Another rather mediocre restaurant, Augustine's, is now closed, but in its day, it was worth piling up on the pasta at the buffet while listening to the woman playing unforgettable songs (again, for better or worse) on the piano. For instance, I don't particularly like the Hilltop Steak House, but the cheesy cactus sign and the plastic cows out front are almost worth the price of admission. There are a lot of bad restaurants on Route 1, but there are a few good ones, too, and even some of the bad restaurants are worth going to just for the atmosphere. Route 1 in Saugus, for better or for worse, is a memorable road. Everywhere you look, you see weirdness, including a leaning tower of pizza (not Pisa), a string of no-tell motels, a huge dinosaur guarding a miniature golf course, a bunch of plastic cows, and a huge ship near the Lynnfield border that used to be a restaurant.

For those who don't know Route 1, it is one of the cheesiest, outdated, most over-the-top roads in Massachusetts, if not the United States. A few of us were talking about past and present restaurants on Route 1 in Saugus.

Leaning tower of pizza saugus ma