That restaurant was called Salon Rouge and I was a waitress there, between college and grad school. It was lunch-only and the kind of lunch where you can have three courses and leave hungry - or as Michaela used to put it, “our portions are fairly delicate”. 
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Oh wow. They mentioned Thinking Machines Corporation - I just entered Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine!
Epsilon Data Management had one of the first commercial-use supercomputers (a CM-5, IIRC) used mostly for American Express (first a client, then they bought Epsilon) when they were located in Burlington. After it was installed with glass-front windows/doors on the first floor of the building we were in, it drew a LOT of people downstairs to IT to look at it.
It reminded me of WOPR from “War Games” in 1983 with its ominous red blinking lights. 
OK, back to your regularly scheduled program of restaurants you miss.
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Of course Danny Meyer from Thinking Machines was occasionally spotted at Michaela’s. Richard Feynman’s son worked at TMC for a bit.
Everyone had to eat !
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Wondering if you ever waited on me? Used to visit the cafe when visiting Gerhard Wagner from BCMP @ HMS.
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Remembering that Stan Frankenthaler’s Salamander moved into the former Michaela’s space. My husband and I loved going to Salamander for an occasional special-occasion dinner (alas, we didn’t have the budget to try Michaela’s during its run).
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Salamander was pretty awesome, but it did something to Stan. When he was at the Blue Room he was easygoing and quite funny. At Salamander he became something of an enfant terrible.
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Are you mixing up the Shake Shack guy with Danny Hills? Or was there a Danny Meyer involved too?
Yikes, wires crossed. Thanks for the correction. It was Danny Hillis, not Hills.
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Interesting. We were but occasional diners at Salamander, of course, so we were spared from seeing that side.
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And IIRC Sheryl Handler was COO.
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I think one of his outbursts was sufficiently public it made the news.
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Does anyone remember an upscale Italian place in downtown Boston? I cannot for the life of me remember the name, but it was some of the better Italian food I’ve had in the US.
I still very distinctly remember a rabbit dish I had there.
PS: Sorry, not scrolling through 400+ posts to see if it’s been mentioned yet. Ain’t nobody got time for that, and you natives likely know what I’m referring to.
Can you be a little bit more specific? Lots and lots of Italian places in the Boston area. Time frame? Location? Anything else?
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More clues? More precise location?
I thought it was in the North End. I already googled bc if I see the name I’ll remember. Upscale.
Many possibilities in the North End but the grand dame - gran signora ? - is Mama Maria. I’ve had lovely rabbit dishes there.
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Do you remember when you visited Boston? That might give others familiar with the comings and goings of the North End a better idea.
This was in the 00s, but I think the place closed around pandemic times. Italian name, one word, multiple syllables.
Ain’t that helpful? 
There was also a great Italian place in a residential hood in Cambridge, north of Harvard we walked to one night, thinking we’d never find it.
On Hanover Street or one of the side streets?
I have absolutely no idea what the street address was, since this was in 2004. If I did, it would be much easier to look up.
There were restaurants next door as well, but not sure if it was on both sides.
