Le’s Vietnamese Restaurant

What is The Garage now other than a melancholy nostalgia trip down memory lane? We're all thinking about what it once was, a lively and somewhat quirky shopping center with various great eateries. For many in the Greater Boston area, this was THE place to hang out in high school, but over time and trends that fell out of fashion. Retailers stopped thriving as marketplaces moved online. Crazy Dough's closed and was never replaced. The half-finished remodeling after they left sat untouched for years as if stuck in a moment of time that will never exist again. I don't remember when Ben & Jerry's came to The Garage, but I seem to recall a time before it was there. A now empty space sits where it once was, with all the branding in tact and a brand new Ben & Jerry's across the street.... A sign of things to come. The Starbucks closed and became a great Vietnamese takeout instead, so not all things were lost for the worst, but soon The Garage will close for good and some will remember it as the parking garage turned into a thriving mall for 30 years, and some will only remember the 10 years of decline it had. In time, it too will be long lost to people's memories.

Oh how u miss how this place was. By that I mean shops and eateries. I've been coming here since before high school, and the appearance is still great and not much has changed with that. Newbury comics is still a huge staple here, that's a plus. There was the coolest store, I can't even remember, but it was on the way up the ramp. And I miss Upper crust pizza, some of the best slices. I guess Ben and Jerry's moved across the street. There was also a Taco place that I don't miss. It was quiet, and there's still a good crowd. I could still sit here and dream about the real world. Garage is that kind of place.

If these walls could talk. This place was home of the flagship Coffee Connection. Remember the smell of the fresh-roasted coffee beans in their barrels in the bean section? Or, the massive muffins, and lemon-frosted scones? The Someday Cafe also had those scones. So did Biscuit. After Starbucks bought The CC they kept the local pastries for a while, but every few years the Starbucks pastries (probably everywhere) got successively drier and artificial seeming. Le’s is great. Remember the Souper Salad? What was the name of the pizza place in the loft? Pizzeria Aventura? They had a cart in Harvard Square Station. Huge, thin, perfect slices of cheese, or pepperoni. Roll them into a tube and go. There was this open noodle restaurant where the path met and they would grill the ingredients in front of you. They had this red sauce- not sriracha- that was out of this world. And, Formaggio’s MASSIVE sandwiches.