"A hard-boiled rivalry; Cafe owners come to blows in Somerville square" by Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff | April 26, 2010
SOMERVILLE — The two own side-by-side breakfast nooks in Somerville’s burgeoning Ball Square, and their rivalry — of food and vitriol — is the stuff of neighborhood lore....
But now, the rivalry has come to blows....
Globe always looking for conflict, isn't it?
“It’s so sad that this has degenerated to the Hatfields and the McCoys and the Civil War,’’ said Jack Connolly, a longtime Somerville alderman who has frequented both establishments and knows both men.
That old New England hospitality!
The feud dates at least to 2007, when there was no Ball Square Cafe and Yasser Mirza, a Syrian immigrant, was doing a booming business with Sound Bites.
Hot-headed Syrian, right?
At the time, his restaurant was in the space now occupied by Ball Square Cafe, and Mirza rented from landlords who happened to be Mike Moccia’s parents. Facing a rent increase, Mirza says, he was forced to move. He bought the space next door and started over.
I don't give a s***; although I do wonder why this feud is given FRONT-PAGE COVERAGE!
Moccia, meanwhile, had been working at the nearby Victor’s Deli, also owned by his parents. He says he had been looking for a change. And shortly after Mirza moved out, Moccia opened his restaurant in the space. He lured away Mirza’s prized chef, Omar Djebbouri, made him a business partner, and began serving breakfast, putting on the menu a number of Mirza’s offerings.
I'm not hungry.
“I was inspired by Yasser,’’ Moccia said. “He had a great business. I just saw how hot breakfast was, and it seemed like it was the thing to do.’’
Both men, by all accounts, do a land-office business, attracting crowds that line up outside both restaurants....
Oh, they BOTH are DOING WELL with LINES OUT the DOOR, huh?
What a COUPLE of ASSHOLES!!
Oh, that's why they are on the front page of my Boston Globe.
Despite their similarities, Sound Bites and Ball Square cafes have distinctly different feels.
See how much I care, readers?
This deserves the placing and all this print?
Ball Square is narrow, with cafe-style seating and an open kitchen and iron art work on the walls. Sound Bites is about twice the size, with a family feel and a bar at one end. Unlike Ball Square Cafe, which serves only breakfast, Sound Bites also serves lunch and dinner.
And one guy is gone by noon? Pfft!
Those who know them say Moccia and Mirza are cut from the same cloth. Both are ferociously hardworking men who started as dishwashers and worked their way up. Both are stubborn and hot-tempered.
Like I said, couple of.....
Would be if they were a citizen who cares about his country and identified by the MSM as a bagger.
Nearby merchants who live amid the acrimony have kept their distance, carefully avoiding remarks or gossip that might give the appearance of slighting either man.
AS WOULD I!
And I would NEVER EAT in either place.
“It’s complicated,’’ said one store owner, who spoke on the condition her name not be published for fear of getting caught in the middle.
Still,
Same as BUT!
peacemakers have tried quietly to intervene....
Always a BAD IDEA!!
Take it from someone who has PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and the BUSTED FACE to PROVE IT!!
Let them KILL EACH OTHER!
Then PROBLEM SOLVED and there will be two less assholes in the world!
Not surprisingly, Moccia and Mirza disagree on who instigated the brawl that sent a crowd into the streets prying the two apart....
That must have been a cool sight!!!
Asked whether he and Mirza could ever resolve their differences, Moccia seemed uncertain. “I don’t know,’’ he said. That seemed to be the opinion of others who have tried to patch over the men’s differences.
“We tried more than a couple of times to get a meeting of the minds here,’’ said Connolly, the alderman. “Let’s be gentlemanly here. You don’t have to like each other. Just tolerate each other.’’
In AmeriKa?
HA!
--more --"
I am getting hungry; however, I think I will wait until this afternoon to have a meal. I'll just post until then.
