COVER STORY
Mass. appeal
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MORE INFORMATION
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Mass Cafe 605 Mass. Ave., Boston. 617-262-7704. (Get directions).
New York Pizza 435 Mass. Ave., Boston. 617-266-7020. (Get directions).
Victoria Dining 1024 Mass. Ave., Boston. 617-442-5965. (Get directions).
Wally's Cafe 427 Mass. Ave., Boston. 617-424-1408. (Get directions).
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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.
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