MA Can't Lose These 5 Restaurants Amid Coronavirus, Esquire Says

MASSACHUSETTS — Restaurants have been among the hardest-hit businesses in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many have closed, and more closings are almost certainly on the horizon before the pandemic comes to an end.

Of course, every restaurant closure is a significant blow to the fabric of a community, from the jobs to the culture to the food itself. Esquire has identified 100 restaurants it said America can't afford to lose, and five of them are in Massachusetts.

Gov. Charlie Baker has allowed indoor dining to continue amid some calls to shut it down as COVID-19 cases continue to explode across Massachusetts. Instead, Baker recently extended a 25 percent capacity limit for restaurants and other businesses.

Here are the Massachusetts restaurants that were featured, with a brief description from Esquire:

• Black-Eyed Susan's (Nantucket): "They do breakfast and they do dinner and they do them well, for not many people (it’s tiny) and for cash only, and you’ll remember it."
• Celeste (21 Bow St., Somerville): "Together, husband and wife JuanMa Calderón and Maria Rondeau recast their at-home pop-up into a postmodernist brick-and-mortar paean of Peruvian and Andean spice."
• Neptune Oyster (63 Salem St., #1, Boston): Listen: "People are waiting in line for that damn johnnycake, and they’re not fools."
• Roadside Store and Cafe (275 Main Rd., Monterey): "The best little roadside dinner with pancakes you order by the size and come as big as hubcaps."
• The Beachcomber (1120 Cahoon Hollow Rd., Wellfleet): "Local oysters and steamers in a clam shack on the sand."

California had the most restaurants on the list at 16, followed by New York with 14. Louisiana had six, followed by New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts with five each. Twenty-nine states were represented on the list.

The site encouraged readers to donate to Southern Smoke, the Lee Initiative and other organizations helping restaurant workers who are struggling through the coronavirus pandemic.

Anthony Bellano, Patch staff, contributed to this report