Mass. appeal A trip down Boston's real central artery By Robert David Sullivan Massachusetts Avenue is the fastest street in what may be the fastest-moving city in America. If you're on foot, that is. Mass. Ave. - no one takes the time to say the full name - is a street of purpose. Even on the Mass. Ave. bridge, which boasts some of the city's most stunning views, the pedestrians keep moving as if their lives depended on it. (A brunch date? The symphony? Last call at a Central Square bar?) Just about anywhere on Mass. Ave. from Boston's South End to Cambridge's Porter Square is a great spot for people-watching, as long as you stay out of the passing lane on the sidewalk. Driving is another story, and speed is not an operative word here. The only good gasoline-powered way to travel down Mass. Ave. is the No. 1 bus, and only then if you've got a seat and a lot of time to spare. It's easy to take Mass. Ave. for granted, or to see it as an obstacle on the way to a more prestigious address, like Newbury or Brattle streets. We don't give the avenue its due as a unifying force in a metropolis with some very cockeyed geography. It's the only street that connects the Southeast Expressway, the Mass. Pike, Storrow Drive, and Memorial Drive. It's also the only street with subway stops on the Red, Green, and Orange lines. And it pulls together some of the area's most distinct communities: African-Americans in Roxbury, gays in the South End, artists in the Fenway, affluent professionals in the Back Bay, students at MIT and Harvard, and immigrants of all kinds in Central Square. For all this diversity, there are some recurring images along the avenue. You're never far from rental trucks, used guitars, fresh coffee, or Indian cuisine. You can find just about any fast-food chain if you cruise long enough, and most of the gift shops have a high kitsch factor. There are plenty of reasons to treat Mass. Ave. as a destination in itself. Here is a brief tour of the hardest-working street in Boston. South End/Roxbury The first three-quarters of a mile of Mass. Ave. is dominated by trucks, a reminder that practically everything you eat or buy in Boston has to come from somewhere else. This is not a pleasant neighborhood for pedestrians, but one good reason to drive here is Victoria Dining, a truckstop with a helpful staff and a clientele that's a great cross-section of Boston. There are truckers and policemen, but also South Enders and businesspeople who don't want to pay $25 for brunch, plus impulse diners on their way to or from the Expressway. The front room is a bit crowded, but it's full of comfy booths; the back room has austere tables and chairs but plenty of personal space. A reasonable compromise either way. Pedestrians start to appear once you pass the Boston Medical Center, whose upper floors cross Mass. Ave. Neighborhood businesses, including a bank branch and a Dunkin Donuts, are on the next few blocks. The airy and inviting Mass Cafe offers African cuisine. Just past Shawmut Avenue is Chester Square, an oval park built in 1850 along with the 70 beautiful townhouses that surround it. Mass. Ave. didn't go all the way to Cambridge then; when it became a major thoroughfare, it was expanded to slice through the middle of the park. (The city is studying the feasibility of depressing Mass. Ave. so that the park can be made whole again.) These days, dog walkers are a common sight here. The intersection with Columbus Avenue is busy well into the night. On one corner, the Harriet Tubman House hosts neighborhood meetings and social groups. Across from it diagonally is New York Pizza (the sign actually says New PIZZA York), which has a neon Statue of Liberty in the window. The diverse crowd here carries over to next-door Wally's Cafe, a favorite of jazz enthusiasts since it opened in 1947. Don't expect a table to yourself; a lot of other passersby won't be able to resist the temptation to duck in for a couple of tunes. The music mile At Wally's, Mass. Ave. segues into its next three-quarters of a mile, which happens to be dominated by music. You can find almost all facets of the local scene in the stretch from Symphony Hall to the mammoth Tower Records store. Between these two landmarks are the Berklee College of Music and a pair of musical-instrument stores, Daddy's Junky Music and E.U. Wurlitzer. Berklee hosts free student recitals as well as concerts by national artists; check out the posters outside its performance center. And with the Boston Conservatory, the New England Conservatory, and several more music stores just off the avenue, it seems as if every other pedestrian here is composing something in his head. Even the cars contribute to the musical atmosphere: During rush hour, this stretch of Mass. Ave. has what may be the slowest traffic in the city, which means that you can listen to an entire song from a car radio without ever breaking into a trot. Across Huntington, the Christian Science Center features one of the most striking open spaces in Boston - an Italian plaza in a city known for its French and English architectural accents. The area around the 700-foot-long reflecting pool attracts skateboarders in the daytime and strolling couples at night. Among the string of businesses between the church and Berklee are an array of Asian restaurants; the Compleat Strategist with its mind-boggling games; and Dorothy's Boutique, a jewelry shop with a window full of fabulous wigs. Dixie Kitchen latches onto the neighborhood's musical theme with a sign reading, "Cooking with jazz." This informal Cajun restaurant is a great place to get seafood not associated with Boston, including catfish, crawfish, and soft-shell crabs. Even the nearby McDonald's tries to fit in with a musical decor that includes posters of Louis Armstrong and other jazz greats. The music mile comes to a grand finale at Tower Records. Look for the stars in the sidewalk dedicated to such Boston musical legends as Arthur Fiedler and Aerosmith. Thanks to the closing of stores like Waterstone's, the book department here may be the biggest in Back Bay. It is rather idiosyncratic, though, with large sections on the occult and alternative medicine. The hidden Back Bay From Tower Records to the river, Mass. Ave. tries to sneak quietly through the tonier, more residential section of Back Bay. But look carefully and you'll find some cosmopolitan, and even bohemian, touches. Across the street diagonally from Tower Records, on an upper floor safe from casual view, is the body-piercing shop Tribal Ways. Back on the other side of the street, the Blue Cat Cafe seems to be settling in for the long haul in a location that saw a lot of turnover during the mid '90s. Blue Cat imitates the McDonald's down the street (probably unwittingly) with its posters of jazz musicians, but it takes the theme further by having a DJ spin bebop records at night. (Yes, on an actual turntable.) The food is "New American," which means hamburgers and wasabi tuna on the same menu, at reasonable prices. Nearby is another new restaurant, Clio, which has radically altered the space that once housed the Eliot Lounge, an agreeably downscale sports bar. Clio, on the corner of Mass. and Comm. Avenues, has been getting great reviews for its haute-cuisine treatments of steak and fish, but it's not for the faint of wallet. If you want good food and a casual atmosphere around here, go for Indian. Two longtime favorites - India Samraat and Kebab-N-Curry - and a newcomer called Himalaya proved to be both welcoming and gastronomically satisfying. None of them will win awards for interior design, but then you don't have to worry about the owners jacking up the prices to pay for fancy lighting treatments. For dessert, you could drop into Sweet 'n' Nasty, which has been plying pastries of a pornographic nature for 23 years. Ironically, the store proves that there is at least one force with greater sensual power than sex: I was so overwhelmed by the smell of chocolate that I didn't care what shape it came in. Easily embarrassed types may want to grab a candy bar at City Convenience down the block. There's a small Japanese section here with snacks like dried cuttlefish and muscat-flavored gummy drops - a foreshadowing of things to come on Mass. Ave. near Porter Square. The bridge and MIT Walk, don't ride across the Mass. Ave. Bridge. Savor the skyline, note the sailboats, say hello to other pedestrians. It's OK to talk to strangers here, if only because no one can escape by crossing the street. Once it enters Cambridge, the avenue is dominated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Mass. Ave. entrance to the Rogers Building, with its wide stairs and Pantheon-like columns, looks like a movie set, full of youthful extras hired for a "back to school" scene. The large scale of the buildings and the open green spaces on this stretch contrast with the sheltered atmosphere of Harvard Yard farther up the road. Unless you try to fit in at the Student Union, there aren't many dining options in this area. However, you can satisfy a falafel craving at the Couscous Kitchen, a canteen truck usually parked on Mass. Ave. just before you get to the Rogers Building during the day. If you're in a car or bus stopped at the Vassar Street light, catch a little architectural joke. One wing of a storage company blocks some of the painted letters on the building's main face, so that they read RAGE WAREHOUSE and underneath, IRE PROOF. A block further up is Paradise, the only gay club on Mass. Ave. and one of the diviest in the area; its highly visible location may attract students who haven't yet discovered the South End. The MIT area comes to an official end, of sorts, at the Miracle of Science Bar and Grill, where students and others scarf down burgers and beer. Central Square Any city of a few hundred thousand can build a skyline, but it takes low-rise neighborhoods like Cambridge's Central Square to make a city feel lived in. For example, the Central stop on the Red Line may be the most elegantly functional station in the entire MBTA system. The sidewalk entrances on Mass. Ave. are visible but not intrusive, and pedestrians often disappear down them without breaking stride. (It's the perfect illustration of a song lyric about another big city, where people "ride in a hole in the ground.") In contrast to the show-off stations up the street at Harvard and Porter, the colorful but minimalist design at Central says that a subway stop is no big deal. Heck, we've got dozens of them! It's too bad that few of them are this user-friendly. A lot of the people emerging from the subway have come here to eat. Dozens of restaurants are within a few blocks of the square, and contrary to popular belief, not all of them serve chutney. One of the newest eateries is Austin Grill, on the MIT side in the building that also houses CompUSA (one of the few computer superstores on a subway line). As one might guess from the name, Austin Grill serves Tex-Mex cuisine, and it's a good, reasonably priced alternative to the long lines at the Border Cafe in Harvard Square. Try a "swirlie" frozen margarita, which is equal parts lime and strawberry, or choose from 25 varieties of tequila including a "connoisseurs' selection" for $22.50 a shot. For cheap eats, one of the best bets is Picante Mexican Grill, a taqueria that nicely captures the spirit of Cambridge. The soft tacos, for example, are tasty, but you're expected to roll them up yourself. Dining can become a communal experience when the customers outnumber the plain black tables. During a recent visit, my reading was interrupted by a plate of food being shoved under my nose. "Hi, I'm Lee, and please enjoy my chips," said a woman neatly dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans. "I just realized that I'm running late." No one's ever too busy to forget about recycling in Cambridge. Central Square is bustling well into the night, thanks to its popular bars and music clubs. The Middle East is one of the area's prime music venues, with nightly live entertainment in three separate rooms. Most of the acts are local rock bands, but the Corner stage features jazz and acoustic musicians. On Wednesdays, Arabic music and belly dancing hark back to the club's theme when it opened in the 1970s. Another favorite spot is the Cantab Lounge, where Little Joe Cook and the Thrillers play blues songs Thursday through Saturday. Downstairs, the Third Rail features a variety of local bands. Back to the '50s The stretch of Mass. Ave. between Central and Harvard squares may be best known for its dozen or so furniture stores, many of them with pieces that seem designed for laptops and VCRs rather than people. In contrast to this high-tech sensibility, several shops here evoke the Eisenhower Era. For example, tiny Buckaroo's Mercantile is jam-packed with a staggering array of drink coasters (themes include Las Vegas, "50s fabric," and robots), lampshades, tin toys, and other items with a retro style. The only jarring note here is that you can order a lot of this stuff on Buckaroo's Web site. Continue your tour of the ersatz '50s at Johnny's Luncheonette, a chrome-and-Formica restaurant with all the comfort foods from an era when folks didn't keep track of their saturated-fat intake. This is a less kid-oriented branch than the Johnny's in Newton Center, and the dinner crowd peaks fairly late. You can close the night with a drink at the Peoples Republik, across the street. The kitschy Cold War decor includes Soviet propaganda posters and a blimp-shaped bomb with red paint. Actually, you're more likely to hear an Irish brogue than a Russian accent here, and the regulars seem more interested in throwing darts than in fomenting revolution. Harvard Square The Inn at Harvard is a not-so-subtle sign that you're entering Crimson territory. One of the first Harvard institutions is the Hong Kong, a Chinese restaurant where countless students have drunk themselves sick on scorpion bowls. A relatively new feature is the upstairs Comedy Studio, which features stand-up acts, sketch groups, and frequent drop-in appearances by people like Jimmy Tingle and Jonathan Katz. Another low-budget eatery is Bartley's Burger Cottage, where the sandwiches are named after celebrities, and the decor (including old political posters) spans the past four decades. Harvard Square is best known, of course, for its reading material, and three don't-miss stores are near the T stop here. The Harvard Book Store has the inventory of a superstore and the friendly staff of a corner shop. The Out of Town newsstand has just about any hometown paper you can think of, and the Harvard Coop is large enough to kill an entire rainy afternoon (including trips to the upstairs cafe). The west side of Harvard Square has lots of funky little shops and even more chain stores, but Mass. Ave. takes a sharp right to avoid them, as if offended by the very idea of commercialism. As it heads north, the avenue passes the peaceful greenery of Harvard Yard and Cambridge Common. Oh, and it also manages to get through one of the most complicated traffic intersections on the East Coast. Porter Square After this riot of traffic signals, Mass. Ave. smooths out for another stretch of dining and shopping. Despite the presence of a Starbucks at the corner of Shepard Street, this is a largely chainstore-free zone. The Evergood Supermarket is especially anachronistic, with paper signs in the window advertising specials on such items as biscuit mixes and "exlarge plums." Nearby is Day-Old Antiques, which specializes in vintage posters and other "pop ephemera." A block of stores with a decidedly whimsical bent includes Joie De Vivre, a gift shop with a clock for every pop-culture devotee. One timepiece is a statue of Elvis Presley, swiveling his hips to an unheard beat; another features silent-film star Harold Lloyd hanging from the minute hand of a clock atop a skyscraper, as in the classic film "Safety Last." This block also includes Tea-Tray in the Sky, which offers foccacia sandwiches, pate, and free dog biscuits for canine customers. The Forest Cafe is among several options for a more substantial meal. You might imagine that the US-Mexican border runs down the middle of this restaurant: The left side looks like a desert cantina (tapestries and faded photographs on the wall), and the right side like an American Legion post (wood paneling and a US Marines poster). The food does not suffer from this schizophrenia, however. Look for seafood specials as an alternative to the usual burritos. Porter Square proper begins at the Porter Exchange, a shopping mall that has undergone several transformations since its origin as a Sears store. It now has a strong Japanese flavor. In fact, all nine of the eateries in its food court offer sushi, tofu, or miso soup. Toward the back of the mall, the Kotobukiya market has Japanese food items, magazines, and videos. Also in the mall, the Cottonwood Cafe is a handy place to stop for a late-night snack or a pitcher of margaritas. Just north of Porter Square are two treats for bibliophiles. The Bookcellar Cafe has new magazines, used volumes, and occasional performances in its small front room. And Kate's Mystery Books is self-explanatory. You'd need a pretty wild imagination to come up with a way of killing someone that isn't already chronicled in a book here. Mystery writers regularly come to this spooky red-clapboard house for book-signings and readings. Outside of Kate's is a wooden tombstone inscribed with her address (2211 Mass. Ave.). As it happens, the pedestrian traffic almost disappears beyond this point, as Mass. Ave. enters suburbia and the narrow shops and restaurants are replaced by quiet apartment buildings and auto-oriented businesses. After several miles of eating, drinking, and noisemaking, Mass. Ave. wants to take it easy for a while. Robert David Sullivan is a freelance writer. Correction: Two stores were incorrectly identified in yesterday's Calendar story about Massachusetts Avenue. Because of an editing error, the wrong name was given for the art supply store at the corner of Massachusetts and Huntington Avenues; it is Utrecht. Because of a reporting error, E.U. Wurlitzer was listed as being at 180 Mass. Ave. though the store has closed. © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.