Via Jamaica Plain and Roslindale Facebook groups comes the news that Cafe Beirut on Centre Street closed for good yesterday. Read more.
Lebanese food
Basem Metri, who owns Fairouz, 5268 Washington St. in West Roxbury, announced this week he's closing the restaurant to focus entirely on catering. Read more.
The other night, we checked out Fairouz, which recently took over from Cristelle's at 5268 Washington St. in West Roxbury.
To start, this is not a competitor to Al Wadi on VFW Parkway. It's nowhere near as fancy and the menu is far less extensive. Although owner Fadi Metri has upgraded the interior a bit, you can still see its sub-shop origins in the counter where you used to place your order (but they do have a waitress now).
Ghassan Samaha, owner of Al Wadi on VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, explained to the Boston Licensing Board today why he wants to begin offering hard liquor along with the beer and wine he's already licensed to offer: His restaurant has a lot of Italian, Irish and Russian patrons, and when they hear the hardest stuff they can get is wine, they'd rather drink water.
He added Al Wadi is the only full-service restaurant along the parkway, from West Roxbury to Legacy Place, that doesn't have a full-service liquor license.
The board decides tomorrow whether to extend Al Wadi's license.
Panera Bread goes before the Boston Licensing Board on Dec. 2 for a license to open a restaurant and patio at 75 Spring St. - in the same little mini-mall as Finagle-A-Bagel (Ed. question: Hmm, does this mean that never overly crowded bagel place is closing? Or staying on to compete?).