Tommy's at 20

Tommy's Lunch turned 20 yesterday.

To elaborate somewhat, Thomas Stefanian decided 20 years ago that there was no future in the used car business. So he sold "Honest Tom's," his Cambridge dealership, and moved into his new digs on Mount Auburn St.

Up and Up

Twenty years later (yesterday), Stefanian, or "Tommy" as he is known to the hundreds of Cantabrigians who feast daily on his cheese-steak subs and pearls of down-home Armenian wisdom, held forth on the subject he thinks has made all the difference to the small restaurateur over the past 20 years.

"A ten-cent cup of coffee is now 30 cents which is ridiculous," Tommy expatiated as he cleaned up after another day behind the counter. "We used to have free refills, but between the rents, the costs and the students drinking so much it's ridiculous."

There was no real fanfare, no celebration planned to mark the milestone. But that plastic likeness of Tommy which peers down, Zeus-like, from near the ceiling of the store seemed to be saying, "Happy Birthday to me."