A Global Comfort Food Restaurant and Community Space in Dorchester Eyes Summer Opening

Welcome back to AM Intel, a Monday morning round-up of mini news bites to kick off the week.

Comfort Kitchen Is Coming

News first came out over summer 2019 about a planned restaurant called Comfort Kitchen (611 Columbia Rd., Dorchester, Boston), slated for the historic Upham’s Corner comfort station space. The Comfort Kitchen plans are moving along, and there’s now a campaign up on the Mainvest platform to allow interested parties to invest in the project for as little as $100.

Comfort Kitchen will be “a cozy cafe by day and a 30-seat restaurant by night celebrating the food of the Diaspora — global comfort food.” The team includes managing partner Biplaw Rai (cofounder of Dudley Cafe in Roxbury and board member of Commonwealth Kitchen, a local nonprofit food incubator), organization development partner Nyacko Pearl Perry (founder of Yin Consulting), and chef partner Kwasi Kwaa (founder of Ghanaian pop-up the Chop Bar).

The restaurant is also meant to serve as a community meeting space and a food incubator. In partnership with Commonwealth Kitchen, it will provide affordable pop-up space for local food entrepreneurs.

The team is currently eyeing July or August 2020 for an opening, Rai tells Eater.

A Noodle Bar Planned for East Boston Hits a Delay

A sustainable, zero-waste noodle bar that has been in the works for East Boston throughout 2019 has hit a stumbling block: Chef Matthew McPherson (Tiki Rock, Menton, Porto) has announced on Instagram that the planned location on Sumner Street in East Boston’s Jeffries Point neighborhood has fallen through.

“Thank you everyone who has been waiting patiently,” wrote McPherson. “It is with sadness we have to say that we have to move on from our lease at that location. We hope to move on quickly and have several other locations we are looking at around East Boston.”

In the meantime, those interested in an early taste of the restaurant, dubbed the Noodle Bar by Iterum Foods, can keep an eye on Instagram for news of pop-up events.

In Other News...

• In other zero-waste news, Grainmaker — a casual grain bowl restaurant with locations in downtown Boston and Somerville’s Davis Square — has introduced reusable glass containers for its to-go orders, giving customers the opportunity to purchase one for $8 and get 5% off each order when bringing the container back and swapping it for a fresh one.
• Upscale Back Bay seafood restaurant Mooncusser Fish House has upgraded its beer and wine license to full liquor (purchasing the license from the now-closed L’Espalier). Jay Patterson (Artscience, Buttermilk & Bourbon) is behind the new cocktail list, while Theresa Paopao (Oleana, Ribelle) has updated the wine list. There’s also a new menu of $1, $3, and $5 bar bites available from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, throughout December, to go with the new drinks.
• Speaking of liquor licenses, East Boston gem KO Pies — known for its Australian-style meat pies — has shared a photo of its beer and wine license renewal for 2020. Owner Sam Jackson announced in late 2018 that he’d most likely sell or close the restaurant at some point in 2019, but fans of the shipyard pie shop will be happy to see it live on into 2020. “It’s been 10 cracking years in Boston and we’re pumped to do it all again,” Jackson wrote on Facebook, along with a reminder that KO will be closed for nearly a month around the holidays. Get there by December 22 for a last 2019 visit.
• Sad news from Cambridge sports bar/pizzeria mainstay Newtowne Grille: The restaurant’s patriarch, Nicholas Toulopoulos, has died at 66. A message posted to Facebook by the restaurant reads, in part: “With good humor and determination, Nick was a fighter. He taught those in his charge that with a positive attitude you could work through just about anything. This was a motto strongly adopted by his children and employees alike. The son of immigrants, Nick believed that through hard work, goals and dreams could always be achieved.”

Got a news tip for the Eater Boston team? Email boston@eater.com.