Cambridge Boston: Harvard Square Dining and Intellectual Life

Cambridge is Boston's intellectual twin city across the Charles River — home to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a density of scholars, students, and researchers that gives the city a distinctive character combining academic rigour with genuine neighbourly warmth. Harvard Square, the commercial and social centre of Cambridge, is one of America's great urban squares: a vibrant intersection of independent bookshops, cafes, street musicians, and the kind of accidentally overheard conversation about everything from quantum mechanics to medieval Persian poetry that reminds you exactly where you are. The restaurant scene surrounding the square reflects its community of international academics and adventurous local eaters.

Harvest restaurant in Harvard Square has been one of the defining restaurants of New England cuisine since 1975 — an early champion of seasonal, locally sourced cooking that influenced a generation of American chefs and continues to deliver excellent contemporary New England cooking in an elegant courtyard setting. The area's more casual dining concentrates on the streets radiating from the square: excellent Vietnamese pho, Indian thali, Ethiopian injera, Japanese ramen, and American diner food all available within a five-minute walk in a concentration that reflects the international character of Harvard's student and faculty body. Flour Bakery has multiple locations but its Cambridge outpost is among the most convenient for excellent pastries, sandwiches, and the sticky buns that have achieved near-mythical status among Boston food enthusiasts.

The Harvard Art Museums consolidate three formerly separate collections — the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums — into a single building renovated by architect Renzo Piano and housing an exceptional collection spanning ancient art through contemporary works. The Harvard Museum of Natural History adjacent to the university's science buildings displays the famous Glass Flowers — 3,000 anatomically precise glass botanical models created by the Blaschka father-and-son team in the 19th century — alongside remarkable natural history collections. An afternoon combining the Harvard museums with a walk through the university yard and dinner at one of Cambridge's excellent restaurants provides one of the most complete intellectual-cultural day experiences available in any American city.