Capri Pizza, Arlington Heights is open again after closing for a month.
CT Sweet Kingdom is open in Chinatown- dessert place.
Tbaar, bubble tea place near Fenway, is open.
Yuki Shabu, shabu/ chinese place, is open. Somerville.
Somerville Bread Company on Medford Street outside Magoun Square has hours listed in their window- was driving but appeared to be 3-7pm most days. Not exactly my usual bread shopping hours; anyone else made it over?
I understand that they are spending mornings at farmer markets and distributing to wholesale clients, and then selling from the store in the afternoon. I have driven by a bunch of times, but never when I need bread. [I am on a making bread at home kick right now.]
Playska in Inman Square has closed after in less than half a year. While I enjoyed their sandwiches, I am not surprised. The price point was not right for that location and they didnât have much of a market there.
Oh no! I live almost around the corner and hadnât made it over yet⌠which I guess makes the point, but Iâm really disappointed I didnât get to try their stuff.
I just drove by there last week and said to myself, âDang! I need to get over to Playska sometime! Sure hope they donât close before I have time, ha ha!â Well poop.
Right? So disappointing.
I will say, Iâm not sure that the prices were the problem. All-star Sandwich Bar (also take-out based and in Inman) charges similarly, and they do a roaring trade. I think the location was a bigger issue: it was just past where the major foot traffic goes, and on the wrong side of Inman from where most of the new stuff is happening (the east Cambridge side).
I also saw this article, which makes it sound like there was more to it than just weak sales: http://boston.eater.com/2016/4/12/11418176/playska-closure-cambridge#4867575
Driving past today, I saw that Upper Crust (Mall Road, Burlington, beside Chipotle) is now open.
Iâm told Tbaar also sells green tea crepe cakes.
That doesnât surprise me. Their other restaurants (and especially Bronwyn) are such host-driven affairs that a lunch counter wouldâve only made sense if they let someone else run it. I can definitely see why it wasnât rewarding for them in any sense. I hope the sandwiches/bread show up at Bronwyn so I can give them a try sometime.
What an absolute shame that a place with awesome real pizza is going to be replaced by a vegan gluten free substitute. Even if they have the same good beer and bourbon I couldnât drink enough of it to want said âpizzaâ.
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What was the price point? I wanted to try it but never found myself in the area when hungry (or maybe I just live the cubano torts at Olecito too much). Some of my industry friends described small sandwiches beautifully arranged with tweezers.
Thatâs pretty good, but it wasnât quite that precious. The sandwiches were small but the ingredients were top notch.
On my last visit there I waited 15 minutes (despite there only being 3 other customers) for the marinated mushroom sandwich and a bottle of Boylan soda for which I paid $18 & change. The sandwich was delicious, and while enough for me, not as substantial compared to other sandwich options. Granted that mushroom sandwich was one of their more expensive and there were some that were around $10.
I think that Eater article was (understandably) a good amount of spin. The 3 times I was in there it was pretty dead, and there were more workers in the kitchen than customers. Not a huge sample size, but I saw people from the nearby CHA office and some construction workers come in, check things out and leave a few of the times I was there. I think they just missed the mark for that area. The previously mentioned All Star Sandwich has more traditional offerings and better value in addition to a better location for foot traffic.
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Actually, I donât think it is going to be a gluten-free restaurant, but that will be one of the options. I agree that it is really sad that A4 isnât reopening, but am happy to have a tasty vegetarian place putting the oven to good use. I wish them well. I always head to Kendall for Area 4 anyway, so at least itâs still around.
The Kendall location has a 50/50 gas/wood over while Somerville is (was?) 100% resulting in a much better pie IMO. Is it open yet? How do you know it will be tasty? Any idea of other options besides pizza?
Itâs vegan pizza, but itâs Southern Indian vegan food â real actual pizza topped with vegan toppings popular in southern India. Theyâll have a gluten free option (like many places do now) but generally itâs not. Iâm looking forward to their opening. Always look forward to new options in the area we havenât had before.
Eater is reporting that Tomâs Bao Bao, the first overseas branch of GanQiShi a bun place that has 200 outlets in Shanghai and Hangzhou is set to open in Harvard Sq.
I read elsewhere that the second one is supposed to be in Rhode Island, so Iâd assume Providence. It sounds kind of interesting to me, it seems like baozi might be something you could scale into a decent product for a fast casual style place. (Personally, I also just find this all kind of fascinating on the level of global restaurant culture. But hopefully the buns are good too).
This piece in China Daily has the owner saying that the recipe, fillings & bamboo steamer model will be the same as they use in China:
http://www.chinadailyasia.com/chinafocus/2016-03/07/content_15395352.html
and fwiw, here is a bit on the design firm that created the graphics and architecture for the restaurants:
http://linehousedesign.com/design/conceptual/2015/08/21/ganqishi-baozi.html
Opa Greek Yeeros is open! (Former Kickass Cupcakes space on Highland ave, somerville). We went in to peruse the menu while walking by but there was some sort of fire alarm going off and the noise was too much.
I stopped in during the afternoon and got their house-made Greek yogurt, which was tangy and rich. For $4.85 you get a little tub of it (about the size of a Noosa yogurt tub) with two toppings. I got Greek honey and fresh figs, which was very tasty. The owner was there, staring at people. A customer ordered a kebab; they told him itâd be a 10 minute wait and offered a gyros instead.
Does anyone know whatâs going on at Dali? It looks like there is construction around and at the entrance, and it is blocked by a chain link fence.
