Toad is being looked at to reopen early in 2022, but Christopher’s and Lizard Lounge must wait
Diners shouldn’t expect Christopher’s Restaurant & Bar to open anytime soon in Porter Square, but music lovers should have their Toad back early next year for drinks and live music.
Among Charles Christopher’s small empire of eateries and clubs under the Cambridge Eats and Beats name, only Cambridge Common has been open throughout the pandemic. That leaves three businesses dark: Lizard Lounge, which is downstairs at Cambridge Common, 1667 Massachusetts Ave., in the Baldwin neighborhood; and the two-story neighborhood staple called Christopher’s and its tiny adjoining bar with an even tinier stage, Toad, at 1912-1920 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square.
Their closing was announced March 16, 2020, to last “until the ban is lifted,” but they have stayed closed. At this point there is not enough staff to reopen, a Cambridge Common worker said this week.
Toad is expected to be the first to welcome customers back.
“The next step is that we’re hoping to open up Toad fairly soon – in the not-too-distant future, hopefully the first quarter of 2022. We don’t have any official dates,” said Cambridge Common manager Nicholas Brennick on Wednesday.
Updated on Dec. 21, 2021: Christopher said that the plan was to open in January, “but that is said as kind of a who-knows, at the end of it,” considering the rampaging omicron variant of the coronavirus and difficulties hiring staff.
Managers would check vaccine cards to allow in customers, which is the approach taken at Cambridge Common, Brennick said.
What would be missing is the option of having food brought in from Christopher’s through the door that connects the two.
“There would be something that we would prepare so we would probably have some sort of food available,” Brennick said. “I don’t know what those menu items would be. It’s still kind of being batted around.”
Christopher’s opened in 1981 and has a menu that borrows from many cuisines but leans toward comfort food, some of it plant-based, such as Buffalo tofu.
There’s little fear the restaurant will shut down forever despite its 21 months – so far – of locked doors; Cambridge Eats and Beats, operating as Toadman, owns the Christopher’s and Toad properties.
Amid pandemic doldrums and fears of worsening rates of infection, Ruth Ryals, president of the Porter Square Neighbors Association, said Thursday that she was glad to hear that a business might be reopening. “God knows we need it,” Ryals said.
Good to see that “Theater of security” is still alive and well.
The purpose of checking for a vax card is to keep out the unvaccinated?
So wouldn’t such a person just fake one?
Ohhhh we just want to keep out the anti-social aholes too dumb to think of that…..got it.
Problem solved.
If he’d just send his Bourbon Peach Old Fashioned recipe to Cambridge Common, I could almost wait patiently!
Lots of love for a true Cambridge hero…
I was asked for both vax card and ID the last time I entered Cambridge Common. That’s exactly one more piece of information I need before boarding a commercial domestic flight. We have HIPAA, but I’m supposed to reveal my health care information to a 15.00/hour hostess where I order a beer. Someone needs to call out and cancel these establishments for violating privacy because no one’s stopping them. Goodbye.