A New Weekday Lunch in Cambridge Beckons With Pizza and Beer

Welcome back to AM Intel, a round-up of mini news bites to kick off the day. AM Intel is typically published on Monday mornings; keep an eye out for extra installments during particularly newsy weeks.

New Lunch Alert

Those who find themselves in the Harvard/Central area in Cambridge on weekday afternoons have a brand new lunch option: Waypoint, sibling to Alden & Harlow, has started serving lunch Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring a mix of the restaurant’s top hits in the seafood, pasta, and pizza realm, as well as some lunch-only specials. (Think fancy Cobb salads and tuna melts.) Of note: a $17 pizza and beer special (any pizza, plus a 16-ounce can of Narragansett) and a $17 oyster and rosé special (a dozen oysters and a glass of rose). A new hot smoked chicken pizza (bechamel, peas, pancetta) joins Waypoint’s classic lineup, such as the chopped clam pizza, pictured above, and the smoked whitefish pizza.

Gnocchi Coming Soon

A couple new details on Tiffani Faison and Kelly Walsh’s forthcoming early summer opening, an Italian restaurant in Fenway, Orfano, have emerged. Faison told Forbes of her love of Italian cooking, discussing her background at Olive’s and Rocca, two now-defunct Boston classics. She indicated that the new spot — whose name means “orphan” — wouldn’t be specific to a region of Italy. “Orphans have no mother, and that’s what we love in Italian American food, no rules, sort of a dressed up, more feminine Rao’s.” Think steaks and chops — although it won’t be a steakhouse — and lots of pasta, especially gnocchi, which will be “front and center.”

Boston’s Juice Wave Subsides a Little

Since 2015, the Boston area has seen a steady stream of juice bars opening, but there have been a few recent closures, too. Somerville’s Juice Union (23A Bow St., Union Square) is now “closed until further notice,” per a sign posted on its now-papered-over door. And in Cambridge, Beatnik Beverage Company (355 Main St., Kendall Square) closed earlier this year. Will Gilson (of Puritan & Co. and the forthcoming Café Beatrice pop-up) had opened the Kendall Square juice bar with his father, David, in 2015.

In Other News...

• Drink a Fribble and shed a tear for a shrinking old Massachusetts-based chain: Friendly’s closed 23 Northeast locations (following six closures late last year); three were in Massachusetts (Framingham, Holden, and Waltham). Founded in 1935, the chain does still have a substantial presence, with 77 corporate locations and 97 franchises remaining.
• M.F. Dulock, a specialty butcher shop that opened on Somerville’s Spring Hill in 2012 (201A Highland Ave.), will soon move to a bigger location not too far away: the site of Today’s Laundromat, which is at 36 Summer St., Somerville, on the edge of Union Square.
• Assembly Row’s new Italian restaurant La Cucina (400 Assembly Row, Somerville) — which has ties to the defunct North End favorite Carmen — has debuted an adjacent shop for takeout dishes and ingredients, such as fresh pasta and sauces, La Cucina Pastaria. The takeout menu includes pasta, salads, sandwiches, and soups.
• Chef Joshua Smith is no longer affiliated with New England Charcuterie or the ever-growing Moody’s Delicatessen empire. He tells the Globe he is spending time with family and has a new project in the works.
• Specialty food shop Salt & Olive has moved from one Harvard Square space to another; it used to be at 1160 Massachusetts Ave. but reopened over the weekend in the Garage (36 JFK St.) In addition to salts and olives, the store sells oils, vinegars, spices, and more.
• Over 30,000 Stop & Shop employees are now on their fifth day of striking at 240 Northeast stores, following a breakdown in the negotiation of new job contracts.

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