Just off the corner of Mass Ave on Shepard Street, two consecutive French restaurants, Chez Jean and later Chez Henri, flourished for over fifty years.
In 1958, Jean-Baptiste Lagouarde, who had been a chef in France, opened his restaurant, Chez Jean, with his wife Madeline. A local newspaper article described the cuisine as “classic French, emphasizing meat and bearnaise sauce,” and the restaurant’s atmosphere as “anything but pretentious. The mix of rough stucco walls and country style paneling, and the long red vinyl benches give the place an air of a bistro in the countryside.” The article went on to praise the duck special consisting of moist slices of duck layered over a bed of stuffing with the sauce made from duck livers on top.
Lagouarde passed away in 1991, and his family continued the restaurant until 1994. Paul O’Connell bought the space and opened Chez Henri, a French restaurant with a Cuban flair. Alongside classic French dishes such as frogs’ legs, menu items included grilled steak with sofrito bordelaise and roasted chicken with lime, achiote, and yuca frita. The “Chez Henri Cuban Sandwich” became a customer favorite. The interior was reworked with brightly colored light fixtures in a crimson and olive dining room. Chez Henri won acclaim over the years, often cited as one of the area’s best restaurants.
In 2013, O’Connell closed the restaurant. The space reopened in 2015 as Shepard, but closed a couple years later. The space is now occupied by a restaurant called Luce.
Sources
Cambridge Chronicle, January 7, 1960; April 7, 1988; July 25, 1996.
https://www.lisaoconnellcreative.com/hospitalitydesign
