The Big Kenmore Square Bistro Square Off
The neighborhood’s newest eatery, Petit Robert Bistro, has its opening night tonight, and I am not invited. This intolerable snub shall never be forgiven, but marginally more important to PRB is probably that another bistro is opening in the Commonwealth Hotel building next month. I’d say both ventures seem risky, as Kenmore Square basically serves two kinds of customers: Red Sox fans in the summer and students throughout the rest of they year. Neither group seems to be interested in supporting anything that’s more sophisticated than beer and pizza. Not that there’s anything wrong with beer and pizza, but I imagine our bistros are planning on hawking slightly more upscale foodstuff. It doesn’t help that parking is pretty much hopeless on this side of the square. PRB’s predecessor, Tuscany-cuisine Il Bico, folded after failing to attract outsiders or convert locals.
Generally speaking, I’m of two minds when it comes to the new and improved Kenmore Square (or Back Bay Village, as it should be known…ergh…). I do like the new wino store, and the overall look of the place, but at the same time, I miss the laundromat (with the greatest, sweetest little family you’d ever meet) and the barber shop that had Playboy magazines in the waiting area, and, sometimes, even the worst IHOP restaurant ever known to man.
