Keep the Tasty; Gut the Building

The Tasty has been around Harvard Square since 1916, and in The Unofficial Guide's words, it has been providing "generations of street-roamers, students and suits with red meat and bottomless mugs of coffee in their hours of most dire need."

The reason the restaurant is a subject of recent debate is that its building's owner, Cambridge Savings Bank (CSB), wants to demolish the structure that houses the friendly burger joint, along with the other buildings on the corner of JFK St. and Mass. Ave. Opponents of the bank's project argue that the corner should be declared an historical district. President of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, Pebble Glifford, opposes the CSB because a historical district "is good for business, I think one of the reasons people come here is history," she said.

While we do not believe in preservation for preservation's sake, and certainly not merely for economic gain, we do believe that the Tasty is an important part of what makes Harvard Square, Harvard Square.

However, we still see on reason why the bank should be kept from razing the dilapidated structure that houses The Tasty and the former Wursthaus and erecting a more eye-pleasing structure in its place--as long as The Tasty does not lose its lease.

The bank has promised the restaurant a spot in the new building, but has not guaranteed a specific rent. We are sure that its age and status as the only 24-hour eatery in Cambridge are, combined, quite enough for us to want to keep The Tasty around for a few generations. But we are not committed to retaining a crumbling relic if it can be "tastefully" renovated.

So, if The Tasty stays, fine. But if CSB opts to out the eatery by raising rent to an unaffordable price, then we believe that, by all means, the JFK St. corner should be declared an historical district.