"Harvard Square gets its nightlife groove back" by Joseph P. Kahn | Globe Staff, September 28, 2013
CAMBRIDGE — Harvard Square, not known in recent years for its vibrant night life, is getting its groove back.
Just opened on Brattle Street is Beat Hotel, a subterranean restaurant-bar-nightclub run by the owners of the Beehive, the hip South End brasserie and club. The Sinclair, a 500-seat concert venue and restaurant on Church Street, has been booking hot musical acts like the 1975 and Earl Sweatshirt since December. Over on JFK Street, Tasty Burger feeds hungry students and clubgoers until 4 a.m.
And there are other buzzy openings on the horizon: Shake Shack, coming in December, will have a full liquor license and serve customers until 1 a.m., while chef-owner Michael Scelfo will unveil his new restaurant Alden & Harlow this fall, downstairs from the Brattle Theatre.
What’s happening, according to many involved in this nocturnal transformation, is not a sudden convergence of like-minded business owners.
Rather, it’s the fruition of a long-term effort to address two widely held perceptions about Harvard Square: that it was lacking in night life options, and that it had, in the eyes of some, become a sprawling, ivy-accented mall, dominated by chain stores and banks.
“There’s perception, and then there’s reality,” says Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, an umbrella organization representing 256 local businesses.....
It truly is a bu$ine$$ pre$$. It's at the root and bottom of all i$$ues and $tories.
The House of Blues, a popular rock and blues club, closed in 2003 after 11 years in the square, having outgrown its original 180-person-capacity space. A newer, much larger version opened in Boston on Lansdowne Street in 2009.
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Beat Hotel, he says, with its supercool, whitewashed-brick-and-psychedelic-colored interior, aims to attract a mix of tourists, Harvard VIPs, tech company workers, and locals who have been dining out or going to hear music elsewhere. Besides food and cocktails, it serves up jazz and blues performances on a small stage and stays open until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday....
Alden & Harlow’s Scelfo, who came to the square five years ago to run the kitchen at Russell House Tavern, and others credit Jillson’s organization with getting the ball rolling. Improvements in lighting, safety, and general cleanup have helped. Since the late ’90s the city, state, and Harvard University together have put $9 million into infrastructure upgrades, from lampposts and sidewalks to signs and street crossings.
More recently, attractions like free outdoor concerts, free Wi-Fi throughout the square, and looser restrictions on serving alcoholic beverages outdoors have helped bring the buzz back.
Beer and wine licenses have become more plentiful and more affordable, a boon to smaller establishments that cannot afford to pay six-figure fees. In 1986, the License Commission created a new class of no-value, nontransferable licenses allowing beer and wine sales only. In 2008, at the recommendation of a city task force, the cap on such licenses was loosened, making it easier for smaller businesses to obtain one, provided they could demonstrate need and had the approval of their neighbors. Approximately 20 such licenses have been issued citywide since on a year-to-year basis, according to the business association.
I'm so glad alcohol is such a big part of our economy.
“Cambridge is certainly a world-class city, and public officials saw a need and responded to it,” says Elizabeth Lint, head of the License Commission.
Business association president John DiGiovanni, who played a key role in bringing in businesses such as the Sinclair and Tasty Burger, is gratified to see the square more alive after dark. DiGiovanni, president of Trinity Property Management, a major commercial real estate owner in Harvard Square, owns many of the buildings where the new mix of businesses is finding a home....
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Think I'll just stay in and get to bed early tonight.