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Days before soft serve ice cream store Taiyaki NYC celebrates the grand opening of its Harvard location, the newest addition to the Square has already lured in students and local residents.

Taiyaki NYC, which sells its soft serve ice cream — known as creemees in parts of New England — in instagrammable fish-shaped waffle cones, found fame on social media for its unique desserts. The Harvard Square store is The Dough Club’s first location in the state, but the ice cream chain’s second store in Massachusetts.

The chain first welcomed customers in Harvard Square on Nov. 21 at its “unannounced opening,” according to store employee Winnie Tan. The ice cream store opened alongside The Dough Club, its sibling Japanese mochi doughnut store, at the former location of the clothing store Mint Julep on 6 Church St. The stores will host their grand opening on Friday.

Arleen K. Saini ’25 said Taiyaki NYC’s waffle cones are “really unique” and “very cute.”

“I could see a lot of people taking photos with it,” Saini said.

Cecilia Hermawan, a local resident who visited the new shop on Sunday with her niece, nephew, and seven-year-old daughter, said she had visited the chain’s Boston Seaport location several times and was excited to see it open in Harvard Square.

Hermawan’s daughter, Natalia, jumped in to offer her praise of Taiyaki NYC’s ice cream.

“I like how they also decorate it, and how it looks on the outside, and how it tastes on the inside,” she said.

Minh Trinh ’15, who visited Taiyaki NYC on Sunday with Nga H. Nguy ’15-’16, said the ice cream is “definitely better” than Harvard’s dining hall food.

The Harvard Crimson reports on the imminent opening of a Harvard Square outlet of a New York ice-cream chain that sells ice cream in fish-shaped waffle cones aimed specifically at the sort of discriminating customers who want to instantly post photos of themselves with their cones on Instagram.

Coffee is coming back to the Harvard Square location that Starbucks left a year ago – but in place of that two-story space with lots of room for studying and first dates it marks the coming of a chain known for being no place at all: Blank Street Coffee.

There are numerous cities in the northeast that vacationers can settle for in December, but none of them matches Boston. The city transforms into a magical paradise with a unique charm that comes alive at Christmas. From huge Christmas trees to ice skating in some of the most impressive rinks to beautiful streets lined with colorful sparkling lights, plus lots of fun adventures, there is a lot to experience in Boston during Christmas. You don’t want to miss these fun activities in Boston for the ultimate Christmas celebration.

Boston, Massachusetts–(Newsfile Corp. – November 14, 2022) – Boston Realty Advisors has completed leasing 30,000 square feet of new retail space on the lower three floors of the iconic, newly restored Abbot building at the heart of Harvard Square.

A Cambridge dining and drinking spot that was reborn earlier this year as a “honky tonk” has shut its doors once again.

According to a source, Beat Brew Hall in Harvard Square is no longer in business, with a Facebook comment from the Brattle Street place confirming it has indeed permanently closed. The restaurant and bar returned in May after being shuttered for approximately two years; it first opened in September of 2018, replacing Beat Brasserie.

It isn’t known why Beat Brew Hall closed, nor is it known what might go into the space, so stay tuned for updates.

The address for the now-closed Beat Brew Hall is 13A Brattle Street, 13A Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138.

Draped in Brazilian flags and holding signs alleging fraud, more than 100 protesters gathered in Harvard Square Sunday to oppose the results of the Brazilian presidential election.

Leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the Oct. 30 election with 50.9 percent of the vote, replacing far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who garnered 49.1 percent after serving one term in office. Protests have erupted across Brazil and the United States, with some Bolsonaro supporters alleging the election was fraudulent and calling on the military to stop the transition of power.

There is no evidence to suggest the election was illegitimate. Brazilian military officials, who helped supervise the election, said they have not found any signs of voter fraud.

Sunday’s protest was organized by Congresso Conservador Brasileiro, a conservative Brazilian group based in Framingham.

The protesters questioned the integrity of electronic voting machines, through which nearly all Brazilian voters cast their ballots.

A group of Harvard students counter-protested Sunday’s demonstration, calling the display an attack on democracy.

João Pinheiro ’23-’24 and Helena Mello Franco ’24, co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Brazilian Association, said the organization did not condone the Bolsonaro supporters’ actions.

“It’s an attack against democratic values — an attack against the electoral system in Brazil,” Pinheiro said.

“We also felt like it was an invasion of our space as well to have these protesters here in the middle of Harvard Square, many times confusing the students at Harvard who could be thinking that these people were affiliated somehow with us,” said Mello Franco, who attended the counter-protest.

Mello Franco described Sunday’s counter-protest, which was not organized by HUBA, as a demonstration in support of democratic institutions.

“The protest was not necessarily pro-Lula,” Mello Franco said. “I think the protest is more accurately described as a protest pro-‘respect electoral results and democratic institutions.’”

Lula, who is set to take office at the start of next year, previously served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. In July 2017, he was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. Brazil’s Supreme Court annulled Lula’s sentence in March 2021, and he was released after spending 580 days in prison.

At Sunday’s demonstration, protester Fatima Heath said she was “upset” that someone who was previously imprisoned was elected president of Brazil.

“We don’t want a bad guy,” Heath said. “If the left [has] another good guy, we will respect. We will respect it, because we support the democracy.”

Heath, along with several other protesters at the event, advocated for military intervention in Brazil.

“We want, we call, we need, we ask for our army [to] resolve that,” Heath said.

Pinheiro, HUBA co-president, drew comparisons between Sunday’s protest and attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election.

Mello Franco said she hoped Sunday’s demonstrations would shed light on Brazil’s political climate, which she described as “polarizing.”

“I hope that in a way this event also makes people more conscious of how important it is right now to support Brazilian democracy and to leads fights to make sure that democracy is upheld — that the results are upheld,” she said.

Mello Franco also called for compassion toward Brazilian students.

“Try to be as comforting and as compassionate as possible because it’s very tough for us to see something like this happening to our democracy and with us being so far away from it as well,” she said.