Before the coronavirus pandemic, Harvard Square was a center of activity, bustling with people shopping, eating, and admiring the historic buildings of Harvard’s campus. When the pandemic began, the Square took a hit — the stream of tourists slowed, and almost all students departed campus by March 15, 2020.
One year after Harvard undergraduates were sent home and Square businesses drastically shifted their operations in March 2020, the essential workers of Harvard Square and Harvard’s campus have worked tirelessly to keep the local community alive.
Over 130,000 meals have been distributed to those in need with nearly $1 million put back in the pockets of struggling restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on small businesses in Harvard Square, many have found themselves relying on supportive patrons and financial support from the state government to stay afloat.
After 34 years in Harvard Square, Border Cafe has shuttered its doors permanently following a two-alarm fire in December 2019 that forced the restaurant to temporarily close for building repairs.
If you take a drive around Harvard Square at night, it’s clear there is not the same buzz. Harvard Square, normally packed with students and those visiting from out of town, has been hit especially hard during the coronavirus pandemic.
Eleven months of the coronavirus pandemic have driven some Harvard Square landmark spots out of business, and around another hundred may never reopen, according to a local business association.
After a two-alarm fire damaged Harvard Square’s Border Cafe in December 2019, the Tex-Mex restaurant closed its original Church Street location with the intent to reopen. Now, it appears that reopening will never come.
A bit more than a year ago, one of the most popular restaurants in Cambridge’s Harvard Square was hit by a fire and has remain closed ever since. Now we are hearing that it is gone for good.
Border Cafe, a longtime Harvard Square staple with music always playing and the smell of charred meat wafting from the premises, has permanently closed as “the pain from the pandemic continues,” in Cambridge and across the region.