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Common sandwich stand shutting down

By adamg on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 9:14am

CommonWealth Beacon reports the owner of the Earl of Sandwich kiosk on Boston Common has had enough of all the money it keeps losing and so is closing it down at the end of next month. The city plans to look for a new operator for the one-time men's room, with beer and wine a possibility, although that would add more than $100,000 to the initial costs, given the state Legislature has once again refused to give Boston more alcohol licenses.

Neighborhoods: 
Back Bay
Topics: 
Dining
Free tagging: 
Boston Common
Sandwiches


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Comments

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 9:30am.

… and having a cup of tea and a bite to eat that is NOT surrounded by noisy smelly traffic like most of the cafes that have annexed Boston’s already too narrow crowded sidewalks.
The liquor license thing is of questionable value to parkland. But otherwise, I hope some local business makes a better go of this than the current international chain that doesn’t pay its rent.

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By Pete X on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:36am.

The liquor license thing is of questionable value to parkland

Are you kidding me? Have you seen how popular the nearby beer gardens on the greenway are? This place would be a great place to have a glass of beer or wine and chill out.

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By Ron Newman on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:52am.

just a few hundred feet away, as part of Emerson College's seasonal Uncommon Stage.

By Pete X on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:14am.

People seem to like it. I'd bet they'd like another one. Or a cafe that also sells drinks, like any sensible park in, say, the Netherlands or Germany offers.

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By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:05pm.

… in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe against out of control tourism and the idiots that come to these cities to get drunk, smoke skunk and wreak havoc?
We don’t need that here.

By Pete X on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 1:04pm.

you think an outdoor cafe selling wine is going to turn Boston into Amsterdam?

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By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 1:08pm.

… to have booze on the Common, you could just do it the traditional way. Keep it hidden in a paper bag and find a bench.

By Pete X on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 1:13pm.

If you don't want to drink a glass of wine on the common, don't. But don't use the power of the state to try to tell responsible adults how they should live their lives based on your puritanical values.

Also, you know how cafes make most of their profit? Alcohol. If you let a cafe sell alcohol, there's a much better chance they don't wind up in a Uhub RIP article like this one.

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By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 3:45pm.

…. me using the “power of the state” ?

Are you a libertarian or anarchist or something?

I really don’t get what you are trying to say.

As far as cafés selling alcohol. Sure. They do that in France. But here in the USA Starbucks, Dunkin’s, Caffe Nero and etc just sell coffee, tea, pastries, etc.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 6:26pm.

… you’re suggesting will happen and should happen?

By Pete X on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 7:43pm.

I mean, I wish a single liquor license were that powerful. Dogs and cats lying down together, etc, etc...

By ScottB on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 3:59pm.

That the vast majority of cafes and beer gardens in Germany or the Netherlands or France or Spain or... exist for the benefit of the locals?

And, in fact, if you visit a cafe there, a beer or glass of the house wine is usually significantly cheaper than a Coke. Because responsible drinking is part of the culture, the locals can enjoy a drink or two without getting out of control.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 4:16pm.

… who they cater to. Locals are being driven out of their neighborhoods, especially those in or near heavily touristed areas. It happened to friends of mine who were lifelong Amsterdamers. Until their neighborhood was destroyed by tourism.
Also, it’s an urban myth that Europeans are so called “responsible drinkers”. Alcoholism is as much a public health problem there as here. The difference is that in some European cultures all day drinking is more common than binge drinking so it’s not as visible. Also many European countries have much stricter drink driving laws and far better public transportation.

By Pete X on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 4:26pm.

A beer garden is going to attract too many tourists... to BOSTON COMMON?

Have you seen how downtown businesses are struggling?

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 4:44pm.

Just countering your booze obsessed arguments.

The Common is a rare spot of public green space in a noisy congested polluted inner city. Wildlife, plants and people need these rare disappearing quiet spaces.

There is zero need for one more loud drinking spot on public parkland when more than enough already established private enterprises surrounding the park already serve that purpose.

By ScottB on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 5:52pm.

The far bigger threat to that neighborhood is what has been going on by Park St. T/Winter St. for years. I'm frankly grateful that the tourists are back, since they're helping bring traffic to downtown businesses. Yes, they can be a pain because they don't know where they're going but on the whole downtown is much, much better-off with them than without.

If your shtick is about gentrification downtown, well that boat sailed about 20 years ago. And any issues with affordability downtown have basically zip to do with the tourists.

You're not going to get people going to the Pink Palace (sounds like a good name for a gay bar tbh) to get falling-on-their-ass drunk. It's really not convenient. Easier to just do that at Faneuil Hall or Union St.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 6:14pm.

… you spend way more time on / near the Common than I do. I rather doubt that.

You’ve pretty much missed all my points.

I can’t get much clearer than I have about public green space being encroached upon and harmed by for profit businesses.

By Anon on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 5:54pm.

I just got back from visiting friends in Amsterdam. It was wonderful, and not just because you can safely bike and walk everywhere and there’s great public transportation. People are being driven out by tourists, as is happening here in Boston, because of Airbnb driving up rents (and also here by not making much new housing). No one said anything about cafes in parks (which is not new there) selling drinks (which I enjoyed) being the reason rent was skyrocketing.

By deselby on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 5:45pm.

there's a lot more havoc wreaked in Boston than in Amsterdam or any other tourist city in Europe. Just read this website.

Like, there were 11 murders in Amsterdam last year, 10 in Paris, 12 in Barcelona

Part of the reason is that people are out having drinks in sidewalk cafes and park beergardens and the streets and parks aren't left to criminals.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 5:52pm.

More like socialism, smarter ways of dealing with addiction, rent control laws, fewer motor vehicles, stricter gun laws etc are the reasons for lower crime rates in some European cities.

By deselby on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 6:30pm.

you said there's havoc in European cities because of beergardens in parks and now you say there's not havoc because of socialism.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 6:37pm.

Slowly.

By Rwgfy on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 6:19pm.

But none of those mayors have a fawning Nytimes puff piece under their belt.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 6:23pm.

… adores the mayor of Paris.

By Rwgfy on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 6:29pm.

But deservingly so.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:01pm.

The nearby beer garden on the Common is annoying enough already with all the noise, lighting, trash, sidewalk space taken up and the partying.
Parks are for getting away from all that.
Just go to a regular bar if you need to drink.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 1:18pm.

which is the primary purpose of the Emerson beer garden stage.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 2:56pm.

…. on public parkland when there are already plenty of bars and restaurants surrounding it?

By CopleyScott17 on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 4:32pm.

Same cranks who killed Concerts on the Common.

By anon on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 2:48pm.

Parks are for getting away from all that.

So you're saying that a family that throws a children's birthday party at the local park is misusing the space?

Parks are parks. They are for many things. You personally may like using them to get away from lights and parties, while other people may like using them to host those very things because they lack space to do it elsewhere, it's a central location, or any other reason. Government is society's mechanism for balancing the various interests. If you'd like to keep alcohol out of the Common, please submit what you posted above during the public comment period for whatever happens next to Earl of Sandwich.

By MC Slim JB on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 9:37am.

in 2011:

"The 'Sam Bowie Drafted Ahead of Michael Jordan' Award for Tragically Botched Opportunity: to the City of Boston for awarding the Pink Palace, a long-disused Boston Common structure it offered for use as a restaurant, to dull airport-food-court chain Earl of Sandwich. Of all the things we might have done to show off Boston’s culinary uniqueness to tourists, this is the best we could do? As the kids say, Fail."

Here's hoping something good and local goes in here.

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By Scratchie on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 9:46am.

airport-food-court chain

Hey hey hey hey, let's not say things we can't take back!

They are also found in highway rest area food courts.

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By BostonDog on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:00am.

If so, that high upfront cost might have been why smaller operators took a pass the first time around.

I hope the city puts some thought into the next contract or else it's just going to turn into a Dunkin Donuts. (Which is arguably the most Boston of restaurants.)

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:08am.

… about Dunkin’s. Despite all their marketing.

By BostonDog on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 5:14pm.

A franchise every few blocks. Based on density of DD to population, people in the Boston area adore Dunkin Donuts.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 5:29pm.

Does that make CVS a Bostonian institution also?
Just about the only time this Bostonian goes to Dunkin’s is when my LA friend visits because he is convinced eating a stale mass produced Dunkin’s cruller is some sort of unique New England cultural experience.
It was one a long time ago when Dunkin Donuts was a small local chain and the donuts were made fresh on the premises and even tasted good.
But even he admits that now that they have Dunkin’s in LA and Matt Damon’s annoying high school pal makes a big deal about being seen holding a Dunks cup, it’s just not so special anymore.

By Section77 on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:35pm.

Crushed by the construction costs it usually gets taken by a bank who then sells it to a successful new owner. A tale as old as Weylus.

By Ben on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:01am.

He was the only one dumb enough to pay all costs to convert the building. It was a terrible deal that no normal operator would consider. Now that is is functional there will be better interest.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:06am.

… for a local non profit like the nonprofit whose name slips my mind at the moment with locations in the South End and Nubian Sq and that has food training programs for the homeless. Not only do they benefit the community but they make delicious muffins.

Edit. Haley House Bakery.

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By Frelmont on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:41am.

Why not a non-profit hotdog stand? Something affordable? I can barely keep my Dunk’s down shelling out over eight bucks for two iced coffees. There was a simple hotdog stand on Lake Michigan that my grampa took me to before fishing and to this day I have not had a better hot dog. There’s enough “artisanal” and “gourmet” in this finance town. Give families and tourists a break.

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By Scratchie on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:38am.

Why not a non-profit hotdog stand?

Is there such a thing? Then, sure, why not? The Haley House actually exists, and sounds like it would be an option worth considering.

Something affordable?

Are hot dogs and soda significantly less expensive than muffins and coffee? I think prices have probably gone up since you and Grampa went fishing.

By lbb on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:49am.

There was a simple hotdog stand on Lake Michigan that my grampa took me to before fishing

I'm as much a fan of the "simple hotdog" as anyone, but even if you ditch the "artisanal" bullshit, a plain old dog isn't as cheap for the operator as you think it is. And why would anyone operate a nonprofit food service business? Isn't that another name for a soup kitchen, i.e., not a business?

By robo on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:01pm.

Without telling me.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:07pm.

They provide food service training and experience for the unhoused and ex felons to help them get jobs.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:09pm.

Now I’m craving a good hot dog. Last one I had was on Amtrak and it was over microwaved.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:55am.

They sell ice cream from the very local Tipping Cow shop in Somerville.

By CopleyScott17 on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:12am.

Either that or lab space :-)

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By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:16am.

They offer mediocre coffee and nothing else of nutritional value. And there are already too many of them surrounding the Common.

By lbb on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:53am.

Issa joke.

The winky face is the clue.

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:11pm.

I should have caught the lab space reference though. LOL!

By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:20am.

Or a Pewter Pot?

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By adamg on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:39am.

Or maybe, and just hear me out here, a place that sells just Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins and coffee.

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By u-hub-fan on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:07pm.

n/t

By u-hub-fan on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:07pm.

"Bring Back Brigham's!"

By Swander on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 2:15pm.

I would just love one anywhere.

By anon on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 3:53pm.

Where else could you get an olives and cream cheese sandwich on white bread, followed by chocolate chip ice cream served in a fancy ice cream dish.
Bring back Baileys!

By Ron Newman on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:05am.

but that's just a few times a year: Shakespeare on the Common, and the occasional live concert such as tomorrow night's Tito Puente Latino Music Series show. Otherwise, it's a fairly out-of-the-way location.

By KellyJMF on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:47am.

Or Sullivan's? Those are firmly Bostonian.

By cybah on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:52am.

A sullivan's outlet at this location would be crazy popular...

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By Lee on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:15pm.

… nearby in Chinatown who could be lured over to complete the ambiance.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 11:54am.

I recall the state shutting them down a few months ago for unpaid taxes.

By anon on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:27pm.

They have recent reviews, so I think they're open.