Author: By Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker
Date: Oct. 30, 1994
Publication: Boston Globe, Magazine

The trolley from North Station to Harvard rumbles through Inman Square, in Cambridge, in the 1890's. Behind it in the top photo, another car heads for Union Square, in Somerville. This is a classic American neighborhood commercial center, formed, like so many others, at an X-shaped intersection - in this case, that of Cambridge and Hampshire streets. The tower at right belongs to a fire station built in 1875; firefighters used it to hang their hoses out to dry.

Things don't change very fast in Inman Square. The fire station is gone, but there's another one on the same site. And in the foreground of the new photo are members of a family that has operated the same Inman Square business for three-quarters of a century. Rebecca (Ma) Edelstein opened a small deli here in 1919, urging her customers to "es and es," Yiddish for "eat and eat." Today's S&S Delicatessen cooks up an average of 1,800 meals a day. It claims to have served 19 million bagels over the years (but who was counting?). The "S," as neighbors call it, is mostly hidden behind the prow-shaped building at center, a 19th-century hotel now used for stores and offices and owned, like much of Inman Square, by the restaurant.

At left is Ma Edelstein's granddaughter, Doris Mitchell. She stands with her husband, Chester, and daughter Aimee. Known for its legendary weekend brunch crowds, the S&S celebrated its 75th anniversary this month in characteristic fashion: with a 500-person breakfast in Cambridge City Hall.




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