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November Group Writing: Feasting at Rita’s Place
The pleasures reside in the company as much as with the food …
From 1973 to 1975, I lived in a house in Sudbury, Massachusetts, with four roommates, two of whom have remained lifelong friends and, when one of the others moved out in 1975, the replacement roommate eventually became, a few years later, Mrs. Gumby Mark. It wasn’t cheap by the standards of the day but was remarkably inexpensive by the standards of even a few years later. We each paid $90 a month for our own bedrooms with fireplaces in a house on 90 acres of land in the Boston suburbs. Most of the property was wooded, and in the fall, we would cut our firewood for the winter. We also cleared a plot to plant a large garden. One day, I was working on expanding the garden with one of my roommates when we came upon a large rock. The sensible thing to do would have been to simply leave it in place but, not being the sensible types, we decided removal was the best course of action. Spending the next six to eight hours digging and ever so slowly using two logs as levers, we finally got the thing out. Mission accomplished! Utterly exhausted, but it sure felt fulfilling. We’d done something concrete, something tangible. I was in law school at the time, which was anything but concrete and tangible.
We did a lot of things together, including going out to eat, and one of my fondest memories is of twice venturing to Rita’s Place, a restaurant in Chelsea, a Boston-area town on the other side of the Mystic River from Charlestown. In those days, Chelsea was like Charlestown, the setting for so many crime-centered Boston films in the ’90s and 2000s, except more dangerous (and also where scenes for “The Departed,” “Black Mass,” “The Equalizer,” and “Mystic River” were shot — literally), and Rita’s Place resided on an isolated block surrounded by small run-down buildings and vacant lots.
During the week, Rita’s operated as a little sub shop, but on weekend evenings, it offered 12-course dinners for a fixed price of $15 (that was real money back then). You made reservations well in advance, entered through the darkened sub shop, and went up a few steps and past the kitchen into the back dining room containing one long table and three or four smaller ones. We’d go with everyone in the house and an assortment of friends, usually 10 to 12 people in all. This being the ’70s, and we being in our 20s and in the Boston area, there were some oddballs among the friends. At one of the dinners, a roommate brought a friend who worked with the Assassination Information Bureau (AIB), headquartered in Cambridge (of course!). He briefly regaled us about the incredibly complex and convoluted plots to kill JFK, RFK, and MLK, which seemed to each involve thousands of people. Decades later, I learned that Sid Blumenthal, who rose to fame as a buddy and apologist for the Clintons, had also worked at the AIB in Cambridge.
I can’t remember details of what was served, but what I still remember is reveling in how extraordinarily delicious each course was while savoring the joyous companionship of being among friends. None of the courses, from appetizers to entrees to desserts, were large, but they were all perfect. The serving pace was leisurely, giving us time to enjoy each course and our conversation. The entire meal took about three hours, and we would take a break in the middle to walk around the block to aid our digestion (we knew better than to stray outside that block). I’ve no doubt everyone who was there still remembers Rita’s.
Doing research for this post, I discovered Rita’s Place halted its restaurant business a few years later to focus exclusively on catering (and is now known simply as Rita’s), apparently continuing to thrive in that niche. You can find its website here. It says it served nine-course meals back in those days, but we definitely had 12!
Published in General
What fun! Thank goodness I’m about to have lunch. Clearly the entire experience–food, fun and friends–made this so special. Thanks for sharing, Mark!
I have recently luckily fallen in with a group of friends where we engage in regular dining and game nights on almost a weekly basis. It made me think back to when I was young(er) when routinely had our spots and our times and I didn’t realize how much I missed having a “gang” and a routine, even though money was very tight. As we got richer but busier and older, such routines had to be sacrificed for work travel, job demands and care giving. I’m happy that I am getting a second chance!
Sorry I missed it and I’m not sure why. I was in Chelsea a lot during that time because I had a job requiring many trips to Logan Airport. There is (or used to be) a little known “back way” to Logan through Chelsea that did not require the time and expense of the tunnel. Tough town.
During the 80s I worked in North Cambridge and frequently flew out of Logan. I took the “back way” through Chelsea to get there and avoid the tunnel. The Everett/Chelsea section had so many turns and streets that though I learned how to drive it I couldn’t give anyone else directions.
There is always so much construction going on.
When the Big Dig was being dug, we got lost trying to get to the expressway. We ended up in the Seaport neighborhood, which was also under construction. We had OnStar with a live person trying to help us navigate the detours and poor signs. The OnStar woman finally said in complete frustration, “Sir, there’s no street where your car is.” :-) :-)
We could not stop laughing. Not even GPS could find its way around Boston. :-)
Did he ever return? No, he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned….
Now you’ve got me humming that.
So where did the rock end up?
About one inch outside the new boundary of the garden. We were not going to move that sucker any further than we had to.
And what did you do with the hole?
We were able to see all the way to China so started charging admission.
From a feast place to a movable feast, this post is part of our group writing November theme: “Feast, Famine, Fast.” Stop by today to reserve a day. Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.
And thanks for coming up with the topic. Reading “Feast” Rita’s immediately popped into my head – a place I had not thought about for a while. Brought back good memories.