Boston’s Restaurant Culture Reborn

November 15, 2012

Lunch at Journeyman in Somerville’s Union Square. (Anne and Ray/Flickr)

There’s a new and growing restaurant culture in Boston — and it represents a dramatic departure from the so-called fine dining tradition.

The trend has been underway for years, now. The latest sign: Locke-Ober, the landmark Boston restaurant that served high-end cuisine to the city’s elite dating all the way back to 1875, finally shut down last month. It joined a number of other fine dining establishments that have closed their doors in recent years — from Jaspers to Excelsior and Aujour d’hui at the Four Seasons.

Ming Tsai, at WBUR (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In their place, a growing number of more casual neighborhood restaurants, gastro-pubs and trattorias — from East Cambridge to Boston’s Seaport District — serving up sophisticated ethnic food to a new generation of hip, casual diners.

Guests:

Ming Tsai, chef and owner of Blue Ginger
Devra First, restaurant critic and food reporter for The Boston Globe

More:

Other stories from this show:

Beth Leger

Fine Dining is not dead, just fine tuning to keep up with the times.
Call_Me_Missouri

Good food, less stuffy setting, less hassle getting all dressed up.

More casual at the office leads to being more casual after work at the restaurant. Who wants to go home and change before dinner?

And the truth is that people are all about the food.

The issue though with so many of these restaurants is the Noise factor. Hopefully owners will hear that these places are too noisy and do what is necessary to bring the volume down.
Victoria

Just wanted to add that there is a good variety of vegetarian restaurants as well -
True Bistro in Somerville, Red Lentil in Watertown and Veggie Galaxy in Central Sq.�
Each with their own distinct style and delicious fusion foods.
midtempo

It would have been nice if they defined “gastropub” for us philistines. I had to look it up online.
http://www.fibrowitch.net Jan Dumas

Can we give the Locke-Ober over to the Park Service and just keep it as a historical place? Are we loosing Anthony’s Pier 4 too? What’s next no more No Name?
Paula Spizziri

Come to Malden for some great ethnic food — we’re the second-most diverse community in MA (Chelsea is #1). All Season’s Table (pan-Asian) is more mainstream, but check out Biryani Park (South Indian/Sri Lankan), Moroccan Hospitality, and Habesha (Ethiopian). A foodie friend of mine comes all the way from Lincoln to get takeout from Habesha. Sun Kong serves a great dim sum daily. We also have several good Vietnamese restaurants. There are some good “American” restaurants, too: District 7 and Exchange Street Bistro.
tunabun

Jan- I’m sorry to say that both Anthony’s Pier 4 and No Name are mere shells of their former selves. They deserve to close, as I believe Anthony’s is in the process of doing.
Portus Glorianus

That’s why we take the train to New York for dinner.

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Boston’s Restaurant Culture Reborn