The Smoot Standard

Spacious café near MIT with decent food and drinks. Stopped by a few times for lunch. One thing I really like about this place is that they have a small mezzanine level, which is a rare find for cafes in the city. It’s easy to miss, but once you’re up there, it’s a great quiet alternative when you want a change of scenery from the library. Food and drinks were fairly basic. Nothing to write home about, but good enough for a casual meal. Prices are also reasonable for the neighborhood. The better options I’ve tried were the tuna Niçoise salad sandwich and the chicken Cobb salad. They also offer dinner service, though I’ve rarely seen much activity in the evenings. The menu looked like standard American café fare. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’d consider if I started hearing good things.

Had a great experience here! I ordered a latte and it was absolutely delicious — perfectly smooth and well made. My companion ordered the Chicken Cutlet sandwich (with cucumber, shaved fennel, arugula, parmesan-peppercorn aioli, and lemon vinaigrette) and really enjoyed it. The girls were super attentive, the service was excellent, and the space is beautiful and very inviting. My only suggestion would be to expand the gluten-free options a bit more — it would be great to see more variety in the future. Overall, we’ll definitely be back!

One November morning of 2025, I dropped by The Smoot Standard Cafe at 313 Mass Ave in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Darwin's Ltd used to be, to try out the new Cafe's atmosphere and food. It has a good vibe - reassuringly busy, yet seats were available. It was reasonably quiet, a mix of generations (including families with kids), and as expected a few students with laptops open (good Wi-Fi, plenty of outlets). The Smoot Standard Cafe is not far up Mass Ave from 77 Mass Ave - entrance to MIT's famed Infinite Corridor. And just further along Mass Ave is the Charles River and the Harvard Bridge, which displays a plaque of Ollie Smoot, whose height as an MIT freshman provides the "smoot" marks of progress all the way across the bridge to Boston. On entry, I went to the order counter and ch

Delightful! Bagels and lox and bluefish spreads, brioche sandwiches, and delicious chai lattes. Our daughter loved her iced vanilla latte. It’s named after the smoot, the unit of length of Oliver Smoot, the MIT frat pledge who measured the length of the bridge by lying down body-length by body-length

Highly recommend breakfast sandwich (I got it with chicken sausage) and the cuban sandwich. I wouldn’t get the latte again, but jasmine tea lemonade has good tea flavor if you’re into that. Great atmosphere with plenty of tables and beer on tap🍻