Adam G. wrote: > Dale S. wrote: > > > >What are your favorite Indian buffets in the Boston area? > > Rasoi in Framingham Center Rasoi is kind of hard to see, since it's front is perpendicular to the Rt. 9W exit at Edgell Road ("Framingham, Marlborough, Route 30", 0.8 miles West of the light at the Farm Stand.) "Trolly Square" is the name of the strip mall where it is located, and the general area is called Framingham Center, but that won't help you if you're looking at a map. They are the most recent avatar of "Oh Calcutta," formerly of downtown Framingham. (Not to mention Central Square, Cambridge.) Good food. And like most Asian restaurants, they don't go into a conniption when you bring children with you. The kids like the mango juice and the pakora. --Shawn
Boston, MA
Indian buffets, Boston area
Dale S. wrote: > > At lunch I often prefer ordering from the menu even if there's a > buffet available, reasoning that the food is likely to be fresher. > But I've eaten at two different Indian buffets in the past week and > they've been just fine. The going rate seems to be $5.95, which makes > them good for groups. > > What are your favorite Indian buffets in the Boston area? > > -- > Dale Smoak | [email removed] > | http://www.shore.net/~dales/ There's a good buffet at the Indian restuarant in Newton Center (I think it's called India Paradise but I'm not sure). Also, the going rate there is more like $7.95, but the buffet has more variety than the one at Rasoi. bill From [email removed] Sun Nov 3 18:39 EST 1996 To: "BBQ" Subject: 'Q Fast Food X-Msmail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Length: 6115 From today's Boston Globe business section. He's betting on barbecue: Downtown take-home concept relies on price, taste and convenience By Ronald Rosenberg Globe Staff, 11/02/96 Steven Uliss is betting that pushing his slow-cooked, smoked barbecue ribs and beef brisket from a storefront take-out in the middle of swanky downtown Boston could become the next best thing to Boston Chicken Inc. Hoping to emulate the success of Boston Chicken's take-out Boston Market stores, now undergoing nationwide expansion, Uliss has created a take-home barbecue food concept - known as Tennessee's - that relies heavily on people's need for the quick and tasty. Located at 47 Huntington Ave. in the Copley Square Hotel, Tennessee's enables city workers to phone-in orders for dry-rubbed ribs, smoked Dixie chicken and pulled pork, drive up to a designated yellow-striped parking space for curbside delivery, and drive off. ``I'm hoping to open as many as five more in the suburbs in the next 12 months,'' says Uliss, 33, whose award-winning barbecue first became popular at the nearby Original Sports Saloon, which he developed nearly seven years ago with barbecue ``pitmaster'' John Willingham of Memphis. The curb-side delivery concept is innovative in a city known for its impossible parking and heavy traffic, and during an era when dual-income households are pressed for time and convenience is paramount. Tennessee's - located in the back yard of some of the city's best, most diverse restaurants - and the Original Sports Saloon share the same kitchen, located behind Tennessee's in the hotel. It is not unusual to see waiters cross the hotel lobby to deliver plates of ribs and brisket dinners to Saloon patrons. So far, business at Tennessee's has been brisk, with sales running $1,200 a day, a healthy figure for a restaurant's first two weeks of operation and with no advertising. (Uliss describes the restaurant's barbecue as ``Memphis-style,'' which is hand-rubbed with spices and slow-cooked over hickory, ash, cherry and apple woods, and comes with sauce on the side.) The Billerica native, who spent less than $100,000 to open Tennessee's (whose slogan is ``Real BBQ - real fast''), hopes to reach sales of $700,000 by next October and $1 million in 1998. ``Like Boston Chicken, there are good profits to be made,'' says Uliss, who anticipates after-tax profits of about 20 percent compared to 10 to 12 percent for full-service restaurants. Despite Uliss' optimism, some critics question Boston's appetite for a cuisine whose health benefits are questionable. And slow-cooked barbecue brisket and ribs - not back yard gas grilled meats - are largely a regional taste, one that is not as widely known in New England. ``I have serious doubts that he [Uliss] can become as big as Boston Chicken because slow-cooked smoked barbecue is not as universally known or as bland as, say, a Boston Chicken, where people can eat three or four times a week,'' says Chris Janowski, part owner of the popular, year-old Blue Ribbon Bar-B-Q in West Newton. ``I don't think it [Tennessee's] has to be as big as Boston Chicken to be successful.'' Barbecue has enjoyed immense popularity in the Southeast and the Southwest, particularly Texas, but has not garnered the national attention that other regional or ethnic foods have enjoyed. In Greater Boston, there are about a dozen such eateries, the vast majority of which are take-out places owned by families. ``It's pretty cheap to build and pretty cost effective to operate a barbecue place. There are no major secrets to it once you understand how to run the smoker,'' laments Janowski, adding that barbecue food appeals primarily to men. Only 35 percent of his customers are women. Even some of Uliss' competitors anticipate his chances of having a good run in the business are good. ``Uliss is a sharp guy, a good competitor who is doing his best to keep up the standards to produce quality barbecue,'' says Robert Gregory, owner of Redbones, a nine-year-old, 150-seat Somerville barbecue restaurant. Uliss worked his way up from cook to kitchen manager to general manager at various restaurants. Tennessee is one of several eateries he co-owns and operates as food and beverage director for the Saunders Hotel Group, which owns the Copley Square and Lenox hotels. He is also part owner of these hotel restaurants. At Saunders, Uliss' job is to create new restaurant concepts, like Tennessee's, and expand on existing ones, such as microbreweries, coffee and sports bars. His success prompted Restaurant Hospitality, a trade paper, to select him as one of eight hotel restaurant innovators of 1996. After several microbrewery restaurants opened in the city, Uliss approached Boston Beer Co. to create Samuel Adam Brew Pub on Boylston Street. Having a well-known microbrewery behind the brew pub has proven worthwhile, and revenues have tripled to $1.2 million from nearly $400,000 three years ago, said Uliss. ``Nowadays people want casual dining,'' said Uliss. ``They don't want to spend $60 for a dinner for two every time they go out, so they're looking for places with good food where the tab is around $30 for two, and they want a relaxed atmosphere.'' Uliss' barbecue dinners cost anywhere from $8.95 to $17.95 per person. Basic sandwiches start at $4.95, and ``Pigskin Tailgate,'' which feeds six to eight with salad, cornbread, watermelon and two ty pes of barbecue sauce, is $46.95. The push for moderately priced eateries has led some of Boston's best known restaura teurs to downscale. Later this month, Stan Frankenthaler, best known for his Cambridge-based Salamander restaurant, plans to open a 40-seat wine and tapas bar in the Statler Office Building in Boston's Park Square. This story ran on page c4 of the Boston Globe on 11/02/96. Garry Howard, Cambridge, MA [email removed] Garry's Home Cookin' Website http://members.aol.com/garhow/cooking Eat first, ask questions later! From [email removed] Sun Nov 3 22:40 EST 1996 To: "BBQ" Subject: Pampas Restaurant X-Msmail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Length: 1281 There was a thread on alt.food.barbecue about Argentinian restaurants. Dave EskWIRED brought up Pampas in Cambridge and Charlie also chimed in. Pampas is an Argentinian style charuscaria or BBQ restaurant. They cook meats over wood coals on these long sword-like skewers. The house special is All You Can Eat. You can start at the salad bar and then they serve several vegetable dishes to the table family style. Then they come around to the table with skewers of meat and slice some off onto your plate. As soon as you finish that, they come around again with a different meat. They keep this up until you finally make them quit. The meats they serve include beef, pork, lamb, goat, chicken, duck, sausage, and chicken hearts. I may have missed a couple. This restaurant is only a couple of blocks from where I live so I suggested possibly getting together there one night. Dave and Charlie sounded interested so I thought I would bring it to this list and see who all might be interested. Since this is a local affair, if there is interest, respond to me directly and I will coordinate it rather than clog the list. Garry Garry Howard, Cambridge, MA [email removed] Garry's Home Cookin' Website http://members.aol.com/garhow/cooking Eat first, ask questions later!