They really are.
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Just another article about the closing, not behind a pay wall in case you can’t read the Globe article.
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That’s unfortunate but I can’t say I have been to the No Name in the past decade.
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It really became a tourist trap in the last decade. Last time we were there it was one notch above awful. Sorry to say I won’t miss it.
Didn’t Enjoy,
CocoDan
Ouch, sounds like things really went downhill. Appreciate this perspective.
Full Moon in Huron Village closed after 22 years. If you don’t have children of a certain age, you’ve probably never eaten there, but we do and we did. We even hosted a birthday party there once. The food was surprisingly solid. After that era in our lives passed, we hadn’t gone back in some years, but we happened to twice in November. We’ve known the owner, Sarah, casually for years. She looked a bit harried, but did not let on that they were soon to close.
@GretchenS may appreciate this walk through memory lane, but when we first moved into that neck of the woods in 1993, that space housed Pentimento. It seemed to me like a leftover “hippie-ish” restaurant from the 70s and early 80s – dim, a little run down, and tables always a bit greasy. When they closed a much better restaurant, Otto, took its place, but it only lasted 2 or 3 years. Full Moon has been a fixture in the neighborhood since 1997. Now it’s gone, the little combo store on the corner (part pharmacy, part PO, part candy-and-card store) is a Marimekko, and Fresh Pond Market is gone.
At least with Formaggio Kitchen taking over Fresh Pond Market, there’s hope that something good foodwise will take its place.
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I had forgotten Pentimento! That former corner drug store/post office/candy store is where we’d walk to buy candy bars, they were very nice to little girls, I miss both it and Fresh Pond Market (where they were also very nice to little girls and my parents had an account) very much. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Here is hoping the Formaggio folks do great things with the market.
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So, you were one of those kids gobbling all that candy on that corner!
Yes, the people at Fresh Pond were very nice. When my parents visited from India, they loved FP Market because it reminded them of home. They hated the impersonality of supermarket and department store shopping. At FPM, on the other hand, Mark and Cosby always had time to chat with them. Years after they returned to India, Mark would ask about them and send them his regards. And they had a butcher. Freshly cut meat and a chat – really what more could one want?
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I heard that it is going to become something called The Melting Pot. No, not the chain fondue place. Apparently a young couple is planning to open some sort of Mediterranean fusion restaurant there. Perhaps they have not done their trademark research? We shall see…
Personally, I’d been with my small well-behaved children several times to Full Moon and found the food rather poor and the noise level and parenting on display completely intolerable. My mom lives around the corner now and she insisted on going there, ordering salmon, asking them to please not overcook it, then complaining for the entire meal when it came out- you guessed it- overcooked. Fool me once, shame on you, but by the third round of this game it got old…
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I’m surprised to hear of the bad food there. As I said, all my many experiences there were of food that was decent. The noise/activity level was very variable. For a few years, my daughter and I went there for Friday lunch. We even had a regular table, which Sarah remembered when we went back this past November. (I’d have been in NYC Mon–Thu, so Fri was our father-daughter day.) I had many solid sandwiches, burgers, etc., there over the years.
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I’d only been there for dinner- maybe the vibe was different at night?
Ah, that’s entirely possible. I don’t think I ever had dinner there.
(I also avoid entree type stuff at such places, sticking to sandwiches, salads, and burgers. Occasionally I slip up, and always regret it: on a recent visit to some Long Island restaurant recently for somebody’s birthday brunch I threw caution to the winds and started with oysters, went on with squid ink pasta with bottarga, and ended with diarrhea. My wife, seated too far from me to caution me, wisely just got pancakes.)
Note to self: Avoid sitting next to @fooddabbler at a dinner party. Or at least, leave him a wide berth for the bathroom.
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As long as fooddabbler has only had a turkey sandwich at a doubtful place, you’ll be okay next to him. And he can down oysters and bottarga at reliable places with the best, with nary a whiff of anything.
But, as a curious thing, as I get older my system is increasingly susceptible to off food.
Note to self: offer your body as a highly sensitive off-food sensor to the FDA.
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Our last full moon experience about 3 years ago was horrible. We (2 adults) went for a weekend brunch. One half of the bagel was totally burnt (I mean black, conveniently placed down). We never thought it was great food back in the day, but it was fun and good enough and we were going to Formaggio anyway. The last time had several mishaps besides the conveniently placed bagel, and the exhaust system at 12 noon was clearly overwhelmed and it confirmed a downward trend. I did like seeing the kids and families there, but it was not going well for quite some time.
The Globe reports that the new owners have instead decided to call it Base Crave, and it’s Nepalese. It sounds promising in the review:
Curries are lighter than you’re expecting with juicy pieces of chicken and mushroom in one, firm and tender squares of tofu in another with all those beautiful vegetables. The dark red curry sauces are prepared to order as hot or mild as you like.
Herb flatbread is crisp on top, tender inside; it comes with a thin, aromatic, bright green cilantro and avocado sauce you want to sip with a spoon. A very pretty plate of grilled rack of lamb offers rosy, juicy, tender chops with great flavor, alongside a stir-fry carrots, green beans, peppers, and sugar-snap peas, and a mound of basmati rice garnished with cilantro sauce.
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Thanks. There’s an interesting story behind the restaurant and the name changes. (It may be in the Globe story, too, but I could not open it.)
In any case, I’ve just posted my initial impressions.
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yes, interesting back story. Thanks.
Hmmm…I wonder how much of a difference the type of cuisine really has on the licensing transfer. For sure, some foods might require some configuration of the interior kitchen (lots of frying or smoking, pizza oven, etc.). The article that @fooddabbler cites makes several references to a Mexican place that became an Asian eatery, and it suggests that there was some deception there. Is that a reaction to the popularity of a cuisine and local preference for one over the other, or is there a real licensing/kitchen equipment issue?
It’s turned into a bit of a cluster locally. The bottom line is that most neighbors are very happy to have a new and interesting restaurant option. However there was definitely miscommunication along the way that some understandably consider a bit of a bait and switch. Neighbors miss Full Moon (I never cared for the model; when we’re at a restaurant I want my kids learning how to behave and enjoy dining out, otherwise we just got a sitter when they were young. However I am in the minority and many enjoyed the play area at FM). Anyway, the new owners tried to brush this off, and then blamed it on their attorney when the CD article came out. This understandably doesn’t sit well with some.
I’ve yet to try the new spot, but look forward to giving it a whirl.
