05/03/2024
Sorry for being out of touch! By now you may know that we have closed our restaurant in Newton Highlands.
We conceived of The Dining Car Café and Market in the midst of the pandemic, when crowds were sparse and downtown was a ghost town. After more than a decade as a popular food truck, caterers, and event organizers, we decided to plant ourselves and become part of a community where our customers live. In so many ways, we achieved our goals.
We had such passionate guests! They were exuberant about our food and so happy to have a warm place to gather so close to home. To call them “regulars” doesn’t truly capture it. These were fans who visited, not four times a week, but four times a day. Ron and Sandy, Barbara B., Rusty, Irwin, Jeff, LBK, Shirley, Bjorn, Robert, and so many more. Thank you for making our place feel like home.
And, we had wonderful staff! With a full bakery, espresso bar, prepared foods, a fast casual menu, catering, events, and a food truck, there just weren’t enough of them. By the time we were closing, at long last, we had a team of employees that we loved and whose skill and dedication we will always be thankful for. Reve, Mario, Giselle, Nacho, Alexandra and Jinn, and Erwin, thank you! There were other good eggs along the way, and some rotten ones, too. Hiring a large staff of skilled people was one of our greatest challenges.
Even as we contemplated closing, the restaurant was growing and we were often busy, but the growth was not fast enough. We knew the steps that would get us through, but the amount of energy and risk required brought us to a tipping point. Our landlord was always adversarial - we could not count on their help - so we made a choice to be responsible to our staff, our vendors, our community, and as much as possible, to ourselves. That choice meant closing the place we had imbued with so much love and care.
At this point, Naomi is clear that after thirteen years of being in this business, she wants to create a life that doesn’t include people calling out with a text at 6 AM, refrigeration equipment that loses its cool, and the best made plans being overrun by the whims of the weather. How about a job that’s over when I get home and doesn’t start again until I’m back the next day?
David yearns for the poetry and meaning he finds working with food: the beauty of 8 paper thin slices of lemon perfectly peeling off the edge of your knife, being hit in the face by the blast of heat when the oven door swings open in a 100° kitchen, the exhilaration of producing an event that happily feeds 30,000 people, or the intimacy of a tight crew producing extraordinary food that makes someone’s special day even more memorable. Poetic, right? Still, at times, he and his sore feet think Naomi may have the right idea.
Our restaurant is closed, but The Dining Car is simply moving on to a new chapter. David is busy booking catering and is still managing some of the best food truck events in the area. We’ll be updating you more frequently, but please reach out and let us know if you have an event you’ll be hosting. We’d love to hear from you!
Thank you all for your support, loyalty, enthusiasm, encouragement and friendship during the last two years. We look forward to having our paths cross again.
With love and gratitude,
David and Naomi [email protected]
