Reader: From the Dinner Bell to the Den restaurants, Pearl Street keeps evolving

Several New Year's Eve restaurant closings surprised the city -- including that of Se7en and M&D's Cafe -- but the three-way closings on South Pearl Street were a real triple whammy. As anticipated, the 29-year-old Pearl Street Grill closed...but India's Pearl shut its doors just hours later, and OTOTO closed on Monday, after just over two years in business (half of that time as Deli Den).

The closings prompted some memories from draftycranium:

I am sorry to hear of the closings of these places and wish the people who gave it a go more recently the best of luck, and the Grill folks success in their relocation. I grew up right around the corner from that block in the '70s (when the school one block south was Grant Junior High School, where I landed every morning only ten minutes after rolling out of bed), and in those days the Vogue was a movie theater still, where I saw Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet and classic films; on the corner where now sits Pajama Baking Company was once an independent convenience store where my hoodlum friends and I presented fake mom notes for cigarettes; a few doors north was the Dinner Bell Cafe, a diner where I had my first job, the proprietress chain-smoked and we ate open-faced turkey sandwiches. Times have changed and changed again, but this one is a whollop.

And the action isn't over yet on Pearl Street, where other restaurants are rumored to be on the endangered list. Want to share scoop...or just memories? Join the Pearl Street conversation already under way here. Read the complete roster of openings and closings last year on our "Restaurant roll call for 2011."