two - Grafton Street

Several weeks ago, Becky and I went to dinner at Grafton Street in Harvard Square with some friends.  I really like the restaurant.  It has a decent atmosphere, food that is reliably well prepared, and solid beer and wine lists.  The service is usually quite good, as well. 

Everyone knows that it can be a pain to park in Harvard Square, but Grafton Street has a deal with the church across the street so that patrons of the restaurant can park after hours in the church's lot for no charge.  I knew vaguely of this from Becky's sister who had done it once before, but as I pulled my black Mazda 3 into the church parking lot, the large towing signs made me nervous.  So, I decided to call Grafton Street to double check.  The hostess who answered the phone wasn't super helpful but confirmed that we could, in fact, park in the church lot and assured me that it would not be a problem.  We walked to the restaurant, were seated right away, and had a delicious meal. 

In case you're curious, I had the baked lobster macaroni and cheese without the lobster and Becky had the gorgonzola, prosciutto, and fig jam rustic pizza without the prosciutto.  (Ah, the trials and tribulations of keeping kosher!) 

After dinner we stopped at JP Licks (for some delicious kosher ice cream) and then headed to the car.  Lo and behold … My Mazda 3 was nowhere to be found!  I called Grafton Street from the parking lot and confirmed - again - that I could park there and then asked the hostess (a different woman from before) why my car was no longer in the lot if we could park there.  She then said, "Oh, well, you need to get a pass from the hostess station and put it on your dash."  Huh.  It would have been nice if the hostess from earlier in the evening had mentioned that to me!  I was livid.  I explained to the hostess that no one at the restaurant had informed me of this crucial fact when I called about this and asked to speak to the manager.  The manager got on the phone and told me that she would right this wrong and asked me to walk back to the restaurant.  Meanwhile, Becky called the tow truck company to confirm that they had Sweet Pea.

We walked back to Grafton Street, and I met with the manager.  She was incredibly apologetic and promised to take care of everything.  She handed me the cash for the tow charge and had one of the bar's "bouncers" (I'm using the term bouncer liberally here … I mean, it's Grafton Street) drive all four of us to the tow yard in her car to rescue Sweet Pea.  Considering it could have been a really crappy night, I was most impressed with the restaurant manager and I remain a loyal customer of her restaurant. 

If you haven't been and need a good bite to eat in Harvard Square, visit Grafton Street!

Update: Two days later, I drove into downtown Watertown to run some errands.  I had recently refilled my stash of quarters for parking meters and dug through my center console to find my coin purse.  I realized then that whoever towed my car that night in Harvard had stolen the little money I keep in the car - about four one dollar bills and all but two of my quarters!  Grrrrr!  Unfortunately, there wasn't too much I could do about it at that point, as it was about $7, that was all that was missing from the car, and I had no proof that it was in my car in the first place.  Good thing I keep my iPod in my purse!!!