U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Lunch Carts and Dining Cars

Screenshot of the Lunch Carts and Dining Cars interactive map showing blue points for locations and black and white historic photos

Explore the map tour of diner locations in Cambridge, MA.
Once plentiful, none of the portable dining cars remain.

From the earliest horse-drawn lunch carts to the streamlined stainless steel cars, diners were once plentiful in Cambridge. But where did they all go? Some diners moved into brick and mortar locations and others relocated to other towns. The recent Food Truck trend appears to be a revival of the portable dining car, but they don't offer the seating and table service of yesterday. Enjoy this tour of diner photos and share your diner memories with us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov

Page was posted on 5/8/2024 3:45 PM
Page was last modified on 5/8/2024 3:46 PM
Contact Us

How can we help?

Please provide as much detail below as possible so City staff can respond to your inquiry:

As a governmental entity, the Massachusetts Public Records Law applies to records made or received by the City. Any information received through use of this site is subject to the same provisions as information provided on paper.

Read our complete privacy statement


Service Requests

Enter a service request via SeeClickFix for things like missed trash pickups, potholes, etc., click here