Old Boston restaurants making a comeback amidst pandemic

While we’ve had to bid adieu to a number of local restaurants since the start of the pandemic, a few former Boston food favorites are actually being resurrected amidst the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Just look at Chris Campbell, owner of Troquet on South, who’s bringing the iconic Speed’s Hot Dogs, a cart that used to be parked out in Newmarket Square, back to life. He inherited the recipe for these bunned blasts and will be offering them out of his French bistro.

“I’ve always loved the whole brand and it just brings up fond memories,” Campbell said. “I just thought it would be great to keep it alive and keep it in other people’s memories. I would have hated to see it kind of disappear and never come back again.”

Campbell was close to the cart’s founder, Ezra “Speed” Anderson, before the now-late street vendor retired in the ‘90s, and bonded with him over their shared Detroit roots. Speed passed away in 2015 and some months ago, his widow reached out to Campbell to see if he’d be interested in bringing the beloved sandwich back to our city.

“I had spoken to Mrs. Anderson about maybe doing it for lunch one day a week in the bar area, almost like a popup at the restaurant,” Campbell said. “Now, with all of these changing times, I’m thinking it might be what people are looking for more often than one day a week.”

“We’ll offer it in the bar at lunchtime, but if people want it in the dining room, they can have it in the dining room,” he added. “I think people are going that more casual route now, and we’re now going to accommodate everyone and give them what they want.”

Campbell will be following Speed’s original formula, which involves half-pound Pearl franks, grilled buns, special sauce, onions, mustard, relish and that bean-free, all-meat chili typical of Detroit. And for nostalgia’s sake, Campbell will be adding an extra touch.

“Usually when I would go, I would sit down and share one with my father and always take a second one to go,” Campbell said. “Speed would wrap it in parchment paper and after like a half-hour in the parchment paper, the flavors would meld together more and it was almost better.”

“I’m contemplating doing that here, having every order go out in parchment paper and let people unwrap them themselves,” he added.

Campbell isn’t the only restaurateur who’s bringing a restaurant out of retirement. Chris Damian, co-owner of Legendary Restaurant Group spots like Papagayo and Sip Wine Bar and Kitchen, has once again started offering menu items from the old Burger Dive and Max & Dylans concepts, cooking them right out of his current restaurants.

“I have a lot of square footage in my restaurant in Downtown Crossing, Sip Wine Bar, and I have a lot of square footage in Somerville (at Papagayo),” Damian said. “When COVID happened, we were trying to figure out how to develop those restaurants as a central hub for people to use for dining out.”

Essentially, he decided to convert his two kitchens into a virtual food court, offering folks takeout from all of his restaurants — past and present.

“I’ve talked about this for a long time and just was never really in the position where I had enough time to develop it,” Damian said. “That’s what we’re doing now.”

“Now that we’re bringing back these brands, people are so excited,” he continued. “They have so many memories of Max & Dylans’ and Burger Dive’s food.”

Damian, who has also developed the sushi and poke brand Aoki as part of his expanded, pandemic takeout program, said he’s also contemplating adding his ex-Charlestown venture Andiamo and a currently secret, Chicago-based chain to the mix.

“I might potentially have seven brands running out of Sip, depending on what happens post-pandemic,” he said. “I would keep them all in perpetuity, if I can execute it.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3cKOt13