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Elsie's at Harvard Square

From: John    	
Subject: I need a recipe    	

Many years ago there was a restaurant in Cambridge MA (Harvard Square) called Elsies. 
They closed about 30 years ago, Their Turkey Deluxe and the Fresser's Roast Beef were 
phenomenal. I wonder if any of your contacts provided recipe information about Elsies. 
In college I ate there 2-3 times a week. Thanks Stephanie.
John 

From: Stephanie 
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2023 9:49 AM
To: john
Subject: Re: New submission from Contact Form

Thank you for reaching out to me. I am sorry I do not have anything thing from Elsies 
in my archives. You may want to check with https://hungrybrowser.com/, I think he has 
a good collection and is actively working to find recipes that are much harder to find. 

Good luck John, 

Stephanie  

Subject: a request
From: john
Date: 8/13/2023, 10:21 AM
To: 

Stephanie at copycat suggested I contact you regarding my unsuccessful search for a recipe 
from Elsie’s in Cambridge.  Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

John 

Re: Elsie's Harvard Square
From: Phaedrus
Date: 8/13/2023, 3:30 PM
To: john

Hello John,

I spent the afternoon tracing any mention that I could find of Elsie's ("Elsie's Sandwich Shop") in Harvard Square at 71A Mount Auburn St, Cambridge, MA, which closed in 1990. The shop was owned by Phillip S. Markell at the time it closed. Mr. Markell, who passed away in 2018, bought the shop in 1965 from German immigrants Elsie and Henry Bauman, who had opened it in 1955. 

I found many mentions, all positive, of different sandwiches that people enjoyed there, including the "Turkey Deluxe"(The "TD"), "The Roast Beef Special"(Roast beef sandwich with Russian dressing, pickle relish and thin sliced onion on a brioche roll.), "The Fresser's Delight"(turkey, roast beef, and corned beef on three slices of sissel bread (Jewish rye bread).), and the Landsman (a hot Romanian pastrami). (Descriptions from the Internet.)

However, recipes are a different matter. I made a rather thorough search of the Internet for these sandwiches, and the descriptions above were the best that I could find. We have a rather large collection of recipe books based on the theme of restaurants, delis, diners, drive-ins, etc. by state and by city. They are indexed in a database that can be searched by restaurant name, state, city, or name of dish. I could not find any mention of Elsie's or of any of those sandwiches by name in the index. Elsie's was not listed as a Cambridge restaurant in the index.

I have no other routes of investigation except to post this on my site. There is always a possibility that someone has the recipe(s) and will read the post on my site and respond.

Phaed