A new location of a pair Dominican restaurants has debuted.
According to a press release, Las Palmas soft-opens today from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM in the former El Jefe’s Taqueria space in The Garage in Harvard Square, joining its original location in Roslindale as well as another at Harvard University’s Smith Campus Center, though we are told that that one will be closing on July 31 (there had once been another at The Launchpad at MIT as well). Expect the new location–which is a full-service quick-casual spot–to offer customizable bowls, empanadas, roasted pork, stewed chicken, Dominican sandwiches, house-made flan, and more, and it will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.
The address for the new location of Las Palmas in Harvard Square is 83 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138. The website for the business is at https://laspalmaskitchen.com/
A new outdoor bar is on its way to a hotel in the heart of Cambridge.
According to a source, Garden Bar is getting ready to open at the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, with its Instagram page saying that it will feature local craft beers, natural wines, frozen cocktails, and live music. A job post within the LinkedIn site goes on to mention that it will be an extension of Noir lounge and will be set up as a “centerpiece” of the hotel’s courtyard.
The address for Garden Bar (and the Charles Hotel) is 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138. The website for the hotel can be found at https://www.charleshotel.com/
Restaurateur Daniel Roughan, the owner of Source is Harvard Square, has paused his search for a spot to open a restaurant in Boston, citing the high cost of a liquor license. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
By Shirley Leung, The Boston Globeupdated on June 27, 2023
The high price of liquor licenses in Boston has always been a barrier to entry for restaurateurs, but that didn’t faze Palmer Matthews, who budgeted $350,000 to buy one on the secondary market.
As he and his partners got close to signing a lease last spring,however, sticker shock struck: The going rate for a full-bar license surged to more than $500,000. They shelved their plans to open a restaurant.
“No way we could justify that kind of investment,” said Matthews, a former Boston bartender who has opened two restaurants in Quincy, Pearl & Lime and Townshend, where liquor licenses are a fraction of the cost. “The long and short of it, it’s prohibitive in a way that it is hurting [Boston] in a lot of different ways.”
Daniel Roughan has also paused his search for a Boston spotfor his next restaurantand is instead looking in Brookline, Burlington, and Wellesley.
“Boston doesn’t make sense because of the liquor license,” said Roughan, who owns Source in Harvard Square. “It’s a shame for the people of Boston who will miss out on a lot of great young chefs and operators that will go elsewhere.”
It’s a story we’ve heard before, but this time it’s more unsettling as Boston recovers from a pandemic. While scores of restaurants shuttered for good during the COVID-19 public health crisis, others are clamoring to fill the gap. In an industry with notoriously thin profit margins, that means big landlords and deep-pocketed restaurateurs are increasingly the only ones who can stomach the high cost of doing business in Boston. That’s shutting out smaller players with more modest resources, especially those of color in lower-income neighborhoods.
The state caps the number of liquor licenses in Boston. Over the past two decades, the Legislature has allowed Boston to issue new ones, but demand continues to outstrip supply. That means if restaurateurs want a license, they mostly likely have to negotiate a sale directly from an existing holder.
That’s according to data from the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission detailing the 15 Boston liquor licenses soldsince March. The next most expensive:a $575,000 license to serve cocktails in the 11th-floor dining and lounge space at the new One Congress tower. Then there was a $550,000 transaction involving a massive bowling alley and restaurant conceptspaceat the new Hood Park complex in Charlestown.
The state caps the number of liquor licenses in Boston. Over the last decade, the Legislature has allowed the city to issue more, but demand continues to outstrip supply, making it difficult for independent restaurateurs to compete with those with big budgets. JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE
Of the 1,100 or so liquor licenses for restaurants, most are in use, but others may be held by landlords or restaurant owners, waiting to be deployed when the timing is right,according to brokers and lawyers in the hospitality industry.
The situation resembles the housing market, where inventory is tight and buyers are stretched because potential sellers won’t budge from their high price points.
“It is a bidding war for these licenses right now,” said Lesley Delaney Hawkins, chair of the restaurant and hospitality practice group at Prince Lobel law firm. “The positive is that people want to still come in and invest in Boston … the negative is the concern of pricing people out of the market.”
One of those eager to obtain a liquor license is Hawkins’s client Andy Husbands, who is bringing his Smoke Shop BBQ concept to East Boston. But, for the first time in his decades-long career, Husbands will open a restaurant without serving alcohol.
While restaurants tend to make most of their money from alcohol sales, Husbands said he won’t be able to make the numbers work on a 90-seat restaurant if he has to spend $500,000 for a liquor license. He has several locations in the area, including in Cambridge and Somerville. A license might make sense if his Eastie space was bigger.
“We’re not some fancy restaurant,” said Husbands, who is also Smoke Shop’s pitmaster. “It’s unfathomable to pay that amount of money. How can we ever pay that back?”
Husbands came to East Boston hoping to get a so-called restricted license, which can be obtained from City Hall directly. This type of license cannot be transferred, and must be returned to the city when a restaurant closes. Many restricted licenses are for underserved communities to create jobs for residents and give opportunities to restaurateurs of color.
Andy Husbands is bringing his Smoke Shop BBQ concept to East Boston. For the first time in his decades-long career, Husbands will open a restaurant without serving alcohol. JOHN BLANDING/GLOBE STAFF
Husbands said he has waited more than two years for one of the 10 restricted licenses in East Boston to become available. “Now that seems to be a fool’s errand,” he said.
A bill filed on Beacon Hill, with the blessing of the Boston City Council and Mayor Michelle Wu, calls for adding a handful of restricted licenses in 10 zip codes annually for five years. The bill would create as many as 250 new licenses in neighborhoods that could use an economic boost, including East Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, and Hyde Park.
But supporters will have to wait until at least next year before there is any action on the measure. In an interview, state Representative Tackey Chan, a Democrat from Quincy who serves as cochair of the joint committee that reviews liquor licenses, said he isn’t scheduling the first hearing on the Boston bill until the fall.
Chan says he understands the urgency, but he also wants to discern the impact of a bill that would represent a substantial increase — potentially more than 20 percent — in the number of liquor licenses to Boston restaurants.
“One of the objectives is that we don’t want to adversely affect the value of existing license holders,” said Chan. “We want to ensure that all liquor licenses proposed will actually be utilized.”
Nick Korn, principal at Offsite, a restaurant training and development firm in Boston, said the state shouldn’t be concerned about propping up the value of licenses. Offsite’s analysis indicates that so far the addition of more than 100 new licenses since 2006 has not led to a price drop on the secondary market.
“The government is complicit in prolonging a fundamentally unequal system based on artificial scarcity,” Korn said.
Josh Weinstein, owner of The Quiet Few in East Boston, was among the lucky ones to score a restricted license in 2018. He wanted to open a tiny, no-frills neighborhood whiskey tavern ― it’s only 1,000 square feet with about 40 seats.
“You get so much personality in a small space,” he said.
Weinstein was surprised to learn thatHusbands’s new Smoke Shop won’t feature the local chain’s well-known American whiskey program. With all the residential development underway, Weinstein said,East Boston needs more restaurants and bars.
“That breaks my heart they are opening without a liquor license,” he said. “Not only do I love his food, I was so excited. It’s a missed opportunity for East Boston to be a destination for whiskey lovers.”
Josh Weinstein, owner of The Quiet Few in East Boston, was one of the lucky ones who secured a restricted license in 2018. CARLIN STIEHL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Harvard Square Business Association is welcoming 3 members of the herd, Flora, Frida Cowlo and Inside Out to historic Winthrop Park.
The Harvard Square Business Association will partner with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund to bring CowParade New England to Harvard Square. They are welcoming 3 members of the herd, Flora, Frida Cowlo and Inside Out to historic Winthrop Park.
Since 1948, the generosity of millions of people in New England and around the globe has helped Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund save countless lives and reduce the burden of cancer for patients and families worldwide.
This year’s CowParade New England is presented by Herb Chambers and brings 75 life-size cows, designed by a range of regional artists throughout New England, to high trafficked landmarks around Greater Boston to celebrate 75 years of progress and impact made possible by the Jimmy Fund community. All proceeds directly benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s efforts to defy cancer.
One area of Massachusetts is being named the best city in the country for families to live.
Fortune Well compiled their own list of the best cities across the country that are optimal for living. The website analyzed nearly 1,900 cities, with the best places to live scoring high on assets like health care, education and resources for seniors.
For the first time, this year’s list highlights the best place to live in each of the 50 states, according to Fortune Well. Cambridge was found to be the best city to reside.
JPMorgan Chase & Co has opened a branch in Harvard Square, according to a notice it filed with the Treasury Department last week. This location is the bank’s first branch in Cambridge.
On June 13, Chase quietly opened a branch on 9 JFK St. in Cambridge. Prior to the branch opening, the bank only had an ATM in the Harvard MBTA stop, but not a physical branch location.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Massachusetts city is ranked the top place to live for families out of America’s best zip codes all of which can help fight isolation and build social ties, according to Fortune.
The publication recently released its annual list of 50 best places to live for families, and Cambridge ranked number one.
“Home to world-renowned educational institutions Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge embraces its dual position as a college town and bustling metro, just across the Charles River from Boston,” Fortune wrote.
Cambridge, with a population of 117,200, is known for its universities, museums, craft breweries, outdoor spaces, the Head of the Charles Regatta, and its bustling squares.
“It’s most well-known, Harvard Square, is full of charming historic buildings, cafés, boutiques, theaters, and performance spaces,” the publication wrote.
The median sale price for a single-family residence in Cambridge in 2022 was $913,759, and the median household income was $116,709, according to Fortune.
Locals also enjoy living in Cambridge because of a few other perks which include low crime rates, and quality public schools, 41% of which were rated above average by the national nonprofit GreatSchools, according to the publication.
Fortune analyzed nearly 1,900 cities, towns, villages, suburbs, exurbs, and townships across all 50 states, using more than 200,000 unique data points to find the best place in every state.
The best places to Live scored high in the areas of health care, education, and resources for seniors, which the publication said all help fight isolation and build social ties.
Another New England city made the top 10: Portsmouth, N.H., ranked 2 on the list. After that, New England entries were placed in the following order: Portland, Maine, ranked 15, South Burlington, Vermont, ranked 21, Norwalk, Conn., ranked 29, and Cranston, R.I., ranked 38.
Shereen Pimentel in “Evita” at the American Repertory Theater. (Photo: Emilio Madrid)
A cross between an iron maiden and a fairy princess gown, the replica of Eva Peron’s famous Dior strapless gown hangs suspended over a neon-framed stage. Like a mummified three-dimensional diorama, the white bejeweled dress takes on a life of its own, its bodice both unsettling and beckoning, warning the audience: Look but do not touch.
This riveting image, with its promise of an evening of highly stylized art and mixed messages, is the perfect introduction to the spectacularly staged “Evita” now at the A.R.T.’s Loeb theater. Its production values – from exquisite costumes, choreography, scenic design and lighting to orchestration and cast talent – can’t be overpraised. The most striking evening of theater to hit Boston stages in a while is, luckily and uncharacteristically, in town for a good, long run (through July 30), so there is plenty of time to snag a ticket and enjoy.
When the scrim lifts and the real show begins, the visuals only get better. A backdrop of silhouetted men and women in gorgeous haute couture hats and heels suddenly breaks…
Blankets are available if you get chilly. The performance of “The Gaaga,” after all, takes place in the basement of a makeshift bomb shelter — the now-closed Beat Brew Hall restaurant in Harvard Square — and the lobby has some curtained-off spaces with blankets and pillows, offering a little bit of privacy and a place for refugees to rest. Once inside the theater, the setting shifts to the dreamlike world of a young woman’s fantasy about an imprisoned Vladimir Putin and his associates awaiting trial in the Gaaga (the Hague).
Welcome to the always imaginative, viscerally engaging world of Arlekin Players Theatre and the US premiere of “The Gaaga (The Hague): A Fantastical Trial of Putin from a Bomb Shelter in Mariupol.” Our guide and sometime narrator is The Girl (17-year-old Taisiia Fedorenko, who fled Kyiv in 2022 when the Russians launched the war against her country). Her playful innocence in the face of the senseless murders of innocent people — portrayed with devastating grace — only amplifies the horrors of the invasion.
The mix of fact and fiction is handled simply. Each prisoner is introduced by The Girl with basic facts about his or her role in Putin’s orbit while a photo of the real person they portray is projected on screens behind them. And then each character does something ridiculous: The conspiracist pulls out a goose; the propagandist swings a watch on a chain like a hypnotist; a political leader knits for Putin. These caricatures exaggerate the absurdity of Putin’s enablers while exposing how destructive and dangerous they are. Their clever twists of truth during the trial are determined declarations of innocence, spoken even as the impact of their horrific deeds can be seen just beyond the courtroom.
Playwright and co-director Sasha Denisova asks the audience to lean into a world that can feel far removed from us, which is why the immersive nature of the production becomes so powerful. The stage includes a claw-footed tub and several rocking horses — which become places to lounge, seduce, or simply sit. In addition to an array of projections, there’s a jukebox that comes to life to start the play, a pool table, a forbidding mask, and other props that come into focus as needed. There are moments in “The Gaaga,” which is also offered as a virtual production, when some projections clearly reflect choices made for the virtual audience. Characters pick up cameras and point them at each other unobtrusively, while at other times actors …
Have a problem? Just want to talk? Look for the man in the lawn chair with the propeller cap.
HARVARD SQUARE — If you’re passing through this bustling neighborhood once known for its quirky and off-beat outdoor entertainment, there’s simply no avoiding George Vaill.
With his bushy grey mustache, technicolor propeller hat, and cartoonish black spectacles and bright-yellow sneakers, he lounges in a camping chair beneath a large sign that says, “FREE ADVICE, OFFERED OR ACCEPTED.”
Try to avoid eye contact as you stroll by and he’ll wave and say hello anyway, and then offer you a sticker with a link to his website.
But those lured in by the charismatic 76-year-old, who’s become a fixture of the square since he started doling out free advice three summers ago, will walk away with much more than that: They’ll be regaled with pearls of wisdom, free of charge. For a few minutes, he’ll listen intently to your quandaries, offer you help, and expect nothing in return.
“A lot of times people lack self-confidence in their ability to make good choices for themselves,” Vaill said, in between consultations with strangers one recent Thursday afternoon. “Whatever it is, they don’t believe in themselves enough. They don’t love themselves enough. They don’t respect themselves enough. So they’re hesitant about a lot of the things they’re doing in life.”
