Back to Harvard Square

 Do you know the expression a watched pot never boils?  That's how I feel right now.  There is only so much refreshing of emails one can do without going crazy.  So on Thursday, even though it was insanely hot out, we decided to go to Harvard Square.  

My once vibrant and bustling Harvard Square has turned into a bit of a ghost town.  It's more "ghostier" now than at any other point in time over the last year and half.  There are pockets of people- Charlie's Kitchen, Russell House Tavern, and our personal favorite, Noir but overall there aren't crowds of people milling about and enjoying the atmosphere.  It's actually really sad to see and I hope the Square rebounds in the fall when students come back.  You know what would really help with that...a vaccine mandate to do indoor stuff but what do I know!

Anyways, we decided to go to Noir but found it to be completely packed.  We walked around a bit looking for another place to eat but got side tracked when we found out that the Brattle was open again and showing a movie by one of JO's favorite directors.  I wasn't really ready to go see a movie again but I sucked it up.  Thankfully, this is Cambridge and they controlled the seating to leave some distance and everyone was wearing masks.  The movie was fun and it was nice to be back in the Brattle.  

The movie ended at 9:00 which meant we really only one option for food and that was to try Noir again.  Most places in the Square close at 9:00 or 9:30 now.  Luckily when we returned to Noir there was a table for us on the patio.  I love this place.  It really got us through the long winter last year.  We ate out a few times on this patio, and thanks to heat lamps and blankets, we were able to enjoy some quality city living during the winter surge of cases.  

One of the best things about Noir is the staff.  The manager knows us and loves chatting about things.  I always order an Old Cuban and the manager always checks in to see if it was good.  I've missed the community aspect of living in the city over the last several months while we've been living in our temporary apartment.  As usual, the food and drinks were great and we both left excited that we hadn't really checked our email for a few hours 🤣