Originally Posted by
Nagasaki Joe
The name of the Japanese grocery store in Central Square (on Prospect Steet) was Yoshinoya, IIRC. I used to live within walking distance from it in the early 1970s when I lived in Cambridge and Boston before heading to Japan and shopped there occasionally. Does anyone know when it closed? When my wife moved back with me to Boston for a few years she avoided Yoshinoya due to high prices and bought most of her Japanese groceries in Chinatown. Back in the early 70s, other than Yoshinoya, the only other outlet for Japanese groceries to my knowledge was Erewhon (owned by Michio Kushi) on Newbury Street. Although a Macrobiotic store, they were one of the earliest importers of Japanese foods such as adzuki beans, soba/udon noodles, green tea, ban-cha, hoji-cha, and mugi-cha. Of course, they did not offer much in the way of processed foods other than furikake, miso, tofu, tamari soy sauce, natural instant ramen, and boxed cereals (in later years). Their brown rice though was sourced in the US, mainly from an organic grower in Texas.
I live in Boston many years ago, so I don't remember a lot of things. But I think you're right that it was called Yoshinoya. I believe it closed a few years before I left Boston, so I want to say they closed maybe 13~15yrs ago. When I was there, they had Yoshinoya (Central), a market in Porter Sqr, and a little place called Cherry Mart on Newbury. I remember Cherry Mart for some reason even though I don't think I ever went inside. The one in Porter Sqr was definitely the busiest but also expensive. But I recall Yoshinoya being cheaper. The cheapest was this place called Reliable Market or something in Somerville, which was 1/2 Korean, 1/2 Japanese. During my Boston years, the Japanese grocery business seemed to be pretty tumultuous as Yoshinoya's closing was followed soon by the Porter one's closing. Cherry Mart had closed somewhere along the way. And Boston didn't have any purely Jpn market until two new ones opened up right around the same time - one in Medford, another in Brookline Village. The one in Brookline Village was very convenient to Longwood Medical, but for some reason it never seemed to take off. The Brookline Village one closed pretty quick. I guess the one in Medford's still operating. I think AlwaysAisle mentioned somewhere upthread there's a new place now.