Inman Square - 2000s

2000s

In the 2000s, Inman Square is a culturally diverse neighborhood, home to professionals, working people, and students and professors from neighboring MIT and Harvard. Inman Square also has strong Brazilian and Portuguese influences, as can be seen in the storefronts lining Cambridge Street, especially to the east of Prospect Street.

The regional restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods began in Inman Square in 1950 as a fish market that also did a takeout business. Legal Sea Foods grew to a chain of 31 restaurants, including some in Kendall Square and Copley Square in Boston), as well as in suburbs and cities throughout the region. After the original Legal Sea Foods burned in a fire, it was rebuilt and became Rosie's Bakery.

From the 1960s through the late 1970s, next to Legal Seafoods one could find the home of the improvisational troupe The Proposition. Alumni of the troupe include actors Josh Mostel, Judith Kahan and original Saturday Night Live cast member Jane Curtin. Later in the 1980s, at the Ding Ho restaurant on Springfield Street (where Ole Mexican Grill is presently located), such comedians as Steven Wright, Jimmy Tingle, Bobcat Goldthwait, and club founder Barry Crimmins got their start. Most, including future Tonight Show host Jay Leno, began by performing between sets of musical acts at the "Ding", as it was known to locals. Leno's first stage appearance took place there between sets of JT's Mardi Gras Band and the Lawnchair Ladies.

Boston's oldest continuously operating improvisational theater troupe, ImprovBoston, has recently moved from its longtime home in Inman square to nearby Central square on Prospect street. ImprovBoston alumni include Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! panelist Adam Felber.

Inman Square was also home to the Center for New Words (originally the New Words Bookstore), one of the oldest and longest-running women's bookstores in the country. Located at 186 Hampshire Street, it closed its retail business in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, from 2003 to early 2006, the Zeitgeist Gallery resided at 1353 Cambridge Street, after a fire drove it from its former home at the corner of Norfolk Street and Broadway. Run by a group of artists, musicians and activists, it was a focal point for art, music and community activism, and fostered avant garde, experimental and underground work. A related space called Zeitgeist Outpost or Outpost 186, opened by former Zeitgeist volunteers, is now on the other side of Inman Square. It is, in fact, in the former New Words back room, where the women's bookstore once held poetry readings, author presentations and acoustic concerts.