Square's Tastes: A Revolving Door

Restaurants in Harvard Square seem to come and go almost as quickly as graduating classes.

BUSINESS

Suddenly, Square residents awoke to find One Potato, Two Potato replaced by the Grafton Street Pub, Ultimate Bagel became Toscanini's and 8 Holyoke was now Sandrine's.

Behind the ever-changing Square restaurant scene are management, location and the nature of the restaurant business.

From diners to bistros, Harvard Square has changed from blue collar to top dollar, following the tastes of its residents.

In the Past

Thirty years ago, Harvard Square shops catered to the working-class. Launderettes and shoe repair shops abounded.

The restaurants were much the same.

Formica tables and vinyl booths attracted customers from the nearby MBTA maintenance shops; beer, sausage and corned-beef sandwiches were the extent of the menus.

But the late 1960s was a tumultuous time for the nation, and it was no different for Square restaurants.

As students flooded into Harvard Square, then a center of activism, restaurants began catering to younger crowds.

"At that time, a lot of shops began to change from being sort of neighborhood shops to having a specific appeal to young people," says Charles M. Sullivan, director of the Cambridge Historical Commission and 33-year Cantabrigian.

And as lunch counters like the Waldorf and theMug n' Muffin started to close their doors,restaurants aimed at students took their places.

"They were a little funkier and a littlecuter," Sullivan says. "Definitelystudent-oriented."

The trend continued through the next decadesuntil the present.

Today, the days of diners are dwindling as NewAmerican bistros put tomato coulis where good oldketchup once stood.

And it seems that for every new restaurantfacade on Mass. Ave., another place shuts itsdoors.

Location, Location, Location

Harvard Square is by nature a hard place tosurvive, restaurateurs say.

The mix of students, tourists and locals is adifficult constituency to please.

Add high rents and bad parking, and HarvardSquare is not as ideal a restaurant site as thecrowds and lines would make it seem.

"It's counterintuitive. It's not a greatrestaurant locale," says James L. "Jim" Miller,co-owner of the Church Street grill, Fire & Ice.

He adds that attracting Boston residents isanother difficulty.

Moreover, tables empty in summer as studentshead home and residents retreat from the city.

This ever-shifting demographic can be the deathof restaurants.

"One of the reasons most restaurants in HarvardSquare fail [is because] in highly transientsituations, there are very few stablepopulations," says Joseph C. Khirallis, a videoproducer who grew up in Cambridge.

And for the restaurants, it's either adjust orfail.

At Sandrine's, co-owner Gwen Trost says theycut "way, way back" in summer.

"It's hard because most of our clientele isHarvard bound in some way, and if they live aroundhere, most of them head out in those months,"Trost says.

Basic Skills

Often, though, restaurateurs fail not becauseof the difficult location but because of theirlack of business skills.

"It's not so much what [a restaurant] needs tobe successful in the Square, but what it needs tobe successful anywhere," says Christopher G.Glionna, the general manager of the Harvestrestaurant, a Square fixture which will reopenthis week.

Service is key, he says.

Owners and managers must balance severalfactors.

Rent ranges $40 to $100 per square foot forSquare restaurants, depending on the type ofrestaurant, whether it serves alcohol, how manyseats there are and other factors, according toCindy Miller, associate executive director of theHarvard Square Business Association.

Harvard Square is one of the highest rentdistricts in Cambridge, but restaurants also haveto pay for food, utilities, staff and evenentertainment.

The goal of a good restaurant is to keep foodand staff costs below 60 percent of gross revenue,says James Miller.

"Every schmuck thinks they can start arestaurant. They think they'll be like Rick inCasablanca," he jokes.

"It's like a Venus flytrap. It's morecomplicated than it seems to be. The barriers toenter are very low--rent the place, get someequipment. You don't need to launch a satellite,"he says.

Trost agrees.

"Sometimes people are starry-eyed aroundrestaurants, but a restaurant is not easy to run,"she says.

"It takes a lot of commitment on everybody'spart. It's very difficult to make a profit inrunning a restaurant," she says.

To Be the Best

Beyond simple staying power, restaurants in theSquare aim for the top.

"Harvard Square is one of those `If you canmake it there, you'll make it anywhere'[environments]," Cindy Miller says.

"If you don't do it right, there's alwayssomebody else waiting to welcome your customer,"she adds.

Customers and restauranteurs alike sayuniqueness is the key to success in the Square.

"To be successful in an economic sense, itneeds to be different from the others," saysGerard Byrne, an English priest who has beenliving in Cambridge for a year, while eating lunchat the Greenhouse.

"In a setting like this, where people eat out alot, you can get used to a restaurant veryquickly," he says.

"Everybody is looking for something different,"James Miller says. "It was easy to get people topay attention to us because we represented [such]a variation," with patrons selecting meats andvegetables to be grilled in front of them.

Trost attributes this search for the unique tothe college town atmosphere.

"People in Harvard Square are looking fordifferent things," she says. "They have a veryeducated palate and most are highly educated ingeneral. The food can be simple, but it has to beunique and be good."

Still the One

And it is not only the new restaurants whichcarve out niches for themselves.

Harvard Square fixtures, too, say they arechanging with the times.

Charlie's Kitchen has added frappes to themenu; Grendel's Den has brought back cheesefondue.

"It takes constant attention by the owners,"says Sue Kuelzer, the co-owner of Grendel's."Somebody has to be there all the time and makesure it's keeping up with what styles are and whattastes are."

Jaap Overgagg, the general manager of the40-year-old Charlie's Kitchen, says the diner hasdone the same, "changing the menu to what ourcustomers want."

And on a recent sunny afternoon, residents saidit was the old-time joints that still capturedtheir hearts--and tastebuds.

"We don't go out to restaurants very much inHarvard Square," says Cambridgeport residentTimothy E. Frey, rocking a baby carriage. "But wewill specifically come to Harvard Square to go torestaurants with Harvard Square flavor," like thenow-defunct Wursthaus or Charlie's Kitchen.

Writer Diane L. Rezendes, born and raised inCambridge but now living in Mountain View, Calif.,agrees.

With chain restaurants, she says, "you have aformula, it works, but you could go to [Pizzeria]Uno's anywhere. A place like Charlie's [Kitchen]is more Harvard Square."

"There are places that have well-establishedmenus and reputations and formulas that workeverywhere but didn't float here," agrees CindyMiller.

The Future

But as of late, chains have been faring alittle better, and analysts say they will continueto take hold.

"In the last couple years, we've seen achange," says Bruce L. Potter, director ofmembership services for the MassachusettsRestaurant Association. "Many chains are cominginto the area."

"People are just more comfortable with themnow," he says. "When they get past a certainpoint, people say, `I want a dining experiencethat I'm used to, that I've had in the past.'"

But restaurateurs are confident that the Squarewill retain a unique quality.

"Harvard Square is still independent, a bigdraw for people who are entrepreneurs or have bigideas," Cindy Miller says. "It's a great testingand proving ground."

And, she says, according to the businessassociation's research, "it will constantly be agood mix. That's what the square can hold, andthat's what the market has told us it will do.

And as lunch counters like the Waldorf and theMug n' Muffin started to close their doors,restaurants aimed at students took their places.

"They were a little funkier and a littlecuter," Sullivan says. "Definitelystudent-oriented."

The trend continued through the next decadesuntil the present.

Today, the days of diners are dwindling as NewAmerican bistros put tomato coulis where good oldketchup once stood.

And it seems that for every new restaurantfacade on Mass. Ave., another place shuts itsdoors.

Location, Location, Location

Harvard Square is by nature a hard place tosurvive, restaurateurs say.

The mix of students, tourists and locals is adifficult constituency to please.

Add high rents and bad parking, and HarvardSquare is not as ideal a restaurant site as thecrowds and lines would make it seem.

"It's counterintuitive. It's not a greatrestaurant locale," says James L. "Jim" Miller,co-owner of the Church Street grill, Fire & Ice.

He adds that attracting Boston residents isanother difficulty.

Moreover, tables empty in summer as studentshead home and residents retreat from the city.

This ever-shifting demographic can be the deathof restaurants.

"One of the reasons most restaurants in HarvardSquare fail [is because] in highly transientsituations, there are very few stablepopulations," says Joseph C. Khirallis, a videoproducer who grew up in Cambridge.

And for the restaurants, it's either adjust orfail.

At Sandrine's, co-owner Gwen Trost says theycut "way, way back" in summer.

"It's hard because most of our clientele isHarvard bound in some way, and if they live aroundhere, most of them head out in those months,"Trost says.

Basic Skills

Often, though, restaurateurs fail not becauseof the difficult location but because of theirlack of business skills.

"It's not so much what [a restaurant] needs tobe successful in the Square, but what it needs tobe successful anywhere," says Christopher G.Glionna, the general manager of the Harvestrestaurant, a Square fixture which will reopenthis week.

Service is key, he says.

Owners and managers must balance severalfactors.

Rent ranges $40 to $100 per square foot forSquare restaurants, depending on the type ofrestaurant, whether it serves alcohol, how manyseats there are and other factors, according toCindy Miller, associate executive director of theHarvard Square Business Association.

Harvard Square is one of the highest rentdistricts in Cambridge, but restaurants also haveto pay for food, utilities, staff and evenentertainment.

The goal of a good restaurant is to keep foodand staff costs below 60 percent of gross revenue,says James Miller.

"Every schmuck thinks they can start arestaurant. They think they'll be like Rick inCasablanca," he jokes.

"It's like a Venus flytrap. It's morecomplicated than it seems to be. The barriers toenter are very low--rent the place, get someequipment. You don't need to launch a satellite,"he says.

Trost agrees.

"Sometimes people are starry-eyed aroundrestaurants, but a restaurant is not easy to run,"she says.

"It takes a lot of commitment on everybody'spart. It's very difficult to make a profit inrunning a restaurant," she says.

To Be the Best

Beyond simple staying power, restaurants in theSquare aim for the top.

"Harvard Square is one of those `If you canmake it there, you'll make it anywhere'[environments]," Cindy Miller says.

"If you don't do it right, there's alwayssomebody else waiting to welcome your customer,"she adds.

Customers and restauranteurs alike sayuniqueness is the key to success in the Square.

"To be successful in an economic sense, itneeds to be different from the others," saysGerard Byrne, an English priest who has beenliving in Cambridge for a year, while eating lunchat the Greenhouse.

"In a setting like this, where people eat out alot, you can get used to a restaurant veryquickly," he says.

"Everybody is looking for something different,"James Miller says. "It was easy to get people topay attention to us because we represented [such]a variation," with patrons selecting meats andvegetables to be grilled in front of them.

Trost attributes this search for the unique tothe college town atmosphere.

"People in Harvard Square are looking fordifferent things," she says. "They have a veryeducated palate and most are highly educated ingeneral. The food can be simple, but it has to beunique and be good."

Still the One

And it is not only the new restaurants whichcarve out niches for themselves.

Harvard Square fixtures, too, say they arechanging with the times.

Charlie's Kitchen has added frappes to themenu; Grendel's Den has brought back cheesefondue.

"It takes constant attention by the owners,"says Sue Kuelzer, the co-owner of Grendel's."Somebody has to be there all the time and makesure it's keeping up with what styles are and whattastes are."

Jaap Overgagg, the general manager of the40-year-old Charlie's Kitchen, says the diner hasdone the same, "changing the menu to what ourcustomers want."

And on a recent sunny afternoon, residents saidit was the old-time joints that still capturedtheir hearts--and tastebuds.

"We don't go out to restaurants very much inHarvard Square," says Cambridgeport residentTimothy E. Frey, rocking a baby carriage. "But wewill specifically come to Harvard Square to go torestaurants with Harvard Square flavor," like thenow-defunct Wursthaus or Charlie's Kitchen.

Writer Diane L. Rezendes, born and raised inCambridge but now living in Mountain View, Calif.,agrees.

With chain restaurants, she says, "you have aformula, it works, but you could go to [Pizzeria]Uno's anywhere. A place like Charlie's [Kitchen]is more Harvard Square."

"There are places that have well-establishedmenus and reputations and formulas that workeverywhere but didn't float here," agrees CindyMiller.

The Future

But as of late, chains have been faring alittle better, and analysts say they will continueto take hold.

"In the last couple years, we've seen achange," says Bruce L. Potter, director ofmembership services for the MassachusettsRestaurant Association. "Many chains are cominginto the area."

"People are just more comfortable with themnow," he says. "When they get past a certainpoint, people say, `I want a dining experiencethat I'm used to, that I've had in the past.'"

But restaurateurs are confident that the Squarewill retain a unique quality.

"Harvard Square is still independent, a bigdraw for people who are entrepreneurs or have bigideas," Cindy Miller says. "It's a great testingand proving ground."

And, she says, according to the businessassociation's research, "it will constantly be agood mix. That's what the square can hold, andthat's what the market has told us it will do.