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2/10/98: Review by Wes Colley with Wendy Watson.
Look & feel: lots of stainless steel decor; mainly white & bright interior, with mauve and jade trim; quite nicey, if a bit faggy. Wall size mirrors with perhaps 50% albedo increase the perceived volume nicely.
Clientele: Local Mediterranean blue collar crowd of which I was visibly not a part.
Service: A bit less friendly than that afforded the more typical clientele, but no MAJOR taboos. Wendy's water took asking twice to get refilled. We seemed to have caught the place between shifts, because our original waitress sat down and had lunch while we were eating and had some other waitress fill in. When the fill in waitress went home, we were basically sitting there with empty plates, empty glasses, and no hint of service for a full 10 minutes. If I didn't enjoy my company so much, I would have been harsher with the tip. As it was, our original waitress finally finished her lunch (in the next table), arose, looked at us as if she'd seen us somewhere before, then after a light bulb flashed near her head, she said, "Oh! Can I get something for you." "Just the check."
Prices: Good lunch special prices. For about $5.00, you can get a massive entree with soup. Otherwise, standard prices... $5.00 burger/fries. $10.00 entrees...
The menu: A good sized menu with plenty of Mediterranean items, as well as standard diner fare. Four pages all told. Not as elaborate a menu as some, but complete.
Our food: Well, one nice thing was the basket of rolls that came out before the soup. Quite nice, but cold. The onion soup I had came with no cheese (a foul ball in my book), but was tasty. I had the grilled chicken sandwich with fries. The sandwich came open face on a kaiser roll, and really had enough meat for two sandwiches in the form of strips of chicken breast grilled to yummy perfection. Wendy had identical meat in her chicken caesar which had a nice sharp dressing, though soggy (?) and just generally poor croutons. The french fries with my sandwich were really very good. Sorry Dave, no cole slaw.
Summary: I would expect that the food is overall quite good, with a few minor exceptions. The service, I think, would improve once the staff got to know you.
9/7/98: Andy Frazer has scanned in an infrared picture of the Bel-Aire. Check it out
Well, this served as our basis as we ventured out one cold and blustery night in February. A good deal of the charm of the blue diner comes from ignoring the very high prices and only moderately good cuisine. While I cannot find fault with any of the decor -- pink and blue neon is always appreciated, there are several points of severe disappointment. First, the booths are WAY too spacious. Were talking severe high chair anxiety here. The menu is rather small for a diner, but nevertheless contains such un-diner like options as filet mignon and pheasant ravioli with Thai strawberry sauce.
How can we call it a diner, then? Well, for one thing, they do. For another, on the weekend it's open 24 hours, and even during the week breakfast is served all day. There are also jukeboxes, but with very few selections, none of which Susie recognized, since they preceded her birth by a good 20 years. One final, and very important note: The ribs are too damn spicy, not, whoa-boy hot and tangy with a mild taste of sweet spicy, but just a damn thats hot and my mouth doesn't like it spicy. Susie couldn't finish hers.
So we sat down and began to look at the menu. The prices were decent for the Boston area, but I found it somewhat unsettling that there was a section in the menu labeled "Deep Fried Foods." Other salient points about the menu: There is a picture of a pig and a whistle, and Omelett (sic.) is consistently misspelled. I ordered the chicken croquets by virtue of their name, along with a side of carrots, and Mike and Susie both ordered breakfasts. While ordering, our waitress noticed the recorder and asked us if we were recording breakfast. We explained that we were reviewing the place, and she showed less than no interest in being interviewed. Still, I felt a a real attachment to her. At first, when I ordered, she recommended the "real" mashed potatoes. A little while later, she gently tapped me, and informed me that the potatoes today, were, in fact, powdered, and perhaps I might like the fries instead. I went for the fries. I really admire her honesty.
On to the food... While I only had a finger full of Mike's homefries, and man, they whoop ass. He also got some corned beef hash, eggs, toast, and pancakes. He seemed to really enjoy everything. It was a hell of a lot of food, but he was able to successfully finish it. Susie got coffee, which she particularly enjoyed. Her bacon was glistening with grease, but she seemed to enjoy them quite a lot. My chicken came out steaming hot (as did every food item that was brought out). They were good, but not as special as their exotic name might imply. My fries were good (texture-wise), but not extraordinary. I thought I deserved some dessert, so I went for the rice pudding. Mike seemed fascinated by the fact that it actually had rice in it. Anyway, it was delicious. The problem, however, was that the dessert selection was quite small. There were only a few fruit pies (not made on site), and pudding (made on site).
There is an extremely lively clintelle, music piped in from on high (sorry, no jukes) lovely blue tiles, and an extremely tasteful counter and diner-like venetian blind theme. The menu, on the other hand, had a large burger ghetto ($5 for a burger!), and for a partial veggie like me, the pickin's were somewhat slim. Still, they had gardenburgers -- which I went for. Mike got a bac-o-licious big, giant, BLT sandwich. He admitted later that he had decidedly had better BLTs, but then again, the recipe is hardly a difficult one to master. Susie got the fish sandwich. All she had to say was that it still had the gills on it. Eric hated his chicken sandwich, personally. It had a funny aftertaste. Mike gave the slaw a B-, but I give it a B+. However, according to a recent article, Princeton is really known by its grade inflation.
Maureen, our waitress, was fascinated by the fact that we were recording our diner experience. She decided to tell us a bit about the history of the diner. She told us that it was established in 1941. The new owners have put $1.5 mil into the diner, and will expand the back to seat hundred or so.
On the whole, we decided that the food was unexceptional. The desserts were tasty, but clearly the pies were from a box. My chocolate cake was good but not "all that." And dammit, they had no rice puddin'.
9/7/99: I got this addendum from Bob Marville: The Rosebud staff is always friendly, management not so. They habitually refuse customer requests, forbidding staff to bring large glasses of water for fear of losing drink sales; a real pain to get the little 6oz. refilled, even if you keep ordering sodas and beer, and unfair to customers and overworked waitresses. Management also treats staff abominably, within earshot of customers, the real reason I and many other neighbors don't go there anymore.
The management is also unjustifiably proud of their "peddlar fries" (thick french fries w/ skins left on, either overfried, or raw on the inside, but you don't get to choose).
Cole slaw is adequate (B-), certainly better than the fries.
Burgers are great, so is the grilled chicken salad w/vinagrette dressing. No milkshakes ("frappes" in the local parlance) to go with those great burgers, a double disappointment with the nasty fries.
The "tabasco onion rings" are just that: onion rings with some tabasco poured over them as an afterthought. Such imagination permeates the entire establishment . Good luck trying to get them WITHOUT the tabasco, the request seems to really hurt their feelings.
As for breakfast, bad coffee (unforgivable nowadays), mediocre pancakes, decent homefries, pedestrian omelets, and they never replaced the broken waffle iron after 5 years (I've asked more than once).
I think the emphasis on the bar detracts from the diner atmosphere (especially i n such close quarters) without delivering a worthy brew experience: all of the " exotic" beers are bottled, with few choices for draft. Real diner food shines w ith a fresh cold Bud or Rolling Rock -- the 50 froo-froo microbrews and cocktail s are a distraction. Cocktails, anyone? But I quibble.
Why won't they finally finish the ouside renovation? Still missing some trim an d panels after 6 years, some still covered with plastic sheeting. For this reas on, it looks better at night, especially after a snow storm, when the pink neon is quite charming.
Don't even ask about the backroom extension, they finally removed the "opening soon" sign after four years. THAT is where the full bar should be, not crammed into the diner-car front, usurping the entire counter later in the evening.
When I first moved in around the corner, I was excited to be so close to the Ros ebud, but the bloom soon faded for all the reasons mentioned above. Their loss of my patronage won't hurt them, I'm sure, there's a new crew of college kids every year who don't know any better, and probably think this is almost as hip as Johnny Rockets.
For a real unreconstructed diner experience north of Boston, go up Route 1 to th e Bel-Aire Diner in Peabody (great breakfasts, real mashed potatoes, pork chops, canned peas, but it closes early in the evening).
For a brew pub, there are a dozen better places for beer within walking distanceor a T stop or two of Davis Square.
For fries, the McDonalds several doors down beats Rosebud hands down.
11/26/97: Reader Joe Barnaby has pointed out that Boston Diner is now known as the South Street Diner (not to be confused with the diner of the same name in Philadelphia). He adds," it is still open 24/7. Hopefully much better than the last time I was there - the last time I dined in that area for lunch, I went to the Blue Diner downstreet instead, they had a more diverse menu and several blackboard specials (and cleaner) as compared to the Boston Diner."
8/21/98: Reader Terri Wise
(who has hitherto given use terrific advice concerning Ye Olde College
Diner in Penn State) had this to add:
I have to disagree with the two reviews of the South Street Diner in
Boston (Well, to be fair, it's changed names, and perhaps ownership since the
last time I went there, ed.). I just went there last night and I have to
say that I think it's a much better diner than some of these shiny new places.
I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a Diner. My friend Ezra and I
went in for dinner around 7:00. The place wasn't particularly crowded, so we
got very personalized service.
The diner itself is of the train car variety. There are about eight wooden booths with blue vinyl cushions along the outside wall and probably ten stools at the counter. The counter is lit by lamps that hang down from the ceiling and blue and green tile accents the wall by the booths and the front of the counter space. The jukebox seems to have pretty extensive offerings -- mostly older tunes and coffee & cigarette type music (noteably, I recall "Teenager In Love," "Piano Man," and "If I Didn't Care" -- all of which seemed very appropriate). A ring of blue and red neon circles the ceiling and a few black and white photos of old movie stars (including a nice pic of Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) adorn the wall above the counter.
Ezra got some sort of mega cheeseburger with everything on it (bacon, onions, mushrooms). It looked very scary (coronary) nutrition-wise, but - judging from the way he inhaled it and raved about it afterwards - it was everything a burger like that should be. Saul, the owner and chef, asked him from the grill how he wanted it cooked. That's service.
I stole some fries and they were tasty, and the ketchup was obviously Heinz -- none of this generic stuff (like the "catsup" they serve at the Blue Diner down the road). We both got coffee, and I enjoyed it so much that I drank probably 4 or 5 cups -- more coffee than I've consumed in one sitting in years. (What's this about decaf?!)
The menu said they served Coke, though I suspect we got Pepsi. This pleased Ezra, but I'm a Diet Coke girl. My cheese and tomato omelette was decent diner fare -- ok flavor and piping hot with buttered toast and homefries.
Saul and the waitress on duty that evening (a tall black clad girl who kept busy wiping and mopping when things slowed down around 8:30) chatted with us. Apparently Saul bought the place about a year and a half ago and has plans to start serving beer next year so that he doesn't have to ban smoking.
Ezra and I had a great time! It's sad that more people don't know about and frequent places like that. If I want a spanking glass restaurant that serves Buffalo Mozzarella on a baguette, I'll go to Au Bon Pain or someplace in Back Bay. For endless coffee, soft jukebox tunes and good conversation, The South Street Diner is more my speed.
3/20/99: Reader Chris
Michales sent the following opinion of this, perhaps the most
thoroughly debated diner on the page:
As far as authenticity, we like the South Street Diner (the "old Blue
Diner") better than the "new Blue Diner," but the food is not all that
great. I got the "Diner Special" this morning - The eggs didn't
seemed to be cooked and the sausage links were dinky. The pancakes
were nice and fluffy, however. My companion had the cheese and
mushroom omlette, which was quite tasty. While our waiter did forget
my juice and charged me for coffee (both are supposed to come free w/
the "Diner Special," he was quite pleasant and let us lounge around as
long as we wanted, even after we paid the bill. This would never have
been the case at the "New Blue Diner," where they seem eager to rush
people through their meals. In addition, my companion was quite
smitten with the waiter, who not only referred to himself as "The
Coffee God," but immediately stopped the juke box when a Wilson
Phillips song came on and quickly replaced it with Marvin Gaye. For
that reason alone, The poor quality of some of the food can be
overlooked.