3 Restaurants, 1- 2cents

[pstripe.livejournal.com]

1) Guru- this is Indian food. I believe it's take out and maybe a catering company. My boyfriend often comes home with take-out, which is pretty good and very cheap. $6 for two entree sections, rice, Indian bread and a sauce. Worth a 6pm stop-by, in my opinion. Only thing is there's a lot of packaging, most of which can and should be re-used or recycled. It's in Teele Sq. across the street, diagonally from Teele Square Auto and on the right, before you reach Foodmaster. Good stuff. Yay!

2 cents) With all the talk about buritos and what kind of food people want in the area, I wanted to let you all know that what this area needs is a Vietnamese restaurant!! Yes, that would complete this "Paris of the U.S." for me. A heaping bowl of Pho with tofu, curry and veggies on a freezing February morning or a sweltering July evening would be the make my world go round a little more lovely-ee.

3) China Jade- Ball Square. They've recently done some renovations and the place looks much nicer than it used to. It's next to, near to True Grounds. I talked to the owners and they said they are hoping to get a beer/wine license and continue on with more improvements so as to entice a eat-in crowd, as most of their business is take-out. Pending a landlord, lease renewal issue. It seems like their place might just turn into a "place to go" or something!

I wanted to say that their food, whether you take it home or eat it there, is quite good and inexpensive, too! It's seemingly fresh, not greasy or too heavy, and they give you tons of it! I would highly recommend this hidden gem. I'm vegetarian and I enjoy the Pad Thai with veggies. It's got more veggies that what I would expect and, like I said, it's big. Lasts me 1 to 3 meals. Hooray! Next, I convince them to add 2-3 legit vegetarian things  to their extensive menu and, I know, the  non-meat-eaters will  follow. Go there- meat or no meat! Good.

4) Okay. Here it is. La Spina. I saw the Somerville cable access spot which showcased Valentine's day restaurant spots. I only caught the La Spina and Gargoyles spots, but knew immediately that I had to check out La Spina. So I did. If there ever was a hidden gem, well, here it is. How many of you have said to yourself, there's nowhere in this "Paris of the U.S." to go for a drink on busy Friday/Saturday night!! Wanh... I know I have. Yes, there are lots of great offerings in the squares, but they tend to be overrun with other people desiring a similar activity on a weekend night. BUT... La Spina is good. Yes, I say, go there. It's big. Not only is the dining room big, but the shiny horseshoe shaped bar is big and has so many seats.

I went there last night and sat happily at a corner seat, had a decent margharitta and 2 desserts. One was free, b/c the owner/Chef and generous and kind and wanted to give something away-- so my man-friend and I benefited. Yum and yum. We didn't get any food, (other than desserts) just wanted a pleasant- chill place for a cocktail and some audible conversation. And that is certainly what we got.

The couple across from me were eating and their food looked great. I was tempted to ask for a bite, b/c they seemed to have more than they could eat- the portions are big there, too! BUT, when we sat down there was a big basket of home-made potato chips in front of us to eat. Um... that was too good to be true. You should go there, and bring as many friends as you like. They'll treat you well there and you'll be able to find seats, for sure.

Comments

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

hmm, have you ever been to Paris? Not really close.

This is probably a pain to people living in Davis, but a new middle eastern place is opening on Mass Ave between porter & harvard. It looks like it'll be a nice place with some seating and reasonably cheap (though that's a guess at this point).

[nungnung.livejournal.com]

hmm, have you ever been to Paris? Not really close.

Tell that to the media. They've been dubbing Davis as "Parisian" for over a decade. Thanks, Utne Reader.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Because Davis is loaded with outdoor cafes, restaurants with patio seating, authentic creperies, street performers, historic buildings and monuments, etc. etc. etc.

Um, and paris is loaded with drab buildings?

Exactly the same!

(Don't get me wrong, I love davis and would prefer to live there over most parisian hoods, but seriously...)

[nungnung.livejournal.com]

I know, it's kind of hilarious. I think it was originally supposed to be referring to Davis' burgeoning arts community, but it has gotten waaaay out of hand. If you google "Davis Square Paris" you'll get dozens of quotes comparing the two.

I moved to Davis just before the Utne Reader dubbed it the "Paris of the 90's" and I thought, "What the hell?!?" followed quickly by, "Crap. How much longer will I be able afford living here?"

[ron_newman]

I'm not sure anymore who gave us that name, but it wasn't the Utne Reader. Here's the relevant page from the Utne article, published back in 1997. It ranked Davis Square 14th on a "list of the 15 hippest neighborhoods in the U.S. and Canada". The exact text:

14. Davis Square
(Boston)

Out in Somerville, a blue-collar suburb of Boston awash in artistic energy spillover from Cambridge, something is happening. Two of the 20 promising young fiction writers lauded in a special issue of Granta last year hail from humble Somerville, and a lively cultural milieu has popped up around the subway stop at Davis Square. With its solid bookstores, Irish pubs, the best blues joint in town, and adventuresome programming at the Somerville Theater, it's an alternative to franchise-filled Harvard Square.

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that when it came out and thinking "what bookstores, Buck-a-Book?"

[ron_newman]

Yeah, me too. McIntyre & Moore didn't arrive until the following year. The square's earlier bookstores, Zembla Books and Boston Book & Record Warehouse, had left years earlier.

[nungnung.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'll be darned. All this time I thought it was the Utne! Maybe because I was a rabid Utne reader (ha!) at the time?

So...now I'm dying to know who started it! :)

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

Coldwell Banker.

[nungnung.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha!!

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking Dean Wallace of Editorial Humor was the first to draw the Davis/Paris comparison.