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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.
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Comments
It’s a wonderful place for sitting outside…
… 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.
Yes To Booze
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.
There's already a Harpoon beer garden on the Common
just a few hundred feet away, as part of Emerson College's seasonal Uncommon Stage.
There Sure Is
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.
Have you read about the protests …
… 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.
And...
you think an outdoor cafe selling wine is going to turn Boston into Amsterdam?
You know, if you’re so desperate….
… 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.
Ok, Abe Simpson
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.
What’s this nonsense about….
…. 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.
I hope you enjoy August 25th then
You will have a lot of people to yell at and complain about. Lots of lights, perhaps some trash, most definitely noise. Bonus: proselytizing in the streets!
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/08/13/thousands-of-christian...
But isn’t that what…
… you’re suggesting will happen and should happen?
That's a big N-O, dawg.
I mean, I wish a single liquor license were that powerful. Dogs and cats lying down together, etc, etc...
Were you aware
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.
It depends on the cafe or beer garden….
… 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.
So Your Worry is...
A beer garden is going to attract too many tourists... to BOSTON COMMON?
Have you seen how downtown businesses are struggling?
No. Stop grasping at straws.
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.
As someone who spends way more time on/near the Common than you
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.
I’m curious why you assume …
… 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.
Nobody missed your points
We simply don't see your alarmist visions materializing.
Go deliver your temperance lectures elsewhere. Or just stay home so you don't get busybody bothered by so anything that has the potential for people to enjoy.
Yeah, you missed my points too.
Nothing to do with temperance. Everything to do with encroachment on public green space by destructive for profit businesses.
Maybe you should just stay home if preservation of public parkland is something you can’t tolerate.
Yawn
Yeah, and parks can't ever be a place to meet your friends for fun. Gather with your coworkers after work, enjoy some time with your family from out of town or tag team the kids at the playground while socializing with friends. Beer gardens bring that kind of public life.
Someone has never been in Germany.
Enough of your church of the lorax nonsense - go build a shack in the woods and write about it, but not the part where your mom brings your meals.
Have you been hitting the sauce again?
Wrong about Germany.
History Matters
Maybe you should look up the history of Boston Common.
It wasn't parkland. It was pasturage and has always been gathering space. It has never been your vision of wild nature parkland since the first boatload of cattle, sheep, and goats arrived.
Livestock brings noise and poop. You might want to get on that before the Roslindale Bull hears about his rights to graze.
The bull. Good one, lol!
Sounds like you’ve got a wicked hangover, Doctor Originalist.
It will just blow your mind, then
To learn that pretty much all the lodging and concessions in our national parks are operated by private companies. And you know that the Swan Boats are a for-profit business too, right?
All those pushcart vendors on the Common are out there to make a profit. This isn't a bad thing; they offer a bite to eat or something to drink for people out enjoying the park. Something like a beer garden or cafe activates the space and gives more people an excuse to come out to the park.
You can doubt that I spend more time or or near the Common than you, but you'd be wrong, like you are about this and most other things. Take the L and go clutch your pearls about something else.
I just got back from visiting
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.
can guarantee
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.
LOL You can “guarantee” ?
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.
I'm confused
you said there's havoc in European cities because of beergardens in parks and now you say there's not havoc because of socialism.
Read again.
Slowly.
But none of those mayors have
But none of those mayors have a fawning Nytimes puff piece under their belt.
The NYT …
… adores the mayor of Paris.
But deservingly so.
But deservingly so.
Hmm
So the bot dictionary has a word "deservingly" in it?
Take some of your own advice.
Don’t your sheep need tending, Marie?
Act your age
Don't you have some pants to sniff, Donnie?
Uh...
Worth pointing out there's been 10 total murders in Boston this year. Not a lot of havoc by that metric. I don't think tourists are staying away because of the carnage in the streets, unless they've been watching too much Fox News.
Have you ever been out of your hole?
Seriously, look up "cafe bar". They are all over Europe.
Reading compression at a low point for you this evening?
.
Boston may be liberal...
But we're not that liberal. I'm told that even in Amsterdam they don't smoke skunk outside.
I'll miss the Earl of Sandwich. I saw my first White Supremacists' rally and counter protest from there. The owner had shut down serving though.
Not kidding.
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.
I like having live performances in parks
which is the primary purpose of the Emerson beer garden stage.
Same here. But what is the purpose of having this beer garden….
…. on public parkland when there are already plenty of bars and restaurants surrounding it?
Surprised the neighbors are letting that live.
Same cranks who killed Concerts on the Common.
Concerts on the Common
The issue here, back in the 1980s, was that the city had fenced off a significantly large area of the Common that you could only enter by paying admission to a concert. A court determined that this was not a permissible use of the parkland.
The Emerson/Harpoon beer garden does not charge admission or require a minimum purchase.
It occurs to me that this case could be cited as precedent by the opponents of redeveloping White Stadium in Franklin Park for use by the National Women's Soccer League team.
Parks are for getting away
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.
People throw children’s birthday parties …
… at beer gardens?!!!!
They pull pints into sippy cups now?
Good lord you are insufferable
Seriously - get over yourself. Public space is for the public, not your ridiculous personal idea of every tree = wilderness and "people not Lee have to KEEP OUT".
If you want a park that follows your special rules for parks, move somewhere with a backyard and fence it. You won't even ask to see the park manager.
Whatever you say, Miss Crankypants.
Lol!
That's Doctor Crankypants to
That's Doctor Crankypants to you!
And somehow I'm crankypants when I'm not the one whinging about public uses of public land that don't conform to my bizarre austere vision of noncommunity.
You’re a PHD.
Whoop dee do!
Oh Lee
Go get outside and relax for a bit. Seriously, if you're depending on Boston Common to be your "wilderness" you're really in trouble.
Ok, Marie Antoinette.
.
Act your age
Act your age, Donnie.
What a huge lawn, Your Royal Highness.
I’ll get off it now.
Oh if only
Don't you have a car to chase?
I gave this choice an award back
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.
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.
Didn't Earl pay for the renovations?
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.)
Nothing Boston any longer…
… about Dunkin’s. Despite all their marketing.
All their marketing and
A franchise every few blocks. Based on density of DD to population, people in the Boston area adore Dunkin Donuts.
There is a CVS every few blocks too.
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.
The guy who builds the fab restaurant always goes under.
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.
He was the only one dumb
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.
My vote would be…
… 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.
Why not a non-profit hotdog
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.
Why not a non-profit hotdog
Is there such a thing? Then, sure, why not? The Haley House actually exists, and sounds like it would be an option worth considering.
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.
Oh if only
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?
Tell me you don’t understand nonprofit
Without telling me.
For the same reasons that Haley House Bakery does.
They provide food service training and experience for the unhoused and ex felons to help them get jobs.
Good idea.
Now I’m craving a good hot dog. Last one I had was on Amtrak and it was over microwaved.
Or, in the interest of…
Or, in the interest of… something…boosterism, culture, have the space be a dedicated location for popups. Have an umbrella org defray the overhead. Or, make it an attended a bathroom.
Something local about Earl of Sandwich
They sell ice cream from the very local Tipping Cow shop in Somerville.
Dunkin' wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Either that or lab space :-)
Yes, it would.
They offer mediocre coffee and nothing else of nutritional value. And there are already too many of them surrounding the Common.
Oh Lee
Issa joke.
The winky face is the clue.
You got me. Maybe. It’s not actually a winky face.
I should have caught the lab space reference though. LOL!
Lab space for micro-biome
Lab space for micro-biome research. ;-}
How about resurrecting a Baileys?
Or a Pewter Pot?
Or a Mug 'n' Muffin
Or maybe, and just hear me out here, a place that sells just Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins and coffee.
So, a Jordan's Furniture?
n/t
B-B-B:
"Bring Back Brigham's!"
Brigham’s?
I would just love one anywhere.
Baileys was the best
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!
That was my favorite ice cream place ....
.. way back in the 1970s. Just when did Bailey's disappear?
I like going there during outdoor performances
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.
How about Simco's?
Or Sullivan's? Those are firmly Bostonian.
omg
A sullivan's outlet at this location would be crazy popular...
Love it! There are already enough seagulls….
… nearby in Chinatown who could be lured over to complete the ambiance.
Did Simco's reopen?
I recall the state shutting them down a few months ago for unpaid taxes.
They have recent reviews, so
They have recent reviews, so I think they're open.
I don't think the one on Blue
I don't think the one on Blue Hill Avenue ever closed; Was it the one on American Legion Highway?