Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Boston Globe: Five classics revisited

I love this article, because these restaurants are mythical to me -- I hardly even know anyone who has been to them, nevermind go myself, they're that exclusive.

In a newspaper, you expect to read about new, dare I say, "hot," restaurants.
After all, the chic Bostonian eco-foodie needs to know where to strike a pose this week. Where is everyone dining on terrine de mango with parsnip and urchin-roe foam?

But this in-with-the-new hype tends to overlook iconic restaurants - Boston institutions really - the places that spring to mind when you think about dining out here, the ones that make you feel like a Kennedy or a tourist hoping to run into a Kennedy.

These are the restaurants that still manage, after years - in some cases, centuries - to fill the house if not nightly, then certainly on weekends.

A sterling reputation can rest on its laurels, even as it raises an obvious question about change: If something's been working for 97 years, why adjust it?