July 2019 Opening and Closings [Boston and New England]

Their pizza was classical Neapolitan style and should have tip droop.
Service was always average at best at Babbo but the food was quite good for reasonable prices.
Bad months with KTT and Babbo closing.

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honkman, so you liked Kirkland T&T?

I liked the pizza at Babbo, but the service was terrible on both of my trips there. I think people were avoiding due to Batali’s troubles, I know we were.

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Qdoba in Harvard Square has closed. File this one under not a loss. Also there is the possibility something worthwhile may replace Qdoba.

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Babbo was great until a year or two ago. They offered consistently great food at very reasonable prices. A year or so ago they significantly streamlined their menu, eliminating or reducing many of the small plates (fish and vegetables) that we always ordered there. I too found some new things through their wine and beer lists.

I am with Digga on the pizza, but honkman is correct just I don’t prefer the AVPN type Neopolitan pizza. Don’t get me wrong though, just about any pizza is good pizza.

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Or the greater probability that it will be a cell phone store or a bank.

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Generally not the trend were looking for, but I’d eat at a cell phone store as much as I eat at Qdoba. One can always hope for something better. It has not been confirmed what will happen with the space.

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I also know Neapolitan style is typically soggy in the middle (I’m a student of the Serious Eats pizza compendium but have never been to Italy) but like Jon Stewart, I just can’t abide by eating pizza with a fork and knife, no matter what style the pizza or politics.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/ef43uv/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-forkgate-2-0

Neapolitan style pizza in Naples, Italy is not “soggy in the middle.” It is soft enough to fold over and eat like a book (a libretto). But that’s not soggy.

You are correct. Pizza in Naples is not soggy in the middle and I did see many people eating pizza with a knife and a fork. Not a sin.
Enjoy,
CocoDan

Sounds like I need to get me to Naples pronto! :yum::pizza:

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We’ve been twice. The pizza is great, and in the fall they have a special form of broccoli rabe or rapini called friarielli. The Neapolitans believe that their friarielli are unique. I can attest that they are good.

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I think it’s been well-reported elsewhere, but in case you missed this, Chinatown mainstay Dong Khanh (now New Dong Khanh) will be closing after this weekend - making this technically an August close I guess. I remember they were my first taste of pho and many great Vietnamese dishes (especially Bun Bo Hue) when they were the only Vietnamese place in Chinatown. Now you can find pho places easily in most communities with a heavy Asian population. I haven’t visited them as much in the last few years, just because of so much competition, and many good places closer to home for me. Hope they move on to better things.

We had our first dinner there a few weeks ago and liked it a lot as a “casual” during the week place - good to excellent food with average to good service. We had actually already book our next visit bu coincidence at their last day of service (but cancelled it as we have bad experiences with such dates before)

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It’s great you liked it and so I understand your sadness that KT&T is closing. I hope you’ve found other Boston area restaurants you enjoy.

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Still exploring and our list of restaurants to try is still very long - but current highlights/faborites were Sycamore, Viale, Grassonas, La Morra, Posto, Area Four, Bronwyn, Branchline, Woods Hill Table, Commonwealth, Farmstead Table, Backroom (but not been there after their changes), Country Mile, Little Big Diner, Moldova, Cafe Polonia

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Honkman, have you tried Buttonwood yet? Since David Punch’s other two places are on your list (Sycamore and Little Big Diner), I think you’d like it. Just one more stop outbound on the D train in Newton Highlands.

It is definitely quite high on our list but with family visiting (and we prefer to go with them more to restaurants which we visited before) and 3.5 weeks Europe coming up soon this summer hasn’t seen many new restaurant visited (but come September we will visit Buttonwood as one of first new ones)

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Do we have an Aug thread yet? If so, sorry . . . . .

So Moody’s taco place is becoming . . . . .a fried chicken place??? I do LOVE fried chicken but with Bonchon just opening and #1 Pho (? is that its name now) does friend chicken . . .and KFC on Main street . . . do we need another fried chicken place? Wonder what they are going to do differently.

But I’ll still go. BTW - has anyone been to the Backroom since the management change (I think I saw one person post at some point but not a lot of chatter)?

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Before the change in management, Moody’s was already in danger of having expanded too fast and in perhaps a distracting way. This seems like a step in the wrong direction.

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