Always good to see love for FOC Tony Maws at Craigie on Main, but better stories with better ledes have been written than this one:
A stone’s throw from the Harvard campus, Craigie on Main is a go-to for Cambridge-ites and Bostonians alike. The menu changes daily, depending on the season and what’s best from the farmers they work with. Proprietor and chef Tony Maws is devoted to having the freshest ingredients possible.
The menu does change daily, and Tony Maws does work with farmers, but as the map indicates, Craigie on Main is not "a stone's throw from the Harvard campus," but, in fact, 1.3 miles away by the most direct pedestrian route. As it happens, this distance is equivalent to just over 90 consecutive world record shot put throws of 23.12 meters. Even allowing for a smaller rock, it's still a long way from the Harvard campus -- even the unpopular parts. I may be pushing too hard on the literal reading, but it's the kind of carelessly Harvardcentric approach that typifies a certain kind of journalism best confined to inflight magazines. FWIW, if you did want to talk about Craigie's neighborhood, you might want to notice that Craigie is smack-dab in the middle of another university of some renown, and just down the street from Tech Square, whose denizens sometimes get sick of pizza.
The feature itself is interesting, or at least the pictures, even if it is behind swinging doors that do not exist at Craigie. It would definitely be possible to say something interesting about Craigie's move from where it was to where it is now -- from a basement bistro / neighborhood canteen in a neighborhood where all the houses are seven figures, starting with a crooked number, to the site of a former Italian joint in a neighborhood that abuts the old manufacturing district of Cambridge, but not if you don't know where the restaurant is.
To return to the lede -- the Cod may be sensitive b/c he's bracing himself for the end of the semester, but the first sentence of the piece is a prodigy of vacuousness:
"A stone’s throw from the Harvard campus, Craigie on Main is a go-to for Cambridge-ites and Bostonians alike."
We've been through the first part. (Great label, btw!) Tony's restaurant is not a stone's throw from the Harvard campus. The rest of the sentence, though: "Craigie on Main is a go-to for Cambridge-ites and Bostonians alike." The name of the restaurant is correct. But "a go-to"? Literally, sure, people go there. But "go-to" suggests a kind of reliable standby, and Craigie is much more of a destination/special occasion restaurant. It gets worse "for Cambridge-ites and Bostonians alike." The inference here that COM is one of the few things these rival factions of diners agree on? Like it is rare for a diner to cross the Charles to eat? Jesus. It's not like we're discussing Brooklyn and Manhattan here. Finally "Cambridge-ites?" For fuck's sake, it's "Cantabridgians." If you're scoring at home, that's a single sentence with a factual error, two misleading inferences, and a usage error. Better luck next time, Daily Meal.
This is more than anyone wants or needs about a story on a website I'd not heard of before, but whose followers would be a snug fit in the Rose Bowl, but enjoy good food when you can find it, (Tony Maws' restaurants remain a good place to look for it) and enjoy good writing about food when you can find it, b/c it sure ain't here.
Oof. That "stone's throw" setting feels like a tell. Someone writing from a driving perspective, essentially. Craigie does offer valet for those patrons timid about finding a spot along the quiet streets that flank NECCO and its other industrial, tech, and residential neighbors (not to mention the church and the Uhaul depot) after hours. But its so-called go-to powers truly come alive during nasty weather, when the New England- and midwestern-bred staff throw open the (non-swinging) doors to locals arriving on foot, cross-country skis, or, in my case during a February blizzard that saw the governor shut down the state, newly purchased snowshoes. And they put up staff at a walking-distance hotel to ensure everyone's safety.
I liked the cameo by Karolyn and Charlie.
Posted by: cinetrix | Thursday, 10 April 2014 at 08:04 PM