January 2020 openings and closings [Boston and New England]

sort of going to miss this one, they at least had a decent burger. The immediate Harvard Sq. lunch options are getting a little scarce for me, even though I only eat out here once a week or so. Looks like more lunches at Cilantro, Sakura, Cafe Sushi and Dumpling House.

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If you are going so deep into central square territory, go deeper and eat at 5-spice. I’ll post additional info at the right time and on the right place, but it’s worth the extra distance. Plus, you’re young and can still run there and back.

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You are the second person in a week to tell me this.

Was the first person any good? That will balance me.

Let’s say I trust your food recs more than hers but you have validated that one for me.

Damn you @GretchenS, as you know flattery will get you everywhere with me. I just force-posted my 5-spice observations:

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Nice to know I can bend you to my will. :grin:

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5 spice is relatively local to me but I have never eaten there. I’m definitely interested to hear your recommendations.

99 Ranch, North Quincy outpost, is scheduled to open weekend of Jan 18-19. Woot! I know it’s just a grocery store and I don’t know why this makes me very excited.

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@uni I’ve post about 5-spice on the 5-spice thread, linked to above. Let me know if you need additional information.

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Well, it’s hyped to be the asian wegmans, right? :slight_smile:

Had a pizza for takeout from Max & Leo’s Chelmsford location Tuesday night. Nice leoparding on the crust and proper Neopolitan style, which is a first in our locale. The crust suffered a soggy middle, which may have well been due to the fact that we did takeout.

They don’t seem to be encouraging to-go orders (yet), which I think is smart. This location has only been open about a week. The place was full with eat-in diners at 6:30 on a wintry Tuesday night.

We’ll give it another go when we can to see if the crust holds up better when dining in.

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I got corrected once on this board when complaining about tip droop of my Neapolitan pie at Babbo Seaport. I was told that is Neapolitan style, like I guess you’re supposed to eat it with a knife and fork? Which I can’t do, lest I have Jon Stewart on my case. :grin:

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It’s a fair bet I that will be the next to stand corrected. :upside_down_face: The middle of our takeout pie was seriously soggy. More so than I have experienced before, and certainly much more so than my ideal pie In our region: Short & Main in Gloucester.

My hypothesis is that our pizza sat in a closed box for too long a time. Not complaining at all as this Max & Leo’s doesn’t seem to be aiming to do takeout yet—staff isn’t even giving out to-go menus—and they accepted our order warmly.

For all these reasons, so far I like the cut of their jib.

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As much as I LOVE pizza, I don’t really care about the AVPN standards or even prefer that type of pie. The good pizzas I have had from Max & Leo’s in Newton corner are not of this style and have not been soft in the middle. Sounds like it suffered from the box (as most pizza’s do) or was undercooked from the jump.

The technique I generally use for a true “certified” type pizza is to fold the tip in, fold the slice and go from there. This leads to more than half the slice being gone on one bite, but…

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I don’t know if they still do this, but the at the original (Newton Corner) location, they used to discourage takeout, period, because of the degraded quality. Interesting position for a restaurant with 3 tables.

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Thanks for this insight. Hmmm, I wonder if that will be the case in the new Chelmsford location as well. Max & Leo’s remodeled a former Friendly’s building at the edge of Chelmsford Center, so there’s more seating available here.

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Agreed. The Max and Leo’s pizza I had (in house) in Newton was not at all like what @tomatotomato describes.

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also, I’m a big fan of this term. I’m totally stealing this!

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They don’t discourage take out at the Newton location as 80% of their business there comes from take out.

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