The Boston Herald Savenor's Showcase

 

Ron Savenor holds up a copy of the 1992 Boston Herald story about the fire that destroyed his family's store.
(Staff photo by Renee DeKona).

Savenor's back at the old stand
By Jay Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - Updated: 04:50 PM EST

The high-end meats and produce store made famous by Julia Child is finally reopening its Cambridge retail market nearly 14 years after a devastating fire destroyed it.

Savenor's which currently runs a popular retail store on Beacon Hill and a restaurant wholesale food operation in Cambridge will open up a second retail Cambridge shop at its original Kirkland Street site just outside Harvard Square.

The Kirkland Street store burned down in 1991, creating headlines and causing heartache among the culinary elite who enjoyed its top-quality and expensive food products. The Beacon Hill Savenor's was opened in 1992.

Ron Savenor, who heads the family-owned Savenor's, said he decided to reopen the Cambridge store after a commercial tenant recently decided to move out of the building that was rebuilt after the fire. Savenor's had been running a highly successful food wholesale business in space toward the back of the building.

``Most people don't realize we sell meat and poultry to restaurants,'' he said of his wholesale business, which has restaurant clients such as Radius and No. 9 Park.

Now Ron Savenor, 48, whose immigrant grandparents started the first Savenor's in 1939, will be running both retail and wholesale businesses out of the Cambridge building while keeping his Beacon Hill site.

At about 1,500 square feet, the Cambridge shop will be bigger than the cramped-but-busy 900-square-foot Beacon Hill store on Charles Street, he said.

Before it burned down, the Cambridge store was the darling of the late Julia Child, who used to boast on her Public Broadcasting Service cooking show how good the prime meat and other fresh products were at Savenor's.

Savenor said Child and his late father, Jack, were close friends and shared a love of fine food.

The Cambridge store is expected to open Nov. 1.