Tasty Sandwich Shop

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The Tasty Sandwich Shop, sometimes referred to as "The Tasty", was located near the joining of John F. Kennedy Street and Massachusetts Avenue, at the center of Harvard Square, 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. A Harvard Business School student once deemed it "the most profitable restaurant in new England per sq ft" , at 210 sq ft (20 m²), that was easy. The Tasty had 16 stools. On busy nights it would be crammed with 60-80 people (from actual head counts) at a time, all craving the double cheeseburgers and fries. On these nights between 300-400 of these burgers were served between the hours of midnight and 4am.

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 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.

Some notable regulars at the Tasty included Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (Ben actually preferred Leo's Sandwich Shop up JFK St from the Tasty, but Matt was a Tasty man); Livingston Taylor (brother of James, who occasionally joined Livingston for breakfast); news anchor Soledad O'Brien; actor Avery Brooks, jazz musician Josh Redmond; and comic Jackie Flynn. Others seen at one time or another in the Tasty include Pete Seeger, Rosalyn Carter, Judd Nelson, Steven Wright, Al Gore, Paul Simon, Joshua Van Raalte, Senator Paul Sarbanes, and Actor Donal Logue[citation needed]

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 was also used in a scene from Love Story Harvard's Erich Segals story of a privileged Harvard Law School student (Ryan O'Neal) and his plain brown wrapper girlfriend (Ali McGraw). 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; brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, also known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers on their radio talk show, Car Talk, broadcast weekly on National Public Radio; according to Muchnik, the Tasty became a cause celebre and a symbol of the transitions the neighborhood was undergoing.

Although the Cambridge Saving Bank kept referring to "our community" when speaking about their effort to change the Square in such a fashion, none of the involved executives at the bank actually lived in Cambridge at the time. Now after failing in the location the site of the Tasty is now home to Citizensbank ATMS.

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 criticized 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 friendly, "neighborhood" atmosphere attracted patrons from all socio-economic strata and contrasted, in many ways, with the more upscale stores and restaurants emerging -- and transforming-- the Harvard Square community.

[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].
  • CreateSpace entry for Touching History; Harvard Square, The Bank, and the Tasty Diner [9].