What’s hot and what’s happening now in the restaurant scene.
Feed your hangover. The Hangover Pub on Worcester’s Green Street, in the heart of the Canal District, reopened the first week of August. It was closed for corporate restructuring. It joins its sister restaurant Broth, which opened a month earlier.
Old Timer to reopen. Clinton’s iconic Old Timer restaurant, which was owned for a few generations by the McNally family, was sold last year and is slated to reopen soon. Have no fears — same food, same place, new owners. Stay tuned.
No trolleys here. It appears that the Trolley Yard Plaza, on the old site of the bus company on Park Avenue, will be home to a few eateries. Hot Table, based in Springfield, will soon open there. This will be the seventh restaurant in the small chain, which falls into the fast-casual class. Chipotle, a casual Mexican food restaurant, is also set to open in Trolley Yard Plaza.
In news from the east. Ground Effect Brewery will soon open at 312 Main St. in Hudson, furthering the food and beer growth in the town.
No peace here. Frank Peace, who opened downtown Worcester’s Brew on the Grid, has split with the owners of the properties. Peace put together an ambitious plan to open several restaurants in the Franklin Street and Portland Street area. Among them was Revolution Pie & Pint and Stix, a ramen noodle eatery which opened in late spring. His most ambitious plan was for a beer garden on Franklin Street, which has seen its opening delayed by months. The new manger of the restaurants is Jim Hodgdon, now head of Grid Hospitality Group.
Don’t interfere in the election. It seems that the Ballot Box in Worcester’s Kelley Square has changed its name to the Batter’s Box, in anticipation of the Paw Sox moving to Worcester. I guess in the future the only voting going on at the Batter’s Box will be for the All-Star Team.
Grafton Grill has new chef. Derek LaBounty, of Maynard, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, formerly worked at Blue Ginger, which was owned by Ming Tsai and closed in 2017. The Grafton Grill is owned by husband and wife, Steve and Lori Belfiore.
Keep it simple, stupid. The name says it all. Recently, a Vietnamese restaurant opened in Kelley Square — called Vietnamese Cuisine. No confusion here.
First it was burgers, and now it’s pasta. The Fix may have started the trend of a burger a day, but The Olive Garden has added pasta to the mix. For $300, people can buy a pass that gets them unlimited pasta for 52 weeks. Not clear if that is once a week or not. That’s about $6 a meal.
The British are leaving. The British are leaving, but not soon. Rumors have circulated for months now that the British Beer Company on Worcester’s Shrewsbury Street is shutting down. The small chain has recently closed several other places. Stay tuned.
Paul Giorgio