80 Thoreau

Concord, Massachusetts possesses a unique downtown layout, in that there are two centers of the town both equally vibrant yet distinctly different. The Main Street center is primarily a shopping street, stores for books, antiques, jewelry, sporting goods, and clothes line the sidewalks in a very New Urbanism style. On the contrary, Thoreau Street differs not only in stores, but the form of the street as well. Thoreau gets away from the New Urbanism characteristics of walkability and store fronts on the side walk, and gives way to parking lots in front of stores. Thoreau Street has a train station and far more food opportunities, but the majority are pizza and ice cream places.  One of the main complaints about the town in the past years has been its inability to meet consumer demand for high quality food. Thus in 2014, 80 Thoreau opened on Thoreau Street. This restaurant located adjacent to the train tracks, provides a high quality option amongst several family style pizza joints.

At 80 Thoreau, the customer they have in mind is quite clear. Main courses range from the upper $20 range into the $40 range, there is emphasis put on the location from which meat, seafood, and vegetables are coming from, and the service is very traditional. As described by the manager I spoke to, the dishes are primarily New England style, with French techniques. I found the dishes to be outside of my comfort zone in terms of ingredients, further enforcing my premonition that 80 Thoreau’s intention is to serve to the highest end of Concord consumers, and definitely not college kids. So far the restaurant has had success in reaching the desired customer base, and it was challenging to secure a dinner reservation even on a Wednesday evening. For Concord, it seems 80 Thoreau has also been able to attract people seeking this style of dining from adjacent towns which has benefitted the street. I would not be surprised to see another high-end restaurant appear on Thoreau Street in Concord in the near future based on 80 Thoreau’s success.