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Now It’s Easier to Get Into One of the South End’s Busiest Restaurants

Plus, Eataly adds a new seafood-focused restaurant, and more news

Welcome back to AM Intel, a round-up of mini news bites to kick off the day.

A Chef’s Tasting at Toro

It’s always been difficult to get a seat at Jamie Bissonnette and Ken Oringer’s popular South End tapas destination, Toro, thanks to the restaurant’s no-reservations policy at dinner. (Toro did add lunch and brunch reservations a while back, but dinner has been for walk-ins only for years.) Now, there’s finally a dinner reservation option — with a few catches. Parties of two can reserve a table for a weeknight dinner in order to try the chef’s tasting menu ($100 per person, with wine pairings), eight courses of tapas. Those who want to order a la carte or go on a weekend still have to line up early to snag a seat.

A New Restaurant at Eataly

Eataly’s massive Boston location is adding a new sit-down restaurant and bar to the mix on April 26: La Pescheria, which will focus on seafood from local purveyors, including Red’s Best, Wulf’s Fish, and Island Creek Oysters. It’s located on Eataly’s main retail floor, just outside of the central Piazza in the space that was home to Il Pesce (a collaboration with Boston’s Barbara Lynch) when Eataly first opened. More recently, the space played host to a seasonal truffle-focused restaurant. Unlike the previous occupants, La Pescheria is intended to be a permanent addition to the food hall. Once it opens, La Pescheria will serve lunch and dinner daily, including two-course and three-course tasting menus and raw bar items.

In Other News...

GQ has released its annual “Best New Restaurants” list, skipping Boston but including Providence’s follow-up to North, Big King — a “small and strange Japanese spot in the smallest and sometimes strangest state.” Boston does get a nod on the list of honorable mentions thanks to the smoked tongue at Fool’s Errand.

The Stop & Shop strike has ended after 10 days with a tentative agreement in place that looks a lot better for the employees than the new contracts the company originally proposed when negotiations began in January.

Cambridge’s Central Bottle wine shop is changing hands; the South Boston-based Social Wines team is taking it over, with the transformation expected to be complete around July. The team has a variety of improvements in mind, but longtime Central Bottle fans may miss the cheese and charcuterie, which will go away in July.

Head over the Eater Boston’s big sibling to read all about the United States of Mexican Food. The package contains stories from across the country, including a couple from Boston.

Got a news tip for the Eater Boston team? Email [email protected].

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Restaurant Trends - Growing And Emerging Concepts - Change and Activity April 23, 2019

Update from Restaurantdata®.com on growing and emerging restaurant concepts

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Bagels Head for Brighton as Chestnut Hill Shop Expands

The Bagel Table will open at Boston Landing

A bagel-filled restaurant in Chestnut Hill and Ashland will soon add a location in Brighton. The Bagel Table plans to open at Brighton’s Boston Landing development (80 Guest St.), where it will carry on serving bagels from the Framingham-based company OMG! Bagels.

The Bagel Table’s menu consists of breakfast and lunch, including sandwiches, pastries, English muffins, smoked fish, deli sandwiches, cheesecake, black and white cookies, crumb cake, and bagels, of course.

The Bagel Table first opened its permanent Chestnut Hill location a little over a year ago, but before that, it ran a temporary pop-up in 2015, also in Chestnut Hill, and the OMG! Bagels brand has been making Boston-area appearances at farmers markets since 2014. The new location will likely open this summer.

The Boston Landing development is already home to several other dining establishments, including Flatbread Company, Kohi Coffee, Mainely Burgers, and Rail Stop. The complex also has residences and office space, along with the Boston Bruins and Celtics training facilities and the New Balance headquarters.

• The Bagel Table Will Open in Brighton Late This Summer [BM] • The Bagel Table Brings OMG! Bagels to Chestnut Hill [EBOS] • The Bagel Table [Official Site]

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Vizergy Launches New Hard Rock Cafes Site

Hard Rock International came to Vizergy Digital Marketing with a distinct branding change in mind for the next generation of their Hard Rock Cafes, which Vizergy originally launched in 2015. The Hard Rock team was eager to update their brand identity online and retain the features of the Vizergy Marketing System and Vizergy Content Management System that had served the Hard Rock Cafe team globally for several years.

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Black Bear Diner Opens Three New Restaurants in California, Texas

Opens new restaurant in El Cajon, following Downey grand opening earlier this month

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Black Bear Diner Opens Three New Restaurants in California, Texas

Opens new restaurant in El Cajon, following Downey grand opening earlier this month

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New East Boston Bakery Serves Custom Cakes and More

La Casa Del Pandebono creates elaborate pastries

A new bakery and cafe opened last month in the Eagle Hill section of East Boston, serving a selection of Colombian and Salvadoran breads, pastries, cakes, and more cafe fare. La Casa Del Pandebono — which takes its name from Colombian cheese bread, pandebono — is now in business at 271 Meridian St., in the former East Boston House of Pizza space. There’s a bit of room inside for seating.

In addition to items like empanadas and pupusas, La Casa Del Pandebono serves guava pastries, cookies, slices of cake, and coffee and other beverages. It also provides custom cakes and displays an array of possibilities on its Facebook page, showing off fruit-topped single-tier cakes, kids’ birthday cakes with multiple tiers, and more.

Early customers are praising the tres leches cake and guava and caramel pastries, as well as the staff’s friendliness.

La Casa Del Pandebono operates from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and until 8 p.m. on Sunday.

• La Casa Del Pandebono [Facebook]

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Theme Restaurants Spice Up India's Dining Scene

Eating out in one of India’s new generation of restaurants is as much as the social media friendly design as it about the food.

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Waffles on a Stick Land in Chinatown, With a Side of Boba

Sweet Waffles & Boba is now open, featuring sweet (and photogenic) treats

A waffle-filled bakery and tea shop has opened in Chinatown. Sweet Waffles & Boba is now in business at 18 Hudson St. in the former Chatime space, specializing in Belgian-style Liège waffles, along with bubble teas.

The waffles are served on thick popsicle sticks with a range of toppings, including a standard option with powdered sugar and another dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkled with crushed almonds. More elaborate flavor combos include strawberry shortcake, matcha crunch, and churro crunch. On the beverage side, Sweet Waffles & Boba serves green tea, taro milk tea, and lemonade blends, including mango and strawberry lychee.

So far, the shop has been operating from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., according to Instagram. Sweet Waffles & Boba plans to celebrate its grand opening on Saturday, April 27, starting at 11 a.m.

The shop adds to the supply of both bubble tea and waffles in the Boston area, though the waffle styles vary around the city, with some Liège-style and some Hong Kong-style egg versions available, not to mention the forthcoming fish-shaped ice cream cones inspired by Japanese taiyaki, cakes typically made from pancake or waffle batter.

View this post on Instagram

Hello ladies, gents, & 4-legged friends! WE HAVE A GRAND OPENING DATE Check back tomorrow at 12pm to find out & there might just be a giveaway

A post shared by Sweet Waffles + Boba (@sweetwafflesandboba) on Apr 6, 2019 at 8:15am PDT

• Sweet Waffles + Boba [Official Site]

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Clean Juice Continues Growth With National Expansion

Clean Juice continues to experience high growth after opening 5 new stores, adding 3 new locations, being recognized by several industry publications and associations, and increasing same store sales 2.1% in 2019 fiscal year first quarter financial results.

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AHLEI Offers Unconscious Bias Training Suite for Employees, Managers

As part of the ServSafe Workplace platform, this training educates learners about unconscious bias with hospitality industry-specific examples presented through modules for employees and managers.

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Fatburger Opens in Beijing

FAT (Fresh. Authentic. Tasty.) Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: FAT), parent company of Fatburger announced today the opening of a Fatburger location, returning the brand to the China World Mall in Beijing, China.

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FCPT Announces Acquisition of LongHorn Steakhouse and IHOP Restaurant Properties for $2.6 Million

The properties are located in Alabama and Virginia, respectively, and are occupied under triple net leases with 8 years of weighted average term remaining. The transaction was priced at a 6.9% going-in cash cap rate, exclusive of transaction costs.

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The Year of the Food Hall: Updates on Boston’s 2019 Food Hall Boom

Time Out Market, High Street Place, and more fancy food courts are taking over the city

Call them food halls, call them food courts, call them whatever you’d like: Developments with multiple food and beverage vendors — often well-known chefs with other restaurants in and around Boston — are taking over the city this year (and over the next few years).

Get the full rundown on Boston food hall news in Eater Boston’s food hall guide, which is updated periodically and includes details on some pre-2019 openings as well. Or, bookmark this page — or add it to your favorite feed reader using the “follow this stream” link below and to the right — to keep tabs on new stories about food halls set to open in 2019 and later: This page is an archive of Eater Boston stories on the topic of food halls, with headlines appearing below in reverse chronological order.

Got any Boston-area food hall-related intel? Email us at [email protected].

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Forthcoming Fenway Food Hall’s Lineup Becomes Even More Stacked

Time Out Market Boston will be full of local restaurateurs

Fenway’s Time Out Market ticks ever closer to an opening this spring, with an already stacked lineup of local culinary talent set to open restaurants within the 401 Park Dr. project. Today, Time Out announced several new names, adding gelato, coffee, pizza, and more to the forthcoming food hall. Time Out Market is one of several food halls set to take over Boston this year (and into the next few years), along with High Street Place in the downtown area.

With local chefs and restaurateurs Tim and Nancy Cushman, Tony Maws, Peter Ungár, and Michael Schlow already on board to fill the food hall, see below for more details on the newly added vendors preparing to operate within Time Out Market.

Bisq: Inman Square’s Bergamot sibling will expand to Fenway with a selection of charcuterie, cheese boards, and sandwiches from chef Alex Saenz.

Gelato & Chill: This gelato shop from Vincent Turco will feature small-batch gelato flavors like ricotta fig, pistachio, and creamy dark chocolate. There will be gluten-free and vegan options as well, including sorbets.

George Howell Coffee: The local coffee roasting company and small chain of cafes will also have a presence in the market, serving its coffees with a pour over bar, batch brewed coffees, espresso-based drinks, and rotating coffee-based mocktails. There will also be pastries and desserts sourced from Providence’s Seven Stars Bakery and Belmont’s Praliné Artisanal Confections.

Mamaleh’s Delicatessen: The Jewish-style delicatessen from Cambridge will serve sandwiches and more at Time Out.

Revolution Health Kitchen: This juice bar from founders Heather and Dominic Costa currently operates near Boston’s Prudential Center. It will bring a menu of acai bowls, salads, soups, juices, and smoothies to Time Out Market.

Time Out announced a few more details regarding previously announced vendors as well:

Michael Schlow: The Boston restaurateur behind Tico (and the now-shuttered Radius and Via Matta) — who also has a number of DC restaurants these days — will run two restaurants in the food hall, both Italian in nature. One, announced previously, will focus on pastas and marinated vegetables, while the second will serve Roman-style wood-fired pizza, with a crispy and slightly chewy crust. Look out for options like Margherita pizzas and others topped with vegetables, prosciutto, and a variety of cheeses.

Tim and Nancy Cushman: The duo behind O Ya and Hojoko were already slated to open two restaurants at Time Out; now they’re officially confirming the names and details that had been making the rounds in recent job postings: Ms. Cluck’s Deluxe Chicken & Dumplings will serve its namesake items with some inspiration from Asian cuisines, while Gogo Ya will serve items like crispy nori sushi tacos and bento bowls, jumping off of Hojoko and O Ya’s sushi and sashimi selections.

When Time Out Market opens, it will span 25,000 square feet in the former Landmark Center. Fenway’s food hall will join an original in Lisbon, Portugal, and others slated to open in Miami, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Prague, and London. The Fenway location will ultimately have 15 restaurants, two bars, and a demonstration kitchen, with further retail options. Trillium Brewing Company has also signed on to operate a taproom just outside Time Out Market.

• Time Out Market Boston Coverage on Eater [EBOS] • Time Out Market Boston Reveals Part of Chef Lineup [EBOS]

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Popular Brookline Ramen Restaurant Will Get a Sibling That Features Octopus Balls

Gantetsu-Ya will serve takoyaki and okonomiyaki in the same building as Ganko Ittetsu

A popular ramen restaurant in Brookline known for its concise menu of Sapporo-style dishes will soon have a counterpart focused on a couple of other Japanese favorites. The team behind Ganko Ittetsu Ramen in Coolidge Corner’s Arcade Building will open Gantetsu-Ya in the same building at 318 Harvard St., a fast-food restaurant serving Japanese street food.

The new restaurant will focus on takoyaki, doughy octopus balls, as well as okonomiyaki, savory pancakes that can be loaded with vegetables and meats like cabbage or shrimp.

Ganko Ittetsu has not yet announced an opening timeline for Gantetsu-Ya, but the forthcoming restaurant will debut items from its menu at the Japan Festival on Boston Common the weekend of April 27 and 28. (Also debuting some new items at the Japan Festival: Allston’s izakaya Ittoku, which is relocating to Cambridge and making some additions to its menu.)

In joining Ganko Ittetsu in the Arcade Building in Coolidge Corner, Gantetsu-Ya will become part of a food-rich section of Brookline, which includes long-running establishments like Bottega Fiorentina, Rami’s, and Zaftigs. There are also a couple other Japanese options in the neighborhood already, including Gen Sou En Tea House (which just opened last year) and Osaka Japanese Sushi & Steak House.

Ganko Ittetsu joined the landscape in October 2015 and quickly became a destination for its miso, shoyu, shio, and tan tan ramens. Its line can get quite long, so once Gantetsu-Ya opens, ramen-hungry customers will be able to snack on street food while waiting.

• Gantetsu-Ya to Open Across from Ganko Ittetsu Ramen in Brookline [BRT] • Gantetsu-Ya [FB] • Ganko Ittetsu Ramen Coverage on Eater [EBOS]

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This Boston Mexican Food Standby Has Been Cranking Out Burritos and Mole for 20 Years

Four locations and two cities later, Villa Mexico Cafe still draws crowds

After 20 years, hers is a familiar story with fans of Mexican food in Boston: After losing her husband in 1997, Julie King moved from her home in Texas to the Boston area with her daughter, Bessie. King, who was born in Mexico City and spent much of her youth in her father’s home of Puebla, had obtained a law degree in Mexico that was virtually unusable in the United States without acquiring further education. Faced with renewing her profession in Boston or sending her daughter to a good school, King chose the latter, working all manner of jobs, including delivering newspapers, to pay the tuition. She never intended to run a restaurant, but when the opportunity presented itself, she jumped at the chance and opened Villa Mexico Cafe in Woburn, a city just north of Boston.

“In those days I was missing my food a lot,” she said. King bemoaned the renditions of Mexican food that she felt were prominent at the time: full of sugary tomato sauces and enchiladas that bore no resemblance to what she knew from home. She wanted to show the community what traditional Mexican cooking meant for her.

When she came across a restaurant space in Woburn, she made some inquiries at the dry cleaner next door, where she found the owner of the space. In an unbelievable stroke of luck, she walked away with an agreement to lease the restaurant for $500 a month, with the first three months free, to give her time to clean and prep the space. Her sister and brother-in-law came to help, and she opened the restaurant in late 1999 with just five tables. Soon, Villa Mexico became a gathering spot for people who walked in strangers and left friends, King said. Her friends, as she calls her customers, came in from Arlington, Lexington, Burlington, Stoneham, and elsewhere.

Dana Hatic/Eater

Villa Mexico’s flan dessert

“It was a big party or reunion every day, especially on weekends,” King said.

She used to seat couples that didn’t know each other together at tables for four.

“Everybody was like a family because I always sit people together; you know, the tables were full,” she said.

Laurel Collins was one of the first customers at Villa Mexico in Woburn and discovered the restaurant while walking around the small downtown area, near where her children attended preschool. Now they are grown, and the family still makes the trip into the city to see the Kings at Villa Mexico on Boston’s Water Street.

“Julie puts a lot of love into her cooking. She also puts a lot of love into getting to know her customers and making friendships, when you come back over and over again,” said Collins. “Everything is made fresh every single day. I have never seen a family work so hard in their lives.”

Dana Hatic/Eater

Julie King inside Villa Mexico on Water Street

In the early days of Villa Mexico, King focused on dishing out meals she loved from her childhood, like albondigas (meatballs) in morito chile sauce and carne a la tampiqueña with mole poblano enchiladas. According to Collins, King’s was the only restaurant nearby serving Mexican food, let alone with such reliable quality and warm hospitality.

“She’s one of my kids’ favorite people and she’s always there with the hugs, she’s always there with a ‘hello friend,’ is always there to provide a lunch or a meal,” said Collins.

Laurel Collins

Laurel Collins with her daughters Emily and Sarah after a burrito-making class with Julie King

Two years into operations in Woburn, Villa Mexico had a fire, leaving King and her customers without a home for her cooking. Though the fire was devastating, King said looking back she felt grateful for the beautiful final day she had in that location.

“It was a party in that place,” she said, with so many customers from Boston, Arlington, and elsewhere, including some of her first local customers. “I think that all of them came to say goodbye.”

King later reopened in a different location in Woburn before relocating to a rather unlikely space in Boston: inside a gas station on Beacon Hill. There, to accommodate the space, King converted the restaurant’s menu to a more fast-food style rather than dine-in, offering grilled burritos, tacos, tamales, tostadas, and quesadillas. When that location had to close for building renovations in January 2013, and King later learned she couldn’t return to the same spot, the community rallied to help find her a new location by the end of 2014; a regular customer became her landlord in a new building on Water Street in Downtown Boston.

In the meantime, she provided catering and sold her famed black salsa — a recipe King acquired from her grandma that’s made with tomatoes, roasted peppers, and garlic. King prepares the salsa from scratch to this day at Villa Mexico and even sells it in jars on the restaurant’s website. It gets its color from small chiles, which are roasted until black and then incorporated, skin-on, into the salsa.

Dana Hatic/Eater

Villa Mexico’s black salsa

Rick Mayfield became a Villa Mexico loyalist while living close to the gas station restaurant.

“My roommate turned me onto it and I gave it a try and I was blown away by the quality of the food,” he said. “And I think more importantly, Mama King — Julie — and her daughter Bessie are just so nice and they treat everyone like family. They sort of make you feel at home.”

Mayfield said one of his favorite items is the spicy chicken burrito, grilled with a crispy shell. He was devastated when the gas station operation closed, but he held onto a punch card the restaurant had given him — 10 punches and he’d receive a free burrito; he had nine.

“So I was checking their Facebook page and when they finally announced that they were reopening, it was a great feeling,” said Mayfield.

Villa Mexico finally reopened in Downtown Boston’s Financial District in January of 2016, and when Mayfield visited, he brought his punch card, which now hangs as a decoration in the restaurant. In Villa Mexico’s new home on Water Street, King has continued to amass a loyal following of people who flock to the tiny storefront, including regulars from past locations, people working in the neighborhood, and newcomers of all demographics.

“We’re not a chain-style atmosphere at all, and we love building relationships with our friends. We spend so much time at the business that the restaurant is like our home,” King said.

Dana Hatic/Eater

Decorations at Villa Mexico Cafe

The current restaurant has a handful of seats along the window overlooking Water Street, and there are dark beams that stretch upward and across the ceiling, supporting decorative wrought iron chandeliers hanging overhead. The upper walls are painted a deep yellow, with white subway tiles below. Decorative plates, delicately painted animal figurines, and framed pictures are on display around the restaurant.

In the open kitchen, King, her daughter Bessie, and their small team prepare the simple yet in-demand menu for Villa Mexico’s guests, roasting chiles en masse on the gas range, shaping tamales one by one, and making each burrito to order.

“Through the years we’ve really focused on the word-of-mouth ‘advertising,’ on people knowing us, our story, our family, our team, and obviously our food, so that they feel welcome and happy when they come eat,” King said. “We are beyond blessed to have these bonds with so many wonderful people; more than the success of the food and the business, the stories and the memories are what we value most.”

Dana Hatic/Eater

Villa Mexico’s tamales

For the tamales, King insists on mixing the dough by hand, following her grandmother’s instructions. “You have to put warmth in the dough with your own hands; this helps with the texture,” she said. “I prepare the sauces first and then the meat or chicken, and lastly I mix them together to give them the best final seasoning.”

From King’s neighborhood in Mexico City, close to Coyoacán, she brings intimate knowledge of seafood, cooking and preparing beans, and methods for preparing mole poblano, which she lists among her favorite dishes.

“My grandma used to do it from scratch, and the mole poblano has a lot of ingredients,” she said.

Mole poblano is a traditional Mexican dish most often made with poblano chiles in Puebla, where King’s father’s family lived. It’s comprised of several kinds of dried and fresh chiles, boiled tomatoes, cinnamon, and other spices, and King incorporates a burnt tortilla and a piece of white bread for texture and added flavor. The mixture gets blended into a paste and is then combined with a mixture of tomato juice, onions, garlic, and chicken broth, making the paste dissolve to a smooth consistency.

“It’s a nice combination of sweet and spicy,” said Collins — your mouth won’t be burning, but she recommends eating it with one of Villa Mexico’s agua frescas.

For the menu at Villa Mexico, King has incorporated her mole poblano into a burrito with chicken breast, served grilled, as it would be in Mexico City, King said. It’s also available as a plate, served with chicken breast and a bed of rice, with black beans and salsa.

Dana Hatic/Eater

Villa Mexico’s chicken burrito

A melding of King’s culinary background with the convenience of a grilled burrito, the mole burrito is now a favorite item on the menu for Villa Mexico, according to King.

“The mole burrito was born one day that my daughter was very hungry,” King said. Her daughter Bessie didn’t want the whole mole plate — which consists of rice topped with chicken breast in mole, served with black beans and house salsa — so King prepared mole in a burrito with sour cream. King said it was so good she included it on the menu. “We nicknamed it ‘La Niña’ for my daughter, and that’s when it became well known.”

King learned her philosophy of cooking with patience while in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother.

“My grandma used to say, ‘you want a taco, you want a torta, you want some eggs?’ She was cooking all the time, but she never complained about cooking for everybody and at different times. She was always happy to see her kids in the kitchen with her. And that’s the way I grew up.”

The food at Villa Mexico mirrors the way King grew up cooking, she said, “in the way that you cook it in your house. My place is not a commercial cooking place, it’s homemade cooking.”

King said she strives to bring the feel of home cooking to her dishes at Villa Mexico as much as possible. Her specials, served on Fridays, showcase slightly more complex recipes. Some favorites from the original sit-down restaurant in Woburn make their return, such as albondigas and chile rellenos, or fish tacos.

“The secret in our kitchen is: You never can be in a hurry,” King said. “You have to take your time to prepare your food, you have to be happy to prepare your food, and you have to cook the food with extra love. That is your main ingredient.”