
Harvard Square Classic Cafe Algiers Closing Forever Sunday - danielmorozoff
http://www.cambridgeday.com/2016/10/23/harvard-square-classic-cafe-algiers-closing-forever-sunday-after-abrupt-announcement/
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tlb
Sad. I have fond memories of the place through grad school, Viaweb, and the
beginnings of Y Combinator.

It was notable for unreliable service. About 70% of the things you ordered
would actually arrive at your table. But the atmos was great, and the ibrik
coffee was strong.

~~~
peterross
I don't see the big deal. It's just a restaurant, it will be replaced by
another one, and even if not why does it matter?

~~~
suchow
When institutions die, they take some of our memories with them. Without any
cues to recall the old memory, it becomes a sort of neural dark matter that
lingers within us but can never be accessed. Because people strongly tie their
identities to their memories, in a way we lose a part of ourselves. Old
friends and family can help here, providing throwbacks that revive memories on
the brink.

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vonkow
I used to skip class in high school to go drink turkish coffee, chain-smoke,
and discuss life, poetry, code, and philosophy at Cafe Algiers. I think I
learned more there than I did in class. Sad to see it go, kicking myself for
not dropping in last time I was in Boston, but all things must pass.

Farewell, Algiers, thanks for all the memories and conversations.

~~~
ajmurmann
Is it my skewed perception or have cafes stopped being places to drink coffee
and have great discussions. They now seem to be mainly filled with people on
laptops or on their cel phones.

I also miss European cafes with waiters...

~~~
Matachines
They're just another place to do homework or work now. Not sure where people
discuss things in real life nowadays.

~~~
roymurdock
Cigar lounges and boxing gyms.

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ajmurmann
Please tell me this isn't a joke!

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vessenes
I had a very awkward date there once; at least I thought it was a date -- she
brought a friend.

That and what I remember to be uncomfortable cafe chairs and super sweet
Turkish coffee, (and possibly egregiously large mediocre hummus plates) will
live on in my memory for a bit longer apparently. Makes me so nostalgic!

This also reminds me of the watch store by the Harvard Square T main exit
closing suddenly -- the owners were reportedly spotted on planes to another
country with large suitcases of watches.. So in the canon of Harvard Square
shop closings, Algiers is probably not in the top 10. Still, an institution.

EDIT: The Handa family story is pretty interesting. Boston Globe had an update
in 2012: [https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2012/04/21/return-
alpha...](https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2012/04/21/return-alpha-omega-
family/7BOANnSsJboKCS638a8F0K/story.html)

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ryandamm
Even back in the late 90s / early 2000s, my friends and I felt like Harvard
Square was becoming progressively less interesting -- favorite bars and cafes
making way for cell phone stores and banks. Seems like a trend --
extrapolating backwards, Harvard Square must've been a nonstop party back in
the mid 1600s....

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chiefalchemist
Sounds like NYC as well. So where do all the cool kids go now?

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jnwrd
Harvard student here - I would like to know as well...

~~~
Q6T46nT668w6i3m
Somerville :)

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eli_gottlieb
As a Somerville resident... what? We're cool? Are you guys talking about that
one bar in Davis with the great cookery, or the Tuesday death-metal night on
Highland Ave or Slumerville Brewery or what?

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moyix
Probably thinking of Union Sq :) Even the New York Times thinks Somerville is
hip: [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/travel/out-of-the-
shadow-o...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/travel/out-of-the-shadow-of-
boston-and-cambridge.html)

~~~
Q6T46nT668w6i3m
I was! I live on Bow St/Somerville Ave. :D

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readhn
Damn it, I remember the days when one could sit there inside until 2am in the
morning smoking and drinking coffee until closing then driving to Boston sea
port watch the airplanes land at night. Good times. The place well be missed
:(

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weisser
One of the most memorable coffee shops I've visited. The architecture,
culture, and Turkish coffee were fantastic.

I went on a first date with someone who turned out to become a close longtime
friend. I worked with my cofounder for 8-hour blocks at a time wired on
Turkish coffee (he preferred the mint tea) as we built our first product (DNA
Nutrition) and raised our first angel money.

It's an amazing coincidence that my cofounder and I found ourselves in Algiers
for what was the first time in many months just 2 days before they shut the
doors for good.

Happy to see this make the front page. This closure stings.

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kchoudhu
This place is an excellent example of an institution that thrives because of
its patrons: people hung out here for no reason other than to shoot the shit
and drink tea. The food was _definitely_ nothing to write home about.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
The hummus was good.

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Q6T46nT668w6i3m
I maintain a small list of places friends should visit when they are in
Boston. Algiers was on that list. The Curious George Store and Out of Town
News are on that list, but they'll soon be gone too. My recommended Harvard
Square places are now Club Passim, Harvard Book Store, and Grolier Poetry
Bookshop. It's a bummer.

~~~
djb_hackernews
If you are going for Hsq institutions Grendel's Den should really be on that
list, they've been around more than 40 years and even won a case that went to
the supreme court.

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gardano
It's great for me to hear that Grendel's is still there. I used to love to go
there for their Sour Cream Chocolate cake.

I don't imagine Elsie's diner is there (and also Tommy's). I loved to get
bagels at Elsie's of a morning, knowing that the bagel would be infused with
whatever else was on the grill that morning.

~~~
ghaff
Elsie's has been gone for a good couple of decades. I loved their sandwiches
and thick frappes (which were called Westerns as I recall).

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gardano
I used to hang out there all the time in the '80s. My most memorable moment
would have to be the time I complained to the waitress about the cockroaches
that scurried from beneath my plate. Her answer?

"What do you expect from a restaurant that's in the f*cking basement?"

Strangely, that experience didn't stop me from returning to Algiers…

~~~
blisterpeanuts
As a grad student and later denizen of the area, I loved to hang out at Cafe
Algiers. I have fond memories of a young waitress dumping a scalding hot pot
of coffee onto my lap, then barely saying "sorry". At least they didn't charge
me for the coffee.

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sethbannon
Algiers was nice in every way. Wish I could have read a book over tea there
one last time.

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makmanalp
Really one of the few unique places left in the square, the other ones being
Passim and Pamplona I guess. And the bookstores.

I heard that it got sold, and the new owner isn't into that. Bah. I hope it's
not yet another samey gastropub that replaces it. Or at least I hope they keep
the interior.

~~~
ghaff
I can't say I'm a particular fan of the whole Grafton Street look and menu.
It's one of those things that there's nothing exactly _wrong_ about the
setting or the look. But there's a certain uninspired sameness that's sort of
meh.

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kensai
“Harvard is for me a synonym of decadence”

Jude Law as Pius XIII in the new series "The Young Pope" coming in a screen
near you. :p

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maxander
What makes it slightly worse are the odds that the space will sit unused for
an arbitrary length of time. Down the street from there is a big "space
available" sign that three-odd years ago was a decent movie theater; how much
money _someone_ has lost from that extended vacancy is a staggering thought.
Similarly, over in Central, TT the Bear's closed last year because the
property owners raised the rent; it's also now an empty space in one of the
highest-value areas of town.

Cambridge is becoming more and more expensive, but at the same time becoming
_worse managed._

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jonstokes
So sad to see what the square is turning into. I'm sure Leavitt & Peirce isn't
long for this world, either :(

I didn't spend much time in Cafe Algiers when I was there, but I did spend a
ton of time (and money) at Casablanca, which is also gone :( I'm glad I got to
take my wife there at least once before it closed.

~~~
ghaff
I dunno. Harvard Square's always been changing. I was walking through there
yesterday and nothing a number of new restaurants and cafes--most of which
weren't any sort of chain. You note Casablanca and I hadn't been there for
years before it closed; IMO it turned from a sort of funky place to another
sleek midpriced restaurant/bar probably a couple decades ago.

My impression is actually that it's the Kendall Square to Central Square to
Harvard Square corridor where there are new shops, restaurants, etc. going in
these days. For a time, the center of activity seemed to have shifted to Inman
Square but I don't sense that's so much the case any longer.

~~~
jacobolus
From what I’ve heard, Harvard Square was a whole lot funkier 40+ years ago.
It’s been consistently trending toward gentrification / yuppification from
then to now, with ever fewer interesting shops run by weirdo oldtimers and
more and more stuff that you could find in any upper-middle-class neighborhood
anywhere in the country. Not to mention bank branches on every corner, and
much less social/cultural diversity among the neighboring residents.

~~~
ghaff
That's probably somewhat true. (And it's certainly true of Central Square--
though, to that, I pretty much say no loss.) But the advent of chains like
Starbucks and Peets is pretty much universal and there's probably still a fair
bit less of that in Cambridge than in other places. Sure, various old
institutions close their doors over the years--and what replaces them is
inevitably not as "funky"\--but there are still a lot of locally-owned stores
and restaurants in Harvard Square that have been there for ages.

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NickHoff
Sad. Algiers was a good place with a nice atmosphere to sit and read for a few
minutes. I'm not too worried about the Square loosing it's feel though - new
places will pop up and develop their own lore.

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arprocter
I was surprised to find out when Forest Cafe closed that it had been there
since 1935

The last time I went to Alden & Harlow mentioned in the piece it was excellent

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fiatpandas
At least Cafe Pamplona is still chugging along. Not as great atmosphere as
Algiers, but still a decent spot, especially in the summer.

