By Grant Welker
A planned food market in East Cambridge amid a series of major new developments has its first tenant, and it’s a restaurant from a well-known restaurateur in the neighborhood.
Chef Will Gilson will open AMBA this summer, a Mediterranean-inspired café that’ll be part of the new First Street Market just a few blocks from other Cambridge Street Hospitality Group eateries. Gilson and his team also run Puritan & Co. and Puritan Oyster Bar in Inman Square and The Lexington, Geppetto and Cafe Beatrice at Cambridge Crossing.
First Street Market at 55 First St. is planned to span 10,000 square feet with a capacity for 330 customers and an active calendar of events. A range of food vendors are planned, as well as a demonstration bar and community space.
Cambridge Street Hospitality Group will own and operate both AMBA and the larger market.
First Street Market is being built in the former First Street Garage between two major projects immediately on either side. To the west is 40 Thorndike, a renovated former courthouse and jail building, a mixed-use redevelopment of which the First Street Market is considered a part. To the east is Cambridgeside, whose former Macy’s and former Sears spaces are being expanded into a 10-story office and lab building and a five-story office and lab building, respectively.
A food hall is also planned as part of Cambridgeside’s renovations. Plans call for making the mall’s traditional food court into CanalSide Food Hall, with 14 food vendors and a restaurant overlooking the canal, with a total of 10,000 square feet of leasable space and at least 550 seats.
In other retail news:
- The new Raffles hotel off Copley Square is opening its fifth food-and-beverage amenity on May 15. Called La Padrona, the 8,600-square-foot two-story Italian restaurant is being opened by Eric Papachristos, a restaurateur and CEO of A Street Hospitality, a company that also includes the Boston restaurants Trade and Porto, Saloniki Greek, which has locations in Boston and Cambridge, and The Venetian in Weymouth. Also leading the project are chef Jody Adams and executive chef Amarilys Colon. La Padrona joins the Portuguese restaurant Amar and Long Bar & Terrace, which serves afternoon tea, as well as the cocktail bar Blind Duck and Café Pastel. Raffles opened last year as the company’s first property in North America.
- Levain Bakery is planning a second Boston cookie shop this fall in the Seaport. The New York chain opened at 180 Newbury St. in 2022, and it’s now planning to open at 107 Seaport Blvd. in a stretch of road that already includes two other New York natives within about a block: Shake Shack to the west and the ice cream shop Taiyaki NYC next door.
- Six Massachusetts food and drink companies have won awards this spring by the Good Food Foundation, representing the state among 215 winners nationally in 18 categories. The honorees in Massachusetts were Goodnow Farms Chocolate of Sudbury, The Gray Barn and Farm in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard, Ragged Hill Cider Co. in West Brookfield, Stoneman Brewery in Colrain, Real Pickles in Greenfield and Firetype Chocolate in Northampton.
- The men’s clothing store State & Liberty has opened its second Boston-area store at Legacy Place in Dedham. State & Liberty first opened a Newbury Street pop-up location before opening a permanent storefront there.
- Opening of the new Verveine Cafe & Bakery in Cambridge is imminent from chefs and restaurateurs Monica Glass and Ken Oringer. To open at the former Whole Heart Provisions at 298 Massachusetts Ave., Verveine will offer gluten-free options, which is Glass’ specialty, and join other restaurants by Oringer that include Little Donkey a few blocks up Mass. Ave., along with Coppa and Toro in the South End and Uni in Back Bay.
- The thift store group Boomerangs will close each of its locations next month. Boomerangs, with locations in Jamaica Plain, the South End and Cambridge’s Central Square, began in the 1990s as a way for Fenway Health to raise money for HIV care. But the company said in announcing its closure that it has fallen on hard times. “For nearly 20 years, Boomerangs was an amazing success story, but for the last six years, it has seen significant financial losses,” it said.
- Sal’s Pizza has reached a milestone with its 120th Massachusetts location. The latest is at Suffolk University, and it’s the first Sal’s to be located on a campus but in a location open to the public. The Suffolk location opened in April at 1 Court St.
- Two Kendall Square restaurants will close next month. Sibling establishments EVOO and Za Cambridge said in a Facebook post they’ll close on June 1 and June 14, respectively. EVOO was in operation for 26 years and Za for 14, with a second Za location in Arlington. “The time is right with our lease and we’re looking forward to slowing down a bit and enjoying more time with our families,” the restaurants said in announcing the news.
- Night Shift Brewing will open a beer garden for the season on May 8 on Dewey Square. Night Shift is the latest brewery to partner with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, along with Trillium Brewing Co., which has operated on the Greenway in the past and opened for the season on April 16 outside Rowes Wharf.
- In other seasonal openings, the Seaport Summer Market will begin operating on May 11. The market’s third season will operate for 13 weekends, with more than 80 vendors each weekend from a rotating group of nearly 130 throughout the season. The season will include an outdoor food and beverage area, a pop-up from Boston Children’s Museum, a DJ and games for people of all ages. The market will be at 88 Seaport Blvd. through Sept. 21 and 22, with a hiatus planned for July.
- Another warm-weather amenity in the Seaport will start May 19: Seaport x Black Owned Bos. Market. The market, at 85 Northern Ave., will be held one weekend per month through October: May 19, June 23, July 21, Aug. 25, Sept. 22 and Oct. 20. Each will include 45 vendors who are part of the business group Black Owned Bos., which has worked with developer WS Development for each of the market’s now five seasons.
- Stubbys, the Nantucket restaurant that expanded last year to a second location in the Seaport, has joined with another island institution, the chips maker Nantucket Crisps, to make a new specialized chip flavor. The new chips, Stubbys Jamaican Jerk, are based on Stubbys’ Jamaican cuisine. Nantucket Crisps calls it “a crispy homage to the tangy, sweet, and spicy flavors of Stubbys.”
- Two more Starbucks cafes are coming to Back Bay and Fenway. The coffee giant is looking to take the place of a former Talbots store at 500 Boylston St., at Clarendon Street across from Trinity Church. The company closed a long-operating store nearby at Boylston and Berkeley streets. Starbucks is also building out a new cafe at a former Qdoba in Kenmore Square between a McDonald’s and Bank of America branch.