Fresh Approach Market

Fresh Approach has been a fixture on Brackett Street in the West End for years. Basically a neighborhood superette, the rustic-looking  shop  makes hearty breakfast sandwiches, burgers hot off the grill made with their highly prized beef mix that’s ground fresh every day; then there are the prepared meals in take-out boxes in a cooler case filled with homespun meals  made in the market’s kitchen behind the deli counter. Of course, they’re known for their Italians and other sandwiches, too, where locals pile in at lunchtime.

A fixture on Brackett St

But the main event has always been the butcher shop that’s housed in the back of the store.  Their ground beef has been the source of great hamburgers that were made at Ruski’s  and elsewhere pre-pandemic.  And what a great convenience if you live in the neighborhood and can get everything you need for dinner without having to go to a supermarket. The vegetable case is filled with all the basics and the grocery items include all  the essentials.  They even have Aunt Jemima pancake mix.

It’s basically an old-fashioned neighborhood market with a strong local following

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What most defines a dive bar?  Is it a place of mean streets where you can drink and dine (I use that word reservedly) with patrons prone to drinking too much too early?  Or where you risk getting hepatitis from questionable food practices?  Or where all the premium liquors are nothing better than the well at finer places?

Enter Tom Minervino, where Sangillo’s—a bonafide dive bar—once stood. He is the steward of Tomaso’s Canteen, the new householder of this legendary space where there were allegedly more gun shots than Jell-O shots.

Contemporary, fairly upscale look at Tomaso's Canteen

Contemporary, fairly upscale look at Tomaso’s Canteen

Nowadays dive bars can have a cult following first before morphing into havens for hipsters.  I’m not sure if that will happen to Tomasso’s, though the clean lines of gun-metal gray tabletops and bright, shiny bar stools give the look of a big order from Design Within Reach.

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