Milk Bar Arrives in Harvard Square in a Blaze of Sugary Glory

It’s a bit of a tumultuous time in Harvard Square; the neighborhood has seen the closures of a number of longtime spots lately (see: Crema, Sweet, Tealuxe), and the fear of big out-of-state chains coming into the Square looms. But two out-of-towners with a lot of love for the Boston area are sweeping into Cambridge on February 2, debuting the highly anticipated Milk Bar and &pizza combo at 1-3 Brattle St., and they’re committed to becoming a welcomed part of the local fabric, not just plunking down a cookie-cutter chain outpost.

The project has been a long time coming, although initially it was just going to be the pizzeria alone. DC-based &pizza was eyeing Boston-area expansion as far back as four or five years ago, according to cofounder and CEO Michael Lastoria; he saw a lot of similarities between DC and Boston, and a number of &pizza shareholders and investors are from the Boston area.

The company initially announced specific Harvard Square plans at the beginning of 2017, taking over the adjacent Tory Row and Crimson Corner spaces in the heart of the neighborhood. The community pushed back on various aspects of the plans, including exterior design, and expansion didn’t look so certain for a bit. But then Lastoria turned the proposed restaurant into a collaboration with friend Christina Tosi, the mastermind behind New York-based dessert empire Milk Bar, which did not yet have a Boston-area footprint.

The two met in DC some time ago, after Tosi opened her first DC location of Milk Bar in City Center, and became fast friends. “This guy is so great,” says Tosi. “He’s very savvy; he’s a totally different kind of visionary, and I just love his perspective and his outlook on how he’s built his business, how he drives it, how he brands, and how he thinks about bringing it to life.”

As for Lastoria’s feelings about Tosi: “I just absolutely fell in love with her personality, her style, the brand,” he says, “and as someone who really loves interesting, wonky, authentic brands, there’s nothing more fitting than Milk Bar. It’s very much this reflection of who she is as a human being, her personality, her sense of style, and you can see that come through.”

At one point they collaborated on a cereal milk cream soda and a cereal milk cream soda cookie (“cereal milk” is a trademarked Milk Bar signature that makes appearances in a variety of ways, such as cereal milk soft serve.) This collaboration laid the groundwork for the shared venue that is days away from opening in Cambridge.

Milk Bar

For the Milk Bar uninitiated: Expect sugary treats of all kinds, from cookies to soft serve to cake truffles. Looking for something a little less sweet? Try a “bagel bomb,” everything bagel dough stuffed with bacon scallion cream cheese.

This location feels almost like a homecoming for Tosi: Her husband’s family lives in the area, so she finds herself in and around Boston frequently. (Inquire about her favorite local restaurants, and she readily raves about plenty of Boston-area gems, especially Sofra. “I’m maybe an unhealthy fan girl of [Sofra executive pastry chef and co-owner] Maura Kilpatrick, really and truly,” she says.)

“I’ve loved Boston for a long time,” she says, “and it’s very much my home away from home. I’m really excited to be a part of the community. I’m a big fan of everything the food community here stands for. I’m here for the loyalists that are Boston. I’m here for the accent. I’m here for everything.”

This opening is a bit different from other Milk Bar openings, as this is the first location that is “in the middle of it,” as Tosi puts it. “Our stores are usually tucked away somewhere hidden; we’ve never been so front and center. We’ve never been in a community that was this close to a college and a community that’s so deeply rooted. Bostonians are legit loyal, and I feel like the residents of Cambridge protect their community. They take that responsibility very seriously. It’s going to be really fun to play off of &pizza’s energy, and it’s going to be really fun to play off of the community’s energy.”

The Cambridge Milk Bar store will have a local exclusive item, a Boston cream pie “milkquake,” one of Milk Bar’s dessert types that blends treats into soft serve.

“When we were working on this, we thought, ‘How do we want to write our love letter to the Boston cream pie?’” she says. “I had a single bite of this milkquake, and someone literally screeched the record, dropped the mic — this is it.” It’s the popular cereal milk soft serve blended with what Tosi calls “liquid cheesecake,” plus chocolate chips and fudge sauce. It’s “a very serious love letter to a hot fudge sundae,” she says.

Asked if there’s a specific menu item she’s most excited to share with Cambridge, Tosi says that she’s more excited about “how everyone else interacts with the menu.”

“The menu is there, and on some level when I look at the menu, it feels like rules, but rules are meant to be broken. Maybe you want a cereal soft serve with some BFC [“best freaking cookie”] and some fudge sauce blended in. Maybe you order a compost cookie with some cereal milk soft serve swirled on top. I’m always excited to feed someone a cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie, always, but I’m equally excited to see what other people come in and imagine. I think our biggest job is to empower people to be like, ‘Cool, I want my confetti cookie, I’m good,’ or ‘I want my b’day latte, bye,’ but also to challenge us a little.”

&pizza

At &pizza (pronounced “and pizza”), the focus is on oblong, personal-sized pizzas with a thin crust. Lastoria is especially proud of the company’s “incredibly responsible and thoughtful” supply chain and the fact that the menu readily caters to diners looking for gluten-free, vegetarian, or vegan pizzas.

About 60% of customers opt for the “craft your own” customizable pizza, says Lastoria; diners choose dough, sauce, cheese, toppings, and finishes. The other 40% order from &pizza’s “hits,” including top sellers “American honey” (spicy tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni, arugula, goat cheese, hot honey, red pepper flakes) and “maverick” (tomato, mozzarella, salami, pepperoni, Italian sausage, basil pesto, parmesan).

“What makes the partnership with Milk Bar so special is that first and foremost, it stemmed from a friendship that Christina and I formed — a mutual respect and admiration. She has turned the dessert/bakery world on its head with a lot of really interesting combinations I think people haven’t tasted before, and we’ve done something very similar in pizza: These are pies that are our version of a more classic pizza but with our spin, that special sauce, on it. We’ve always been known for doing things outside the box as it relates to ingredients but also flavor combinations on pies. Nothing is traditional; it’s always traditional with a twist.”

Lastoria is also aware of the changing nature of Harvard Square — after all, he’s witnessed a good deal of it through the long process of opening the restaurant. “There’s only so much we can say” to convince Cambridge that they’re here to be a good neighbor, he says. “When we open up a pizza shop in a new market, our job really starts the day that we open up our doors in terms of what it means to be a responsible or good neighbor, not just to local businesses but to the community in general.”

In collaborating with Milk Bar on the space, Lastoria thinks the team is bringing something unique but appropriate to the neighborhood. “I think it’s very Harvard Square-esque,” he says. “It’s artistic, it’s creative, it’s wonky, it’s colorful, it’s playful, it’s vibrant. We tried to make sure that this was not the feeling of a chain or a typical pizza shop or a typical bakery or a typical coffee shop. We wanted it to feel very special, very unique, and to have a lot of inspiration drawn from what I’ve seen here in Harvard Square.”

“We look forward to doing our part, and hopefully everyone who sets foot inside will appreciate what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to fit into the community,” Lastoria says. “We’ve worked really hard to get to where we are today, and we look forward to working even harder to do the right thing by the community, do the right thing for the city, and the hope is that if we do that well, we’ll have the opportunity to open up more pizza shops in the greater Boston area. I’m really looking forward to that.”

When &pizza and Milk Bar debut in their shared space on Saturday, February 2, &pizza will be selling $5 pizzas all day, while Milk Bar will be selling $1 cereal milk soft serve with cornflake crunch. Both portions of the shop will be open seven days a week, with &pizza operating from 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Milk Bar will stay open as late as &pizza but will open at 7 a.m. daily.

• Coverage of &pizza and Milk Bar on Eater [EBOS]

&pizza x Milk Bar

1394 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138