The end of the Darwin’s Ltd. cache of cafes has been well chronicled here and elsewhere. In the rebirth of the storefronts by new and varying ownerships we’ve done reviews of the Circus Cooperative (Putnam Avenue) and Asaro (Cambridge Street across from Cambridge Rindge and Latin) and looked ahead to the Smoot Standard (Massachusetts Avenue in The Port). That brings us to the Luxor Cafe at Darwin’s former mothership on Mount Auburn Street in Harvard Square. It’s not the site’s first go since Darwin’s departed; for a time it was Roust Coffee, which held loosely to the Darwin’s concept – pastries, coffee and breakfast and lunch sandwiches – but with a slimmer offering. Luxor, named after a southern Egyptian city on the Nile, makes for a much warmer embrace of the Darwin’s legacy under owner Abdelrahman Hassan. In cuisine and decor there are Egyptian nods, if not giant splashes: The centerpiece of the cafe side where coffee and pastries are served and diners nosh at a handful of cafe tables is a wall-spanning installation with Egyptian runes and hieroglyphs. It an impressive piece of art.
For the most, the space is as it’s always been, with kitchen and bodega goods on the other side from the cafe/hangout spot. Hassan has kept the old Darwin’s dog biscuit bowl and added a festive touch: a Polaroid camera to take selfies that can be posted on the selfie wall. The place still feels a bit in flux, but with each new visit the spirit of Darwin’s creeps in more.
You order at the cafe counter, get a beeper, sit down, have a sip of coffee or two and return for your neatly wrapped sandwich when the beeper goes off.
Like Roust, the menu is not vast, but Luxor brings back faves not only in recipe but in Harvard Square-specific name and has my Darwin’s go-to in The Mount Auburn: turkey, Swiss cheese, avocado, mayo, vinaigrette and tomato and lettuce on toasted Iggy’s sourdough. Darwin’s used to come with sprouts and cheese optional, and I miss the sprouts. But Luxor lightly toasts the bread, which Darwin’s did not, and that’s a nice changeup. Luxor delivers fully on the quality and remembrance of what it seeks to honor.
Among breakfast offering, The Harvard Yard of two medium eggs, cheese and lean turkey is a savory start to a day; the brioche French toast comes out in neatly arranged corner cuts on a long, rectangular plate with fresh fruit and a smattering of powder sugar, looking like a work of art. It’s a healthy serving that many buy as a shareable. Keeping with the Egyptian influences, you can get three eggs your way with pastirma (Egyptian pastrami).
If there’s a must-try at Luxor, it’s the Egyptian hibiscus iced tea. If you want refreshing and fruity without sweet, this is it. Honestly, there is not a more revitalizing and satiating summer quencher I’ve had during these dog days. Sometimes they’ll put in slices of dried strawberry that reconstitute as you drink, and they’re surprisingly flavorful and fresh tasting, a revelation that is piquantly befuddling.
Luxor Cafe, 148 Mount Auburn St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
Tom Meek is a writer living in Cambridge. His reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in the WBUR ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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