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The cactus stands alone
By adamg on Mon, 04/27/2015 - 7:22pm
WCVB posted photos of the demolition of the old Hilltop steakhouse in Saugus today.
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Comments
Heyday of the Hilltop
It can't be stressed enough how popular the Hilltop was in the 60s and 70s to a certain generation and demographic. My parents and relatives would go there all dressed up for a night out. But when it fell, it fell. I think it's main demographic just aged out, as well as changing tastes in cuisine and dining out.
Changing demographics and tastes
may have played a role in the Hilltop's demise. However, as a long time Hilltop patron since I started going there with my parents as a kid in the early 1970s, IMHO it is the significant decline in service starting in the early 1990s that really did them in.
And like many other successful restaurants, suddenly and rapidly cloning themselves to a bunch of other locations didn't exactly help either.
You can almost smell the
You can almost smell the years of steak wafting from those walls
My thoughts on The Hilltop and
the enduring hold of the memory of beloved old restaurants.
Well done!
Excellent piece. Many families of a certain era had similar experiences.
Lovely article
Thanks!
Good article. The story of
Good article. The story of the Hilltop's decline (which you chose to skip) is worth googling if you have some free time. When it was sold, there was a stipulation that the Giuffrida family would be able to continue to get free meals forever from the new owners. Unsurprisingly, this caused some friction in later years.
http://www.universalhub.com/node/21793
Problems on both sides
The definition of "family" was the biggest problem. The owners took it to mean "Frank and his immediate family". The Giuffridas took it to mean "every cousin and any of their guests". I doubt the place was bleeding as many meals as the new owners claimed, but it seemed like some parts of the clan were taking advantage of the free meals. It didn't help that the new owners also cut the quality of certain aspects of the menu in order to retain larger profits. Last time I went it wasn't as good as the first.
And now ...
what will happen to the cactus?
Two for Sioux City!
That place was definitely a classic.
(I read somewhere that they were going to leave the cactus and just change the name on it to correspond with whatever they build on that lot.)
Not so fast
I was really confused when reading this headline while looking straight at the building still standing last night at 8 PM.
They're demolishing the building from the back-forward, and most of it is still standing. The cactus definitely does not yet stand alone.