Newton's New Restaurants Are Opening in Rooms You Already Know

Most of the places that opened in Newton this year moved into a room someone in your village already ate in. Lockheart is in the Newton Centre train station. Moments Cafe is where Flora's Wine Bar was. Tea22 is pouring Thai tea in Pon de Joy's old spot on Sumner Street. The Biltmore kept its building and its bar and changed its name. Through 2026, the city's restaurant map has barely moved. The tenants have changed underneath it, so the clearest way to keep track of Newton's dining is by address.

The Same Addresses, New Names

Fig City News published an August roundup of the year's openings and closures. Read it address by address and the pattern shows up quickly.

All eight rows are in existing food or retail space. How fast each one turned over came down to one question. Could the new tenant use the room as it was, or did the room need rebuilding first?

The Room That Took Four Years

The station at 70 Union Street is the slowest case and the most visible. Wicked Local reports that Newton Centre station was built in 1890 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. A Newton Community Preservation Committee report quoted in the same article credits H.H. Richardson with the schematic designs for the city's railroad buildings. His successor firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, carried them out.

The building has housed a restaurant for a long time. The Deluxe Station Diner ran there for many years. Jamie's on Union replaced it in 2020 under the same ownership and closed in 2022. The MBTA had sold the building in 2012. A company managed by Anthony Killough, 70 Union LLC, bought it for about $2 million in September 2025.

The gap between restaurants was long because the work was big. City records cited by Fig City News show a demolition permit in January 2024 and a restaurant fit-out of about $1.2 million that March. A fire-protection system acceptance test followed in June 2026. Newton's Board of License Commissioners approved the licenses 3–0 on June 16, with conditions. In mid-August the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission still had not issued its approval. Boston.com expected Lockheart to open the week of September 20. Wicked Local confirmed it was open by September 30, and no source has published the exact first night.

Here is what the station holds now:

• The concept: A southwestern-style restaurant that started in Wellesley in 2022. Co-owner Mark Hicklin calls it "a place for everybody."
• The menu: Lobster guac, Texas-dry-rub wings, tacos such as tuna poke and Korean Brussels sprouts, plus bowls, salads and large plates like veggie enchiladas.
• Hours: Sunday through Thursday 4 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. to midnight. The kitchen closes at 10 p.m. every night.
• The room: The plans call for 86 indoor seats and a seasonal patio. The applicants agreed to close the patio by 10 p.m.
• Reservations: Taken through OpenTable, linked from the restaurant's site.

The Rooms That Turned Over Fast

West Newton shows the opposite case. Three addresses within about a hundred street numbers on Washington Street changed hands in 2026, and each went from one food business to the next with little downtime.

Crunch & Boba opened at 1385 in early May, in the former Shogun space. It serves milk teas alongside steamed buns, rice bowls, dumplings and crispy wings. A few doors down at 1391, the owners of Ninebark Kitchen + Drinks closed it in early 2026. It had lasted a little over a year after taking over the former Burke's Alewerks space. The same owners reopened the room as Mexicana Grill & Cantina. Boston Restaurant Talk had it open by April 8, with a menu running from taquitos and fajitas to churros, flan and margaritas.

Up the street at 1284, spouses Tai Huynh and Phuong Nguyen opened Moments Cafe in the former Flora's Wine Bar. They told the Newton Beacon they picked the space because the neighborhood needed a coffee shop. After a soft opening the week before, the grand opening was August 7. The menu covers specialty coffee, ceremonial Japanese matcha, croffles and pastries baked daily.

Newton Centre had its own quick swaps. Tea22 soft-opened at 212 Sumner Street in June, serving Thai tea, Thai coffee, bubble teas and slushes where Pon de Joy's mochi donuts used to be. On the other side of the station, Tess has taken over Sweet Dream's storefront at 91 Union Street.

Keeping the Room, Changing the Name

The Biltmore in Newton Upper Falls is a third kind of change. The tenant changed and the building stayed. The Needham team behind Blue on Highland, co-owners Scott Drago and Adam Patti, took over the historic Biltmore Bar & Grille at 1205 Chestnut Street. They closed it for renovations on February 9 and reopened it July 27 as The Biltmore Tavern. The new menu brings Blue on Highland-style New American cooking, including fresh pasta and pizza, and some staff moved over from the Needham restaurant.

Five months dark is a long time for a neighborhood bar. It is still a fraction of the station's four years, and the reason is the same one. The Biltmore was renovated as a working restaurant. The station had to be rebuilt into one.

At 1280 Centre Street in Piccadilly Square, two businesses went further and are sharing one shop. Shara Ertel's Fulfilled Goods refillery moved in with Lucinda Chrislip's Derby Farms Flowers & Gardens, and the partnership was nearing its first anniversary in July. When the shop added food this spring, the two owners rearranged the store. Ertel moved downstairs and Chrislip took the upper level. Something Sweet, a shop selling nostalgic and Swedish candy, opened this summer in the upstairs suites of the same address, above Rosenfeld Bagel.

The Rooms Still Waiting

When a room becomes available, the reason it opened up says a lot about whether someone will fill it soon. Several of this year's empty rooms are empty for reasons that have nothing to do with the room itself.

1. 55 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill. Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse served its last meals June 28, after 13 years. An ownership change at the adjoining Showcase SuperLux left it without a lease. Owner Steve DiFillippo has said he hopes to find a new Chestnut Hill space.
2. 835 Washington Street, Newtonville. Clover Food Lab closed May 28 when the chain shut down company-wide. Clover has since reopened five shops, and none of them is in Newton.
3. 287 Centre Street, Newton Corner. Thai Amarin closed in June, and San Ryo Ka, the Japanese kitchen that operated inside it, closed with it. Thai Amarin is a separate business from Amarin of Thailand, which opened in Newtonville in January.
4. 324 Walnut Street, Newtonville. Mochiko Hawaiian is no longer operating there. Its website posts a closure message, and Boston Restaurant Talk reported the closure today, October 2, without an exact closing date.

Two openings are still unconfirmed. A few numbers along Centre Street from the empty Thai Amarin space, CircleBack Kitchen & Bar is taking over the former Hopsters at 292 Centre Street. The restaurant comes from Roger Zeghibe, whose earlier places include Beantown Pub and The Hub Pub, and it plans 55 seats, a 12-seat bar and all-day service from breakfast through dinner. The state issued its all-alcohol license in November 2025, and the opening was announced for January 2026. As of Fig City's August 18 update it had not opened and was hiring staff. No newer status has been published.

In Upper Falls, Jean and Lee Kitchen at 108 Oak Street has been takeout-only for years and is applying for a common victualler license so diners can eat in. The application, filed under JC Kitchen LLC for 12 seats, was on the Board of License Commissioners' September 15 agenda. A decision has not been reported.

Mayor Marc Laredo told Fig City that the dining scene "reflects what makes our city so special: we're always welcoming something new while continuing to celebrate the places that have been part of our community for generations." The year's changes bear him out building by building. The station at 70 Union Street was built in 1890 and is serving dinner again, until 10 p.m. every night.

Knowing which storefronts near a home turn over quickly, and which sit empty, is part of how we read a Newton village block. If you're weighing what your property is worth against what's opening around it, Colin Bayley and the Bayley & Natoli team can walk you through it address by address. Request a Home Valuation & Market Plan.