Let This Egg Boat Sail Into Your Heart (and More Updates)

Welcome back to Morning Briefing, an almost-daily round-up of mini news bites to kick off the day.

ICYMI

A bit of late-breaking news that went out yesterday evening, just after our daily newsletter had left the gates: Jim Solomon, owner of the Fireplace in Brookline’s Washington Square (1634 Beacon St.), announced that he will close the 16-year-old restaurant soon, probably at the end of August. A few years back, he was going to close it and sell the space to New Haven’s Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, but that deal ended up falling through, and the restaurant remained open.

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Temporary Shutters

The Independent (75 Union Sq., Union Square, Somerville) — a 16-year-old Union Square restaurant and one of the most essential bars in town thanks to its killer beer list — will take a quick break starting on August 14, closing for a few weeks for “minor renovations” including a new sound system, new upholstery for booths and bar stools, refinished floors, and more. When it reopens in early September, it’ll also have a new general manager, Matt Alvey (the new East Coast Grill, River Bar, Redbones).

Also closing temporarily is a longtime neighborhood sandwich spot in Cambridge, Oxford Spa (102 Oxford St.), hidden back in a mostly residential and school area near-ish Porter Square. It’s been around since the 1940s, according to Cambridge Day, and will hopefully soon reopen under new ownership, as George George (not a typo), son of the property owners and one-time Oxford Spa operators told Cambridge Day. (A different family has been operating the Spa since 2008 but can no longer afford the rent — which has remained the same for years, notes George George’s father, Bill George, who owns the property and stressed to Cambridge Day that this isn’t another case of Harvard Square rent hikes.)

Meanwhile, in Maine

New York hot dog company Snap Dog — which has apparently trademarked the phrase “The Hot Dog With Its Name on It!” because the company logo (along with the word “beef”) is literally on every dog — is coming to Portland, Maine in the form of a hot dog cart called Mainely Hotdogs (presumably no relation to Mainely Burgers or any other “mainely”-punned business name). It will be parked at the corner of Commercial and Silver streets in Old Port on weekends from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Wednesday through Friday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Here is a Snap Dog commercial that is really something:

In other Maine news, Portland — like Boston — is now overrun with juice bars.

One Thing You Should Eat Today

Get a taste of Georgia — the country, not the state — with the khachapuri (“egg boat”) at Broadsheet Coffee (100 Kirkland St., Cambridge). It’s available on the weekday breakfast menu from 7 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. The bread is stuffed full of feta, mozzarella, and spinach, bulging out in the middle to accommodate an oozy egg. Pay special attention to the irresistible sauce on the side: zhug, a hot sauce with origins in Yemen.

Visit the One Thing You Should Eat Today archive >>>

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