The Crimson reports Uno has shut its doors because the rent is too damn high.
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The Crimson reports Uno has shut its doors because the rent is too damn high.
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Comments
First Fire & Ice.
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 6:09am
Now this. I have no reason to go to Harvard Square anymore.
Sic Transit Gloria
By CopleyScott17
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 7:54am
Sad to see it go. Funny, though, I was just thinking the other day that their Boylston Street location in Copley Square has been around for at least forty years, I'm guessing. That must be some sort of record in that neighborhood. Unos don't get a lot of attention, but they must get plenty of business!
Their corporation has been
By Scratchie
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 12:07pm
Their corporation has been based in Massachusetts (not Chicago) since at least the 80s.
What was the deal with the downstairs?
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 8:14am
The waitresses had to walk orders down the stairs. No dumbwaiter? Also, always seemed 50/50 that the taps downstairs were on the fritz.
I will miss Uno's.
Harvard Square death pool
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 8:24am
What's next on the chopping block?
Shay's? Grendel's Den? Hong Kong? Battle theater?
When Charlies Kitchen expires
By Elmer Fudd
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 2:00pm
So will all reasons to go there.
Speaking of which, I was walking past Bartley's one of those 90-plus degree days, and dropped in. Ordered a large lime rickey, and when the cashier said $5.26 I walked back out. If we're voting, that place jumped the shark 20 years ago.
Agree that Bartley's jumped
By Scratchie
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 2:25pm
Agree that Bartley's jumped the shark a long time ago. Place may have been all that in the 70s, but even by the 90s, it wasn't worth the long lines, tiny tables or high prices.
However, it may come as a source of astonishment to some of the old-timers around here that there are actually new restaurants in Harvard Square that are worth patronizing, or even going out of your way for. I'm quite fond of the Russell House Tavern, which has much better burgers than either Charlie's or Bartley's.
Charlie's had gotten kind of inconsistent by the time I moved away three years ago. I don't know if they were actually going downhill or if I was just noticing it more, but I definitely had more than one "What am I doing here" experience.
Charlies is owned by the same
By Matt Frank
Thu, 09/08/2016 - 11:44am
Charlies is owned by the same guy who owns red house next door and he owns the land he sits on. If Charlie's or the red house moves on it will be because they decided to sell it or close it. The benefit to owning is it is hard to get forced out.
Hush your mouth!
By ladycommentariat
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 3:29pm
Okay, so I was never a fan of Hong Kong, but if Grendel's or the Brattle closed, I would very, very sad.
If you're going to eat pizza
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 8:50am
If you're going to eat pizza in Harvard Square, it's gotta be Pinocchio's.
Accept no substitutions.
Pizza, sure...
By SomerVillain
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:58am
But what if I want a soggy bread bowl full of cheese and tomato slop? Then what?
Until...
By johnmcboston
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 10:51am
until their landlord forces them out. Then will you care about harvard square rents?
I doubt it.
By Boston_res
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 11:04am
I also am surprised that not one comment has expressed concern for the recently unemployed.
Please, bring on the
By verbal
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:09am
Please, bring on the nostalgia and cries that change is bad.
Especially ironic for this Uno
By adamg
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:16am
Because it was one of the first chains to come into Harvard Square, and replaced the locally owned Sunflower Cafe (long before Uno headquarters moved from Chicago to West Roxbury).
Man, I'm old.
Sunflower
By Steeve
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:45am
According to this, they once coexisted.
Isn't that storefront where
By chaosjake
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 3:11pm
Isn't that storefront where the German restaurant used to be? Or was that someplace else? It's been a long time.
Wursthaus
By Charles Bahne
Thu, 09/08/2016 - 6:18am
The Wursthaus was where the Russell House is now, plus part of the CVS space. The Tasty and a liquor store took the rest of the CVS spot.
I miss the Wursthous
By anon
Thu, 09/08/2016 - 12:48pm
Meat, meat, meat,and more meat, washed down with good beer. Yum!
Change for the worse is
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:41am
Change for the worse is ALWAYS bad.
That Uno's always had
By DTP
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:17am
That Uno's always had terrible service anyway. Most times we tried going there we bailed after 10-15 minutes just waiting in line at the host station. They always had only one poor girl there who was simultaneously answering the phone, running up and down stairs, and once in a while helping a customer. It always seemed surprisingly empty in there, probably because most people never bothered waiting long enough to actually get a table.
If they actually staffed it better, I'm sure they could have done a lot better business, and been able to afford the rent. But they probably couldn't justify it based on the abysmal level of business. A self-fulfilling prophecy.
That was never -
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 2:16pm
- my experience at the Harvard Square Uno's. Service was always fine.
Rich people suck.
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:32am
Rich people suck.
rich people suck
By Scumquistador
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 4:59pm
i suppose "the little man" UNO pizzeria is considered poor in this case?
memories
By Steeve
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 3:52pm
Back in 1998 I was with a group of kids and we decided to class things up a bit and get lunch at Pizzeria Uno instead of Lee's Beehive. One of the party was a 20ish traveler/future hobo type who was scheming to get himself a beer by charming the waitress into not checking his ID. So we get seated, and the waitress comes over and begins putting down the table settings, and plops down a bottle of Grolsch right in front of our friend. Absolutely stunned that the waitress not only hadn't ID'ed him, but also knew he wanted a beer without asking, he pops the top, tilts it back, and takes a celebratory swig.
It was salad dressing.
Theological students
By Gary C
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 9:42am
I recall a dinner around 1984 with my old pal from Thailand. We sat next to two attractive girls who really didn't want to talk with us. They claimed to be theology students, I think to appear more virginal so we'd stop trying to chat them up. Oh the good old days.
pickup line
By Steeve
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 10:23am
You should've hit one of them with "your name must be Grace, because I find you totally irresistible", or "I didn't believe in predestination until tonight".
rents or something else....
By Briana Pearson
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 10:21am
I'm sure part of it is "deep enough pockets" we all know the rents are too high in Harvard Sq but I think this also speaks to what people want....If you are a visitor to Cambridge and you go to Harvard Sq do you want to go to a new place or one you have at the mall at home? Cambridge folks know there is better pizza than Uno's they aren't gonna go there....Unos closed in Porter too so its not just deep pockets
Could also be the deep dish
By ladycommentariat
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 3:30pm
Carb awareness and the prevalence of gluten intolerance (both real and imagined) all.
It's bad when chains replace
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 11:38am
It's bad when chains replace independent businesses. But it's bad when reasonably-priced chains are forced out as well.
Ah memories
By SomeTimes
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 11:45am
I'll always remember this place as my first mouse sighting upon moving to cambridge.
this sucks - ah shit!
By steveluvskaren
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 11:58am
my gf and i have gone there recently when i havent been there for years
knowing there was hardly any seating on the ground floor - a few tables -
10 yrs ago - im in a wheelchair - so i peeked in in may/june - wow!
big dining room - about time! great service - waiters staff running around
trying to please customers,, we loved it there - been there 36 years - now
this? fuck! nothing affordable in harvard anymore - question of when
charlies kitchen will go belly up -- hong kong billionare huh? may
he die of the asian flu! shit!
I had no idea that...
By boo_urns
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 12:54pm
people had this much love and adoration of what I thought was a chain pizzeria of a product that many argue isn't even pizza to begin with. Aside from it being a MA corp., even.
There was an Uno's in Harvard Square?
By Kaz
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 1:03pm
Who knew!
I'll tell you who...
By Rob G
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 1:51pm
The commenters above you. Hope that answers that.
Lots of people
By anon
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 2:31pm
Some people actually get around the city and see things once in a while. There is a lot to see.
And you can also stop at an Uno's in....
By boo_urns
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 3:34pm
Symphony, Kenmore....or other exciting places like Burlington, Revere, Nashua, and plenty of other suburbs. Why is there so much romanticism about a ubiquitous chain in this area of New England? That people are putting it on par with Charlie's Kitchen, Grendel's Den, Shay's, and so on and so forth is pretty apples to oranges if you ask me.
And, if you explore the city looking for an Uno's, apologies, but you are the definition of "basic." But, different strokes, I guess.
no
By Steeve
Thu, 09/08/2016 - 9:51am
I think the point is it's pretty damn tough to miss the Uno in Harvard Square because if you ever walk down JFK street from the T exit it's the first place you see on the left.
Russell House is before that
By Kaz
Thu, 09/08/2016 - 11:19am
See, you forgot Poland.
huh
By Steeve
Thu, 09/08/2016 - 2:23pm
I'm saying that I don't see Russell House.
Getting around
By Kaz
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 3:36pm
If I was that close to Russell House Tavern and decided to go into an Uno's instead, I'd be so dead inside that no "deep dish" pizza could have filled me.
Erm, despite the fact that
By DTP
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 4:24pm
Erm, despite the fact that those two restaurants serve completely different fare at completely different price points?
Most of the times I went to that Uno's were because the boyfriend (a native Chicagoan) was craving deep dish, and it was usually spontaneous. We always walked by RHT, and it looked tasty, but also super fancy. Like there was no way we were getting in without a reservation, and there was no way we were dressed nice enough, or usually willing to spend that much money.
They're completely different markets, and so their presence next to each other is irrelevant.
You'd be surprised
By Kaz
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 4:34pm
It's not that fancy and it's not even that expensive (stick to the Tavern Menu which has all the tastiest items anyways...their pizza is only about $2-3 more than Uno's individual deep dish and far better ingredients).
And there are at least a half-dozen other places in Harvard Square I could rattle off that I'd rather go than Uno's...and at the exact same price point and fanciness.
And there are at least a half
By DTP
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 4:51pm
But do they serve deep dish?
Because honestly I'd love to have a new place to go!
When large national chains
By ChrisInEastie
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 2:54pm
start closing because of rent, that's a really, really bad sign.
Yeah, but ...
By adamg
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 3:14pm
Harvard Square doesn't have a single McCormick and Schmick's and it only has one Legal Seafood. And, hey, Nick Varano could do something magical in the new Curious George building, I bet.
Maybe he could
By ChrisInEastie
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 4:36pm
try his Greenway deli again!
I know right?
By Scratchie
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 4:41pm
I'd love it if the Greenhouse came back.
The what?
By ChrisInEastie
Wed, 09/07/2016 - 4:43pm
I was talking about "Nick Varano's Famous Deli"
That's the Joke
By Scratchie
Thu, 09/08/2016 - 1:14pm
Simpsons image here
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