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Openings: There’s a brand-new brasserie on the Greenway: ROSE Town Kitchen & Bar is open at the Canopy by Hilton Boston Downtown (99 Blackstone St.). Chef Andrew Beer comes from the Mandarin Oriental and Boston Park Plaza. Dive into mussels, a steak sandwich, or “thin pies” topped with duck confit and short ribs, paired with a Dirty Water cocktail made with fernet, chartreuse, and lime.

Cambridge mainstay Grafton Street — which has been around since 1996, a lifetime in restaurant years — has reopened in Harvard Square’s former Park space (59 JFK St.) after a pandemic hiatus.

Longtime bartender Paul Barry makes the drinks; executive chef Tom Borgia (Russell House Tavern, State Street Provisions) serves a comforting menu of steamed mussels, grilled strip loin, fish and chips, and French onion soup.

A Cambridge beer hall is being reborn with a slightly different name and what appears to be a slightly different concept.

According to a source, Beat Brew Hall in Harvard Square is planning to reopen as Beat Hall, with a note on its website saying “BEAT HALL IS (RE)OPENING SOON! All New & Better Than Ever!” The website also mentions that it will be a “tequila, bourbon & beer-focused, taco, rib & burger-slinging honky-tonk in the heart of Harvard Square” and it will focus on American, Southwest, and Mexican street food” while also featuring live music within the space. 

Bay State native Mark Ladner has come home to open Bar Enza. Does his legendary lasagna travel, too?

Chef Mark Ladner’s famous lasagna. / Photo by Linda Campos

Look, I don’t know who’s calling the shots at the Charles Hotel, and frankly it’s none of my damned business. I’m just a simple food guy. On matters of intra-hospitality backroom intrigue, I stay as neutral as Switzerland, you know, used to. What I can tell you is last April, after a five-year run, Benedetto, Michael Pagliarini’s acclaimed ristorante (we liked it, too: three stars in 2017), was out. A few months later, Bar Enza, a “neo-trattoria” by the Lyons Group—the folks behind Scampo, Rochambeau, Sonsie, and several popular Fenway haunts—was in, rocking a menu of spruced-up Italian crowd-pleasers.

Before we go on, it’s probably worth pausing to unpack “crowd-pleaser,” a loaded term, for sure. There’s no hard-and-fast way to determine, for instance, whether the late Benedetto’s strascinati with Ossabaw pork sausage and treviso was any more or less likely to please the proverbial crowd than, say, the new spot’s hulking “meatball gigante” ($29), made with beef, pork, veal, and barbecue brisket purchased from the Smoke Shop, on a plate of mashed potatoes. It’s subjective. You know it when you see it. Bar Enza’s hit-parade-stocked menu? I see it.

Last summer, it was reported that a ramen spot could be taking over a space in Cambridge that had been home to a longtime Thai restaurant. Now we have learned that a different restaurant that offers ramen and other food items is taking over the space.

Eater Boston is reporting that Bosso Ramen Tavern is getting ready to open in Harvard Square, moving into the former Spicies space on Holyoke Street. The article mentions that the new eatery is an izakaya-style place (rather than a ramen shop) that features Japanese fare including gyoza, tempura, ramen, sushi, seafood dishes, and more, along with sake and wine. Bosso Ramen Tavern has already been “testing the waters” via what appears to have been an ongoing soft opening, though its grand opening is slated for tomorrow (Saturday, March 26).

Two Cambridge artists are raising awareness around what is lost in war with an art installation in the heart of Harvard Square.

When Ross Miller saw photographs of statues covered in protective wrapping in Lviv, Ukraine, he was struck with emotion. A wrapped statue of an ocean goddess with her arm raised reminded him of the water sculptures he likes to create. “It just was heartbreaking that amid everything else, they were also working to protect their artwork, their cultural heritage,” said Miller.

Earlier this month, it was reported that a casual upscale pub in Cambridge was going to be replaced by a location of an eclectic group of restaurants, and now we have learned that the pub has returned, taking over a nearby space that was home to another dining and drinking spot under the same ownership.

According to a source (Beckie Hunter), Grafton Street Pub & Grill is opening in the former Park Restaurant & Bar space in Harvard Square, with a Facebook post from the place indicating that it debuts in its new space at 5:00 PM today. Grafton Street recently left its home on Mass. Ave., making way for an upcoming location of The Friendly Toast, which had an outlet in Kendall Square that closed in the summer of 2020.

Bosso Ramen Tavern, a Japanese restaurant inspired by the ocean, has been quietly testing the waters in Harvard Square (24 Holyoke Street, Cambridge) this month, with a grand opening planned for March 26, 2022.

Although ramen is highlighted in the restaurant’s name, Bosso isn’t a casual ramen shop; it’s a full-service izakaya meant for dates and gatherings, says owner Yasu Sasago, with an extensive menu of options beyond ramen.

Despite his cadre of supporters, most who passed through Harvard Square were never aware of a man known as Michael or his daily life that unfolded in full view of each of them. They were equally oblivious when he died Nov. 18, 2021 in the Bank of America entryway.  

Kody Christiansen, a Harvard Extension School student, was among the first to find Michael lying face-first on the sidewalk, before the bank’s front door early the next morning. Just days before, Christiansen had offered Michael a blanket at the shelter.  

Christiansen called 911.  

The unique partnership takes a holistic approach to boosting health, with a second location coming to the South End soon.

Bryan Timko wanted to create a space for the yoga-loving, green juice-drinking public in Boston — and so he did.

Early this month, Timko’s Life Alive Cafes opened a hybrid vegetarian cafe and yoga studio in Harvard Square. It sells açaí bowls and algae smoothies on John F. Kennedy Street. But behind and below the kitchen are two yoga studios, equipped with heated hardwood floors, touch screen televisions, and teachers from the Down Under School of Yoga.