Town's neighbors finding dining scene to their taste
Donna Fitzgerald sat with friends at Ristorante Olivio in East Arlington last Friday night, gazing out the Italian bistro's open-air front toward the Capitol Theater, Quebrada Baking Co., and Geillio's Cafe and Catering across the street.
''Twenty, 30 years ago there was nothing in this part of town," she said. ''It was empty, dark at night. This used to be Brown's Drug Store. It had an ice cream parlor setting with the counter and stools. Then there was the theater and that's it."
Diane Barry and Celia Wcislo, dining a few tables over, said as recently as five years ago they traveled to meet friends in Cambridge or Boston every weekend. Now, with double the number of restaurants in Arlington and cuisine from at least two dozen countries, they rarely leave their hometown's borders.
''You don't have to go into the city anymore," Wcislo said. ''There's so much right here."
Sandwiched between the chic urban squares of Cambridge and Somerville and the suburban wealth of Winchester, Belmont, and Lexington, Arlington's 4-mile stretch of Massachusetts Avenue has been transformed from a working-class commuters' artery into a diner's destination.
Outsiders call it the new Cambridge, the next logical stop on the T if the Red Line were extended. Insiders say parental crowds who are tucked into bed by 11 p.m. and the town's ban on bars help maintain a familial ambiance that caters to people on both sides of its borders.
As the town revs up for its second Taste of Arlington on Sunday, restaurateurs say they know Arlington has not completed its evolution from pizza and Chinese takeout to French elegance and Argentinean steakhouse dining. They hope to cash in on another decade of progress as the town continues to define itself as a uniquely urban-suburban hub.
Ricardo Ramos, who opened Zocalo Cocina Mexicana in 1997, said he draws about half his business from Arlington residents, but the other half from suburbanites who have made his restaurant a destination as the town itself has become an attraction.
He said the transition has boosted his business because well-traveled diners know the difference between authentic Mexican food and Tex-Mex when they taste it.
Angelo Baio, who opened La Buona Vita in 1996, said he benefits from the same well-traveled diners that Ramos draws.
''They travel to Italy and they come here and they can tell this is not Italian-American," Baio said. ''It's more authentic."
Baio, a longtime chef who has introduced customers to delicacies such as rabbit, said he too suspects further change is on the way.
''I think in two or three years the old people go and the younger people are coming," he said.
Residents, restaurant owners, and town officials attribute the changes that have swept over Massachusetts Avenue to a series of policy shifts and economic changes that have transformed Arlington and its surrounding communities.
First, in 1993, selectmen voted to turn the previously dry town into one that liberally allowed beer-and-wine licenses with the only requirement being that businesses must include a dining room with 19 seats or more.
Marie A. Krepelka, the Board of Selectmen's administrator, said 22 restaurants have beer-and-wine licenses, double the number of just five years ago.
Flora owner and head chef Bob Sargent said he would not have considered moving into a town without having some sort of alcohol license, so the town's change was a condition of his choice of location.
There are still limitations to the licenses, however, and customers cannot order drinks without ordering food. Owners are frustrated that private clubs can skirt these rules, but town officials have maintained that the absence of liquor stores and bars in the town has kept its clean and familial atmosphere.
Ramos, who has worked and owns another restaurant in the city, thinks people who call Arlington the new Cambridge are speaking prematurely.
''It has changed tremendously since we opened," Ramos said. ''There are more yuppies and young professionals in Arlington. But it is still a very family-oriented town. One day I have no doubt about it that it will be more like a Cambridge. Right now you won't survive in this town if you're not child-friendly."
Donald Buehler, who opened Krazy Karry's Backyard Grill in Arlington Center 18 months ago, has perhaps made the most obvious menu choices based on Arlington's dual urban-suburban appeal. There are juicy, slowly grilled hamburgers for meat-lovers, smoothies and veggie burgers for the health-conscious set, ''Krazy straws" and free cotton candy for kids, and beer and wine for their parents.
''You have to be different to rise above all the noise and clutter," Buehler said. ''So we have something for everyone."
In recent years, economic changes have brought more affluent, diverse, and younger people to the town, and at the same time more diverse and more expensive dining options. One reason people cite for the change is the end of rent control statewide in 1994. About 40 percent of Cambridge's housing stock was affected by the change and Cantabrigians flocked to Arlington for cheaper rents. Skyrocketing residential and commercial rents -- together with higher housing prices -- in Cambridge and the suburbs to the north and west have caused people and businesses to locate in Arlington as a reasonable alternative.
From the upscale destinations Flora and Tryst, both opened by former sous chefs of Harvest in Cambridge, to the newer Indian Punjab and Argentinean Tango, residents who are looking for hearty meals above the $20 price mark have several options.
Restaurant owners still say that their lower rents keep prices down compared to Boston and Cambridge and allow them to make profits sooner and stay in town for longer periods of time.
In Arlington, downtown commercial rent ranges from the $15 per square foot for Ramos's space on Broadway to $30 per square foot for Geillio's prime space on the Capitol Theater strip. More commonly, businesses pay roughly $20 per square foot of space.
Another contributor to Arlington's success has been neighboring towns' failure to attract successful and diverse restaurants, the kind that are finding a niche in Arlington. Even the sheer number of choices in Arlington brings people to wander the streets on the weekend before choosing a place to dine. Compared to Arlington's 68 restaurants, Belmont has 35, and Winchester, 28.
While features like the Minuteman Bike Trail, the highly organized Chamber of Commerce, and the Capitol and Regent theaters make Arlington a prime locale, many restaurant owners say that Arlington equally cashes in on the weaknesses of its neighbors. Parking and traffic problems in the city and an overabundance of chains in the suburbs have residents flocking to a town where things are just working.
As Angelo DiGirolamo, owner of Ristorante Olivio, said of moving his business from the North End to Arlington three years ago: ''I like it here. It has a neighborhood. And everybody is coming from all over where they don't have what we do."
Taste of Arlington is on Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Whittemore Robbins House at 670R Massachusetts Ave. Residents looking for more information can call the Arlington Chamber of Commerce at 781-643-4600. Tickets purchased by tomorrow through the Chamber of Commerce cost $25. Those purchased at the door cost $30. All proceeds benefit Arlington's PTO Thrift Shop.
