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Noooooooo
One of my favorite places for a weekend breakfast. Amazing hash.
My gut feeling is its
My gut feeling is its increasing rents, aging owners and no one looking to take over businesses.
For me if you gave me the choice of Mandy and Joe's or Jim's I will pick Jim's, similarly I would take Cafenation over any of the other Coffee Shops, and The Briar and Porter Belly's over Joey's or BBG. But its always sad to see options go.
There is 1 new Restaurant that just opened, MDN Noodles, which I am hoping to go to this week or next maybe mid afternoon. Not sure how long Bangkok Bistro has been (re)open maybe a year and a half now?
Its probably the same issue as reported on Newbury St
Cheap money has led to a commercial buying spree and driving up the prices of the buildings. The landlords in turn need to pay the mortgages and are jacking the leases up multiple times.
MDM Noodles
...is insanely popular, by all accounts, and likely to remain so.
Muerl, what's your fave at Jim's?
Not Muerl but...
I'm not Muerl but... Jim's Deli makes some kickass blueberry pancakes.
Not for the faint of heart...
The Killer.
Depends on my mood.
Depends on my mood.
Nick's Special
Hash and Eggs
Irish Wrap (put the irish breakfast in a wrap ;)
Re MDM thats why I was saying Saturday afternoon. Though maybe Saturday Morning will be the best bet.
Oh also I would add I learned
Oh also I would add I learned how to make good banana chocolate chip pancakes by watching them being made at Jim's. They are not my favorite, but they are for my wife.
Is there some arcane secret
Is there some arcane secret to making banana/chocolate chip pancakes? I learned how to make them by chopping up some bananas and adding them, with some chocolate chips, to my pancake batter. My wife loves them.
Well, if you append them to
Well, if you append them to the top of the pancake batter after you have placed it on the griddle the chips will melt and the banana will caramelize once you flip it.
Recommendation
Stir the chips into the batter before the griddle.
Slice the banana lengthwise into quarters, then slice ithe four long strands, and put the pieces in some melted butter in a warm pan. Allow them to caramelize slightly, then add them to the dough. Otherwise, the pancake will overcook in order to adequately extract the sugars of the bananas.
Imperial Pizza, Joey's, Smokin Joes, Mandy and Joes
I've loved Brighton Center since moving here from Mission Hill in 2011 but it has been troubling to see all these places close in recent months.
And Castlebar down Oak Square
And Castlebar down Oak Square.
This is all very wtf and sad and the place that opened in place of Smokin Joes is an awful, awful looking Chinese returarant with a menu in broken English that looks completely unappetizing
So stay away, then
Really, it would be awesome if you simply stayed away from the "awful, awful looking Chinese returarant" (what?). I'm looking forward to trying it, but it's a little too popular right now, and by all accounts they sell out of some of their noodles early in the day. I'd hate to lose out to a chicken-finger-lover.
We'll see how long it lasts
We'll see how long it lasts after the honeymoon period. There's already four Chinese places in Oak Square that are practically empty and that real estate could be used better. At least something went in that didn't add to the FOURTEEN hair/nail salons in the quarter mile of Washington from Brighton Center/Oak Square.
What's more important is now Brighton Center has lost another location that had a liquor license AND live music. That's terrible.
Well...
1. This isn't Oak Square. Close, but not.
2. By all appearances, MDM is to the chicken-fingers-and-crab-rangoon "Chinese places" already in the neighborhood as a decent steak joint is to McDonald's.
Please, you can stay away
More MDM for me.
I already had to turn away once due to crowds.
I happen to like good, authentic, and spicy Chinese food. Perhaps you might not. Oh well.
And others will stay away as
And others will stay away as well.
Because brighton center is losing its nightlife. Like I said, another license And music venue gone for something that can be found anywhere.
I'm sorry for your inability to look past your own selfish tastebuds to see the neighbourhood is dying.
Ah yes, the hypothetical "others"
Paean of the internet: "lots of people agree with me". Ah, yes...
You've already had it explained to you, multiple times, that this new restaurant is very far from being "something that can be found anywhere". Why do you persist in flaunting your ignorance? It's fine to say, "Hey, that other thing was my kind of thing and this is not," so why not just leave it at that?
Wow, somebody really pissed all over your Cheerios and probably your shoes as well, didn't they? How are Matthew's tastebuds any more selfish than yours?
Why ignore the fact that very
Why ignore the fact that very little is going to draw people to this restaurant which is located in prime real estate, because it doesn't have a license? They've also put so little effort into the place. I've seen better quality interiors at a VFW hall and the sign and advertising are awful as well. This does nothing to help revitalize the neighborhood which keeps losing business. This is not a place for Brighton Center and will do little to make it a destination spot with more and more businesses closing.
My criticisms from this are my own as well as patrons in the area who were disappointed that their regular haunts are disappearing and little is being done other than cashgrabs on low rents to maintain storefronts.
Do you honestly think that this restaurant is going to pull both old and new crowds that came to the neighbourhood for Joey's, the breakfast place, Imperial, etc? It may have a more unique offering but it is not for Brighton Center, especially with what was lost to bring it here.
"Fact"?
That's not a "fact", that's a speculation based on tenuous logic. If you want facts, look at the FACT that this restaurant has been slammed since it opened.
Again, I'm sorry that you lost a venue that you liked, but maybe if you (and these "others" that you claim) loved it so much, you could have supported it in a way that it wouldn't have closed. Or maybe what you "loved" wasn't a sustainable business model. And it's also possible that the current tenant's business won't be sustainable either, if the building owner is asking for a ridiculous amount of rent. So far the restaurant is very popular, and yes, it IS a destination. Do I think that the same people who (according to your claims) "came to the neighbourhood[sic] for Joey's, the breakfast place, Imperial, etc" will be eating here? Probably not, if your tastes are meat and potatoes and if you want spice, there's the salt shaker. It's a different crowd. I guess it's not your crowd and you won't feel comfortable with these new people walking around the neighborhood.
But god damn you're having one hell of a childish pout about it.
Question
Would you have picked the side of Mass Ave in Porter Square as the place to open the best ramen joint in the area?
Yume Wo Katare brings a huge crowd to Porter Square every night. Let's say MDM Noodles becomes the best Mala joint in the area and gets the same sort of attention that YWK gets but for its own great reasons. Now, aren't you just grumpy that it's "not the same" as the Joey's/pizza/greasy spoon crowd?
If it's a destination restaurant then it will bring people to it. Those people will be looking for other reasons to come as well and that's when other places will open up, either to share in the overflow or be the place to go after dinner.
Having a restaurant that's opening to good reviews is a good thing. People will come, Ray. The question may really be: are they the people "you want" or not.
Porter square has a red line
Porter square has a red line station and commuter rail as well as many successful businesses. Brighton Center has had over a half dozen businesses close within a year, fourteen hair salons and only three restaurants with a liquor license. It is also only publically accessible by bus and is mostly a residential community.
If you want people to go there, you don't forsake your license and live music venue and replace it with a place with no atmosphere. It's a fact that sit down restaurants without a liquor license don't operate as well as those that do. The place may be packed now but I don't forsee that lasting forever. You're not going to regrow the area with the minimal effort possible.
Keep ignoring what was sacrificed to bring this place here, because not many average crowds are going to pile on the 57 on a Saturday night to just just eat there and stay for hours in that one business compared to Devlins, Porter bellys or the green briar (which was sold recently)
Oh, enough.
1. Who's "you"? Who, exactly? Are you suffering from the delusion that the business changes in Brighton Center were engineered by some Brighton Center Business Cabal?
2. Atmosphere is in the eye of the beholder. So you think Smoken' [god I hate that] Joe's had "atmosphere"? Well, whatever. Clearly it, and all the other places you mentioned, had your kind of "atmosphere". And clearly, you are still stuck on the idea that if you personally don't like it, it's ugly and yucky.
3. Is that why Darbar is still around?
4. Moving the goalposts! First it was "Nobody likes this place", now it's "...well, that won't last forever". It's nice to know that your mind can be changed. Just don't mistake your beliefs for facts.
5. Loop back to 1: who's "you"? The owners of the new restaurant? What makes you think they're trying to "regrow the area"? That's not their goal, nor was it the goal of the owner of Smoken'[shudder] Joe's, nor any other business in the area, including the ones you looooove.
6. Keep hallucinating, because nothing was "sacrificed". It's business. Smoken'[ugh] Joe's failed for business reasons, not "to bring this place here". The one had nothing to do with the other.
Done with your silly non-arguments. You're not making any sense.
People who open a restaurant should go to a restaurant sometimes
Some of these guys open a restaurant and they decorate it like they have never been to another restaurant.
Dying?
Aren't you being a little too extreme here? Detroit has died. Dorchester has died, though thankfully it's being reborn. Brighton isn't dying, it's simply shedding its Macy's "rags" while waiting for that newly ordered Armani wardrobe.
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MDM Noodles
Funny - folks over on Chowhound are raving about MDM Noodles.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/1008181
I am excited to go! I did
I am excited to go! I did not mean my comment to be a slight on it.
Oh irony...
You're lamenting the "broken English" on the menus at a restaurant which replaced a restaurant whose name itself was in broken English. Bravo.
pedantic
pedantic