Invasion of the foreign restaurant chains
By adamg - Fri, 01/04/2008 - 2:35pm.
First there was British/Japanese import Wagamama. Now Boston Restaurant Talk reports the Boston area is in line to get three Vapiano "casual French fresh" restaurants.
Hmm, what about Blimpie, which is slowly circling Boston? It's from westa Worcester, so it's sorta foreign, too.
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What genius thought up "Vapiano" ?
The first time someone goes there and doesn't like the food, it will become "Vapidano". Good luck erasing that meme.
Actually Italian, not French
Hi, I'm the writer of the original article. It should have said "casual fresh," not "casual French." The cuisine is mostly Italian, actually.
My mistake!
-Marc
Fixed
Thanks!
Coming to the Square?
I heard today that the Au Bon Pain on Brattle St. is closing... Wonder if it'll become a Vapiano?
The Redundant Au Bon Pain
Never understood why Au Bon Pain kept that place open so long after taking it over (it was formerly Warburton's, an independent local bakery). It's only a block from the real Au Bon Pain next to the T station.
Real Au Bon Pain?
With that authentic artisanal Au Bon Pain je ne sais quois? :-).
The way you know it's a real Au Bon Pain
...is that they all seem to have a copy of this print:
imagecache2.allposters.com/...Parisien-Posters.jpg
Complete with matting that says "Willy Ronis."
(Wikipedia tells me this was the actual name of a photographer who was known for pictures of Paris, but it sounds like a euphemism for some boy's giant baguette to me.)
Willy's brother
Was Pepe, who gave us a popular pizza topping.
Is that a Real Au Bon Pain?
Or is it a Sears Au Bon Pain?
Hmmm ... no foolin'!
A Real Au Bon Pain Smells Horrible
Or at least the one at Berkeley and Boylston does (or still did the last time I went in a few months ago). Several people I know independently concluded the odor inside is comparable to hot vomit. It's even worse in the winter when the heat is going.
I don't know how a place selling such delicious things could smell so bad.
Wrong about Warburton's
Turns out it was not an 'independent local bakery' at all, but rather the Harvard Square location of a small Chicago-based chain that au bon pain bought in 1992.