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?
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…
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
The subject line is Dec 2019 and it’s almost March 2020. However, Happy Crab, Teele Square, Somerville, apparently opened in December. We just came back from our first, very enjoyable time at Happy Crab.
Great food…we loved the fried oysters and we got the lunchtime special smaller bag with clams, shrimp, and garlic noodles. Utterly delicious. Very fresh seafood and the garlic noodles absorb the luscious shellfish cooking sauce. Best shrimp we’ve ever had in Boston. We split the red bean ice cream, which was also amazing. Very friendly people and very welcome addition to the Camberville/Boston restaurant scene.
yeah, the plastic bags are a traditional “shaking crab” Cajun thing apparently, but it seems they don’t cook in the bags, just put everything in to shake it all up and distribute the sauce…which really seemed to work. Despite the plastic.
Whereas there is a cod dish with vegetables at Legal Seafood that is actually cooked in a plastic bag and it is served very hot with the top of the bag knotted. The bag at Happy Crab arrives top open, the food is hot but the bag isn’t. I really don’t see how it could be done in a paper bag, everything would leak. And in a bowl it wouldn’t get shaken.
I wonder if they’d consider departing from tradition a bit and put everything in the bag and shake thoroughly for just a minute, and then serve it as pour into a bowl (there would still be the plastic waste problem). Or perhaps shake it in two mixing bowls with one inverted on top and then pour into a serving bowl. It is messy and they give your gloves and put it all down on a large piece of paper. That makes me think that at some very traditional shellfish boils, I’ve heard they just pour it out on paper after shaking it. That level of messiness might not work for many potential patrons, but the plastic bag won’t for others.
Still, we’ll go back. It was very good.
The appetizers, soups, salads, po’boy sandwiches are not served in bags. We had the fried oyster appetizer, which were excellent and served in a miniature shopping cart line with paper.
Sounds fun. I was prepared to hate Shaking Crab, but tried it at the Quincy location and it was actually better than I thought it would be. It’s a messy time for sure, so not great if you don’t like getting your hands dirty. Have you ever tried Shaking Crab, @Madrid? Curious how you would compare the two if you’ve been to both.
I’ve never been to the Shaking Crab franchise in nearby Porter Square, so I can’t compare the two restaurants. However, Happy Crab is a locally owned, newly opened (Dec. 2019) small business, not an international chain (Shaking Crab is now in Singapore as well as in northeast US locations) so I’ll be going back here to support them.
Bonus, cute fanciful serving dishes, small grocery cart for the fried oysters, miniature bath tub for the ice cream. Clock and crab wall decorations from China. Everyone we saw working there is Asian and I hope the coronavirus scare won’t hurt their business. Porter Square is close to Teele Square!
Love seeing your Spring Onion’s (non) face. I guess she’s a scallion (or a full-blown onion? I don’t know the growth phases of onions) now. I remember going to Full Moon once and had a lovely lunch with a dear friend while my Spring Onion happily played in the play area. We had a simple and tasty light lunch where we could talk, and the server kept our wine glasses filled.
