The Swellesley Report » Restaurants

Wellesley to bid farewell to Jimmy’s Cafe this month

bbrown — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:41:06 +0000

Jimmy’s Cafe, the longtime American bistro at 151 Linden St., in Wellesley, is closing on Jan. 31.

The cozy restaurant, started in 1988 according to the restaurant website, was acquired a few years back by Navart and Bedros Kaya, who gussied up the menu and expanded hours, including for a Sunday brunch. The BYOB establishment offers everything from steak to seafood to vegetarian dishes. But Bedros said he had to make a hard business decision: “These are tough times.” There’s a possibility that the business could be sold, he added, saying he’s not sure what he’ll do next.

(We wish Bedros and his family the best. He was always helpful to us at The Swellesley Report and we had some good meals at Jimmy’s.)

Neighboring Larry’s Barber Shop closed last summer, though was recently replaced by the new Linden Street Barber Shop.

Wellesley’s overall business community has been hit with a slew of closings, including the recent shutdown of Thunder and the impending shutdown of Hudson in Wellesley Square. Town officials and businesses are joining forces to come up with ways to reinvigorate Wellesley’s business and restaurant climate, including by allowing smaller restaurants to get alcohol licenses if the state and town residents approve.

RELATED: Where to eat in Wellesley

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Jin’s Fine Asian Cuisine opens doors in Wellesley Lower Falls

bbrown — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:08:28 +0000

Jin’s Fine Asian Cuisine & Sushi Bar has opened at 11 Washington St., in Wellesley, at the former location of Bobby’s Grille. The menu features a wide variety of dishes and prices, with soups starting at $3 and with the top of the line being filet mignon for about $23 and a Love Boat of sushi, sashimi etc for about $70! A lunch buffet is offered daily, starting at 11:30am.

One of the restaurant’s first customers gives Jin’s a positive review on Yelp.

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No surprises at Wellesley Special Town Meeting

bbrown — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:38:43 +0000

As expected, a proposal that would grant alcohol licenses to Wellesley restaurants with 50 or more seats passed at Monday’s Special Town Meeting. More hoops will need to be jumped through, including legislative approval and a town vote possibly next spring, before the town can act on this plan. The idea is to help boost business at smaller restaurants and encourage new ones to open in town.

Funding was also approved at the meeting for the Fuller Brook Park project and a new Municipal Light Plant project.

Here’s a more detailed rundown of the town meeting results, from the Boston Globe, and here’s a brief scorecard of the action from the town.

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Boston Magazine can’t resist Wellesley’s celebrity chefs

bbrown — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:15:17 +0000

Wellesley’s Blue Ginger and Alta Strada have cracked Boston Magazine’s list of 50 Best Restaurants featured in the November issue of the magazine (and appearing in full in on the website later this month). The PR pitch from Boston Magazine to highlight the Wellesley winners:

Wellesley’s own Blue Ginger was included in this year’s list. More than 13 years after Ming Tsai first came on the scene with his nuanced take on Asian-French fusion, it’s nice to see that the sole restaurant in the multimedia Tsai empire still earns raves. Additionally Chef Michael Schlow of Wellesley’s Alta Strada isn’t exactly a quiet-suburbs kind of restaurateur. Come for the exceptional food like the tender pistachio-topped sacchetti and stay for the family-friendly delightfully cozy feel.

RELATED: Where to eat in Wellesley

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Phantom Gourmet gives Old School a big ol’ smooch

bbrown — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:15:26 +0000

We missed this Phantom Gourmet video review of Wellesley Square’s Old School Pizza over the summer. The restaurant should be packed today, with early release for elementary and middle schools.

RELATED: Where to eat in Wellesley

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Blue Ginger: You say sablefish, we say butterfish

bbrown — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:34:39 +0000

UPDATE (10/25): Blue Ginger responds to Globe story

Wellesley’s Blue Ginger is among the restaurants singled out in an ambitious Boston Globe investigative story into fish mislabeling by restaurants, supermarkets and seafood markets. The Globe grabbed samples from a bunch of purveyors and then subjected the samples to DNA testing to determine which fish were which. As it turns out, mislabeling is commonplace, sometimes by accident, sometimes not. Issues raised in the story are the ethics of calling a fish by another name to make it more appealing to consumers as well as other potential problems, such as mislabeling fish that someone might be allergic to.

As for Blue Ginger, the Globe story reads in part:

Ming Tsai, celebrity chef and owner of Blue Ginger, said he understands the economic and environmental costs of mislabeling. But he said he used the name butterfish instead of sablefish simply because it sounds better.

“Butterfish rolls off the tongue,’’ said Tsai, who added that he thought the FDA allowed its use to describe sablefish in Massachusetts. It does not.

Blue Ginger offers Sake-Miso Marinated Alaskan Butterfish for $41 on its dinner menu.

(NOTE: There actually seems to be quite a bit of confusion over butterfish vs. sablefish vs. black cod based on results from a series of basic Google searches.)

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New Wellesley restaurant called Jin’s

bbrown — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:04:04 +0000

Jin’s will be the name of the new Asian Cuisine and Sushi Bar restaurant that takes over the old Bobby’s Grille space at 11-13 Washington St. in Lower Falls.

The property has a Coming Soon sign in the window now, according to a reader who emailed us. The Wellesley Board of Selectmen recently approved a liquor license for the restaurant.

Another Asian restaurant, CK’ Shanghai is at 15 Washington St.

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Boloco burritos coming to Wellesley

bbrown — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:47:04 +0000

Boloco, a fast-growing burritos restaurant based out of Boston, hopes to open in Wellesley by next spring.

Company CEO John Pepper tells CitybizlistBoston that it plans to add 6 restaurants between now and the end of next year, including 1 each in Waltham and Wellesley (exact location unclear but most likely in Wellesley Square near those hungry firefighters). Boloco already has a spot in Natick on Rte. 9 and has publicly been hinting about a Wellesley opening since at least April.

In addition to selling a wide variety of burritos, Boloco also offers salads, wraps, smoothies and more. Pepper said in the interview that only 18% of what it sells is Mexican food.

Still, B0loco (whose stores used to be called The Wrap) should give some competition to Wellesley’s other primary burrito source, Qdoba, in Linden Square.

(Boloco already has won me over by listing its press releases under a Bore Me heading on its website home page.)

RELATED: Where to eat in Wellesley

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Boston Bruins’ Stanley Cup comes to Wellesley Cottage Thursday

bbrown — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:49:03 +0000

The Boston Bruins’ well-earned Stanley Cup made an appearance at The Cottage in Linden Square Thursday late morning/early afternoon.

The Cottage is a favorite of Kim Jacobs, whose husband Charlie is a Bruins exec.

The cup sat on a long table, where some people dined and others crowded around and took pictures of the cup and posed with it. As far as we could tell, The Cottage hadn’t filled the cup with its Signature Tortilla Chicken Soup or anything.

(This photo courtesy of Linden Square, which has scored again)

Perhaps coincidentally, on this day of celebrating the B’s, Linden Square tonight hosts a showing at 8pm of The Bee Movie, along with free popcorn, at the courtyard. It hosts another Funtastic Saturday for Kids event this Saturday from 2-5pm, featuring face painting, balloons and the works.

RELATED: Wellesley backs the Bruins

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Good news for Wellesley booze hounds

bbrown — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:39:05 +0000

Locals have been raving this summer about Wellesley College Club’s Thursday late afternoon/early evening Canines & Cocktails events, which continue through most of September. One reader wrote: “Seems the event is part of an effort promoting the Club as a pet-friendly hotel.” The Townsman stopped in and interviewed people enjoying the event recently. We’re holding out for Cockroaches & Cocktails since we don’t have a dog but do have Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

Separately, Wellesley leaders continue to explore the possibility of granting liquor licenses to smaller restaurants (currently, they need 100 seats to qualify). The upsides include that more restaurants might want to open in town and small existing ones that don’t have liquor licenses could better compete with larger ones that do have licenses. Downsides would be the end of BYOB establishments and concerns about chances increasing of liquor getting into the hands of youngsters. It’s possible the issue could be the subject of a special town meeting this fall. More from the Globe and Patch.

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