I once had a very bad bottle of wine, and an even worse egg roll, at the late Young and Yee’s Chinese restaurant on Church Street. Few tears were shed then when the woks were packed away last year and the soy-stained walls came tumbling down. In its place has risen “Cambridge, 1” (did they focus-group that comma?), a new spot that strives to be a bar and a restaurant, a neighborhood joint and a cosmopolitan scene—and really does quite a good job of pulling it all off.
Cambridge, 1
27 Church St.
(617) 576-1111 (yes, it’s clever)
Open daily 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m., kitchen open until midnight
From the huge steel phallus guarding the front door to the pervasive presence of wood inside to the noticeably attractive staff, Cambridge, 1 has a distinct feel of urban masculinity. You can almost imagine a couple of drunk guys deciding to forgo the real world and instead open up their own imagined culinary nirvana filled with quality food, good drinks and hot girls.
In reality, Cambridge, 1 is the product of two veteran Boston restaurateurs, the same men behind Audobon Circle on Beacon Street and Miracle of Science down Mass. Ave. These guys know what they are doing, and even just two months into Cambridge, 1’s short life, it shows.
The tiny menu neatly divides itself into two simple sections: charcoal-grilled pizzas and salads. The former come in half portions ($6-$8) or whole ones ($11-$15), while the latter ($5-$7) are easily enough for an ample starter or even a light meal. The apparent simplicity of the menu contributes to the flexibility of the place itself. A salad and half pizza make a very satisfying dinner for one, while a whole pizza works great for a bunch of friends having some beers. The kitchen stays open until midnight, so the goal of Cambridge, 1 is clearly not just satisfying the dinner and lunch crowds.
The pizzas are the free-form, thin-crust, eclectic-ingredient pies one often finds around these days, somewhat reminiscent of the offerings at the late Brew Moon (Church Street restaurant déjà vu). The nine options at Cambridge, 1 are built from dough and sauce made daily on the premises and the charcoal grilling really does impart a fantastic crunch and smoky flavor. My only general quibble would be that the tomato sauce seems too prepared, with not enough of the pure taste of a fresh tomato allowed to shine through. Especially as summer dawns, less is often more in clothing, working and cooking.
The roasted onion, tomato, fontina, romano, chili oil pizza ($7 half, $13 whole) was a solid first showing. More chili oil or some other kick would be a welcome addition to the mellow fontina and sweet onions, but this was nice comfort food for a hard day. The grilled chicken, roasted red pepper, mozzarella, romano (their best seller at $8 or $15) was a bigger hit. A healthy dash of chive oil finishes it off and really helps bring together the sizable chunks of chicken breast, well-roasted red peppers and sea of melted cheese.
The other seven pizzas include a nice who’s who of creative toppings, with a portobello here, chicken sausage there and potatoes hanging out with rosemary over by the bar. Even pepperoni is invited to join the fun, though it can and should be dumped for sopressata. One pizza substitutes a bolognese sauce for the basic tomato, while the baby arugula pizza ($7 or $13) bypasses sauce altogether and is sold instead as “more like a big salad on top of a crust.” (This is, no doubt, the favorite of the very fit staff.)
The five salads on the menu also do a good job of covering the basic culinary bases without going too far afield. The simple Italian dressing on the baby arugula salad ($8) was plain as advertised, but it was also all that the delicious mound of fresh greens needed. Only a better asiago could have improved this dish. The bibb lettuce salad ($7) was also impressive, with a nice dijon vinaigrette and good gorgonzola. The cilantro leaves seemed a bit large and obtrusive, but at least that made them easier to avoid. In addition to these two, the diminutive menu offers a basic iceberg wedge and two meat salads—one with grilled chicken, the other featuring bresaola.
Lacking liquor, Cambridge, 1’s bar offerings can pretty much be judged on the quality and price of their beer and wine selections. Complementing the concise food selections, the libations are a well-chosen assortment, though the bang for your buck found on the other side of the menu seems to trail away here. The beers are a very nice mix of domestic standards (Bud, MGD), local classics (Harpoon, Tremont, Magic Hat), familiar imports (Peroni, Amstel) and some exotic foreigners (Beamish, Tucher). Likewise, the wine list has eight quality whites and nine highly drinkable reds, such as the very solid 1999 Ravenswood Zinfandel.
Price-wise, Cambridge, 1 is not exactly the sort of place to get lit on a budget and doesn’t pretend to be. After all, these guys have tons of fresh wood paneling to pay for, along with new stereos piping in Nina Simone and two 42-inch flat screens hanging above the bar. And like the $9 movie ticket, the $4.25 premium draft has ceased to outrage many locals. Glasses of wine range from $6 (a nice pinot grigio) to $11, while bottles stick pretty close to the “glass times four” formula and span from $22 to $58. For those who have heard rumors of an $8 glass of beer, it does in fact exist and resides at Cambridge, 1 in the form of Melbourne Strawberry Ale. I decided to forego this brush with Puffy-like alcohol indulgence fearing that, like a first-class upgrade, it would forever mar my relative judgments.
Considering the simplicity of the food and alcohol menus, it should come as no small surprise that service is not Cambridge, 1’s real calling card. Our waiter was nice, but pretty much in the same way as some kid who knows he is cooler than you, but still doesn’t mind hanging out. He was often absent and most likely did have much better things to do than help us navigate a 14-item menu (15 if you count the one dessert, tiramisu ice cream from Toscanini’s).
Cambridge, 1 seems to already be attracting a loyal following of yuppyish twenty-somethings, aging hipster Cantabrigians and adventurous Harvard students, some of whom are not pleased that their secret will soon be out. The dining room is larger that it first appears, since the old Young and Yee kitchen is now on the side and opened up, a move that allows for a nice set of tables and windows at the back and provides a fresh dose of Western transparency to the cooking process. A smallish bar and row of stools for window seating add extra choices for quick meals or late-night imbibing.
Flaccid tomato sauce and pricey beer aside, Cambridge, 1 is a very welcome addition to the Harvard Square scene. When you think about it, it’s upsetting that other places cannot follow their simple recipe for success. No real culinary rocket science is going on in the kitchen, after all, and the décor is an exceedingly understated blend of a sauna and a factory. The beauty is that Cambridge, 1 does not aim too high, but also does not fall into the same bland banality of most restaurants in its price range. It is by no means a unique dining experience, but it also lacks the nauseating familiarity of restaurants-by-the-numbers (kitsch + fried food = awful). Whether you like the industrial wood and concrete aesthetic or are put off by the thought of sharing a large booth with another party, its very hard to complain about tasty pizzas, fresh salads and well-chosen drink lists.
If you do make it to Cambridge, 1, make sure to sneer at the hordes waiting to get into Border Café across the street. Your restaurant is better and cooler and has a bigger steel pole.
