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.”
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.
While you’ve still got time, don’t wait too long. All the shops WCVB heard from on Feb. 13 say they expect long lines on Friday, saying to get there the earlier – the better.
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.
His newest location is inside Lovestruck Books in Harvard Square, not far from his original 1970s cafe.
By Kara Baskin Globe Correspondent,Updated February 11, 2025, 6:00 a.m.
Coffee Connection founder George Howell returns to Harvard Square at Lovestruck Books.Handout
Before there were coffee chains on every corner, there was Acton’s George Howell. The 80-year-old coffee legend founded Coffee Connection in the 1970s, opening his first café in Harvard Square in 1975 instead of completing his degree at Yale.
His lightly roasted coffees drew a following; in 1994, Starbucks bought the company. Today, Howell runs eponymous cafes with beans sourced from around the world at the Boston Public Market, on the ground floor of Downtown Crossing’s Godfrey Hotel, in Newtonville, and now at the new Lovestruck Books in his original neighborhood: Harvard Square.
Howell continues to roast the coffee a few miles from his home in Acton, and his daughter Jenny — one of six kids — helps to run the business. He paused to chat while overlooking the Pacific Ocean from a balcony in Oaxaca, Mexico, while on vacation.
Why coffee?
I’m writing a book about that very question. I got started in coffee kind of sideways, really. I started drinking coffee seriously when I was in the San Francisco area in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
That was sort of a renaissance in California culture, really. All kinds of specialty food shops were opening up. It was a farmers’ market kind of world, more than anything you’d see on the East Coast. Specialty coffee started in the Berkeley and San Francisco area in the late ‘60s, with the birth of Peet’s Coffee.
I found that coffee was on the bitter side for me. I don’t love dark roasts. I got a French press and started brewing coffee from a cafe that was selling lighter roasted coffee, and that became my way of life every morning.
What drew you to California? What a time to be there.
I had a small trust that was making life a little bit easier — not very big, but just enough. I was working in an art gallery, exhibiting the Huichol art that you can still see at our cafes in Boston and in Newtonville. In 1974, I moved East, thinking I’d resume my studies at Yale. I arrived in Boston, visiting a friend, and discovered that the coffee was dreadful, to put it mildly.
What did it taste like?
Wooden pellets painted dark brown to look like beans. It was like drinking sawdust. I realized that there was real possibility in opening up a cafe much like we had already experienced in the San Francisco area, and also possibly exhibit the art that I was so interested in.
So did you return to Yale?
Nope. I stayed here. My wife came up with the name “Coffee Connection,” based on the popularity of a movie back then called “The French Connection.”
We opened up in Harvard Square, and we roasted coffee in Burlington. Twice a week, we’d roast and then drive the coffee into the Harvard Square cafe.
What distinguishes your coffee from others?
That was exactly the question I asked myself when we opened: How do we distinguish it, and how do we make it clear to people that we actually roast our coffee right in Burlington? That’s where I came up with an innovation, [putting] the roast date on every bag. Every barrel of coffee had the roast date on it, and then we wrote the date on the bag itself. That made it clear to people that we were the ones roasting it, and I also made people very aware of freshness as being a key ingredient in the coffee. That was number one. There was not a place in the country, and perhaps not even in the world, that did this for decades to come.
We also made French press on the spot for people. That way, if I had 15 coffees available, you could taste any one of the coffees right away. It really excited people. Within three to four months of our opening in April 1975, we became a media darling.
A latte from George Howell Coffee Cafe in Newtonville.Dan Watkins
How so?
Oh god, what’s his name? Chuck Kraemer. He was on the 6 o’clock news. He did “a portrait of a coffee connoisseur,” which lasted from 10 to 15 minutes. It was an interview with me, first at the Coffee Connection in Harvard Square, and then at a Dunkin’ Donuts on Boylston Street, as I recall.
Dunkin’ Donuts! Aren’t they the enemy?
I wondered the same thing when he interviewed me, and here I was drinking a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee! He asked me: What did I think of the coffee? And I’m thinking to myself, “Well, I’d better be nice.” I said, “Pretty good.” And then the next shot that I see, when I’m watching the actual video, is me walking out the door and throwing the cup, with coffee spilling into the garbage can.
The media always has the last word. What was Harvard Square like back then?
It was fantastic. The Garage, where we were, had Baby Watson’s selling cheesecake and all kinds of pastries. And it was the early days of Formaggio [Kitchen] in another corner. The Garage was full of other types of places; Newbury Comics, I think, was there from day one. You had lots of small shops everywhere.
And now you’ve come full circle at Lovestruck. What brought you back?
[Owner] Rachel Kanter approached us, and the idea of opening up a cafe within her bookstore really appealed to us. We worked with her to really create a spot that worked well with her concept: We will make it educational. We can actually treat people to various tastings at different times in coordination with the bookstore.
Why do bookstores and coffee go together so well?
Well, what a history. Coffee becomes really important in Europe in the 18th century, the Age of Reason, wasn’t it? It’s very connected to literature, literacy, gatherings of literary groups and such. It has that history from day one. This is where Jean-Paul Sartre, the philosopher, would sit and write his books. [Cafes] have always been associated with intellectual pursuit is really the answer, I think.
Since you’re now in a bookstore, this is only fitting: Favorite author?
In more recent times, probably Gabriel [García] Márquez.
In 2011, George Howell showed the Globe how to make iced coffee the right way. Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff
Are we oversaturated with too many coffee places?
You know, from a point of view of competitors, we always feel pressure, to be honest. It’s a matter of trying to separate ourselves within the Godfrey, which is our key location in Boston. We have a tall table. We invite people to come in pretty much every day, certain hours, and taste coffees with us. We do tastings for them black. We even have times where we offer people to bring in their own coffees, and we’ll brew that alongside ours, and taste them blind.
What’s the verdict?
I wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t win most times.
There’s a new study that says people who drink coffee in the morning have something like a 31 percent reduced risk of cardiovascular problems.
I love that, but I stay as far away from health claims as I can, because that’s not the business I’m in. I’m in the business of high-quality, flavor, taste, and complexities in coffee. Coffee drip, that’s like wine. Coffee espresso, that’s like a cognac or a whiskey. You take it in really small doses, and it’s way more powerful.
Where do you like to eat when you’re not working?
At my age, I don’t go into Boston that often. But closer to home is 80 Thoreau in Concord; that’s a place I really like to go. And Giulia in Cambridge — [owner Michael Pagliarini], he actually appreciates coffee. Most restaurants simply cannot afford a barista. They get run of the mill coffee, and that’s that.
You’ve been here a long time. Are there restaurants that you really miss?
I used to love going to L’Espalier, especially when they were off Newbury Street. And I used to go to [Jody Adams’s] restaurant in the Charles Hotel, Rialto. But, as I say, most of the time I spend at home at this point.
What’s your favorite food?
Oh, boy, just about everything. I really span the spectrum, everything from oysters to French food to Italian, you name it. It’s more the exploration. I’m here in Mexico right now, and I just had breakfast with mole sauce and two fried eggs. Oh, my God. And, of course, plantains. Just delicious. I’m exploring the food.
Oh, and this is a major thing of mine: I really don’t like tortillas that use wheat and such. It needs to be a corn tortilla, one. Two, the Mexican tortillas are very flat. If you go to Guatemala or El Salvador, they’re thicker. They’re handmade. There’s texture and flavor that’s mind-bogglingly good. I would love to serve them in one of our cafes sometime.
Let’s talk about coffee faux pas. Shots of hazelnut. Foams. What annoys you?
Flavored coffee was big in the ‘80s. That was like 30 percent of many cafes’ sales. We refused to do that. We never did that. There’s a new type of flavored coffee happening now, where farms, especially larger ones, are doing all these crazy combinations. They’re cooking the coffee, fermenting it in different ways. Now you have infused coffees that are starting to happen … mixed with pineapple or some other fruit to add exotic flavors.
That’s just awful to my mind and does no service for farmers who really try to make a high-quality beverage. Outside of that, the big mistake for consumers is they should not buy ground coffee. They really would improve their coffee a heck of a lot by getting a grinder. And I really wouldn’t recommend a blade-type grinder that rolls around, but a genuine grinder. It will cost typically over 100 bucks, but it’s a one-time purchase. In the long run, it’s really worth it. Grind the coffee pretty much on the spot and brewing it.
Once you’ve opened the bag of coffee, which has a one-way valve and is sealed, you’ve opened it up to oxygen. Seal the bag and freeze it. This stops the oxidation process in its tracks, which is what stales coffee and makes it lose a lot of its nuance. The first sip, you may not notice a difference. But, if you really drink the coffee over 15 minutes, especially black over 15 minutes, as it’s cooling, the nuance and the dimension of a coffee will have really diminished. It’s like watching a tire slowly flatten.
{image id=1376218 align=left size=large byline=true caption=”The “Some Like It Hot” Chili Cook Off hosted its 15th annual events in Brattle Square on Saturday.}
El Jefe’s Taqueria cooked their way to success Saturday to win the Harvard Square Business Association’s 15th annual “Some Like It Hot” Chili Cook-Off, in which customersthronged Brattle Square to taste-test competing free chili samples from local restaurants.
El Jefe’s came away with the coveted Harvard Square Chili Pot trophy after winning the most votes from customers and four local judges — comedian Danny Killea, Coldwell Banker realtor Gail Roberts, Sullivan Communications owner Martha Sullivan, and Dx co-owner Larry Ward.
The competing restaurants included El Jefe’s Taqueria, Cardullo’s, Charlie’s Kitchen, DoubleTree, Grendel’s Den, The Sea Hag, and Source. They were joined by Amorino, which offered free gelato to attendees. Local drumming group Grooversity also performed at the event.
The judges said they were looking for a number of characteristics that would separate Harvard Square’s best chili from its competitors.
“I’m looking for presentation, and the flavor,” Sullivan said. “You want it hot, but I don’t want to cry.”
The chili cook-off brought Cambridge residents and even out-of-state visitors to the Square.
At the end of the day, El Jefe’s claimed victory of the title of Harvard Square’s best chili. This is the Mexican restaurant’s third time winning the competition in the past eight years.
John F. Schall, the owner of El Jefe’s, said he wasn’t surprised that his restaurant reclaimed the trophy.
“We don’t try to be bashful about our chili, and it’s a real Mexican chili, so there’s some special ingredients to it that we won’t divulge,” he said.
“The only problem with this is when we ever lose, it’s devastating,” Schall added.
Schall said that he came up with the concept for the chili cook-off — an event part of Harvard Square’s Winter Carnival, a series of events intended to draw customers during Cambridge’s colder months — after seeing a lull in the Square’s business activity.
“There’s been times where the Square has gotten a bad rep, where people are talking about, ‘There’s only chain stores here, and it’s not interesting, it’s not fun anymore,’” Schall said. “And that’s just not the case.”
Denise A. Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said that the competition is a perfect way to bring people together during the winter months.
“People ask, ‘Why are you doing it in the cold?’ Well, because chili will warm you up,” she said.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to welcome people to Harvard Square on a cold Saturday afternoon, the day before Super Bowl,” Jillson added.
Hasty Pudding Theatricals kept tradition alive with a week of festivities honoring Jon Hamm and Cynthia Erivo as the 2025 Man and Woman of the Year, kicking off the start of their 176th production season.
Actors Jon Hamm and Cynthia Erivo were celebrated as Hasty Pudding’s 2025 Man and Woman of the Year this past week. The festivities began on Friday, Jan. 31 with Hamm’s roast at Farkas Hall.
The celebration continued on Wednesday, Feb. 5 with a parade through Harvard Square. The Belmont Marching Marauders from Belmont High School led the line down Massachusetts Avenue along with other student performers.
Mac M. Mertens ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Classics and History double concentrator in Mather House.
9 hours ago
Let’s face it, Harvard Square just isn’t what it used to be.
Bowl-based fast food and coffee chains seem to be taking over, with big-box franchises happy to pay the high rent that has been forcing some decades-old Square staples to close. The mom and pop shops that were promised to us by alumni nostalgic for their Harvard days are quickly becoming a memory.
But we shouldn’t fear the change that comes with an expanding Harvard Square. Many of the chain businesses make an often challenging Harvard experience just a little easier. As long as the new additions continue to satisfy the practical needs of Cambridge residents, students actually stand to benefit from this change.
Consider, for example, the slew of restaurants where a “bowl” is a menu option. The taqueria trifecta of El Jefe’s, Felipe’s, and Achilito’s offer a convenient, cost-effective solution to post-midnight cravings. Cava is settling in quite nicely along Brattle Street, and Pokeworks has occupied the corner of Church Street and Massachusetts Avenue since 2018.
While these businesses aren’t exactly unique or historic (Felipe’s Taqueria is the sole non-franchised restaurant on this list, and, in my opinion, it shows), they’re invaluable additions to the Square. They promise large portions, hundreds of calories, and relatively low prices compared to the nearby Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage, where the cheapest burger is nearly $15. And it’s much easier to inconspicuously scarf down a bowl of carnitas and refried beans in the back of class or at a library desk than it is to cover your hands in burger grease and sauce trying to overcome the “Masshole” burger.
For the modern Harvard student, convenience is king. Establishments that provide this convenience will thrive at the expense of places that take time and energy away from studying and extracurriculars. There’s a reason why a 24-hour CVS seems to be the most high-traffic area of Harvard Square.
The propagation of coffee shops that encircle campus are part of the same story. The JFK Street Starbucks now occupies a prime spot that once belonged to the world’s only Curious George store. We can lament the loss of Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, but we must admit that the students, faculty, and residents of Cambridge are certainly better served by a coffee shop where they might go daily than a novelty shop where they might go once in their lives.
Is it unfortunate that these franchises occupy spaces that could otherwise be used for a restaurant truly unique to Harvard Square? Yes. But, above everything else, they serve the needs of the hungry, cash-strapped, and sleep-deprived college students who occupy the Square.
Of course, corporate franchises work best in moderation. I wouldn’t want Harvard Square to resemble a shopping mall, nor do students really need that. There should be a healthy mix of the corporate chains that offer low prices and popular products and the small businesses that bring historic charm to the area.
Fortunately, the old Harvard Square isn’t lost yet. Many of the iconic staples continue to thrive. I have seldom seen a short line at Pinocchio’s Pizza & Subs on a weekend past midnight or the Harvard Book Store without a crowd of students and tourists. Even the businesses that seem no longer to cater to these residents, like the ever-mysterious tobacco and game shop Leavitt & Peirce, which was established in 1883, appear to be thriving. There is still popular demand for these historic businesses.
The businesses of Harvard Square should do more than simply evoke nostalgia. They should serve their town’s residents, who, in turn, get to decide which businesses succeed. I, for one, am confident that Harvard Square has reached a critical mass of four bubble tea shops. After all, a new one seems to open every year (sometimes in the exact same location).
Change is not a bad thing. Chains are not a bad thing, as long as those chains serve the people of Harvard Square. While every vacant space does not need to be a new HSA Harvard Shop and every new restaurant does not need to be “fun spin on Tex-Mex,” there is no need for the Square to be populated with so many shops as quirky as Harvard students’ interests.
We can’t stop change. Thankfully, in this case, it is serving us well. So the next time you criticize Harvard Square’s commercialization, think: When was the last time you had a Jefe’s bowl?
