When Matt and I lived in Boston, we frequented Kelly's Roast Beef, first at the stand in Revere Beach and then at the more traditional fast-food restaurant in Saugus. New York has its pizza, Chicago has its hot dogs, but Boston has the roast beef sandwich. I learned to love it like a local, with lots of barbeque sauce, and Kelly's was our favorite spot.
Last week, Matt and I attended a funeral in Boston. We left home at about 5:00 am to get there on time. By the time we had gone to the funeral home and mass and the cemetery, we were (to use that great English expression) knackered. We still had to drive home. We decided to skip the formal luncheon and pick something up on the road.
Kelly's has opened additional restaurants in recent years, and we were driving right by the store in Natick. After the stressful morning, Matt thought a roast beef would cheer him up. "Oh sorry," he said, "will you be able to find something to eat?" I appreciated the thought, but I too craved the familiar, even if I did not want to eat it.
Matt got his wonderful roast beef sandwich, I got some chowder and we shared a clam plate. The clam plate comes with onion rings, and it turns out I could have skipped all the other food. I don't even like onion rings, but these little circles of fried gold were exactly what I wanted that day. I don't think Matt had more than two of them. I just kept getting up for more little cups of ketchup.
Our lunch was quick; we were in and out in less than half an hour. But somehow that little trip into nostalgia was exactly what we needed. I may not have eaten the roast beef, but just smelling the familiar and sharing the plate with Matt like we did when we were first married made us both feel better. Not to mention those onion rings were fabulous.
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