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Old 08-22-2008, 06:17 AM
 
Location: Boston
102 posts, read 446,559 times
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Between episodes of Gilligan's Island, eating Hostess Fruit pies, playing street hockey in hilly Arlington, and listening to Dale Dorman on Top 40 WRKO, we enjoyed our parents taking us out to some memorable-- and not so memorable restaurants -- in our beloved, previously lower-taxed state:

Willow Pond Kitchen, Concord, MA -- There were no willows and no ponds, but they did have a kitchen that turned out amazing lobster dishes and an infinite supply of oysters. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill, assembly line restaurant: stuffed moose hung off the wall as a means of creating ambiance, and the frogs legs on the menu were to be admired as unique, but certainly never to be eaten. The Willow Pond Kitchen wasn't all that great in some regards, as the service could be brusque, the pizza took a page out of the Elio's school of frozen pizza-making, and the cow stench across the street wasn't exactly the best introduction to visiting this roadside restaurant. For its faults, Willow Pond was a great rough-around-the-edges memory in the refined community of Concord.

The Acropolis, Cambridge -- The best baked lamb ever to come out of Cambridge! Memories of the nearly-silent, smiling bald Greek host, the man who would rush to refill your water glass after one sip, and the eight-track player looping "Never on Sunday" every five minutes wonderfully complemented the tender baked lamb -- and the five pounds of delicious bread we ate before the main course.

Nick's Beef and Beer House, Cambridge -- With the double cheeseburger plate coming in under $3.00 at one time, and the phony fireplace with the multi-colored logs, this huge, unpretentious restaurant near Porter Square satisfied our appetites and put us on a fast track to potentially bad health. Local students, immature adults were acted like students, and the rest of the world loved to come here for pitchers of beer and the big portions of comfort food. It was quite a sight -- as loud as Grand Central Station and with a collective calorie count that would have had Dr. Mehmet Oz and Sara Snow shaking their heads.

Cottage Crest, Waltham -- It was like walking into your grandmother's house who was cloned 90 times over. I (and my brother and parents) were the only ones without blue hair and willing to skip the early bird specials in hopes of something more substantial. All kidding aside, the steak and chicken dishes were pretty good here. The traditional atmosphere was something I miss dearly as fewer dining places seem to be "normal" today.

Yoken's, Danvers -- The blue, smiling whale sign, two dining rooms that looked identical, a nice waitstaff that brought you a little extra dessert, and lobster dishes that were as every bit as good as the more expensive Boston restaurants, made Yoken's one of our favorite Route 1 North restaurants.

The Aku-Aku, Cambridge -- Before the second Aku Aku gained famed at Alewife Station, there was the original one on Route 2, near the former legendary and slightly unctious Faces Nightclub. It was so dark in here, we frequently bumped into the walls. The dining room was full of colored lights and phony rivers. The pu pu platters were about the best we've ever had, and the service was somewhat friendlier than at the Alewife Station location. My Dad's friend once ordered a "number one" special at lunch. My Dad said, "Me, too," and got the number two special! It's too bad the Aku Aku left this location. It seems like the building has been vacant dating back to the Sheng Dynasty -- perhaps they could consider reopening a new Aku Aku with all the old school bells and whistles here?

So, what are your favorite memories of closed Massachusetts restaurants? I'd love to hear some of your nostalgic dining memories.
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Old 08-22-2008, 02:15 PM
 
18,601 posts, read 33,168,447 times
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Heavens, you already mentioned the Acropolis and Nick's- I lived nearby there for years and enjoyed both places many times.
I miss the Cottonwood Cafe in Cambridge (in the former Sears building). Great food and a gorgeous interior, but you still felt OK going in there in jeans, after all, it's still Cambridge.
La Patesserie, the below-sidewalk cafe on JFK Street, near Harvard Square (formerly Boylston St.) I think the guy who ran it was Algerian, although he said he was French. For some 25 years, I met a dear friend there for breakfast every few months, and one day, we pulled up, and it was gone.
The Orson Welles Restaurant, on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge- the first place I saw that had a vegetarian entree. First ate there in 1974, when the movie theater was next to it (before the "tragic fire" that destroyed the whole block). I gather that the Orson Welles was initially planned in the hippie-dip late 1960s to be a free restaurant, to "feed the people," staffed by volunteers, and people would make "contributions." I gather that idea didn't last, or never got started.
The Averof, in Porter Square, Cambridge, where I worked many times as a waitress. A Mideast nightclub, with good food and belly dancers, and the large crowds would dance around the restaurant, shaking the floors with the Greek dance step stomp. You could see the same people there every weekend for years. The owners were Lebanese, but tried to say it was "Greek" so as not to distress Israeli/Jewish patrons, my guess. There was a waitress there who angrily told me she was "Palestinian," not "Israeli." This was back in the 1970s.

Obviously, I have a long memory for places north and south of Harvard Square...

Oh, and the biggest loss of all- TT the Bear's, when it was a six-booth resaurant with a small bar and one waitress, from South Molucca. (!) This was when it was on Pearl Street in Cambridge, not the second place/rock club on Brookline Ave. They had the greatest jukebox in the world- I can still remember Dinal Washington and "Unforgettable" and all the Ray Charles and stuff. The owner told me later that the place was robbed and all the old music was stolen.
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Old 08-22-2008, 02:36 PM
 
Location: Pueblo West
87 posts, read 455,743 times
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We used to eat at Aku Aku every weekend when we were kids. I refused to eat Chinese food for a few years I got so sick of it. Nick's Beef & Beer, ah the memories there. My dad's construction crew would go there after work for liquid lunch, they are the reason they swapped to plastic beer pitchers...one of em got a pitcher to the face. Good double cheeseburgers there.

The Kernwood in Lynnfield was very good, we didn't get to go as often, but it was always good.
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Old 08-22-2008, 04:42 PM
 
Location: Dorchester
2,605 posts, read 4,824,327 times
Reputation: 1090
The Roundup Steakhouse in Waltham with the steel steak plates. Cafeteria style eating.
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Old 08-22-2008, 06:06 PM
 
36 posts, read 227,224 times
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On the way home from Green's harbor, we used to eat at Patty's - a great burger joint that made delicious huge shakes, burgers and fries piled high. Morey Pearl's was another favorite for steamers by the pound - we'd polish off pounds of them while the adults enjoyed ice cold pitchers of beer.
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Old 08-22-2008, 07:03 PM
 
284 posts, read 1,162,696 times
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I loved going to Welcome Farm in South Weymouth as a kid for grilled cheese, french fries, and chocolate ice cream for dessert. I loved petting the brown pony (I think her name was Cocoa) in back and rolling down the giant hill. It's now a self-storage facility.
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Old 08-24-2008, 09:43 AM
 
Location: Cambridge, MA
4,881 posts, read 13,742,426 times
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BEL CANTO - Their calzones will never be equaled. All ingredients fresh, everything made on the premises even in the earliest days - when it was a "BYOB" hole in the wall between Central and Harvard Squares. Still awesome even when they expanded into the already-mourned-here Acropolis' space, upgraded from paper plates to glass, shrank the calzones, added dipping sauces, and got a liquor license. A victim of their own success: opened locations in Lexington, Beacon Hill, and Brookline, perhaps other places too. Caught the eye of a "corporate buyer" with a terrible track record: Pizzeria Regina. After no more than another year or two, all were gone.

CAPTAIN'S WHARF - Loved it when it was in a refurbished gas station on Harvard St in Brookline, kept the love alive when they relocated north of Coolidge Corner into much nicer digs. Nothing fancy, but cheap and plentiful and tasty. Fast, efficient, perfunctory service in the classic Greek style. Now an MRI clinic.

THE TOLL HOUSE - Never had the chance to eat there, and now of course it's history after having burned to the ground. But Lord did I love their eponymous cookies.

GREEN STREET GRILL - About the only circular that was welcomed in my mail was the GSG menu for the week. 'twas always a good time to chow down in that sooty-walled dive with the cowboy-garbed bouncer, and the jukeboxwith its eclectic selections. Still a cool place to hang even after the prettification, but it all died when John Clifford sold the business. Now "Grill" has been dropped from the name, the joint's packed to the rafters with non-native yuppies and wannabe's who swoon over the "creative cocktails," and the menu befits the clientele: pretentious offerings like mac n' cheese served with duck confit for something like $18.95. Sickening.

DIVISION SIXTEEN - How I miss that cavernous "place to be seen" in the western reaches of the Back Bay on Boylston St. Small portions were unheard of, and the omelettes and burgers in particular were "off da hook" delicious.

TANDOOR HOUSE and KEBAB N' KURRY - Both were in the initial wave of the Indian-cuisine boom in these parts. And both are missed for different reasons, Tandoor House for its "endless" menu and Kebab n' Kurry for its cozy basement atmo and how they prepared the rice.

SAINT BOTOLPH - Too few of these not-too-fancy but still "nice" restaurants exist nowadays. One of my lifelong meal memories will be the pork medallion, prosciutto, mushroom, and wild rice dish I allowed over an hour to fully savor. It was on the menu as a "special" for early New Year's Eve dinner one year. What's in that turreted brick building now, I neither know nor care.

I could go on, and on, and on, and probably will (LOL!) But the eatery I probably miss most acutely is...the envelope, please...

THE FISHERY - An all-too-short-lived (1993-2000) addition to Central Square, succeeded by the bad Good Life (until '04) and the not much better Tavern in the Square since. Longtime restaurateur Harry Katis and his wife Vicky were at the helm, so to speak. Their adjoining seafood market turned out an incomparably tasty and generous-sized fish n' chips lunch for all of $4.95. For dinner, you couldn't go wrong or leave feeling poorer. All the staff knew your name by your second visit, and some of the regulars I chatted up at the bar are personal friends to this day. The calamari? MWAH! Everything right down to the house salad? Magnifico! And nowhere else have I found sour-cream-and-mustard-crusted catfish. I walk past the "Tavern," see all the noisy transplants and visitors mobbing the place and scarfing down its mediocre food (though their Sunday brunch scores with me) and shake my head.
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Old 08-25-2008, 11:54 PM
miu
 
Location: MA/NH
17,758 posts, read 40,005,634 times
Reputation: 18033
Jimmys Harborside Restaurant. My grandmother would always take us out to dinner there when she was in town.

Elsie's, Zum Zum and that all night hot dog place Tastee's in Harvard Square.

Genji Restaurant on Newbury St.

Warburton's... I loved their Cornish Pasties.
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Old 08-26-2008, 01:50 AM
 
Location: Cambridge, MA
4,881 posts, read 13,742,426 times
Reputation: 6947
Quote:
Originally Posted by miu View Post
Jimmys Harborside Restaurant. My grandmother would always take us out to dinner there when she was in town.

Elsie's, Zum Zum and that all night hot dog place Tastee's in Harvard Square.

Genji Restaurant on Newbury St.

Warburton's... I loved their Cornish Pasties.
Wasn't a fan of The Tasty itself, but a major believer in the concept: filling food (even if it tasted lousy) at all hours of the night. Dolly's on Highland Ave on the outskirts of Davis Square was my place to roll to at 4 AM on an empty stomach. 'twas always jam-packed with hungry cabbies, bar employees getting off work, musicians after gigs, night owls, etc. It's had two successors that close before midnight, having been put out of business by gentrification. The same fate befell Charlie's all-night cafeteria in Kenmore Square - don't get me started on The Rat. Thank goodness we still have Chinatown and the nearby South Street Diner. I didn't shed a tear when Buddy's Roast Beef closed ahead of the Charles Street Jail's transformation into a trendy hotel, but legions of wee-hour noshers undoubtedly did.

Good calls on Elsie's - awesome sandwiches, Genji - Japanese before Japanese was cool, and Warburton's - the pastries were called "savories," and the naming was apt as they were filling lil' meals in and of themselves.

Does anybody else recall the East Side Clam Bar in Rowley? It was situated on a side street off 1A. You could tell it was a good year for littlenecks when you had more of them on your heaped plate than you did French fries and onion rings, lol.
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Old 08-26-2008, 02:10 AM
 
18,601 posts, read 33,168,447 times
Reputation: 36848
I was going to say the Green Street Grill, but thought it's still there. I guess it's changed too much to call it the same place.
When it first opened, they served hot peppers that could be so hot, you'd swoon. Once I ordered them in some form, and the waitress suggested that I cancel the order, as "they're too hot today." Well, I wanted to show off to my hick sister how cool I was, so I ordered them. One bite and I almost fell off my chair.
It was neat how you had to come in through the tough little bar, past the jukebox, and then in for some of the best food ever. I believe Clifford was the first restaurant owner to put condoms in the bathrooms.
And second the St. Botolph. That was always the place for a "nice" brunch on Sunday. I think it's condos now. Great building.
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