Bigger, Better Ariana Restaurant Eyes Early Summer for Brighton Debut

Ariana Restaurant, one of two local options for Afghani cuisine, closed its original Allston location over the winter to move to a new building in Brighton. Co-owner Najeeb Rostami says the new location will be open by early summer.

Ariana opened at 129 Brighton Ave. in 2010 and shuttered in February. Mala, which specializes in spicy noodle bowls, recently opened in its place. When Rostami and his business partner and wife, Baheja, closed the doors, they anticipated a March reopening, but construction took longer than expected. "Now, I find delays are normal," Najeeb Rostami said.

In his case, it was a matter of building a restaurant from scratch in the newly-built Charlesview mixed-use development at 370 Western Ave. "There were not even four walls; there were three walls. We had to build the kitchen, bathroom, dining room, install the plumbing and electricity. It was a lot." Just finishing touches, like painting and decorating, are left. "We're going to be opening soon, in a couple weeks," Rostami said.

The restaurant's phone line still works, and he said people call often to ask when Ariana will reopen. When it does, guests will have better parking options in a more upscale neighborhood, but otherwise, nothing has changed. "The menu is going to be exactly the same," said Rostami, who is also Ariana's chef.

"When we are about to open, customers will know. We'll announce it on our website," he said.