Jia Ho Supermarket
There are a number of theaters in downtown Boston and the surrounding area, and although Washington Street's Globe Theater (later the Center Theater) is no longer doing vaudeville shows, there is still a compelling reason to visit the building. Two, actually.
One of them is easily visible from the street: the Empire Garden restaurant, whose main dining room occupies the former theater. (The theater, which later became a movie theater, eventually became a Chinese-language movie theater. It survived as the last one in Boston until 1995, when it closed and the owner converted the space to the existing dim sum restaurant.)
The other reason to visit the building is much harder to see at first glance, but a careful look reveals the Jia Ho Supermarket on the ground floor of the former theater.
The roughly 12,000 square foot supermarket, housed in thoroughly remodeled quarters once part of the theater, has been open since at least 2007, though until 2013 it was a C-Mart.
Produce and seafood are on the right side of the store, which has a set of entrances and exits at either end -- facing Washington Street, where the restaurant's entrance is, and facing Knapp Street, which is barely more than an alley in the back.
Looking up towards the front of the store, towards Washington Street...
The butcher counter is in the back-right corner of the store.
I'm always amused by international versions of familiar American brands, such as this Chinese bag of Lay's potato chips in "Italian Red Meat Flavor". It looks like... Chinese-made bolognese sauce-flavored potato chips? I have to wonder what the heck that tastes like.
The main set of registers is at the back facing Knapp Street, but there's also checkouts at the front.
Refrigerated and frozen foods are on the left side wall of the store.
Remember that we're down on the first floor of the grand former theater building, so that expansive dining room in the restaurant is above all this!
The supermarket is between 10 and 12,000 square feet, but it feels small in part because of the lower ceilings. You feel like you're in a basement, even though it's not exactly a basement. Still, Jia Ho keeps the store up extremely well.
I don't know if anything much changed when they took over from C-Mart. The store wouldn't even have been that old when they took over, though, so it probably didn't need much work.
Because of the way the space is set up, there are only two registers facing Washington Street, although that's the "front" of the store. That's a result of the fact that there are a few other small storefronts facing Washington Street also in part of the former theater building.
And we can see the back of the old theater, now with a Jia Ho Supermarket sign...
Here's an order of a spicy tofu fish with ground meat to start us off. But the specialty of the house is the dim sum, and even when the full service version isn't up and running -- waiters roll carts of various dishes around the dining room, stopping at each table, and you ask for the ones you want -- you can still order off the menu. Pork dumplings...
...a form of seafood pancake, that's a bit spongy like gelatin...
...and roast pork buns.
Opened: 2014
Owner: Qian Wang
Previous Tenants: C-Mart Supermarket (closed 2013)
Cooperative: none
Location: 692 Washington St, Boston, MA
Photographed: July 13, 2019 and July 21, 2019
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures inside the Empire Garden restaurant -- the day I visited, the main dining room was closed for an event, so I was in a completely unremarkable side dining room. But let's check out the food!
Today, Jia Ho is the only Chinese supermarket in Chinatown proper (C-Mart and Ming's/Go Fresh 365 are just south), but until recently there was another one a couple blocks east from here. Come back tomorrow to check it out!
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