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Sandwich chain to lease, renovate decaying structure on Boston Common
By adamg on Tue, 03/22/2011 - 9:04pm
Earl of Sandwich has won a city lease to turn the one-time Pink Palace men's room into a take-out stand, according to City Councilor Mike Ross. The Pink Palace is the boarded-up, partially roofless octagonal structure in the middle of the Common.
The hot-sandwich chain already has an outlet at Logan Airport's Terminal E.
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Comments
Nothing against Earl of Sandwich, but ...
a food concession on BOSTON Common should go to a BOSTON-based company, not one from Orlando, Florida.
At least it's not going to a New York company
You'll recall one of the early contenders was Shake Shack.
The people on ArchBoston was
The people on ArchBoston was really wanting a Shake Shack.
Just go across the street
And give U-Burger your bizz. Much better food anyways.
a food concession on BOSTON
Because we don't want those damn foreigners coming around here stealing our jobs, dammit!
Worse than that...
It's an Orlando company that's named for a Brit who wants to take over the Common...and one of his other franchise owners is Roger Clemens.
I mean...can we offend any other sensibilities in the city with this deal?
At least the Earl doesn't do burgers like some of the other suggestions here. Did you really want the entire Common to stink like a deep fryer and an overused burger grill all year?
b.good!
would have been good.
But rather than a burger or sandwich joint, we should have gone for a clam and lobster shack, something like Woodman's.
Already good
There's a b.good on Washington Street, maybe 1/2 a block from the Old South Meeting House.
I'm a Bostonian, and Shake
I'm a Bostonian, and Shake Shack still beats out U-Burger (by miles), Tasty Burger in Fenway, the only thing coming close *might* be Five Guys. Earl of Sandwich is another mediocre chain that appears in Malls & Airports & Amusement Parks - does Boston really need one in The Common? If it's sandwiches they want in the common, why not go with some great locals like Al's on State St, Dino's from the North End or even a TC Landos.
Can't we bring Buzzy's back?
Anyway, enough with the shoulda-been handwringing. Perhaps other vendors looked at the property and decided to pass. I'd imagine it will be a pain to get supplies delivered.
Ummm, did no one notice that
Ummm, did no one notice that Earl of Sandwich is owned by the actual Earl of Sandwich? That's pretty cool.
Really?
Maybe I'm just too cynical in my old age, but I just assumed that was made up, like Uncle Ben or Betty Crocker.
Wow, way to go with the worst possible option
Shake Shack would have been a great add and, contrary to the just outright wrong assertion about, is a much better burger than just about anything this town produces (Bartleys, Radius, R.F. O'Sullivan's, you're excused from this discussion). But why would we want Danny Meyer when we can have mall food?
I actually liked the idea of a fried seafood place, too. Not great, but it's some local flavor and there's a decided lack of good seafood takeout downtown. Sometimes, especially on summer days, you just want to clams or scallops and a lemon.
Earl of Sandwich -- because we obviously don't have any generic sandwich shops like Viga, Sebastians, et al. downtown -- just bites.
Is anyone really all that
Is anyone really all that surprised? I was thinking it would be a Dunkin Donuts. I expect nothing less from Mayor Menino and City Council.
Park Inappropriate?
My question is why do we need a food shack in the middle of the common - the place is already surrounded by food vendors as well as several snack vendors that are in the park. How about a park appropriate use - petting zoo adjunct to Franklin Park, maybe a small operation of garden sized model trains that kids could operate with their parents for a nominal fee or some other activity that doesn't revolve around eating (a snack shop supporting the activity similar to the frog pond is fine - as a matter of fact if you have to have a restaurant - the frog pond is probably a far more appropriate location tucked behind the hill on the side of the park in an area that's already paved - not smack in the middle - next thing you know they'll want a food court on the baseball diamonds!)
Agreed, people go to the Common because it's a park,
not for a sandwich. I'm not convinced the Common needs anything new, but I'd much prefer your ideas, which are park-centric, rather than the generic food stand. Ideally, we'd get a ride on train that orbited a beer garden. Throw your kids on a train, then sit down for a pint while they ride. Unlike sandwiches and burgers, beer gardens are unique park experiences, and something we could use in Boston.
People go to the esplanade for the same reason
And there's a food stand there. The Common needs a lot of new things, and a few less people crying about them.
The esplinade is remote from other vendors
.
"surrounded by food vendors"
Lord, is that rich. Boston and its park have the least number of food vendors and carts of any major city in America. Meanwhile, in Central Park, there are carts on the thoroughfares, a restaurant in the boathouse, a snack stand near the Conservatory Water, a snack stand near the carousel and whatever restaurant goes into the Tavern on the Green space. Oh, and Madison Square Park has the Shake Shack.
Your ideas have merit, but so does the food. The Common could stand a little more activity.
"next thing you know they'll want a food court on the baseball diamonds!" Wow, that's the most Chicken-Little Bostonian fear-of-change thing I've heard in a long time.
Only partly tongue in cheek
Of course that was tongue in cheek (although there actually is a proposal to tear up the fields and expand parking below - not because there is a shortage of commercial parking, but because the convention center authority thinks they can make money at it) You do also know that the next proposal that is on the table are paid advertising plaques? For example "This flower bed sponsored by Winston Flowers", "this replica Liberty tree donated by Liberty Mutual" etc. That's really on the table - not chicken little. That's how these things happen - a little at a time until you wake up one day and go - damn, what were they thinking and you come to the conclusion that they weren't. The city is taking very specific steps to commercialize the park in every way possible. If they can pawn off the maintenance expenses on private biz like they have the Greenway and Post Office Square, they can apply more of the city's revenue to their own wages, benefits and pensions - and as I've noted often before - the city's elections are dominated by city employees that reap the rewards of those wages benefits and pensions. Follow the money and you'll see what's happening.
Parks muscle is aways cut
Parks muscle is aways cut before any other department's fat. It's been that way since the 1980s when prop 2 1/2 kept municipalities from voting themselves a pay raise, at taxpayer expense, every time they lived outside their means. Rather than cut off someone's no show job or double dipping pension, let's cut arborists and grounds crews, no one will notice.
Cue a few years later when half the trees are dead and there's more mud than grass. Everything's now pawned off on private groups to do basic city services, because some departments don't want to give up their allotment of lard to allow other departments to actually have enough funding to properly function.
Boston's ratio of capital going to personnel costs versus funding infrastructure maintenance has been on a steady curve to DOOM for a very long time now.
amazing
i for one could not be more thrilled about this news. i think this place makes some of the best sandwiches ever.
Really?
This is ridiculous...we went from rumors that something on a par of Shake Shake would be in the Common...to this? Has anyone gone to the Earl's website?
The food looks terrible --- based on their OWN pictures.
The "press" articles are all listed in French? So, no one in the US has bothered to write about this place?
Maybe it's because of all the typos on their site.
Their signature sandwich --- at least it seems to be b/c it is first on their menu on the website --- is described as:
Freshly Roasted Beef, Cheddar Cheese & Creamy Horseradish Sauce
(that's a copy and paste from the site).
Last I checked, freshly is not a verb.
Look, I am not --- and I am betting most of the posters here are not --- privy to the negotiations the city employed with this joke of a fast-food chain. Maybe, as residence of Boston, we made out like bandits...who knows...
What I DO know is Thinking Cup (w/ their fantastic breakfast sandwich) and Sam LaGrassa's (with their best-in-show RB sandwich) need not worry about this cheap-looking, stripmall worthy, new-comer...
It just stinks we couldn't get something worthy of such a unique locale.
yup
and unless they go el foldo we r stuck w them for 15 years