The Greater Boston Businesses Readers Still Miss
Greater Boston businesses constantly open and shut down, yet certain ones retain an enduring legacy long after shuttering. When Boston.com surveyed its audience about which defunct establishments they long for most, responses spanned from a hundred-year-old Watertown market to a Cambridge bowling alley and a Brookline bakery. Readers wrote about family birthday cakes, Saturday lunches with grandparents, and a few dive bars that are simply irreplaceable.
Some of the closures are recent. S&S Deli in Cambridge and Party Favors in Brookline both shuttered this year, and Frugal Fannie’s in Westwood is closing after more than four decades. Memories of older closures remain vivid among readers, even though establishments like Filene’s Basement vanished nearly twenty years ago. Boston.com compiled 11 businesses readers say they miss the most in Greater Boston, and why.
From Cambridge Restaurants to Westwood Retailers
The list spans decades of local commerce and community gathering spots. Border Cafe in Cambridge closed in 2021, prompting reader Ryan from Cambridge to recall it as the best place to catch up with friends for great food at a ridiculously low price.
Filene’s Basement in Boston, which closed in 2011, drew memories from Hilary W. of Hingham, who highlighted the thrill of the hunt and the famous Running of the Brides.
Frugal Fannie’s in Westwood, wrapping up its run in 2026, earned praise from Caroline L. of Bedford. She noted that reuse represents the best approach to consumer-driven waste, calling a trip to Fannie’s a constant delight. Meanwhile, Lanes and Games in Cambridge closed in 2017. Dennis L. of North Cambridge remembered it as a reasonably priced classic bowling alley where visitors could spend a whole afternoon without long waits, noting that Lucky Strike lacks the same appeal and that Cambridge lost a neighborhood to distant corporate condos.
Local Businesses and Neighborhood Staples That Closed
Other vanished staples included O’Leary’s Pub in Brookline, which closed in 2020 and was remembered by Gwen G. as a fantastic old school neighborhood pub filled with craic.
Party Favors in Brookline closed in 2026, prompting Jim B. of Needham to observe that for three generations, the shop’s cakes served as the centerpiece for family birthdays, weddings, and minor celebrations.
Russo’s in Watertown closed in 2021, leaving a profound gap for shoppers like an anonymous reader from Hyde Park who stated that for well over a decade, roughly 85 percent of the food they ate came from the market. The reader praised its house-made bread and bakery items, fresh pasta, affordable produce, and annual Christmas traditions.
Additional favorites on the list include the Sligo Pub in Somerville, which closed in 2023, and S&S Deli in Cambridge, which closed in 2026. Christine S. of Somerville shared childhood memories of walking with her grandparents to S&S Deli on Saturday afternoons to buy potato salad, beef hotdogs with real casings, coleslaw, knish, cream cheese, and whole sour pickles, a tradition she later continued with her father.
Rounding out the reader-compiled roster are the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, which closed in 2020, and the Newtowne Bar in Cambridge, which closed in 2022 and was recalled by an anonymous Somerville reader as the best dive bar of all time.
Boston.com noted that its informal polls and surveys offer an unscientific gauge of reader opinion.
