The journey really is the thing: know that each experience is meant to come back and impact your life in some way. How we pay attention to those experiences and come out the other side defines that journey. For me, one of the most important stops along the way was a job as a restaurant inspector for two of the country’s most influential restaurant award programs.
Here I learned that managing expectations is all that matters, whether drinking from Christofle crystal or a red solo cup. The fancy dinners were extraordinary: Charlie Trotter’s eponymous brilliance in Chicago (may he rest in peace) from start to finish is a dining experience I’ll always treasure. And yet I’m happiest when eating at an ethnic & typically family owned restaurant where the recipes, staff and warmth are generational.  Â
Always remember that a restaurant doesn’t have to be fancy to be great, especially when you walk away with a food coma smile. In these times especially for our communities, support local, family owned businesses that make neighborhoods what they are: places to come together and see our similarities, not our differences.
Family favorites Brookline Lunch in Central Square Cambridge is all that, and more. For the very best Middle Eastern food. For breakfast fare served with a side of those incredible veggies. For homemade harissa and so much more… for now with take-out and soon to be back at full strength, Jamal and Manal Abu-Rubieh and their incredible family are hard to work – where they love and are loved by their community in Central Square Cambridge and yours truly.
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AllisonÂ