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Boston Globe

End of an era: The Pit, a landmark of Harvard Square, is demolished

The seating area in Harvard Square known as The Pit has been demolished, a new milestone for an ongoing renovation of the plaza on which it sat for decades — and the end of an era.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE — In its heyday, they called it The Pit.

This week, it’s more like The Swamp.

Construction crews have begun pulverizing the former brick and stone sitting area, which had been a gathering space for young people in the region’s counterculture and those who bonded over not fitting in.

Tuesday, as part of broader Harvard Square renovations, workers scooped out chunks of rock as a pumpsucked brown water and mud pooling at the base of what was once a cherished and infamous landmark.

“There’s a feeling people have for that area, and it has to do with acceptance,” said Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association. “Anybody who went in there, regardless of their political persuasion, their race, their sexual persuasion, it didn’t matter. Everybody was welcomed. Even kids that were a little bit odd and outside the mainstream felt welcomed there.”

Jillson said her organization has salvaged several hundred bricks from The Pit, some of which it emblazoned with a metal plaque and sold off for $25 apiece in a fund-raiser for Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a nonprofit that works with homeless youth. About 200 are still stored in her office.

The Pit in Harvard Square before it was demolished.
The Pit in Harvard Square before it was demolished.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
The Harvard Square Business Association salvaged hundreds of bricks from the landmark known as The Pit before it was demolished. Some, bearing plaques commemorating the landmark, were sold for a fund-raiser.
The Harvard Square Business Association salvaged hundreds of bricks from the landmark known as The Pit before it was demolished. Some, bearing plaques commemorating the landmark, were sold for a fund-raiser. Denise Jillson

Local punks, alternative types, and street performers of all stripes played music, met friends, or simply hung around there with the other young people who showed up there day after day.

One of them was Marc McGovern, now a Cambridge city councilor and the city’s vice mayor, who was a self-described “pit rat” as a teen in the 1980s. (The Business Association this year paid tribute to this little-known aspect of McGovern’s past by gifting him a framed photo of himself taken when he was a spiky-haired high-schooler hanging around in a leather jacket).

He’s still nostalgic for those days all these years later, McGovern said.

“That time of my life was an unsettled time for me, and I found protection and community in The Pit. So it’s really important to me,” McGovern said.

Related: ‘It shouldn’t be this difficult’: Why fixing up a kiosk in Harvard Square is costing millions and taking years

“Pit rats” weren’t always beloved by everyone in the square, he recalls. Some of the kids and young adults who hung around got into trouble with drinking or drug use, and there could be violence. But the space had vast meaning for many and a reputation.

He remembers tourists and families of prospective students got a kick out of seeing real Boston punks so close to the serene Harvard campus. “We used to charge people to take our pictures,” he said.

McGovern hopes the new version of the plaza when it reopens will also offer a place for all kinds of people, perhaps wayward youths included, to go. And that there aren’t calls to shoo away whoever winds up in the plaza.

“Hopefully, it can still be a place where people can gather and meet friends and feel that they’re part of something,” he said.

People who weren’t whiling away afternoons there remember The Pit, too.

The Pit, a seating area considered a counter-cultural landmark in Harvard Square, has been demolished amid an ongoing renovation of the plaza on which it sat for decades.
The Pit, a seating area considered a counter-cultural landmark in Harvard Square, has been demolished amid an ongoing renovation of the plaza on which it sat for decades.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

It wasn’t exactly John Olsen’s scene, but the 74-year-old said that while growing up in the area, he appreciated that The Pit existed as a refuge for the people who found camaraderie there.

“ It had its pluses and minuses, but it was home to a lot of people,” said Olsen, a retired architect who lives in Winchester, who was out for a stroll through the square on a recent springlike morning.

He said he has had mixed feelings about the changes that have come to the neighborhood over time, but believes the new spaces being built by the city to replace the old can themselves become as beloved as The Pit once was.

“It’s a very different place than it was when I was here in my younger years, but I’m growing to appreciate it now,” Olsen said of the square. “I just hope that it develops its own character over the years.”

By the 2010s, when talk began of renovating the plaza to bring it up to modern standards of urban design and accessibility, it had begun to show its age.

The project has been delayed again and again amid a combination of supply chain issues and the difficulties of building in a crowded intersection atop a troubled MBTA stop.

Demolition work on the plaza began recently, Cambridge spokesperson Jeremy Warnick said.

Related: Harvard Square was never what it used to be

People with fond feelings for the landmark held a well-attended goodbye ceremony in June 2022 called Pit-A-Palooza that featured a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” tribute and a rowdy performance from the Boston hardcore punk band Colin of Arabia.

“Dress the part – drag out your fishnets, leather and studs!” an invitation to the party read. “Show your kids how cool you were!”

During the festivities, the city officially proclaimed June 25 as “Pit Rat Day.”

It stayed open to the public for nearly three more years as other work in the plaza got underway.

Now, it’s gone.

Peri Onipede, of Watertown, liked to rest in the Harvard Square seating area known as The Pit area on warm days. But a renovation was long overdue, she said.
Peri Onipede, of Watertown, liked to rest in the Harvard Square seating area known as The Pit area on warm days. But a renovation was long overdue, she said.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Given The Pit’s state of disrepair in its latter days, that’s for the better, said Peri Onipede, of Watertown, as she stopped to grab a coffee at a nearby café.

“Just walking through it, there would be water puddles and ice, so you had to be careful,” Onipede said. “I know it was popular with the kids and the students, but I always felt I had to walk carefully through The Pit.”

So she won’t miss it. She hopes the renovation turns the spot into a more accessible place for people to spend time, and considers it a good sign that the plaza renovation will preserve the kiosk that was the longtime home of Out of Town News, which she frequented.

The plans for the kiosk call for it to be a combination information booth and a pop-up.

Overall, Onipede said she just wants the plaza project to be done with already — for the construction to stop, for all the barricades to be removed, and for the next phase of the square, however, it will be, to begin.

“It’s long overdue,” she said. “It’s been closed for so long, and it’s just been an eyesore for a number of years now. I hope there will be something attractive that brings people here.”

Construction barriers and fences block off the plaza in Harvard Square, which is being renovated.
Construction barriers and fences block off the plaza in Harvard Square, which is being renovated.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
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Crimson

Historic Longfellow House Hit By Trump’s Federal Funding Cuts

The Longfellow House is located at 105 Brattle Street. The site's credit card limit had been reduced to $1.00 by the Trump administration.

The Longfellow House is located at 105 Brattle Street. The site’s credit card limit had been reduced to $1.00 by the Trump administration. By Ike J. Park

By Jaya N. Karamcheti and Kevin Zhong, Crimson Staff Writers

Yesterday

The Trump administration’s funding cuts are hitting close to home for Cambridge residents, as the historic Longfellow House had its credit card limit dramatically reduced by the U.S. General Services Administration last week.

When the Longfellow House-Washington Headquarters National Historic Site tried to pay their annual dues of $110 to the Harvard Square Business Association last week, their credit card payment was denied.

In a statement posted on Harvard Square’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, Denise A. Jillson, executive director of the HSBA, wrote that when she called to confirm the credit card number, she was informed that the Longfellow House received notice from the federal government that their credit card limit had been reduced to $1.00.

The Longfellow House, located on 105 Brattle St., is a mansion that was built in 1759. The House was George Washington’s first long-term headquarters during the American Revolution, and was also the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The site is preserved by the National Park Service.

National parks across the country have faced staffing cuts since President Donald Trump took office, with 1,000 employees being laid off on Feb. 14. Since the staffing cuts, the Trump administration has also announced a planned 30 percent payroll deduction at the National Park Service.

The U.S. General Services Administration, which manages federal property and government operations, wrote in a public statement that they directed 15 federal agencies — including the National Park Service — to limit cardholder accounts under the GSA SmartPay to $1.00.

“GSA has implemented a review and approval process to ensure that purchases that directly support mission-critical activities can still be made in a timely manner,” they wrote in a press release.

“Under this administration, GSA is committed to saving every single dollar and helping federal agency partners prevent all fraud, waste, and abuse,” they added.

Jillson blasted the funding freeze as “appalling” and “unconscionable,” and committed to keeping the Longfellow House part of the HSBA.

“Their partnership is too important, their presence is too sacred to all we hold dear,” Jillson wrote.

Jillson said that although the Longfellow House is not connected to education, healthcare, or other “bigger issues at stake,” its contributions to culture and history are vital to Harvard Square and Cambridge.

“The Longfellow House — Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site provides visitors from across the globe with historical knowledge and offers folks the experience of being in the same physical space as the first President of the United States of America,” Jillson wrote in a post on Instagram.

As the HSBA reaffirms its commitment to the Longfellow House, Jillson said that Cambridge residents are concerned about the funding cuts.

“Mostly, people are appalled,” Jillson said. “Just appalled.”

The Longfellow House is not the only historic site in Massachusetts to be affected by President Trump’s recent executive orders attempting to downsize the federal government. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston was closed this past February, but was reopened just a day later. Jillson hopes something similar will happen for the Longfellow House.

“We’re hopeful that this will be one of the reversals,” Jillson said. “The good news is, I received a newsletter from the Longfellow House this afternoon, so staff is still there.”

In these times of uncertainty for businesses and cultural institutions in Cambridge and beyond, Jillson encouraged residents to speak up about what matters most to them.

“It is unprecedented for us to use this platform in this manner, but these are unprecedented times,” Jillson wrote. “Silence is complicity. We will not be complicit.”

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Cambridge Police News

Harvard Square Business Association Recognizes CPD’s Elana Klein with Public Service Award

March 07, 2025 • 6 days ago

The Cambridge Police Department (CPD) would like to congratulate Elana Klein, who was recently recognized by the Harvard Square Business Association (HSBA) with their Public Service Award. Elana is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who works as part of the CPD’s Clinical Support Unit.

Through her work, Elana has been a tireless advocate for many who frequent Harvard Square and in doing so has helped to improve the overall community. In describing Elana’s award Executive Director of the HSBA, Denise Jillson, noted Elana’s “dedication to our unhoused, underserved, vulnerable and sometimes forgotten friends and neighbors.” As a nod to Harvard Square’s iconic culture, the award is made using a brick that was part of “The Pit”, that once marked the center of the square.

The award was presented during the HSBA’s 115th Annual Meeting which was held on Thursday.  This event was well attended by numerous members of the community including Vice-Mayor Marc McGovern, several City Council members, City Manager Yi-An Huang, and Police Commissioner Christine Elow. The CPD was also represented by other members of the Clinical Support Unit including Director of Clinical Support Services Dr. James Barrett as well as members of the Community Action Team.  

The CPD joins the HSBA in our appreciation for Elana’s work and congratulates her on receiving the Public Service Award.

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Boston Magazine

Lydia Shire Takes Over the Bar Enza Kitchen in Cambridge

The culinary icon will oversee the Charles Hotel’s Italian restaurant while still running Scampo on Beacon Hill, too.

By Rachel Leah Blumenthal· 

Fans of chef and restaurateur Lydia Shire, a matriarch of Boston’s dining scene, can now catch her on both sides of the river. While she’s continuing in her longtime role as chef and co-owner at Scampo inside Beacon Hill’s Liberty Hotel, she’s also joining the team at Italian restaurant Bar Enza inside Cambridge’s Charles Hotel as culinary director.

She’ll “continue to elevate the Bar Enza experience,” per a press release, “oversee[ing] menu additions and put[ting] her signature cooking techniques on it.” No word yet on exactly what that might look like on the menu, but Shire makes a mean lobster pizza—and is a skilled butcher, too. The powerhouse chef has been in the industry since the 1970s, famously co-owned the historic downtown restaurant Locke-Ober in the early aughts, and has mentored countless young chefs over the years.

One of those mentees? Jody Adams, now an iconic Boston chef and restaurateur in her own right. Adams ran Italian restaurant Rialto for nearly two decades—in the space that Bar Enza now inhabits. That Charles Hotel space has stayed with Italian cuisine ever since. After Rialto’s 2016 closure, the Giulia team operated Benedetto in the location for several years but closed during the pandemic. Bar Enza opened in 2021, a collaboration between the Charles Hotel and Lyons Group (which oversees Scampo as well as Sonsie, Rochambeau, and more), with chef Mark Ladner running the kitchen. (The Belmont native rose to culinary stardom in New York City at Del Posto before returning to Boston; these days, he’s back in New York.) Then, Tony Susi—a longtime Boston chef with a penchant for pasta—led Bar Enza for a couple years. And now, it’s Shire’s turn.

In early 2023, Shire was planning a Seaport restaurant at the under-development Seaport Science Center on Congress Street. There have been no updates since the initial announcement, but several people with knowledge of the project have told Boston that it’s on hold for now. With her focus trained on just Scampo and Bar Enza for the moment, we’re excited to see what Shire continues to bring to the table in the sixth decade of her impressive career.

Bar Enza. / Photo by Maria DeNapoli

1 Bennett St. (Charles Hotel), Harvard Square, Cambridge, 617-661-5050, bar-enza.com.

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WBZ News Radio

Luxor Cafe In Harvard Square Is Serving Customers Extra Late For Ramadan

Mar 3, 2025

Photo: Emma Friedman/WBZ NewsRadio

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio)  Luxor Cafe in Harvard Square is staying open long after dark this month to cater to those celebrating Ramadan. 

Muslims observing the Islamic holy month abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. Mealtime comes after an evening prayer, so the cafe-deli is serving guests until 2 a.m. through the end of Ramadan on March 29. 

“If you go to an Arab country or a Muslim country, you’ll see that after prayer, that’s when the cafes open up,” said Luxor Cafe owner Abdelrahman Hassan. 

The spot on Mount Auburn Street opened just over a year ago. Hieroglyphics run along the walls, and the menu includes traditional Egyptian dishes like hawawshi, a pita stuffed with minced ground beef, and kibda, a liver sandwich. 

“A lot of people living here, they kind of long for that thing they miss at home. We’re just trying to be that space for them,” Hassan said. 

Different mosques have different prayer times during Ramadan, so Hassan said he gets waves of rushes late at night for post-prayer meals. 

“For the most part, the same people stay, and it gets really, really lively,” Hassan said. 

He wants the cafe to be a meeting space for the community during the late hours, enjoyed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. 

“It kind of gives you an idea of what you would expect in a different country,” Hassan said. “You’ll meet people, you’ll hang out with people, it’ll be like a place to play card games. You just make friends there.”

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Timeout

Bonde Fine Wine Shop’s Big Mac & Wine

Monday February 17 2025

Time Out says

Who said fast food can’t be fancy? Bertil Jean-Chronberg, Bonde Fine Wine Shop’s owner and artisan curator, breaks all the rules with a fun fast food pairing during his upcoming Big Mac & Wine Tasting & Class. During the class held at 7pm on Feb. 20  at his tiny upbeat wine shop in Harvard Square – known for its small-scale, eco-responsible wines – he will guide you through an hour of learning about and sharing impressions of four wines with one all-dressed hamburger sitting sidecar.

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USA Today

What’s the best restaurant near you? Check out USA TODAY’s 2025 Restaurants of the Year.

After the positive feedback from our inaugural USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year and Bars of the Year stories published last year, our extensive team of dining writers has once again collaborated to answer one simple but important question: What’s the best restaurant to try?

The query comes from locals wondering about new openings, out-of-towners seeking hidden gems, and loyal readers trusting our expertise. As journalists, it’s a question we love to answer because we know our communities deeply. Whether it’s a classic taco joint in Arizona, a historic Serbian diner in Wisconsin, or a waterfront seafood restaurant in Florida, our recommendations come from those who live, work and eat there.

That’s why this year’s USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year isn’t just another list of hot spots with monthslong waits for reservations in major metros like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. It’s a celebration of local flavors and stories, curated by reporters from across the country who know that a meal of Italian cuisine in Mamaroneck can be just as rewarding as one in Manhattan.

We’re not tourists; we’re storytellers, embedded in the fabric of these food scenes. From cherished institutions to exciting new ventures, here’s a taste of the most remarkable dining destinations across the country right now. Presented in alphabetical order by state, these are our 44 favorite restaurants in America for 2025.