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In celebration of HBO’s new series “Julia,” here are spots the famed chef frequented while she lived and worked in Cambridge for 40 years.

HBO Max recently released “Julia,” an eight-episode dramedy about the life and work of pioneering chef Julia Child.

While she was born in California and studied culinary arts in France, she and her husband Paul moved to Cambridge in 1961 where they lived for 40 years.

The impact Child brought to Cambridge’s community and its culinary scene is still felt today, if only you know where to look.

It was in their home at 103 Irving St. that Child filmed three of her television series—”In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs,” “Baking With Julia,” and “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home.”

Bosso Ramen Tavern, a new Japanese restaurant specializing in small plates, sushi, and ramen, held its Harvard Square grand opening on Saturday.

The restaurant, located on 24 Holyoke St., is a modern take on an izakaya — a Japanese bar that serves appetizers, snacks, and drinks. Owner Yasuhiro Sasago designed the menu with his experiences as a surfer and trained ramen chef in mind.

Good news for all Japanese-food lovers in Cambridge, WakuWaku Ramen and Sake is bringing its innovative ramen culture to Harvard Square. 

Tucked into a row of shops and eateries on Brattle Street, WakuWaku’s new location will officially open around late April, giving Cambridge students and residents another ramen option, along with the Boston Ramen Company and Hokkaido Ramen Santouka.  

Brato at The Sinclair is dishing up four nights of fun freebies.

When patio season comes back around after months of Boston’s notorious winter weather, locals don’t have to be enticed with freebies to get back outside. But, hey — we’d never say no to free pizza.

That’s just what’s in store for the much-anticipated relaunch of a Harvard Square restaurant’s roof deck. Brato at The Sinclair, a culinary partnership between The Sinclair music venue and Brighton’s Brato Brewhouse + Kitchen, will reopen its roof deck on Wednesday, April 6. To celebrate the long-awaited return of the patio, which hasn’t been open since before the initial COVID-19 shutdown, Brato is dishing up 50 free bar pizzas per night from April 13 through 16.

Plus all-day brunch and more restaurant news you can use

Openings: There’s a brand-new brasserie on the Greenway: ROSE Town Kitchen & Bar is open at the Canopy by Hilton Boston Downtown (99 Blackstone St.). Chef Andrew Beer comes from the Mandarin Oriental and Boston Park Plaza. Dive into mussels, a steak sandwich, or “thin pies” topped with duck confit and short ribs, paired with a Dirty Water cocktail made with fernet, chartreuse, and lime.

Cambridge mainstay Grafton Street — which has been around since 1996, a lifetime in restaurant years — has reopened in Harvard Square’s former Park space (59 JFK St.) after a pandemic hiatus.

Longtime bartender Paul Barry makes the drinks; executive chef Tom Borgia (Russell House Tavern, State Street Provisions) serves a comforting menu of steamed mussels, grilled strip loin, fish and chips, and French onion soup.

A Cambridge beer hall is being reborn with a slightly different name and what appears to be a slightly different concept.

According to a source, Beat Brew Hall in Harvard Square is planning to reopen as Beat Hall, with a note on its website saying “BEAT HALL IS (RE)OPENING SOON! All New & Better Than Ever!” The website also mentions that it will be a “tequila, bourbon & beer-focused, taco, rib & burger-slinging honky-tonk in the heart of Harvard Square” and it will focus on American, Southwest, and Mexican street food” while also featuring live music within the space. 

Bay State native Mark Ladner has come home to open Bar Enza. Does his legendary lasagna travel, too?

Chef Mark Ladner’s famous lasagna. / Photo by Linda Campos

Look, I don’t know who’s calling the shots at the Charles Hotel, and frankly it’s none of my damned business. I’m just a simple food guy. On matters of intra-hospitality backroom intrigue, I stay as neutral as Switzerland, you know, used to. What I can tell you is last April, after a five-year run, Benedetto, Michael Pagliarini’s acclaimed ristorante (we liked it, too: three stars in 2017), was out. A few months later, Bar Enza, a “neo-trattoria” by the Lyons Group—the folks behind Scampo, Rochambeau, Sonsie, and several popular Fenway haunts—was in, rocking a menu of spruced-up Italian crowd-pleasers.

Before we go on, it’s probably worth pausing to unpack “crowd-pleaser,” a loaded term, for sure. There’s no hard-and-fast way to determine, for instance, whether the late Benedetto’s strascinati with Ossabaw pork sausage and treviso was any more or less likely to please the proverbial crowd than, say, the new spot’s hulking “meatball gigante” ($29), made with beef, pork, veal, and barbecue brisket purchased from the Smoke Shop, on a plate of mashed potatoes. It’s subjective. You know it when you see it. Bar Enza’s hit-parade-stocked menu? I see it.

Last summer, it was reported that a ramen spot could be taking over a space in Cambridge that had been home to a longtime Thai restaurant. Now we have learned that a different restaurant that offers ramen and other food items is taking over the space.

Eater Boston is reporting that Bosso Ramen Tavern is getting ready to open in Harvard Square, moving into the former Spicies space on Holyoke Street. The article mentions that the new eatery is an izakaya-style place (rather than a ramen shop) that features Japanese fare including gyoza, tempura, ramen, sushi, seafood dishes, and more, along with sake and wine. Bosso Ramen Tavern has already been “testing the waters” via what appears to have been an ongoing soft opening, though its grand opening is slated for tomorrow (Saturday, March 26).

Two Cambridge artists are raising awareness around what is lost in war with an art installation in the heart of Harvard Square.

When Ross Miller saw photographs of statues covered in protective wrapping in Lviv, Ukraine, he was struck with emotion. A wrapped statue of an ocean goddess with her arm raised reminded him of the water sculptures he likes to create. “It just was heartbreaking that amid everything else, they were also working to protect their artwork, their cultural heritage,” said Miller.

Earlier this month, it was reported that a casual upscale pub in Cambridge was going to be replaced by a location of an eclectic group of restaurants, and now we have learned that the pub has returned, taking over a nearby space that was home to another dining and drinking spot under the same ownership.

According to a source (Beckie Hunter), Grafton Street Pub & Grill is opening in the former Park Restaurant & Bar space in Harvard Square, with a Facebook post from the place indicating that it debuts in its new space at 5:00 PM today. Grafton Street recently left its home on Mass. Ave., making way for an upcoming location of The Friendly Toast, which had an outlet in Kendall Square that closed in the summer of 2020.