Hey, there! Log in / Register

Downtown Crossing gets less shawarmaful

La bibliotequetress reports:

Oh, no! Went to beloved Boston Shawarma on Washington St for my ritual Sunday work lunch & it's closed! Sign in window says lease ran out 4/25. That means 2 empty storefronts side by side--landlord plans?

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Has been trying to get them out for at least a year. I guess they weren't supposed to be a restaurant, only a convenient food mart & the residents above didn't like having their homes smelling like Falafel all day & night. It didn't have proper venting. I'm guessing retail will go on next. Rent isn't cheap.

up
Voting closed 0

They caused several false alarms in their own building and in adjacent buildings over a period of a couple of months last year. Not sure if they changed things after that, but I doubt that BPD was very happy with them.

up
Voting closed 0

Falafel King so much better anyway.

up
Voting closed 0

I love Falafel King!

up
Voting closed 0

Falafal King for salads and, well, falafal, Boston Shawarma for soujok sandwiches with avocado and halloumi sandwiches with baba & fattoush.

Well, I hope they find a legal spot nearby.

up
Voting closed 0

This post is accurate.

up
Voting closed 0

The first time I ate falafel was over at Tony's Clam Shop on Quincy Shore Drive in Wollaston. We took our mother over for Mother's Day lunch (she got clams) and it was between chicken fingers, fish and chips, and falafel for me, so falafel won out.

Falafel King's King Special with falafel, hummus, and chicken kabob, filled with super-sour pickles, is fantastic.

up
Voting closed 1

Thank you for sharing your discovery of falafel with the world.

up
Voting closed 0

Sorry for getting carried away. I updated the post.

up
Voting closed 0

Always like that they give you a falafel while ordering. The rollup with falafel, hummus and tabouleh is a messy but unbelieveably delicious meal. I have to limit my self to a couple a month; I could eat there every day.

up
Voting closed 0

.

up
Voting closed 1

Shawarma King definitely tasted more home-made, but there's still two Falafel Kings down there and they're pretty great too.

up
Voting closed 0

The rent on that space is too high for use as a fast-food ethnic restaurant. So the landlord will leave the place empty for the next twelve to twenty-four months. This is wildly profitable for the landlord for, um, tax reasons. Look, this is all very complicated, but the important thing is that the market works.

[Edit: for best results, please read in sarcastic and highly frustrated tone of voice.]

up
Voting closed 0

So the landlord will leave the place empty for the next twelve to twenty-four months. This is wildly profitable for the landlord for, um, tax reasons.

What?

You're going to have to explain that one

up
Voting closed 0

... Sherman’s / City Sports?
At least 2 years empty now.

up
Voting closed 0

Sherman's/Downtown Crossing got me thinking of Herman's. I seem to recall the company's logo in the window at the DTX spot years after the chain closed. For what is generally a pretty popular location for businesses, the number of retail spaces that have just sat empty for months and years seems ridiculously high. I mean, how many years did the Strawberries location sit unoccupied for? The UFood location was/has been empty for years as well.

up
Voting closed 0

The former City Sports is one of several properties there owned by Midwood, which tried to get approval for a 59-story tower at the corner of Washington & Bromfield a couple of years back. No retailer is going to commit to the expense of building out that space unless they can get a long-term lease, and the developer won't give a long-term lease if they want the ability to come back with another proposal to build on those parcels.

up
Voting closed 0

Can you enlighten me as a plebeian to the “details” as to how this is profitable?

up
Voting closed 1

And tax write offs on the "market" rent.

up
Voting closed 0

It's a fucking froyo place.

Or more likely a bank.

up
Voting closed 1

You'll know Downtown Crossing is in real dire straits when the storefront pentacostals move in.

up
Voting closed 0

Off topic, but how is it they get to set up shop in the T?

up
Voting closed 0

... Clover just around the corner beat any I’ve ever had. Plus their pita and veggies are fresh and the tamari sauce is delicious.
Also, cold fizzy water is available from the water tap no extra charge.
I rarely go anywhere else.

up
Voting closed 0

To each their own- I've never thought Clover was worth writing home about.

up
Voting closed 1

I like it but menu gets old.

up
Voting closed 0