‘Everything must go’: Charlie’s Kitchen is holding a sale this weekend

The home of the famous double cheeseburger and a longtime favorite among local college students, Charlie’s Kitchen is “starting over” — and a sale this weekend could give someone the chance to own “a historic piece of Harvard Square.” 

The restaurant, which suffered severe water damage, has been closed since January and is now facing $1 million in repairs. 

On Tuesday, Charlie’s Kitchen announced on social media that it will hold a sale from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The post read: “[A]ll furniture signs, plates cups, EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!”

Owner David Oshima told The Boston Globe the future is still unclear. The first step, he said is a total gut renovation — including removing the iconic neon signs. 

“It’s going to be a total gut,” he told the Globe. “Everything has to come out of that building.”

But this is not a closing sale. Oshima hopes to eventually bring Charlie’s Kitchen back to its former glory, even as he grapples with the heartbreak of seeing a Harvard Square institution forced to start from scratch. 

“I feel like I’m letting everyone down,” he told the Globe. “Seventy-five years of Harvard students, MIT students, going there. I used to go there as a kid. It’s not an easy thing to say goodbye to Charlie’s Kitchen.” 

Oshima bought the restaurant in 2025 and made a few upgrades, including adding chicken tikka masala to the menu. But he largely left the longtime burger joint as he’d found it.

Oshima told the Globe that he’ll have a better sense whether reopening is possible once he and his landlord receive an insurance estimate. The landlord, he said, is also working toward bringing Charlie’s back. 

“I’m going to have to start over,” Oshima said.

For now that means selling some of the physical pieces that made Charlie’s Kitchen a fixture of Harvard Square. But Oshima said he has no plans to change the heart of the restaurant – or the double cheeseburger that made Charlie’s an inextricable part of the neighborhood.