Tasty Sandwich Shop
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The Tasty Sandwich Shop, referred to usually as "The Tasty", was located near the joining of John F. Kennedy Street and Eliot Streets, right on the edge of Harvard Square proper, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Read Block building, the site of the home of colonial poet Anne Bradstreet. It was closed in 1997 after eighty-one years and was later replaced by the chain stores Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Pacific Sunwear. The Tasty was a tiny one-room diner and lunch counter, its customer area no more than seven feet wide and thirty feet deep, where one could order a hamburger or hot dog and eat it at a narrow counter made of yellow linoleum.
By the end of its existence it attracted both long-time residents and, by virtue both of its proximity to Harvard Yard and its late opening hours, numerous students from Harvard University, and had become one of the few places where students and residents, and residents from different social and economic classes, mixed informally. According to one historian, "you could sit next to a professor on your left, and a homeless person on your right." [1]
A large map, studded with pins, covered the back wall of the diner and claimed to pinpoint the various origins of postcards from customers over the years. In keeping with the informal atmosphere of the diner -- where the cooks, including chef Charlie Coney, were sometimes compared to bartenders and frequently chatted with customers -- many of these pins were in geographically implausible locations.
The Tasty was often referred to in the press as a "local landmark" [2],[3] or "institution" [4],[5], and was immortalized in film during a scene in Good Will Hunting. It is the subject of a 2005 documentary, Touching History, by director Federico Muchnik.
Despite a struggle by its owner, Peter Haddad, the Tasty's tenancy ended in November of 1997. Its landlord, the Cambridge Savings bank, took advantage of the increasing attractiveness of the Harvard Square neighborhood to chain store franchises, which enabled the bank to charge significantly higher rents to tenants who provided greater security. Opposition to the end of the Tasty's tenancy was voiced by a number of groups, included the Harvard Square Defense Fund; according to Muchnik, the Tasty became a cause celebre and a symbol of the transitions the neighborhood was undergoing.
Supporters of the Tasty, who often cited its historical value, did not prevail; however, the Cambridge City Council required that the distinctive entrance to the Tasty be preserved, giving it "landmark" status, and it remains unmodified today. According to Muchnik, "if you look at the bank in the Read Block today, you have one door too many" -- the extraneous door, a second entrance to a small ATM lobby, being that of the former diner. The attention paid to the closing of the Tasty by the Cambridge City Council in the Winter of 1997 occasioned a rebuke from the Harvard Square Business Association, who criticised the council for becoming involved in a private, contractual matter. [6]
The end of the Tasty's tenure in the Square is considered a side-effect of gentrification; the small, confined space of the Tasty, its prices (far lower than any other restaurant in the Square at the time of its closing), and its friendly, "neighbourhood" atmosphere contrast with the more upscale stores and restaurants, catering to both residents and out-of-town visitors, that replaced and surrounded it.
[edit] External links
- Harvard Crimson article on the diner's closing, "Demise of a Diner."
- Crimson article "A Night in Cambridge, a day at the Tasty."
- Satirical cartoon on the Tasty's demise: [7].
- Interview with Federico Muchnik, director of the documentary film, Touching History (2005, 30 min) which premiered at the New England Film and Video Festival on Friday, October 7, 2005: [8].
- customflix entry for Touching History; Harvard Square, The Bank, and the Tasty Diner [9].
