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Welcome back to AM Intel, a round-up of mini news bites to kick off the day. (Got intel that should be on Eater’s radar? Contact the team here.)
Do you know the mushroom man?
Bostonians who (a) like mushrooms (the fancy-but-not-magic ones for cooking) and (b) spend time on Instagram may have already become acquainted with Tyler Akabane, aka @mushroomsformyfriends, over the course of the pandemic. He posts “gratuitous morel photos,” teaches classes, and does local home delivery of mushrooms and other specialty food items; next, he’ll open a storefront in Somerville.
Akabane has a funding campaign running on NuMarket, a platform in which supporters ultimately get back 120% of their funding to use as store credit, to support the future store. At press time, the Mushroom Shop campaign is already nearly $5000 past its goal of $30,000, with 177 supporters; it will remain up for another week or so in case anyone else wants to get in on the mushroom fun.
“I’m not a businessman, and I’m not really a mushroom man,” Akabane writes on the campaign page. “I’ve simply become one to many people. I’m an ingredient person, a conductor and connector of people, foods and more ... When something is delicious to me, and to you, I feel so special in being able to share and introduce you to it. The story of how I found it, who grew it, or what it has meant to me are all things I want this shop to be made of.”
Smoke Shop BBQ is expanding again
The Smoke Shop BBQ, chef and restaurateur Andy Husbands’s Cambridge-based barbecue chain, recently opened its fifth location, a fast-casual version at Boston’s new Hub Hall food hall at the Hub on Causeway development by TD Garden. The other four locations — Kendall Square and Harvard Square in Cambridge, Assembly Row in Somerville, and Fort Point in Boston — are full-service and will be joined by a new one in East Boston by summer 2022.
The new Smoke Shop will open at mixed-use residential development Clippership Wharf, real estate group Lendlease has announced. (It will join the previously announced Cafe Iterum there; the cafe is expected to open this November.) The particularly spacious location will have three patios, and in addition to full-service dining, there will be takeout and catering available.
New Haven favorite Sally’s Apizza opens Stamford location
A little New England news beyond Massachusetts: While Boston-area fans of New Haven pizza eagerly await the eventual arrival of a Woburn location of Sally’s Apizza, the Connecticut classic first expands within its own state, opening its Stamford location tomorrow, October 7. This is the very first expansion for Sally’s, which opened its original location way back in 1938 and came under new ownership a few years ago, with the new ownership expressing an eagerness to expand.
In addition to the about-to-open Stamford location, a few other Connecticut locations are in the works, and then there’s Woburn — opening timeline TBD. “Everyone on our team loves Boston,” Sally’s director of marketing, Krystina Nataloni, told Eater Boston this summer. “We love the history and the culture and the energy that Boston has.” Stay tuned for updates.
