Down Cambridge Street, past the kids in Starter jackets smoking in front of Roxbury Latin, past blocks of dilapidated Victorian houses, lies Inman Square.

Here, where Cambridge, Prospect and Hampshire Streets collide to create what one resident calls "a screwed-up intersection," Portuguese, Chinese and Filippino are heard as often as English.

"It's a real funky area," says the owner of Jae's Cafe, a constantly crowded California-style Korean restaurant in the square. "On this block alone, you can find Indian, Korean and Portuguese restaurants, plus Southern barbecue and a Jewish deli."

At the same time, residents agree, Inman Square remains a quiet, weather-beaten neighborhood, worlds away from the heady rents and upscale beat of Harvard Square.

"Inman Square has a unique personality, a strong sense of community and of older long-standing families" says Gerry Wolf, owner of 1369, a local coffee shop.

Strong ethnic flavor and warm community cooperation make Inman Square an urban anachronism, a reminder of an era when stickball ruled the streets and store owners spoke to customers in their native tongues.

Ethnicity

"Inman Square is a real melting pot. You can tell just by the restaurants," says the bartender at the Shamrock Bar, who identifies herself only as Diane.

"Here [at the bar], we get mostly second-generation neighborhood people. Their fathers or grandfathers came in when they were youngsters--I guess if something was good for your parents, you'll probably like it too," she says.

Men with mustaches and calloused hands fill the bar at midday. They are hard-swearing and careful to open the door for the occasional entering woman. Colored Christmas lights deck the smoky ceiling of the bar, and someone has carved "Free Ireland" into the wooden counter.

Diane says her bar is no longer frequented solely by Irish residents of Inman Square. Now, "we get a real mixture of Black, white and Hispanic," she says.

A diverse racial and ethnic mixture is not new to Inman. Until a decade ago, it was mostly European immigrants who populated the area.

"When I was growing up here, there was a bigger Polish, Italian, Jewish and Irish clientele," says Bob Wheeler, owner of 75 year-old S&S Restaurant and Deli Catering. "Now you don't see any Polish names on the doors. The Polish sausage maker stopped making sausage, because he just got too old and there wasn't enough demand."

Now, the older ethnic groups are increasingly supplemented by Haitian, Brazilian and Portuguese communities.

"When Brazil won the World Cup, Inman went crazy," recalls Sandy Ruben, owner of yuppie toy store Sandy and Son's. "People were all over the streets, everybody was applauding and parading. The police were everywhere, but it was in a positive way. For weeks afterwards, every Sunday there would be parades of cars honking and people would wave Brazilian flags. It was really terrific."

The constant influx of different cultures makes Inman an extremely tolerant community--one which champions diversity.