The venerable Prolific Oven, on Waverley, swept up the last of the flour and sugar and closed its doors at the end of August. They just could not keep up their quality level at the price points they wanted to maintain given the costs of labor, rent, and supplies. I loved their cakes and bread; we never really ordered any birthday cakes from anyone else. I didn’t go there much for coffee (or meals) to meet with people because it was impossible to have even a semi-private conversation inside, and outside the chairs had zero padding so I didn’t last that long. But its closing will surely be a loss to our community, because their baked goods were just so delicious and well-made.

Round Table Pizza I had heard was going to close about four years ago to make room for the expansion of Oren’s Hummus Shop, though that never happened. I remain a fan of traditional pizza rather than anything newfangled, but Round Table was just too commercial and its quality bore no comparison whatever to what I could get at Il Fornaio, or even Spot Pizza. So I will mourn not at all.

David’s Tea just suddenly disappeared. Even high-priced glasses of tea don’t create enough turnover to pay for prime rental space.