So Ken's really exists?

[tatamagouche]

I've given up trying to figure out how to do an advanced search on this new-fangled site (and I'm clearly not alone since the site talk board is having troubles keeping up with the bitching). Anyway, I guess I never really admitted to myself until now that the salad dressings actually come from a real place. Is it better than, say, the Hilltop? Frank's?

[Harp00n]

My favorite cousin Kathy, whose married to a Canadian and just retired in Nova Scotia, makes a bee-line for the Hilltop as soon as they arrived at the Old Homestead in Lynn. I used to humor them when they lived in Ottawa and came to town. They're not Chowhounds, they're prodigious meat & potato eaters. Try as I might, I could never change the venue to The New Bridge Cafe in Chelsea.

I know they would have loved The Bridge but people are funnily stubborn sometimes.
Of course, this is the same cousin who insists that the Kelly's, basically, right next door to the Hilltop, doesn't make as good a sandwich as the Revere original. In any event, I finally gave up going with them 'cause feeling like one of the plastic cows on the lawn and the compensating drinkin' & drivin'.......well you get the picture.

[thegolferbitch]

I can tell you that it's better than the Hilltop, but then I'm sorry to say the Hilltop is a scary, awful joke. Yet that place too packs them in.

[greengage]

This is not the same as the old Ken's in Copley, right?

[pemma]

The "old Ken's in Copley". That brings back memories. It was underground with stairs going down into sort of a plaza below Boylston St. The entrance is still there I think, but I don't think anything was in the space the last time I saw it. Spent some late nights there, but I have no idea what I ate there.

[Joanie]

It's been a few Asian restaurants but the location doesn't succeed.

[DavidSp]

My family and I had a bakery that supplied most of Ken's at Copley's pastries for most of the 60's. I don't remember there being a floor below Boylston St. though.They had great sandwiches and was the place to go late night. Ken and his brother inlaw , who was his partner, were originaly from Winthrop.

[AnneM]

I use Ken's lowfat Caesar for a pasta salad. I let the oil settle first and pour it off. That's a WeightWatcher tip!

[chowciao]

We went there for an easter dinner - it was kind a middle of the road meeting place for everyone. I would rank it above Hilltop (then again, that was a terrible experience the last time we went), but thought it wasn't worth my money or the drive there.

[Aromatherapy]

You'll be amused by the Big Dog's take on it. http://www.chow.com/tour/1533

[tatamagouche]

Ah, I totally missed that--thanks!

[tomaneng]

The sole purpose of going there is to feel young and get ripped off. It's the only restaurant I've ever been to where I wanted my money back.

[Blumie]

Feel young how? Because everyone else will be 90?

[tomaneng]

Yup.

[Food4Thought]

Associated only by name these days. Classic tale, starts bottling house dressing, rift between family members/ business partners. Kens Foods (the salad dressing) for some time has been a completely seperate entity ( also does condiments for the food service industry). Stay away from the restaurant, after my experience, I may never be able to eat prime rib again.

[Harp00n]

I believe there are still some financial entanglements between the Hatfields & McCoys :-)

[ScubaSteve]

i only use Ken's salad dressings for marinades.

[hazel ambrose]

Someone told me that Ken had murdered someone in the parking lot in the 70's and gotten away with it!
So we had to go to the original one in Framingham, or wherever it is. The carpets still had the faint smell of cigarettes and the food pretty much sucked. But it was packed on a week night (?) people like institutions I guess.

[tatamagouche]

Oh dear, how funny/sad.

[Gabatta]

That and a relative lack of options in the immediate area unless you like chains.

[Blumie]

It's the pits.