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(from Flickr)

Of all Princeton’s restaurants, Lahiere’s is the one that stands out the most as a Princeton institution. It’s the restaurant you go to if you’ve got a date to impress–or the one you wait to go to until your parents are in town and can foot the bill.

Oh. Were you planning on that? Well, sorry. Because after 91 years, Lahiere’s is now closed, forever. Forever ever.

Here is a list of things you will never be able to do ever again:

  • You will never be able to enjoy the lovely bread baskets.
  • You will never be able to walk down Witherspoon on a late moonlit night and see a dimly lit, glowing dining room packed with wealthy, well-dressed old people/students and their visiting parents.
  • You will never be able to taste Lahiere’s delicious French contemporary American vaguely Asian fusion (wasabi mashed potatoes?) delights. And the creme brulee! (!!!!!!)
  • You will never be able to look at the corner of the restaurant where Albert Einstein’s portrait hangs and know that the man himself took his lunch there everyday.
  • You will never sit in the cage behind the restaurant’s entrance, at a University dinner with extremely fancy professors who will tell you to order whatever you want, really, are you sure you don’t want to try the foie gras?

A new restaurant will open in its place. Thoughts on what kind of food it’ll be? What kind of restaurant is Nassau Street missing?

Seriously, I’m at what’s supposed to be the greatest university in the world, and yet there’s not a single McNugget to be had within walking distance?  What’s up with that, Princeton Borough Slash Township?

I mean, I know you think you’re just soo perfect and classy and Pleasantville that you won’t even allow stand-up signs on your sidewalks (stores… trying to sell stuff?  How very tacky of them; how very Plainsboro) — I mean, I’m not surprised or anything.  And maybe I’d have just learned to deal with this sorry state of affairs — accepted the situation for what it was — had it not been for the fact that Princeton’s already invited freakin’ Subway into the cool-kids club while McD’s still stands shivering out in the cold rain.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Subway — I’d shotgun their Sweet Onion sauce if they’d let me (/ if I fully knew what shotgunning meant?  People talk about it a lot at all the parties I don’t go to but I’m not exactly sure how you do it).

But you can just tell that the zoning board allowed Subway in because they thought to themselves, “Oh, but it’s so much healthier than McDonalds.  So much more in keeping with our small-town values.” You think Subway’s so different, so healthy? Yeah, ok.  Question: You ever eaten a double-meat double-cheese extra-mayo Italian BMT? Yeah, neither have I.  But my friend did once, and then he had a heart attack.  IN THE RESTAURANT.

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image source: blog.globalyp.net

image source: blog.globalyp.net

If you haven’t had Bent Spoon ice cream, you probably don’t go to Princeton. So for our readers (Spencer, don’t be modest!) outside the Orange Bubble, who have never experienced Bent Spoon’s organic/slow/local food snob-approved ice cream, buttercream-frosted cupcakes and hot chocolate–well, I’m sorry.

But this is for you. Serious Eats published a review on the campus hotspot this week, with enough descriptive language to make you beg your Princetonian friends to mail you some pear prosecco sorbet on dry ice.

This is what you’re missing out on:

These are the kinds of flavors so powerful that they go beyond mere taste—conjuring up memories, rather than just sensation. “This tastes like Peanut Butter Ripple at this one, tiny ice cream place on the Jersey shore,” mused my dining companion, as we worked our way through the flavors. “This tastes like stealing my neighbor’s pears in September.” “This tastes like Thanksgiving.” And with the lingering warmth of all those pumpkin pie spices, with the bite of cranberry and sweetness of apple, it truly did.

littlechef

Last week, a friend sent us this review of one of Princeton’s many bakeries, The Little Chef, with the note, “??? How have you not been here?”

How, indeed.

This week, we’ve visited Pouchon and his macarons et croissants four times.

Though Serious Eats’ review leans toward the long side, and is chock full of personal anecdotes that we happily skipped, one look at the ham-and-Gruyère croissant is all you need.

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