By Beth Treffeisen
On the ground floor level of the newly constructed Gateway Boston luxury apartment complex at 900 Beacon St., in the heart of Audubon Circle, a new Italian – Mediterranean style restaurant is expected to soon open shop.
The new restaurant called, Café Landwer, will take over what was once home to the Elephant Walk, a French-Cambodian fusion restaurant.
Nir Caspi, the co-founder and CEO presented their restaurant to the neighborhood at a joint Audubon Circle Executive meeting and neighborhood abutters meeting this last week.
“I really like the area because it is in the center of Brookline, Boston University students, Fenway Park – it’s in the middle of everything,” said Caspi. “This is the perfect location.”
This will be Café Landwer’s first location in the United States and second in the Northeast, following their Toronto location that opened up about six weeks ago. The chain already has 65 locations in Israel.
The restaurant will be serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are expecting to be open from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily.
There will be about 80 seats inside and about 40 seats outside on the privately owned patio location. The outdoor seating will be seasonal, running from April to October.
The restaurant itself is about 3,200 square feet and will be bounded by two commercial spaces, one that is about 600 square feet and the other that is about 1,000 square feet. They are still unsure what will go in those two locations.
The menu serves both kosher and vegan options. The wide range of food will be from typical breakfast items like eggs, to sandwiches, pizzas and pasta but will also have a Mediterranean side with roasted eggplant in tahini and sinia kebabs.
There will be no bar even though they will be serving beer and wine. There was some concern from neighborhood members that the outdoor seating will entice people to come to just drink outside.
“It is more of a family restaurant,” said Caspi. “From my other locations there was never anyone just sitting there ordering drinks.”
Other concerns from community members included the trash pick-up in the rear alley and how that can make a lot of noise.
Dennis Quilty, the land use, zoning, and permitting lawyer representing the restaurant said that the landlord that owns the building will work to schedule the trash pick-up at the same time as the other dumpsters that are already located in the alley.
“We are totally aware of the situation and are in agreement with the landlord that we have to keep the noise down in the evening,” said Caspi. “We are aware of this problem and we are taking care of it.”
In addition, there will be no valet parking for the restaurant. There were concerns of cars stopping in front for take-out service, but Caspi said, the take-out service will be very minimum saying that they aim to be a full dinning restaurant.
The restaurant still needs to apply for a beer and wine liquor license that they plan on getting on the open market and is applying for a common victualler license to open the restaurant at the April 11 licensing hearing.
“We really want the neighborhood to like us and come in,” said Caspi. “I looked everywhere in Boston and the best location really is in this neighborhood.”
Café Landwer is expected to open in October.