West Cambridge / Alewife Area Infill & Small Developments

HalcyonEra said:
Dave and Busters does well too, although they have a difficult time obtaining liquor licenses in Puritanical Mass. It's easier for a Kings as bowling and drinking has long been accepted whereas video games are looked upon as child's play by many local governments and licensing boards.
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I was extremely disappointed with the one in Woburn. The food was cold/stale, and 90% of the games seemed to be geared towards winning tickets so you can eventually spend $200 for a stuffed animal. Also, relatively expensive.

Good Times had really fair/cheap prices for anybody who remembers. The arcade was large, and based around actual arcade games and not just the ticket bs. There were tons of pool tables, half a dozen ping pong tables, batting cages, laser tag.... Also cheap pitchers and pizza, with tons of big projection screens for watching sports!

None of the current crop of places compare just by pricing alone, let alone offerings. Lanes and Games will be a similar (albeit less comprehensive) loss because the prices are fair. You pay per game, instead of by hour. Nothing worse than having to stop a bowling session in like, the 5th frame because you ran out of time. Just one more way that the average citizen is getting priced out of Boston!
 
DZH22 said:
I was extremely disappointed with the one in Woburn. The food was cold/stale, and 90% of the games seemed to be geared towards winning tickets so you can eventually spend $200 for a stuffed animal. Also, relatively expensive.

Good Times had really fair/cheap prices for anybody who remembers. The arcade was large, and based around actual arcade games and not just the ticket bs. There were tons of pool tables, half a dozen ping pong tables, batting cages, laser tag.... Also cheap pitchers and pizza, with tons of big projection screens for watching sports!

None of the current crop of places compare just by pricing alone, let alone offerings. Lanes and Games will be a similar (albeit less comprehensive) loss because the prices are fair. You pay per game, instead of by hour. Nothing worse than having to stop a bowling session in like, the 5th frame because you ran out of time. Just one more way that the average citizen is getting priced out of Boston!
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I'm not surprised, rarely does something good come from a large chain after their initial splash into a new marker. My point on D&B was that they seem to have a hard time getting a liquor license unlike the high end bowling. I know when they tried for one at the old Sam's club in Natick the pitchfolks were lined up outside the meeting hall, and now Kings just announced once a new location across of the movie theater (albeit technically in both Framingham & Natick). There is a huge untapped market for these types of places so it's surprising to see many of the old places shutting down. I guess the millennials aren't impressed.
 
We can even think beyond bowling + arcades.

How many billiards halls are in Boston? Aside from pool, theres also shuffleboard, darts, ping pong, and table games. This is one of my fave places in Manhattan, and Im terrified it wont be around in 5 years

http://www.fatcatmusic.org/

What about active experiences like rock climbing, trampoline centers or indoor skydiving? Batting cages?

The design of the bowling alley can and has expanded to other concepts. Archery and gun ranges, for example.

And heres a new concept which is growing in popularity...in suburban areas.

http://topgolf.com/us/

And think about it on a neighborhood basis. Im by the ICA. Im 19. What can I do for fun (aside from the ICA)?

Bar, bar, bar, restaurant, restaurant...all with $$$ yelp designations.

Thank God Boston still has free public ice skating rinks. I just wish their season was longer.

But again, this isnt just a Boston problem. It's an urban paradox. No room for fun.
 
jass said:
And think about it on a neighborhood basis. Im by the ICA. Im 19. What can I do for fun (aside from the ICA)?

Bar, bar, bar, restaurant, restaurant...all with $$$ yelp designations.
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You have been posting here since you were 9?

Bars aren't even one of your viable options then, unless you have an incredible fake id.

Also, I would argue that the ICA isn't fun (at all) but I guess that's for another place/thread and another time.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Maybe it's a relative niche market these days, but there's gotta be overflow demand for just one fucking place in transit distance of the CBD where you can just roll. Ditto for one stinking Good Times-like joint.
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If you're looking for that, my group tends to use Flatbread/Sacco's in Davis. They might have a good model, actually. Combine something hot and trendy (artisan pizza place) with something modest and old fashioned. They do a huge amount of business (lots of birthday parties and scout outings).
 
Equilibria said:
Well, that's all an opportunity. If I ran Cambridge, I'd start working with the property owner and MBTA to realign CPD/Access Road to meet Rindge (as you've outlined before), then develop the current roadbed, church, and grass patch with solid retail that takes advantage of direct station access from multiple levels of the garage. Build a new Summer Shack in there (it's not a bad place) and then demo the current building for apartments. Get out ahead of the inevitable loss of the Apple and put a new cinema in the higher floors, perhaps.

It's possible that the MBTA could get some cash out of that to finally fix Alewife's humiliating drainage issues, and they'd have an opportunity to reconfigure the ground floor to permit buses to enter the station from the west (since the southside access is being cut off for the new building).
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Equilibria -- The real challenge NOW involves providing connectivity between the middle or the other end of Cambridge Park Drive with least some of the other nearby roads

The real problem that needs to be addressed soon is how do you cross under or over but not at grade the Fitchburg tracks at some point away from Fresh Pond Parkway

The ideal opportunity was to fix it before the current local construction boom -- but its still not too late
 
I work in the alewife area and it is one of the most cookie cutter, retail lacking, gaggle fuck of roads and blandness in the boston area i have seen. Its really a lost cause, I see it as just somewhere for people to sleep until they can get on the train and go somewhere else. Once you go down the fresh pond parkway it becomes one of the more liveable suburban styled areas in the city though imo so its a weird mix.
 
stick n move said:
I work in the alewife area and it is one of the most cookie cutter, retail lacking, gaggle fuck of roads and blandness in the boston area i have seen. Its really a lost cause, I see it as just somewhere for people to sleep until they can get on the train and go somewhere else. Once you go down the fresh pond parkway it becomes one of the more liveable suburban styled areas in the city though imo so its a weird mix.
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Stick -- its all part of the heritage, from Fresh Pond water works all the way to Alewife was to Cambridge what some of the islands were to Boston -- some place on the edge of nowhere where you could tolerate things like the Bowling Alley, a crappy little motel, the Giant Boston Edison Substation, and the Faces night club

Once the T moved in and then the redevelopment of Arthur D Little everything is now drastically changing -- but the underlying road network is still just as poorly interconnected
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
The market is for corporate outings. I can't recall how many times I've done Kings after work on some manager's corporate card (Fun story: one former employer scheduled a bowling night out so they could fire my boss while we were all out of the building unaware.)


Problem is it's all served up as a multimedia extravaganza with all kinds of above-and-beyond premium distractions if you bust out that corporate card. There's no places left to just roll for the sake of rolling. That's the essence of L&G and Good Times: just play with other people who are there to just play. No filler. I used to love going to Kenmore Bowladrome to just fucking roll. Then it became Ryan Family Amusements with the laser shows and all the same short attention-span upscale distractions everyone in that market now has. It became like Jillian's with lanes.

Maybe it's a relative niche market these days, but there's gotta be overflow demand for just one fucking place in transit distance of the CBD where you can just roll. Ditto for one stinking Good Times-like joint.
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Totally agree... I hate the frills and I hate Kings, just because it's overpriced and not the atmosphere I want if I just want to go bowling and if I drink, get a lawnmower beer and not craft bullshit (not that there's not a place for that too, it's just not bowling.. and Kings serves PATRON gimme a break).

But I'd argue, since I spent every winter weekend for two years of high school skulking around Ryan Family that even they were totally no frills, and that disco bowling ridiculousness was still totally unwashed and as basic, cheesy and bare as it got... it was definitely still an arcade with bowling and pool, for the most part.

I'd also like to see places where you can play ping pong. Only place other than Game On (a sad excuse) I know of is in Somerville.

Surely, there are others who want to play games.

On 6th St in Austin, there's a bar that has like 20 shuffleboards and dozens of foosball tables... we're a college town, why cant we have stuff like that too? We did, once..
 
FK4 said:
On 6th St in Austin, there's a bar that has like 20 shuffleboards and dozens of foosball tables... we're a college town, why cant we have stuff like that too? We did, once..
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Being a twenty-something young professional, I don't think we feel underserved by the bars and entertainment venues we have... Lanes and Games is classic and nostalgic, but it's also horribly located if you don't have a car or know how to get there down dirt paths and past dumpsters from Alewife. College students and Somerville hipsters don't know its there. I know it only because I work here.

BTW, college students aren't obligated to like the same stuff in 2016 that they did in 1986. Most probably prefer Call of Duty to Shuffleboard these days.
 
i'm an old 6th street vet. Some of the classics gave way to corporate bastardization;

Daiquiri Factory (spring break atmosphere year round)
Shakespeare's (main hangout; bumped into Gerry Jones once during Cowboys training camp)
Steamboat (carnage)
Copper C__t Can (Copper Tank)
Maggie Mae's (ahh the memories)
 
FK4 said:
I'd also like to see places where you can play ping pong. Only place other than Game On (a sad excuse) I know of is in Somerville.
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Jillians also has 2 tables. Still a sad excuse compared to Good Times, but wasn't quite the total rip-off I expected.
 
49 new apartments with ground floor retail at 605 Concord Avenue near Alewife.

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Equilibria said:
Being a twenty-something young professional, I don't think we feel underserved by the bars and entertainment venues we have... Lanes and Games is classic and nostalgic, but it's also horribly located if you don't have a car or know how to get there down dirt paths and past dumpsters from Alewife. College students and Somerville hipsters don't know its there. I know it only because I work here.

BTW, college students aren't obligated to like the same stuff in 2016 that they did in 1986. Most probably prefer Call of Duty to Shuffleboard these days.
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Equilibria -- for someone whos is a young professional -- I heartily recommend Rock Climbing --either serious real rock in NH or serious human created rock in the Quarries or serious indoor rock =-- readily accessible in Woburn at the Rock Gym

As the oldest rock gym on the East Coast, and the second oldest in America, the Boston Rock Gym has been at the heart of the local climbing community since the very beginning. Over the years, we have trained generations of climbers on our walls. I should know; I was one of them!

Although a lot has changed since we first opened our doors in 1989, the Boston Rock Gym's commitment to offering a unique climbing experience has not. Today people of all ages and all climbing abilities come to the BRG to test their skills on our walls. With routes ranging from 5.4 to 5.13 plus in difficulty, a dedicated bouldering room, and a one-of-a-kind lead roof, we offer something for everyone.

But it's not the facility that makes the Boston Rock Gym special. It's the close-knit community of fellow climbers. From our friendly and supportive members to our dedicated staff of AMGA-certified instructors, the BRG is family. If you're looking for a place to call home, the Boston Rock Gym is it.

Chris O'Connell
President and Owner
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http://www.bostonrockgym.com/about...tonrockgym.com/images/bottom-banner.jpg[/img]
 
HalcyonEra said:
I'm not surprised, rarely does something good come from a large chain after their initial splash into a new marker. My point on D&B was that they seem to have a hard time getting a liquor license unlike the high end bowling. I know when they tried for one at the old Sam's club in Natick the pitchfolks were lined up outside the meeting hall, and now Kings just announced once a new location across of the movie theater (albeit technically in both Framingham & Natick). There is a huge untapped market for these types of places so it's surprising to see many of the old places shutting down. I guess the millennials aren't impressed.
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There is a new development in Marlboro which will include an 150K sq ft Entertainment Center with go karts, bowling, arcade, golf, laser tag, boxing, trampoline, etc.

It's a big development that will also include 2 hotels, 6 restaurants and 60K sq ft of retail right off of Route 20. This may become a big draw for the western suburbs.

http://www.apexcenterne.com/#entertainment
 
navigator4 said:
There is a new development in Marlboro which will include an 150K sq ft Entertainment Center with go karts, bowling, arcade, golf, laser tag, boxing, trampoline, etc.

It's a big development that will also include 2 hotels, 6 restaurants and 60K sq ft of retail right off of Route 20. This may become a big draw for the western suburbs.

http://www.apexcenterne.com/#entertainment
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There's going to be another standalone Chick-Fil-A. This will join locations in Westborough, Hyannis and Framingham. Nice little expansion in Masachusetts for the chain that typically stuck to malls in this area. I know there's also a standalone store down in Warwick, RI.
 
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