Where to Eat and Shop in Cambridge, MA
A food and homeware guide to the city Julia Child called home.
Even though I attended college in Boston, I spent virtually no time in Cambridge. A weekend trip to visit friends left me smitten. Cambridge is intellectual, charming, welcoming, and walkable.
Every entry in this guide comes courtesy of my hosts Jameson and Emma, who consistently provide the best recommendations (no matter the city).
Cicada
This wisteria-wrapped Vietnamese cafe is now on my list of all-time favorites. We ordered cured salmon bowls, served with rice noodles, cashew-herb pesto, nuoc cham, cucumber, daikon, and green papaya pickles. The unexpected pesto, salmon, and vegetable combination is sensational. We ate them alongside ginger tea, which had the perfect hint of sweetness and a generous amount of foam.
Pammy’s
We ate dinner at Pammy’s, a neighborhood-feeling New American restaurant that leans Italian bistro. You get to choose any three dishes from their menu for prix fixe dinner, regardless or its status as appetizer or entree. I loved getting to try a variety of dishes, with my unexpected favorite being a baby kale salad with a fried potato, onion, and cheese medallion that I’ve since learned is called frico caldo.
Koji Club
I have been wanting to visit Koji Club since hearing about their unique and diverse sake offerings. That desire was only heightened after attending La Copine’s cookbook signing at the beginning of May, where they had just come from Koji Club the night before and sang its praises.
We were only able to stop in for a quick drink before dinner, but we each ordered a different Namazake (unpasteurized sake that is bottled in spring), all of which were outstanding and complex. I can’t wait to go back and spend more time there (and order food)!
Wine & Cheese Cask
We picked up Italian sandwiches at the Wine & Cheese Cask. In addition to sandwiches, they had a great pantry and wine selection. An outstanding sandwich on a warm day is hard to beat.
Clover
I was a vegetarian for the entirety of my time in college. Clover and Bon Me were my go-to meals. Clover is the closest thing I know to vegetarian farm-to-table fast food, billed as a food lab (I miss their old branding). I re-ordered my old favorite: the chickpea platter. I can remember ordering my first Impossible meatball sub there in 2017 and being blown away.
Bon Me
Bon Me started as a food truck that used to stop at Northeastern’s campus. I love the white rice bowl with marinated tofu, pickled carrots + daikon, mesclun greens, cilantro, fried shallots, and soy drizzle.
Pod
My friends recommended I pay a visit to Pod, a small boutique with homeware, apparel, and personal care items. They had an outstanding curation of British, Japanese, and American brands and makers. I picked up two tea towels and a dish from British ceramist Pip Hartle.
Savenor’s Market
Realizing I was nearby, I couldn’t help but pay a visit to Savenor’s, Julia Child’s local butcher’s shop. When she famously said, “every woman should kiss her butcher,” this is who she was talking about. The concrete slab outside the entrance reads Bon Appetite - JC, inscribed by Julia herself.
While I didn’t have a need for meat, I picked up their ready-made chicken salad, potato salad, and a small baguette of Iggy’s bread for lunch. Before heading back to eat, I decided to make the pilgrimage to Julia and Paul’s home nearby. The home looks idyllic on this perfect spring afternoon.
I vividly recall visiting her kitchen (which has since been moved to the Smithsonian) as a kid and making note of every gadget that had a dedicated place on her iconic pegboard, feeling my brain relax.
I don’t think I knew (or it did not matter at the time) that she did not start cooking until she was 36, and her cookbook was not published until she was 49. The sense of levity in her approach (which seems to me likely tied to her discovery of cooking later in life) is one of the things I admire most about her.
“This is my invariable advice to people: learn how to cook—try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun.” - Julia Child
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