The median may be disappearing along the Massachusetts Avenue corridor running north of Harvard Square, but as the concrete goes, cafes seem to spring up in its wake. The Harvard to Porter stretch has long been a hive of cafe culture, with Simon’s (amazing drip coffee), the line-around-the-block popular Bagelsaurus, a requisite Starbucks and Cafe Zing. Farther out, we recently extolled the gustatory virtues of the Mediterranean-inspired brunch offerings at Tilde, and now, on that Harvard to Porter “Avenue,” Pavement and Page & Leaf, extensions of locally founded java bars, have cropped up.
Page & Leaf is so named because it’s inside Porter Square Books, which relocated to the Lesley Building in Porter Square after 20 years just up the way in the Porter Square Shopping Mall. In that location, the bookstore partnered with Cafe Zing for bites and caffeinated sips. Zing stayed to expand at the Porter Square Mall site while the store gets a new in-store cafe in an offshoot (no pun intended) of the group that runs Bloc, the Diesel Cafe and Forge Bakery. It’s a cozy space with a slightly industrial vibe familiar from its sister destinations.
The menu’s not vast. There are breakfast sandwiches, basically egg and spinach with either pesto or aioli and a vegan sausage option, that you can get on a baked bagel or focaccia made at Forge.
Lunchwise, you can have an Italian, featuring salami; classic caprese of mozzarella and pesto; or the Cover, a lot of green goodness and turkey on either a bagel or that thick, fluffy focaccia. (Keeping with the book-themed labeling, those other sandwiches are know as the Epilogue and the Flyleaf.) I suggest the focaccia, just for its uniqueness and generous herb and olive oil accents. The Cover comes with fresh cucumber slices, chunky thick pesto and crisp greens that meld into the bread as you compress the high-riding, two-handed feast. It’s a bit of a challenge to manage into your mouth.
Naturally, Page & Leaf serves a bevy of coffee and tea drinks (matcha madness abounds) cold or hot, but also creamy, rich smoothies. Your basic strawberry-banana and cocoa-peanut butter top the slate, but how about a hearty, refreshing recharge of ginger-pineapple or turmeric-mango?
Diesel Cafe, the cornerstone of the group behind Page & Leaf, opened in 1999 in Davis Square; some 10 years later, Pavement Coffeehouse arrived on the scene in Boston, and has since opened eight locations in the area, including two on this side of the river: at the Smith Center in Harvard Square and the newly opened shop at Lesley University on Massachusetts Avenue, which the website tags cheekily as “sandwiched between Harvard and Porter.” The spare, open space is pretty much the same as the Hi-Rise and Dudley Cafe that preceded it in the space.
Like Page & Leaf and Bagelsaurus, Pavement makes its own bagels, and that’s the recommended vehicle for all its savory fillers; a croissant or sourdough bread from Iggy’s are other options.
Half the sandwiches are eggy, with the standout being The Fix of fluffy eggs, masculine smoked Gouda and a sausage patty with house pepper jam. That pepper spread and sausage combo is something of a superpower: salty and hot-and-spicy, with a faintly maple-sweet offset that’s pleasurably akin to dragging a piece of crisp bacon or a sausage link through the syrupy overflow of your pancake stack. Get it on a rosemary-salt round and thank me later. It’s a subtle combo that carries the zing of both elements without overloading you on either – if you called it “a plain bialy with a punch,” you would not be wrong.
On the non-egg side of the menu, the Mr. Veggie is a nice schmear topped with greens, cukes, tomato, avocado and pickled red onion, but the palate-pleasing superstar is the Turkey Avo, a heaping of lean, moist bird with green and gooey avocado as advertised, fresh, crisp red onions, Swiss cheese and herb aioli. It’s something more than just a snack but not a heavy midday gobble that will bog you down.
Pavement prides itself on providing vegan and vegetarian options and has dietarily appropriate substitutes for egg, meat and cheese.
There’s irony in Pavement arriving in the North Commons neighborhood as a concrete median is removed for safety improvements. The purveyors behind Pavement, which also own New England Bagel and Espresso Royale, have a good sense of play. Most artwork in the new locale has some kind of “pavement” or “cement” reference to it, including a poster in the bathroom for the ’90s alt-rock band (“No Big Hair!”), which coincidentally has a documentary that screens Friday through June 12 at The Brattle Theatre.
As of now, the new Pavement closes at 2 p.m., which is bit of a bummer. It’s such a great place to fuel up on jolting joe or an herbal iced tea and tap out next week’s column.
Speaking of food and film, the Grafton Street restaurant and bar in Harvard Square has Monday night movies in June that it’s pairing with thematic cocktails. Titles include “Jaws,” “Wicked,” “A League of Their Own,” “Mean Girls” and “Hidden Figures.” The films, shown on the outdoor patio, roll at 8 p.m.
Page & Leaf, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge
Pavement, 1663 Massachusetts Ave., in the Baldwin neighborhood between Harvard and Porter squares
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The 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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