Just the beginning: Ashmont Grill and The Fat Cat. Boy do we miss Ashmont!!!
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Do you remember Carl’s Pagoda and Joyce Chen? 2 Asian spots I’d love to have back.
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Of course Joyce Chen. I think it was required for certain MIT majors.
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Kind of like Mary Chung’s or what?
I think Mary Chung’s was a prerequisite.
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Carl’s Pagoda! Wow, memory unlocked! I never actually dined there, but I was living near Chinatown in those days and walked by this place all the time. I’m waiting for someone to pull out the Bob Lee’s Islander reference.
HA! Bob Lee’s Islander was a hoot. Everyone went there after the high school prom.
Carl’s Pagoda was the real deal. Carl would be in the kitchen cooking wearing a white shirt and bow tie with the white apron. We loved his Ginger Shrimp, Carl’s Special Sirloin ( I don’t eat red meat very much any more), and his Special House Rice. MY MOUTH IS WATERING! I even saved an old paper take out menu.
A4. Best pizza in the area for the short time they were open. I cannot understand why Area Four can’t match A4’s consistency.
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Wholeheartedly agree!
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Damn. Bel Canto. Haven’t thought about the broccoli/walnut pizza there for years .
Definitely ahead of its time.
Eat there and then get hammered at Ding-Ho.
Still miss Jake and Earls.
And the burgers at Tims Tavern in the South End.
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RE Ding-Ho, do you mean the Hong Kong (home of the scorpion bowl and bad Chinese food). While the Hong Kong had bad food, Young and Yee’s was worse. Ding-Ho is still in Chinatown
Jake and Earl’s was a revelation in a town that had no BBQ to speak of (Hoodoo BBQ at the Ratskeller). We do better these days but still tend to go out of town to BT’s in Sturbridge
Yes the burgers at Tim’s Tavern were great. RF Sullivans in Somerville is still around though double the price that they once were, but isn’t everything? Ding-Ho’s $2.00 special is now $4.00 and still ridiculously cheap.
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RF O’Sullivans in Somerville has been closed for a couple of years. The Lynn location closed about a year ago.
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I was talking about the place that was the Spring Street Saloon with the wagon wheel on the ceiling.
Several nights completely destroyed there (and the Hong Kong) . Saw Poundstone and Steve Wright for the first time there.
Seinfeld at “ Catch a rising star “ and a Louie Anderson/Roseanne Barr double bill at New England Life Hall.
Boston was a killer comedy/Jazz town then.
Long time ago.
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Two more spots I dearly miss, that were within a few hundred yards of each another:
Emma’s Pizza and Hungry Mother - both at the edge of Technology Square in Cambridge. Both were awesome. Hungry Mother was a special spot… 
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Both of those! Hungry Mother was the BEST
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I bet you have a warehouse of great stories.
Oh, and tell your buddy @passing_thru that I miss them.
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I was actually just coming on here to write up our dinner at the Cornerstone last night, which is in RF O’Sullivan’s Somerville location.
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+1
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I had pizza at A4 three times. It was always excellent. I’ve easily had a hundred pizzas delivered from Area Four. Initially they were spotty, but the last 20–30 have been uniformly excellent, as good as those three from A4: dry, charred crust, blistered and puffed at the edges, with that slightly sour-doughy taste of slowly-risen dough. The toppings have been excellent, as always: decent cheese, very good sausage, mushrooms, salami, and the like.
That’s my experience.
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I used to work in tech square. I loved Hungry Mother too. I’m not a pizza fan, but my colleagues regularly hit Emma’s Pizza for lunch. It was definitely one of the better pizza places I could enjoy. My really sad loss in that 'hood though was Izzy’s. I used to go at least once a week, and was always greeted by the owner with a hearty “Prima!” (cousin). A hidden gem with delicious Puerto Rican and Caribbean favorites. I used to get their Mondongo (tripe soup), their octopus salad with tostones, and other weekly specials regularly.
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