Porter Square, Once Home to Cattle Yards, Will Get Beefed up With a New Steakhouse [UPDATED]

In fall 2013, a Korean restaurant called Kaya shuttered in Cambridge's Porter Square, and a hotel — then referred to as both Kaya Hotel and Porter Hotel — was in the works for that plot of land (1924 Massachusetts Ave.) In fact, the hotel plan dates back to at least 2008. Now, Porter Square Hotel, as it is actually called, is finally slated for a May 1, 2016 opening, reports Wicked Local Cambridge.

A restaurant will open a few months after the hotel opens, according to Wicked Local. It will be a steakhouse that pays homage to Porter's Hotel, which was around in the late 1800s and operated by Porter Square's namesake, Zachariah Porter. And that's not all: Porter Square was previously surrounded by cattle yards, and Porter's Hotel is, by some accounts, the birthplace of the porterhouse cut of steak. (Several other cities that were once home to restaurants or hotels called Porter House also make this claim.)

Porter Square Hotel is part of the Hay Creek Hospitality group, which owns boutique hotels throughout New England. The group also has a 45-room Somerville property in the works — Beacon Street Hotel, slated to open in summer 2017 at the corner of Beacon St. and Oxford St., just outside of Porter Square. Beacon Street Hotel will be home to "an eclectic multi-cultural high energy bistro restaurant and bar," according to the Hay Creek website.

Stay tuned for an opening date for the yet-unnamed steakhouse at Porter Square Hotel, and in the meantime, there's always Frank's Steak House, founded in 1938 and located just a half-mile down the road.

Update, 7/26/16: The hotel did not end up opening in May, but it's getting closer to its debut; its social media channels mention fall 2016. And according to a licensing commission hearing agenda, the Porter Square restaurant will be called Porter House Grill, and the hotel's website mentions a possible fall 2016 opening for the restaurant as well. A rep for the hotel notes that the team is currently hiring a chef, and any menu or more specific opening timeline details won't be available until after that hire is made.