Tasty Sandwich Shop | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Established | 1916 |
Closed | 1997 |
Street address | 2a JFK Street [2] |
City | Cambridge |
State | Massachusetts |
The Tasty Sandwich Shop, often called "The Tasty", was a restaurant that operated from 1916 to 1997 near the intersection of JFK Street and Brattle Street, at the center of Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was housed in the Read Block building, on the site of the home of colonial poet Anne Bradstreet. The Tasty closed in 1997, after 81 years in business. Its location was later used by the chain stores Abercrombie & Fitch, then Citizens Bank and, as of 2021 [update] , a CVS Pharmacy.
The Tasty was a tiny one-room diner and lunch counter, its customer area no more than seven feet wide and thirty feet deep, with a narrow counter made of yellow linoleum. A Harvard Business School student once deemed it "the most profitable restaurant in New England per sq ft", at 210 sq ft (20 m2). The Tasty had 14 stools.
A large map, studded with pins, covered the back wall of the diner and claimed to pinpoint the origins of postcards from customers over the years. In keeping with the informal atmosphere of the diner — where the cooks, including Tom Sweet, who managed The Tasty on the graveyard shift until the summer of 1976, and chef Charlie Coney — were sometimes compared to bartenders and frequently chatted with customers.
By the end of its existence, The Tasty had attracted both long-time residents and, by virtue both of its proximity to Harvard Yard and its late opening hours, numerous students from Harvard University, and had become one of the few places where students and residents, and residents from different social and economic classes, mixed informally. According to one historian, "you could sit next to a professor on your left, and a homeless person on your right". [3]
The Tasty was often referred to in the press as a "local landmark" [4] [5] or "institution", [6] [7] and was immortalized in film during a scene in Good Will Hunting . The scene was shot there on May 23, 1997. [8] It was also used in a scene during Love Story , 1970 movie from Erich Segal's story of a privileged Harvard Law School student (Ryan O'Neal) and his working-class girlfriend (Ali MacGraw). [8] It is also the subject of Federico Muchnik's 2005 documentary, Touching History. [9]
Despite a struggle by its owner Peter Haddad, the Tasty's tenancy ended in November 1997. A sign in its window during the move-out stated its lifespan: "81 years. 29,565 days. 5,913,000 people. 422,357 per stool." Its landlord, the Cambridge Savings Bank, took advantage of the increasing attractiveness of the Harvard Square neighborhood to chain store franchises, which enabled the bank to charge significantly higher rents to tenants who provided greater security. Opposition to the end of the Tasty's tenancy was voiced by a number of groups, including the Harvard Square Defense Fund and brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, 'Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers' on their radio talk show, Car Talk . The Tasty became a cause célèbre and a symbol of the transitions the neighborhood was undergoing. [9]
Despite having brought considerable evidence attesting to the historical value of the diner and the important social role it played in Harvard Square, the supporters of the Tasty did not prevail; however, the Cambridge City Council required that the distinctive entrance to the Tasty be preserved, giving it landmark status, and it remains unmodified today. The attention paid to the closing of the Tasty by the Cambridge City Council in the Winter of 1997 occasioned a rebuke from the Harvard Square Business Association, who criticized the council for becoming involved in a private, contractual matter. [10]
For a time, an Abercrombie & Fitch store operated in the building on the site formerly occupied by the Tasty. This store was later succeeded by a branch office of Citizens Bank, and the actual space in which the Tasty once operated became occupied by a row of Citizens Bank ATMs. As Muchnik remarks, "if you look at the bank in the Read Block today, you have one door too many" — the extraneous door, a second entrance to the small ATM lobby, being that of the former diner. Following a relocation of Citizens Bank to Brattle Square, a CVS Pharmacy since opened in its place.[ when? ]
The Tasty's closure is considered a side effect of gentrification; the small, confined space of the Tasty, its prices (far lower than any other restaurant in the Square at the time of its closing) and friendly neighborhood atmosphere attracted patrons from all socio-economic strata and contrasted, in many ways, with the more upscale stores and restaurants emerging — and transforming — the Harvard Square community.
The local hamburger chain Tasty Burger opened a location not far from the Tasty in 2012. Its design is "meant to invoke" the Tasty, [11] using similar lettering for its logo.
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the most populous city in the county, the fourth-largest in Massachusetts behind Boston, Worcester, and Springfield, and ninth-most populous in New England. The city was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, which was an important center of the Puritan theology that was embraced by the town's founders.
Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the business district and Harvard University surrounding that intersection, which is the historic center of Cambridge. Adjacent to Harvard Yard, the historic heart of Harvard University, the Square functions as a commercial center for Harvard students, as well as residents of western Cambridge, the western and northern neighborhoods and the inner suburbs of Boston. The Square is served by Harvard station, a major MBTA Red Line subway and a bus transportation hub.
Inman Square is a neighborhood and historic district in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It lies north of Central Square, at the junction of Cambridge, Hampshire, and Inman Streets near the Cambridge–Somerville border.
Harvard station is a rapid transit and bus transfer station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Located at Harvard Square, it serves the MBTA's Red Line subway system as well as MBTA buses. Harvard averaged 18,528 entries each weekday in FY2019, making it the third-busiest MBTA station after Downtown Crossing and South Station. Five of the fifteen key MBTA bus routes stop at the station.
Central Square is an area in Cambridge, Massachusetts centered on the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Prospect Street and Western Avenue. Lafayette Square, formed by the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Columbia Street, Sidney Street and Main Street, is also considered a part of the Central Square area. Harvard Square is to the northwest along Massachusetts Avenue, Inman Square is to the north along Prospect Street and Kendall Square is to the east along Main Street. The section of Central Square along Massachusetts Avenue between Clinton Street and Main Street is designated the Central Square Historic District, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
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The Cambridge Railroad was the first street railway in the Boston, Massachusetts area, linking Harvard Square in Cambridge to Cambridge Street and Grove Street in Boston's West End, via Massachusetts Avenue, Main Street and the West Boston Bridge.
The Brattle Theatre is a repertory movie theater located in Brattle Hall at 40 Brattle Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theatre is a small movie house with one screen. It is one of the few remaining movie theaters, if not the only one, to use a rear-projection system; the projector is located behind the screen rather than behind the audience.
The Globe Corner Bookstore was one of the largest travel book and map retailers in North America. It was located at 90 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square. The store provided a full range of travel and outdoor recreation reference materials for a destination: guidebooks, maps, atlases, recreation guides, travel literature, nature guides, photography books, cookbooks, and language products.
The Brattle Street Church (1698–1876) was a Congregational and Unitarian church on Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called the "King's Highway" or "Tory Row" before the American Revolutionary War, is the site of many buildings of historical interest, including the modernist glass-and-concrete building that housed the Design Research store, and a Georgian mansion where George Washington and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow both lived, as well as John Vassall and his seven slaves including Darby Vassall. Samuel Atkins Eliot, writing in 1913 about the seven Colonial mansions of Brattle Street's "Tory Row," called the area "not only one of the most beautiful but also one of the most historic streets in America." "As a fashionable address it is doubtful if any other residential street in this country has enjoyed such long and uninterrupted prestige."
The Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE), a non-profit corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been teaching adult education courses at 42 Brattle Street since taking over the building from the Cambridge Social Union in 1938.
This is a timeline of the history of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
The Conductor's Building is a former Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) administrative building, located on Bennett Alley between Mount Auburn Street and Bennett Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1912 as the headquarters of BERy's 7th Division, it is the only original building surviving from the construction of the Cambridge subway. After being renovated from 2014 to 2017 as part of an adjacent hotel project, the building was used as a restaurant from April 2017 to August 2018. Under the name Boston Elevated R.Y. Offices, it is a contributing property to the Harvard Square Historic District.
The Simon Bradstreet House is a historic house built in 1723 located at 1 Mechanic Street, at the corner of Pearl Street, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. It is a contributing building in the National Register of Historic Places-listed Marblehead Historic District. The house was erected by the Rev. Simon Bradstreet, the great grandson of the last bay colony governor. and the second minister of the Second Congregational Church.
Major-General William Brattle was an American politician, lawyer, cleric, physician and military officer who served as the Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1736 to 1738. Brattle is best known for his actions during the American Revolution, in which he initially aligned himself with the Patriot cause before transferring his allegiances towards the Loyalist camp, which led to the eventual downfall of his fortunes.
Harvard Yard – the oldest part of the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts – is bounded by a perimeter fence punctuated by a series of gates, all built since 1880.
Byways Cafe was a diner in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon, United States. Owners, Collin McFadden and Megan Brinkley, opened the restaurant in 1999, serving American breakfast and brunch comfort foods such as corned beef hash, omelets, and pancakes. Guy Fieri visited the diner for a 2007 episode of the Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Byways received generally positive receptions and was voted the city's "best brunch spot" by readers of The Oregonian in 2016. It closed in late 2019, after the owners were unable to reach a lease agreement with the landlord.