My (Third) Lost Shaker of Salt

Want to feel old? Just take a look behind you…

I’ve been blogging long enough now to post the third installment in my series of posts remembering people, places, and things that Boston has lost since I moved in.

Nostalgia. Memorabilia. Whatever synonym you use, it’s likely to evoke the same bittersweet morose feeling of loss. So many good times, so many memories, all gone to seed.

At the same time, a city—or at least a living one—needs to change, grow, and evolve to stay interesting and vital. Still, it’s hard to feel as sanguine about new, unfamiliar places as the comfortable, memory-filled things they replace.

This week provided a particularly sad example, in the sudden shuttering of the venerable Boston Phoenix, a free alternative tabloid newspaper that guided two and a half generations of young adults through the vibrant if chaotic maelstrom of Boston youth culture.

The Phoenix was the heart of my Boston experience through my 20s, 30s, and 40s. Clubs, bands, restaurants, classical concerts, lectures, readings, exhibits… If it was worth doing—even if it was way too outré for the mainstream media to touch—you’d find it listed in the Phoenix.

Although I’ve aged and my life has become more mainstream, losing the Phoenix is no less painful. If nothing else, it represented a connection, and sense of continuity with the person I used to be. It was one of the threads that still connected me with that other Ornoth, the younger, more social, and more visceral one whom I grew out of.

But it’s just the most recent example of the Buddhist law of impermanence. Here are a few others, just to remind you that nothing lasts forever, and the great danger of binding your happiness to something impermanent.

Restaurants Bouchée French restaurant on Newbury Brown Sugar Cafe in Fenway Bombay Club in Harvard Square The Greenhouse in Harvard Square Pomme Frites in Harvard Square Brigham’s Ice Cream Tealuxe on Newbury Geoffrey's Cafe Cottonwood Cafe on Berkeley Herrell’s ice cream in Allston and Harvard Square J.P. Licks ice cream on Newbury Street Carberry’s Bakery in Central Allston’s Sports Depot Anthony’s Pier 4 The Otherside Cafe Bhindi Bazaar Island Hopper Morton’s Steakhouse Locke-Ober restaurant Upper Crust pizzeria Hard Rock Cafe in Back Bay Ronnarong Thai restaurant in Union Square Club Casablanca in Harvard Square Joe’s American Bar & Grille on Dartmouth (relocated to Exeter) Papa Razzi Italian restaurant (relocated to Newbury from Dartmouth) Nightlife The Kells TC’s Lounge Harpers Ferry Businesses Pearl Arts & Crafts in Central Bowl & Board HMV Judi Rotenburg Gallery Nora’s convenience store on Newbury Street Compleat Strategist on Mass Ave. Globe Corner Bookstore Borders bookstores in DTC and Back Bay Mcintyre & Moore used books in Porter Copley Flair Daddy’s Junky Music Filene’s Basement Anthropologie Best Buy at Newbury & Mass Ave. Fung Wah Chinatown bus to New York Louis Boston (relocated to Southie) Bob Slate Stationers (temporarily?) Media WBCN WFNX Stuff Magazine The Boston Phoenix People Ted Kennedy Charles Sarkis and the Back Bay Restaurant Group Government Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Metropolitcan District Commission FastLane

If you’re interested in other stuff that Boston has lost, check out the previous posts in this series: one from 2009 and another from 2005.

Updates: All Asia Cafe, Cambridgeport Saloon, Thailand Cafe, Charley's restaurant on Newbury Street, Crossroads Irish Pub, Bostone Pizza, An Tua Nua pub, Anthony's Pier 4, the Purple Shamrock, Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, Hi-Fi Pizza in Central, Calumet Photo, Steve's Greek restaurant on Newbury Street, Daisy Buchanan's on Newbury Street, India Samraat, Cactus Club, J. Pace & Son North End grocery, Amtrak's ticket office in Back Bay station, Louis Boston, Louie the Tricycle Guy, International Bike in Brighton & Newton, Forum restaurant on Boylston, Bayside Expo Center, MakerBot on Newbury Street, TT the Bears nightclub, Tedeschi convenience stores, the entire food court at the Prudential mall, Berk's shoes in Harvard Square, Church nightclub (formerly Linwood Grill), Scissors & Pie pretentious pizza hovel. Impending closures: Johnny D's, Medieval Manor.