Requiem for Two Restaurants

It's been a rough restaurant week for the crew around here.

Our very favorite Chinese restaurant, the little family owned one right downtown, went out of business. I'm not sure how long ago this happened because we haven't been there in about two months. We tried to go on Thursday and found a strange CLOSED sign on the door. A bum sitting on the step outside (Charming, yes I know) told us they retired after being in business for 25 years. Oh, how this breaks my heart.

I started going to Bok Haw in junior high with my BFF Amanda. We would spend entire afternoons there drinking gallons of tea and sipping chicken rice soup. Later on, it was a main date spot for The Man and I. And lately it's been a favorite for my junior high aged kids. What was really great (or maybe just odd) about the place was that it never, ever changed. The menu was always exactly the same. By the same I mean not just the same items but physically the same laminated sheets of paper, so the prices never changed over the years either. The decor, from the wall hangings to the place mats, was exactly the same from the first time that I went there to the last as well. It was a restaurant stuck in time and now it's gone.

The other restaurant is one that has been in slow decline over the years. This weekend they dealt out their own death blow.

Joe Boccardi's is a little pizza place that a bit of drive, but was always worth it. They made pizza with this super thin (like a cracker) crust. It had super sticky cheese and amazing toppings. They had giant, breaded mushrooms that were to die for as well as homemade beer battered onion rings.

And then they got a new owner. And then another. And then another. And then another. Each owner drove the quality down and the prices up. Last Friday we made a stop there after picking up the Girl from camp. They no longer have thin crust pizza and the mushroom and onions rings tasted like they were dumped from a bag into a deep fryer. The pizza that finally came was doughy and tasteless. The whole experience was a waste and I'm done with it.

So, goodbye Bok Haw and Boccardi's (of old). You'll be missed.