Folks, you really need to hear this: Things are not good. The restaurant industry is in shambles, severely understaffed and doing a fraction of its typical sales. That’s why the federal government’s Restaurant Relief Fund needs to be refunded – and go to more than 30 percent of eligible businesses.

The team behind Highland Fried, the Inman Square purveyor of barbecue, fried chicken and tiki drinks, said Wednesday that it was “pressing the pause button” with an eye on the Covid-19 delta variant and closing to figure out its next move.

All drinks are free Thursday at 1369 Coffee House, with both locations instead accepting donations to support earthquake survivors in Haiti that day.

The 20-room Mary Prentiss Inn near Porter Square has sold for $6.1 million after more than a year on the market; a 15-unit building in Inman Square sells for $5.9 million to buyers who plan to “reposition” it; and a Harvard professor’s single-family home goes for $4.6 million.

Fans of jazz and free-form music continue to be well served by the Creative Music Series and organizer Alex Lemski, which has a few upcoming dates and events to be aware of.

By the new year Harvard Square will be home to Boiling Crab, a seafood chain with 20 locations nationwide – but Hot Chix could be serving hot and spicy fried chicken as soon as this month in Inman Square.

Somerville and Cambridge celebrate the return of live music with an all-local Saturday music festival cutely titled Nice, A Fest. “It’s just like, ‘Nice, we’re having a festival,’ or ‘Nice, we get to do this again,’” organizer Alex Prickett said.

Delays to the green line extension project will push the start of service back by two months at the Union Square spur – to December, also when the Lechmere stop is expected to reopen. But there will be a five-month delay on the stretch ending at a Medford/Tufts station.

While it may have felt like time stood still during the coronavirus, transit planning, changes and construction did not. Looking forward over the next six months, residents can expect to see updates on several projects discussed by city officials in interviews May 12.

Though the Union Square stop on the green line is expected to open as early as October, there’s no sign yet of elevator access from its neighboring parcel, which got its building permit Thursday and could be under construction into the fall of 2024.