Happy news! Thai Moon reopened today in their new spot in the former Twyrl location in Arlington Center. I am pleased to report their pad thai was delicious as always. It’s been a long slog for them following a fire about 3 years ago (!) so it would be good to support them. I certainly plan to!
A little further down Mass Ave, across from the library in the Joe’s space, Tatte is set to soft open in the next 2 weeks and their interior looks almost done.
an outpost of banh mi ba le is opening in the food court at 99 asian supermarket in malden
Tous Les Jours on Billings Rd in North Quincy has finally opened. Offers a variety of buns (mildly sweet), croissants, and breads. Milk bread and sliced loafs, but not much in the way of baguettes or other forms of crusty breads. They do have really pretty cakes in their fridge. I tried a blueberry cloud cake that was really lovely, if a bit over-priced for the size.
Now we just have to wait for Paris Baguette to open a few blocks away.
This is exciting news! Will give it a try and report when I do. Much closer than Dot Ave home location.
These probably opened before July, but I haven’t seen them mentioned. On the same block of Washington St, Newton(ville), just west of Walnut St.
I haven’t been to either yet, will report back.
Not an opening, but also probably not worth of its own thread. Alcove just announced that they got approval to have their patio dog friendly. This will make a great spot even better.
Spending extended time in Europe recently, the strict rules about pets here seem silly. Also, price inflation has not impacted dining there remotely as much as in the US. Also, our tipping culture is absurd.
Eating & drinking in Lisbon and Perugia the last month proves you correct! What we pay for a glass of wine here will get you an incredible bottle of local wine. Pasta and seafood are SO much cheaper there. No wonder many are leaving the US…
I lived in Spain for 2 years decades ago. It seems likely that restaurant prices in the US could be in part due to higher rents in urban areas than restaurants have to pay in some European locations, absurd pricing for liquor licenses, especially in Boston, and the new effort in the US to offer health insurance to restaurant employees (in many European countries, the government, not the individual employers offer the health insurance).
When I lived in Madrid, every corner cafe offered all kinds of alcoholic drinks, including brandy, at all hours, and every cafe had children guests even late at night. Even the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid (National Library) where I spent weeks/months during research offered a full line of alcoholic drinks in addition to reasonably priced, freshly cooked food all day long.
I recall eating in a rather elegant restaurant (indoors, early spring) in the Loire Valley in France decades ago. All of a sudden I felt a large furry thing brushing against my legs. It was another guest’s dog who was roaming the restaurant.
This is from the restaurant at a 5 star hotel in Italy. No one there was bothered. All I could think of was how much people in the US would lose their minds over this.
TLJ and PB are both excellent. Very popular down here in Northern VA along with other Korean bakeries.
Our friends are able to take their well-behaved dog inside every restaurant we go to when we visit them in Italy. He naps or lounges very quietly under the table, as if he knows he needs to be on his very best behavior.
Yes. No doubt, people are certainly more respectful and responsible with their pets in Europe.
Except that in my friends’ area, some people abandon their pets when they go on annual vacation. Yikes. That is how they got their sweet rescue dog, now living his best life going everywhere with his humans.
In many countries in Europe, e.g. Germany etc. health insurance is paid by the employee and employer (in different ways through tax withholdings from your salary, direct payments etc.) - the government only supports when you work in low paying jobs (which waiter isn’t considered) or you are out of a job.
Rents, especially in larger, more tourist focused cities, are very high in Europe and often comparable what you pay in many larger cities in the US.
One factor which is different, even though it has shifted more recently with the high inflation (which is in many parts in Europe higher than in the US) is that government more actively support farmers in different ways to keep prices on some key commodities lower (but Europe is still struggling to get inflation under control and we will see how this will play out). Overall the foundation of society is build very differently over the last 100 years in the US vs many states in Europe which build different social safety nets etc and ultimately lead to in general narrower band of poverty vs extreme riches (which doesn’t mean that there isn’t homelessness or very, very rich people but it isn’t as extreme as here. And I don’t know if anybody in Europe who has to maintain three jobs at the same time to survive which much more common in the US
Yes, foundation of society has been very different in the US than in European countries for a long time. And inequality is huge and increasing in the US over the last decades.
Is the health insurance in Germany sponsored by the government…in other words, single-payer…and both employee and employer make contributions to that?
Or, do employers in Germany, including restaurants, select from a variety of private insurance plans to offer to the employees, whose cost they share with employees, with a complex set of co-pay, co-insurance, deductibles, etc. that make it very difficult to compare which plan is most economically and medically effective for specific families? And is there the complex overlay in Germany of flexible spending plans or medical savings accounts? Do employees and employers in Germany pay the enormous cost it takes to employ and support the system of denying medical care that we pay for in the US? Do medical care plans in Germany frequently harass doctors to justify the medical care the doctors have determined is necessary, thus taking doctors’ time away from direct medical care?
This is food related in that people who work at restaurants, and people who own restaurants, have to take these considerations into account when they work and when they pay their staff members. And what they charge in restaurant prices.
The US government used to pay huge subsidies to farmers to keep commodities such as tobacco, wheat, corn, etc. at a cheaper price. I have no idea what is going on now with that now in the US. And there are also tax breaks for people who choose to set up, say, a kiwi farm, encounter huge losses, etc. I doubt most of these agricultural subsidies or lack thereof are much affecting restaurant prices in the US. I could be wrong.
The homelessness rate in Germany is almost double the rate in the U.S. Per 10k as a percentage:
Germany 31.4 vs US 17.5
No Germany doesn’t have a single-payer system. It is a complex system of government supported (not funded) and private insurances and the employees and employer have to pay into it (with different ways how this can be done)
You can choose from different types of insurance and if you make certain decisions it is actually quite hard to reverse the decision (especially if you have hard times, e.g. moving back from private to “public” or not insurances)
I have read, and agree, that one key difference (not only for health insurance but high costs in general in the US) is the legal system which allows to “constantly” sue everybody by everybody. Part of the high costs in health insurance are actually related to insurance costs for many/all health providers to be prepared for the legal cases.
Good point as I am more used to live on both coasts in the US where the homelessness in the moment like here in California is higher than in Germany but tend to “forget” there is quite a huge area between both coasts.
Noticed today that Mass Hole donuts has moved from Arlington MA to 1157 Broadway, Somerville, MA. Not sure when that happened…
