Tags
architecture, Boston, converted theaters, Empire Garden Restaurant, Globe Theatre, Loew's Globe Theatre, old theaters
If you’re like me, old, repurposed theaters both thrill and dismay you. On the one hand, it’s exciting to see something familiar in a surprising light (how will they use that mezzanine?!); on the other, it’s always a bit sad to see the breeding grounds of art turned into a deli or a shoe store.
That melancholic mixture—half smile, half tear—arrives full bore at the Empire Garden Restaurant in Boston. Known in legitimacy as the Globe Theater or as Loew’s Globe Theater, the EGR successfully retains much of its theatrical charm, making a hell of a backdrop for dim sum. Still… it makes a hell of a backdrop for dim sum. Enough said.
Dipping under its deep red marquee, a small, uneventful lobby takes you to a TV-studded, classical stairway.
Another lobby waits at the top…
… and snif snif—you’re in dim sum land!
Make sure to mind the carts as you enter the gorgeous seating area. (Apparently the panels in the proscenium open up to reveal another dining area, opened for weddings and such.)
After ordering, run on up to that proscenium and take in the plaster.
Just don’t think too hard about the strange collision of Eastern and Western art behind you!
The entire restaurant, the owner explained to me, sits one floor level above what would’ve been the orchestra section. (As if the stairs weren’t enough of a giveaway, the proscenium’s legs tell the original story: They’re almost comically short.)
But that original ground level grants no hint of its glitzy, lavish past. Today, it’s an Asian foods market.
So: Yes, it’s cool to have your lunch in such gilded splendor. Who doesn’t want a little cherub watching as you eat pork dumplings?
But it’s also a bit sacrilegious, isn’t it? Knawing your way around a temple of theater?
Forgive us, Bacchus, as we slurp and chew.
