another place, although few will remember it: The White Rabbit Tea Room in Wareham on the way to the Cape. Back in the '50s my parents would pile us and a week's worth of beach paraphernalia into the station wagon and off we'd go, to the Cape. A stop at the White Rabbit for lunch became a highly anticipated tradition. In those days it was uncommon to eat out so this was a special treat as well as being yummy food--chicken in a basket and some kind of thick buttery toast. Until a few years ago I still had some of their blue and white paper place mats decorated with rabbits.
You're right, I'm wrong. The yellow house in Amherst housed Plumley's. (There may have been a "b" between the "m" and the "l.") Maybe both establishments were run by a Ley family?
Beardsley's was outta there by 1986. Its successor was Curtis & Schwartz, aka Curtness & Snot, now also a distant and fading memory.
Also in Noho, on Crafts Ave downtown (the side street leading from Main St to the bus depot), was Hot Tomato. It was a dressy-casual Italian restaurant with a bit of an identity crisis between the two adjectives. Everyone made the word "tomato" a plural or possessive when speaking of going there. By the turn of the '90s it was reincarnated under another name; indeed, nothing may have stayed the same but the type of cuisine offered and the building. To this day 10 Crafts Ave is home to an Italian eatery.
The Red Lion Diner, aka Dead Lion, is now just plain dead. And the Jack August seafood joint, in business since the 1920's, has vanished without a trace.
You're right, I'm wrong. The yellow house in Amherst housed Plumley's. (There may have been a "b" between the "m" and the "l.") Maybe both establishments were run by a Ley family?
Beardsley's was outta there by 1986. Its successor was Curtis & Schwartz, aka Curtness & Snot, now also a distant and fading memory.
Also in Noho, on Crafts Ave downtown (the side street leading from Main St to the bus depot), was Hot Tomato. It was a dressy-casual Italian restaurant with a bit of an identity crisis between the two adjectives. Everyone made the word "tomato" a plural or possessive when speaking of going there. By the turn of the '90s it was reincarnated under another name; indeed, nothing may have stayed the same but the type of cuisine offered and the building. To this day 10 Crafts Ave is home to an Italian eatery.
The Red Lion Diner, aka Dead Lion, is now just plain dead. And the Jack August seafood joint, in business since the 1920's, has vanished without a trace.
Oh yeh, Plumbley's. I don't think I could ever afford to go there--unless it was that place where you could select little tidbits of food. If it was a real restaurant, no.
I've just come back from reading a long expose of what really went on in Northampton in the 80s and 90s and it's not a pretty picture. Illegal deals, ponzi scheme with bankers and lawyers involved, mob connections, the whole nine yards. All I wanted was to find out whatever happened to Beardsley's. OMG.
Beardsleys was not any Ley family. Yikes. It was shut down--fast!
(I guess another thread could be--why is there so much organized crime in MA?)
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But that's OK 'cause this thread goes WAY back and nobody with a life would be expected to read through the whole thing.
) with its "dressy casual" atmosphere and high-backed chairs. The menu was extensive but not too expensive, the food good but not memorably so.
The yellow house in Amherst housed Plumley's. (There may have been a "b" between the "m" and the "l.") Maybe both establishments were run by a Ley family? 
It was shut down--fast! 
