Central Square is sprouting businesses with grub, games and grooves toward community leaders’ goals of solidifying the area as Cambridge’s “downtown.”
With the openings – a dozen in total, five of which are eateries – the first-floor vacancy rate in the Central Square Business Improvement District falls under 2 percent, according to an assessment in a Thursday press release.
The additions are “not just growth, but intentional growth,” Central Square BID president Michael Monestime said. They follow a monthslong group of sessions shaping a five-year plan for the square; many of these incoming businesses were promised at the organization’s annual breakfast, when community leaders gathered to discuss plans after the shuttering of Starlight Square, an open-air entertainment and civic complex that outlasted its Covid-era launch.
Grub
Yet to come is Fallow Kin at 853 Main St., a veggie-centric, farm-to-table project by partners Conor Dennehy (a James Beard nominee) and Danielle Ayer of Cambridge’s Talulla, in tandem with “industry friend” chef Marcos Sanchez. Fallow Kin will occupy what was formerly chef Tony Maws’ Craigie on Main.
Sometime this month creators of Central Square’s Brick & Mortar, Avery Appleton and Gary Strack, expect to rebrand as Acqua & Bocca in the same space at 567 Massachusetts Ave. The married couple started a NuMarket campaign to help raise funds, meeting the $14,395 goal with the help of 67 contributors. Acqua & Bocca will bring an Italian cultural concept of the aperitivo (meaning “to open” with a premeal drink or food) called apericena. Strack described it as “a looser, less expensive way to dine that still has style and is chef-focused, with lower-ABV drinks, organic and biodynamic wines,” in the Thursday release.
That trend toward lower levels of alcohol suggested by Strack is taken to extremes at Dray, at 5 Columbia St. No. 10, a nonalcoholic bottle shop: It has mocktails and their ingredients and nonalcoholic wines and beers. This is Dray’s second location after nearly a year at its flagship location in Boston’s South End.
The Smoot Standard, which opened in December, offers a day-to-night culinary experience: café with coffee, pastries and casual breakfast and lunch leading into dinners of seasonal dishes and a drink. Formerly a Darwin’s Ltd. cafe location, The Smoot Standard at 313 Massachusetts Ave. reanimates a familiar spot between Harvard and MIT’s campuses. Hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.
For a late-night ice cream and coffee option comes Chateau Blanc Cafe, replacing Aleppo Palace, which replaced Moody’s Falafel Palace – the brainchildren of business owner Mohammed Seffo. Chateau Blanc Cafe opens in July for coffee and ice cream lovers, preserving its Middle Eastern vibe and its night owl hours (until 3 a.m. in the summer season), according to the Thursday release. The new spot will live in the battlemented White Castle-style building known as 25 Central Square.
Coming in April is a dim sum destination called Darling. Rejuvenating what was Mary Chung at 464 Massachusetts Ave., the cocktail bar restaurant will serve a daily rotation of dim-sum-inspired small plates and cocktails that “reflect local and seasonally driven ingredients.”
“The square just has a vibe that really resonated with us,” owner Brian Callahan said in the release. “We love the energy. It’s one of the few neighborhoods that feels like it managed to grow while maintaining its existing character and charm.”
Games, grooves and more
A Central Square World’s Fair street festival revival (the original music-and-vendor event ran annually from 1993 to 2005) is due in September. Dx Arcade opens – with games such as air hockey and Dance Dance Revolution – in a long-vacant former Metro PCS storefront at 580 Massachusetts Ave. The Central Square location comes after a run of several months in Harvard Square.
“I’m really excited for our grand opening on Feb. 8 and thrilled that we’re part of the new renaissance,” said Sean Hope, owner of Dx Arcade.
Down the street from the games will be grooves from Central On Air. The station will livestream DJ sets and musical performances on a soon-to-launch website and archive them on its YouTube channel. DJ and performers in the studio being installed at 425 Massachusetts Ave. will be visible through its windows to passersby in a Market Central alley.
Also teased in July, The Collective opens in May as an art gallery and community space at 541 Massachusetts Ave. Street Theory’s Liza Quiñonez gets more than 6,000 square feet to play with.
Boomerangs by More Than Words reopened in early December as a thrift store after the original closed in June at 563 Massachusetts Ave. Since its opening it has “curated secondhand fashion, accessories, books, home goods and music, and will continue the legacy of mission-driven thrift in Cambridge,” said Jodi Rosenbaum, founder and chief executive of the nonprofit More Than Words, in October.
The cannabis crowd will want to keep an eye out for the opening of Green Soul in early February at 759 Massachusetts Ave. “Opening a dispensary in Central Square is a full-circle moment for me,” chief executive Tabasuri Moses said. “Growing up in The Port, I’ve seen the changes, the gentrification and the displacement of the Black community. As the neighborhood evolves, I knew I had to be part of its future.” It makes Central something of a cannabis mecca: Western Front and Yamba Market – co-founded by Hope, of Dx Arcade – are down the street.
In other news for self-care, opening is Monday at 425 Massachusetts Ave. is StretchMed, one-on-one assisted stretching in 50-minute sessions.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)3 nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.
Congratulations Michael Monestime and Central Sq leadership defies the odds.
The article mentions dispensaries as though they were the same sort of thing as restaurants and barber shops. Building a Better Central: delicious new food choices and more glassy-eyed stoners!
Thank goodness, some culture and local businesses emerging to support the community who is hungry to support our businesses.