tory row in cambridge, ma

The owners of one of our favorite restaurants, Cambridge 1, opened up a new sister restaurant nearby called Tory Row. My husband and I decided to check it out after yoga on Wednesday night, especially after walking out of the building and smelling the burgers over at b.good. I wanted to see what it was like and they happened to have a cheeseburger (re: another red meat craving!) on their menu so we decided to stay and try it out.


Okay, so before I go on about the food, let me just say that it is a cute new place and we really liked the atmosphere (even though we sat at the bar). I like how the wine comes in short bar glasses instead of wine glasses (not that it matters but just a fun twist on the ordinary), and how they have a pretty simple menu (i.e. one page).

I asked the waiter what "loaded" meant in terms of the cheeseburger and he said it basically meant that it comes with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles. So then I told him to tell them to leave the tomato off since I'm allergic to them. He says, "Okay, no problem." So we're sitting there and we can see the cook grilling up our burgers which was pretty cool. But then when the lady came around the corner with my burger, it was loaded.

Ugh.

So luckily Tony's burger came soon after mine and I managed to pick up the whole pile of lettuce and stuff - by now the tomato touched everything so I couldn't salvage any lettuce for my burger - and moved it over to his plate. No big deal really, more just a pain in the ass.

The bartender - a super nice guy, I will say - apologized for the tomato thing but then said, "I can't type in Portuguese so they can't understand ... ".

What?

(Insert note here: I wasn't this aggitated by his excuse/response/explanation when it happened, or even the rest of the night during our walk home. But we talked about it the next night and it made me think. Plus, I had wine by this point so you know.)

That shouldn't matter. When it comes to food allergy issues, you can't use a language barrier as an excuse if someone goes into anaphylactic shock. I know it wasn't a big deal in my situation so I'm moving on with this review and stepping down from my soap box now.

Anywho. The burger was really good in the end. It was served with a potato rosti instead of french fries, so I was a little disappointed at first. It was pretty good but difficult to cut into at one point. My fingers got a little greasy and my fork slipped out of my hand which flung some potato onto the bar area. Oops!

If given the choice of going here or to Cambridge 1 on any given night, I think I'd opt for Cambridge 1. Unless of course, I was craving something other than potato pizza. Tory Row was quite crowded on a Wednesday night so I think that's great for them, and the location is prime real estate being right next to a T entrance. I'd definitely go back there for drinks at the bar although I'm a bit leery about ordering food again in case I get the language barrier excuse again.