Craigie on Main is probably my top pick, since Eastern Standard came back (yay). The Hawthorne wasn’t really a restaurant (the green goddess was good…) so it doesn’t count. (I’ve been to Equal Measure, it’s not the same.)
This might only be coming to mind because Craigie makes me think of burgers, but: I went to school in Amherst, and the Blue Flame in Northampton made the best burgers. I think a majority of the restaurants I went to in college back then are gone now (the last time I visited, there did not seem to be 39 different places selling $4 calzones), but that’s the one I really wish I could go back to.
Yeah Craigie on Main was special and really stood out (and still stands out) because Tony Maws and his team never really specialized in any specific type of cuisine (fish v. meat v. anything else). Seems like few restaurants specialize in such a way these days. They’re either Italian, or seafood, or meat, but rarely do they show the kind of depth that Craigie covered with their frequent menu pivots.
I still dream of their fresh summer corn soup sitting ringside, overlooking a very quiet but oh so effective team in the kitchen crush dinner service.
We liked Veronique. First at Coolidge Corner and then, Longwood Towers.
Also Appetito in the South End.
The original Charley’s at the end of Newbury St. It was open on Sundays. Had steak and eggs on the menu.
I can’t say I dearly miss those places but I enjoyed them back in the day.
If I mentioned these before, sorry for repeating.
Yes, another vote from me for Craigie. I had two good tastings and a few bar seating visits that were really good. What is Tony Maws up to these days?
I also miss Bergamot. Never had a bad meal there, and I recommended that place to many coworkers for casual and business dinner meetings who all loved it too. One of my votes for worst COVID losses.
We went to Craigie for Easter brunch once sort of by accident—we had planned to spend a week in Boston and somehow hadn’t realized it was Easter weekend, so made the reservation at the last minute when I was afraid we might have trouble finding a table somewhere. Usually for brunch I’d get the Craigie burger (still the best of the “high end restaurant burgers” for me, maybe tied with Husk’s, which almost feels like it’s in a different category since it has ground bacon in the patty). For some reason I got a bagel plate instead. I’m always skeptical of bagels from anywhere but an actual bagel place, so I don’t know what got into me.
But the thing is, it was great. Sure, part of it is because of the variety of smoked and cured fish and fish salads that it came with, but the bagel was great too. Whatever they made, they just always seemed to get the hang of it.
Craigie On Main and Craigie Street Bistro will always have a place in my heart. I only ate at the Bistro once, and it was phenomenal (my wife kept asking me what one of the items in this pasta dish was, and I didn’t want to tell her it was cockscomb, but I did and got the expected response from her).
I really miss sitting at the bar at CoM, though, and eating those glorious pigtails in nuoc cham, the amazing cod cheeks, the burger, and damn near everything I ate there. I met Tom Schlessinger Guidelli there, as well as Paul Manzelli (former Bergamot bar manager and currently working with his wife Lydia at Jinny’s pizza).
As for The Hawthorne, it was our favorite bar for a long while, and we’d always get served 4 of their incredible deviled eggs with crispy prosciutto, instead of the usual 3. Met Misty Kalkofen and more bartenders there than I’d care to admit, but it was a great place. While Equal Measure doesn’t have the same feel at The Hawthorne, I like the snacks concept, and bar manager Eliza Hoar is bringing her A game to the cocktail list, as well as excellently executing the classics.
Oh yeah. Remember Charlie’s Heaping Sandwich? Essentially an open face Ruben. They expanded for a brief moment (Chestnut Hill comes to mind} then eventually I think they were acquired and vanished. What was the owners name? Vaguely recall it was an Armenian surname.
Thanks! I met him at his place in the Cambridgeside Galleria (I don’t think it lasted long). He actually sat down for a long chat about the restaurant industry. Very interesting guy.
PS - Now I remember why I imagined an Armenian connection. Sarkis is an unusual name but I had come across it before. The Mugar Library at BU is dedicated to “Sarkis and Vosgitel Mugar”. The dedication plaque outside the library was a common meeting place for our gang, in the days before cell phones. And yes I’m older than dirt.
For those of you who were regular visitors to Boston’s Chinatown in the for the last 40 years, you may know of the one true hole-in-the-wall that was Wai Wai. The original restaurant was on Oxford St, not far from Sun Sun market. They were officially called Wai Wai’s Ice Cream shop, which always amused me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone order ice cream from them, in 30+ years of eating there. There specialty was their “white cut” chicken with still my favorite ginger scallion sauce on rice. They also opened a "nicer"space at the corner of Harrison Ave and Kneeland St. I’m not sure when both closed down, but I haven’t seen either places open post pandemic.
I used to eat there at least once a week when I worked close enough for a quick lunch (and the were speedy at delivery). I also enjoyed their soup of the day that came with your rice. To say the restaurants’ ambiance was unassuming is putting it mildly and politely.
I found out today that the owner passed away recently, and his funeral services were held today in Quincy. It brought back a lot of memories of eating there with my parents as a child and with sister who’d go with me for a quick lunch. Definitely miss this place, and RIP to the owner.
