Charlie's Kitchen in Harvard Square, Cambridge, on November 25, 2020. (Photo by Marc Levy)
Charlie's Kitchen, a long-established restaurant in Cambridge's Harvard Square, is changing hands, with its new management coming from the duo who recently renovated another local institution, RF O'Sullivan & Son, which recently became The Cornerstone on Beacon Street between Cambridge and Somerville.
While the burger spot has become a gastropub with a Japanese-Hawaiian flair, Charlie's Kitchen will keep its name and remain a familiar presence even if a sale process could occur within the next few years, co-owner Paul Obergerg told the Liquor License Board on Thursday.
“That's one of the reasons we were so happy to find these two young men,” Obergerg said of David Toraj Oshima and Derek Luangras. “They've loved Charlie's Kitchen since they were little, they have fond memories and they want to keep it as Charlie's Kitchen.”
It just needs to be updated, and “someone old like me just can't understand that.”
The Obergerg family had been searching for a buyer for the past two years, hoping to keep Charlie's Kitchen afloat rather than “just closing down and selling the property,” Obergerg said.
Charlie's Kitchen opened at 10 Elliott Street in the 1950s. The two-story establishment, which served students and tourists in its prime Harvard Square location, looks little different with its linoleum-tiled floors, swiveling bar stools and red-upholstered booths. The menu features lobster rolls, cheeseburgers and slightly more upscale grilled cheese sandwiches (which come in lobster and avocado versions on Iggy's bread), as well as dual bars and entertainment, including karaoke, quizzes and, once, live music. The place shares a kitchen with the upscale Red House restaurant around the corner at 98 Winthrop Street. Overburgh said by phone after the meeting that he will continue to run Red House.
“After 28 years, the Obergerggers were becoming less and less interested in running Charlie's Kitchen. We just couldn't keep up with the new ways of doing things,” Obergergg said.
Obergerg said he was lucky to meet “these two young gentlemen” when Cornerstone had just opened. Prior to opening Cornerstone, Oshima worked at popular Japanese noodle restaurants in Cambridge called Yume ga Aru Kara and Yume wo Katare.
“They are very knowledgeable about the restaurant industry and are very hard workers,” Obergerg said. “I'm trying to put them in a position to run their restaurants successfully and be able to pay rent to the landlord (which is me) that is satisfactory from a business standpoint.”
Through a change in officers, directors and managers and a share transfer, the Obergurg family will retain 98 percent ownership, with the remaining 2 percent going to Oshima and Luangras in equal amounts, said committee chair Nicole Murati-Feller. If all goes well, they are expected to buy the business in the future. For now, Oshima and Luangras are only involved as operators, Obergurg said.
