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Boston Globe
07-08-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
At Daily Provisions in Harvard Square, counter-service melts for the modern age
The backstory : The first Daily Provisions opened in New York in 2017, a spinoff of Meyer's people-pleasing Union Square Cafe. This is the 10th location — and the first one in Massachusetts. (Another will come to the Seaport next year.) Meyer received a James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur Award in 2005, and his restaurants have won a multitude of outstanding service awards. The Lumberjack sandwich at Daily Provisions. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff What to eat : 'Silver Palate Cookbook'-esque, café cuisine. Breakfast is served all day, with heavier items sharing real estate with sweets and baked treats. Daily Provisions is known for maple crullers, and you can enjoy them as a husky Lumberjack breakfast sandwich with eggs and cheese ($13.50) or a la carte ($4.95). There's the requisite avocado toast ($11) with accompaniments ranging from smoked salmon to eggs, or a savory-sweet everything croissant piped with cream cheese ($5.95). Sandwiches are available after 10:30 a.m. They're simple and satisfying: Get the tuna melt ($13.50), a polished affair — no diner this — with a subdued amount of mayo, griddled sourdough just buttery enough to taste melty, not greasy, coated with a thin layer of American cheese. Advertisement The Tuna Melt sandwich and a Iced Matcha Lemonade. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff The rest of the sandwich menu veers picnic chic: BLTs, cured ham and cheddar, herb chicken salad, chickpea veggie, with healthy sides like tomato and green bean salad ($9) and snap peas with quinoa ($9). Advertisement My dining companion enjoyed a bountiful 'chefy' salad ($16.50, but big enough for two), with roast chicken, jammy hard-boiled eggs, marinated white beans, cucumber, gruyère, and breadcrumbs. 'Eggs were indeed jammy and really flavorful, which doesn't happen when they're overcooked. All the other ingredients felt fresh and did not give the vibe of having been sitting in a fridge bin somewhere. Chicken in particular was tender and gently shredded, not the squeaky cubes you often see in salad. Little crunchy topping and a really good, creamy dressing was light and not gloppy, kicked up with dill, clearly house-made,' she reflected after taking the rest home — but noting that, for $16.50, bread or chips might have made the salad feel more like a meal. (The dressing is DP's version of Thousand Island.) You can also order dinner-ish main courses here, though the space has a lunchtime, benches-and-laptops vibe. A roast chicken dinner, big enough for three, comes with roasted carrots, Brussels sprouts, and crispy potatoes ($45). Order it to-go, and pass it off as your own at your next small dinner party. The 'Chefy' Salad at Daily Provisions. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff What to drink : A wide assortment of caffeine and/or alcohol, from salted caramel cold brew ($5.75) to matcha lemonade ($6) to Beaujolais by the glass ($9) or bottle ($32). You'll order at a counter, but a server will deliver your goods. While you wait, take a moment to appreciate the local touches, such as a brick salvaged from the late, lamented Pit down the block, marked with a plaque and perched on a shelf that looks straight out of a Restoration Hardware showroom. An authentic brick from 'The Pit, Harvard Square" is on display at Daily Provisions. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff The takeaway : Once upon a time, The Tasty was Harvard Square's all-hours gathering spot for counter-service sandwiches, sweets, and melts. Down the street, Daily Provisions is the 2025 version: healthier, cleaner, dressier. Still tasty, though. Advertisement Kara Baskin can be reached at
CBS News
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Baltimore's Black-owned Mama Koko's dishes out community and culture
Coffee, culture and cocktails are what you will find at Mama Koko's inside the historic James E. Hooper House. The Black-owned business is a coffee shop by day and cocktail lounge by night. Drawing inspiration from his mother's kitchen, co-owner and general manager Angola M. Selassie named the cafe after his mother, Dr. Kokahvah Zauditu-Selassie, who is affectionately known as Mama Koko. "She's this force of a personality, and one day, I was chilling in her kitchen and I just kind of took a glance and I was like, 'OIh man, all these little inspirations that are right here," Selassie said. "I thought about the hospitality that I grew up with in her house." Mama Koko can usually be found in Hooper House in her literary salon or downstairs conversing at the café. "She comes in here quite frequently and will just chat up people, talk to people, share some of her stories and that helps people also feel welcome to share theirs," Selassie said. Mama Koko's is located at 100 E. 23rd Street in Baltimore. What about Mama Koko's Bar Director Jacob Eyer said Mama Koko's builds a community quickly, not just with the staff, but the customers, too. "I think at this point, (we) really know most people who walk through the door by name, and that community is just growing and growing," Eyer said. Mama Koko's has two bars in the space with a draft cocktail bar at the front and a specialty cocktail bar in the back. It's not just alcoholic drinks served, but mocktails as well. "I hate the idea that somebody wouldn't come here just because they don't drink alcohol, so having a really well-developed and thought-out mocktail program is super important to us too," Eyer said. What's on the menu? Whether you're pescatarian, vegetarian or eat meat, the menu serves everyone for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The menu includes sandwiches, like the Smash Burger and Tuna Melt, salads, like Garlic Kale and Siracha Chicken Salad, and late-night bites, including Liberian Meatballs, Smoked Collard Greens and Red Beans and Rice. "Our recipe, Ms. Jackson's Red Beans on the menu, my grandfather won it in a poker game in Los Angeles from the queen of gospel Mahalia Jackson, so we called it Miss Jackson's Red Beans," said Mama Koko. The space provides not only more food options for neighbors in Old Goucher but also a place to gather. "We provide kind of an oasis in the middle of town where people gather and feel comfortable with our hospitality, which is a unique model, people over money, community over profit," said Mama Koko.
