New England Travel and Vacation Gazette and Other Wicked Good Content

MassLive is reporting that the Student Prince and Fort Cafe has reopened in Springfield, Mass., after being closed temporarily. The famous German-American downtown Springfield restaurant nearly closed for good after the Scherff family "could no longer sustain the financial losses and declining business and looked to retire,"according to the MassLive article. Peter Picknelly, chairman and CEO of Peter Pan Bus Lines, saved the restaurant as a buyer, enlisting other investors to renovate the Student Prince, which has been around since the 1940s. After being closed several months, the Student Prince celebrated with a grand, invitation-only reopening on Dec. 3. The lunch and dinner menu has changed slightly, but long-time favorites like Sauerbrate, Hungarian beef ghoulash and the Wurst Plate sausage remain on the menu, as well as, of course, plenty of German beers on tap -- including the Student Prince Pilsner! The Student Prince is located at 8 Fort St. in Springfield MA

Article by Eric H., at VisitingNewEngland.com The other day while driving to the Eastern States Exposition (The Big E) fair in West Springfield, MA, I noticed one of our favorite restaurants was closed. I later learned that the Ivanhoe had shut its doors permanently at this location in July of 2007, mainly because of losing a significant amount of parking space to an expanding furniture store. When driving back to suburban Boston from our frequent Cooperstown, N.Y., vacations, the Ivanhoe served as a welcoming dining friend for supper. While we were always sad to leave Cooperstown, the Ivanhoe could stand on its own as a revered last vacation meal with really great food, superb service, and a comfortable atmosphere. It didn't matter that the "Anytown USA" strip mall look of West Springfield couldn't hold a candle to pristine Cooperstown; the Ivanhoe became a wonderful tradition that became part of the fabric of our overall Cooperstown vacation. In the past few years