Sofra and Mount Auburn Cemetery

Sofra on a quiet corner in Cambridge, is a tiny and popular place. We arrived for lunch on New Year’s Eve and found a line out the door. The good news is that the line moved fast. It also gave me plenty of time to decide what to order. Seating is limited, but we did eventually find an available table and the food came out pretty fast.

The cold mezze bar is colorful and I couldn’t resist. You can choose 5 selections for a platter, and I went with beet tzatziki, whipped feta, carrot salad, baba ganoush, and labne. We also ordered the soup special, spinach falafel, and fried cauliflower with tahini. And to top it off, tahini shortbread and an earthquake cookie for a sweet ending to a delicious lunch.

Mount Auburn Cemetery is nearly directly across the street from Sofra, so it’s a good place for a walk after lunch. December 31, was a pretty chilly day, but we still wandered the pathways and had a good stroll.

Founded in 1831, it is the first landscaped or garden cemetery in the US. There’s a visitor’s center near the entrance. The landscape is rolling and if you walk to the top of the hill where the Washington Tower is (climbable in the summer), there may be a view. There are monuments and sculpture scattered throughout as well as ponds and beautiful old trees.

Although we did not locate any of them, there are many notable burials, including Asa Gray, Fanny Farmer, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Mary Baker Eddy.