In the first week of September, Nick Lisotto reopened Sorriso Market at 27 Harvard Street. It is the same Brookline Village space he sold in 2023, now under his ownership again, with the room rearranged for the tastings and gatherings he wants to host. The firm that bought the shop went bankrupt in 2025, and the store ended up back with the person who started it.
Most of the other changes around the square this fall follow the same pattern. A storefront moves from one operator straight to the next. A license passes from one bar to another at the same address. A weekend coffee pop-up raises the money for its own café. A space changes owners without sitting empty in between.
The wine shop that came back to its founder
The new Sorriso works differently from the shop that closed. In Brookline.News's account of the reopening, Lisotto describes the store as an experience rather than a counter where he sold pasta, wine and some art. His plans include:
- Wine tastings, from casual Tuesday nights to openings of one-of-a-kind bottles
- Balsamic tastings
- Pasta-making workshops later on
- A bigger art gallery
- A private membership with access to the deep cellar, which holds the shop's rarest and most expensive wines
The shop opened Wednesday through Sunday in September, and the full slate of events was scheduled to relaunch in October. Brookline.News had reported in August that the reopened store would focus more on European wines. Sorriso's site has an email and text sign-up for updates, so that is the place to check this week's hours and tasting nights before you go.
Sorriso shows the simplest version of the pattern. The address stayed the same, the owner is the original one, and the format changed. The handoff at 6 Harvard Square is more involved, and it shows the steps a Brookline Village storefront goes through when it changes operators.
At 6 Harvard Square, the license moves before the sign does
Garrison House opened at 6 Harvard Square in late 2021. It has a pub-style restaurant upstairs and a downstairs lounge called Village Social Club that has hosted live music and other events. One of its original features was a takeout window on the side street, added while pandemic distancing rules were still in place.
Brookline.News reported on October 20 that Garrison House is closing and a new bar, Clementine, will take its place. Clementine belongs to restaurateur Mathew Freid, who owned Idle Hour in downtown Quincy from 2017 to 2024 and earlier worked at the Beehive, Capo and JM Curley in Boston. According to town licensing documents cited in that report, Clementine paid $315,000 for Garrison House's liquor license plus other assets such as furniture.
The license itself follows a set path through Town Hall:
- Licensing hearing. The transfer was on the docket for a town hearing on Wednesday, October 21.
- Select Board agenda. The October 27 Select Board agenda listed the transfer of the all-alcohol license from DC Associates, LLC, doing business as Garrison House, to Mendy's Restaurant LLC, doing business as Clementine, with Freid as manager.
- Pickup. Once a transfer is approved, Brookline.News notes, the license has to be physically picked up before the new restaurant can legally sell alcohol.
While the paperwork moves, the old bar keeps serving. In early November, Garrison House's online ordering page was still taking pickup orders at 6 Harvard Square, with hours running from 10 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. So this changeover happens in sequence, without a stretch where the building sits dark.
What the license application describes is a busier space than the one it replaces. The town agenda lists 128 indoor seats, bar seats included, and 32 outdoor seats. It gives operating and entertainment hours of 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily and outdoor dining until 11 p.m. The entertainment application covers taped and streaming music, television, movies, instrumental and vocal music, and floor shows. Brookline.News reported that the weekend closing time would be an hour later than Garrison House's. For Brookline Village, that means a later night out at a corner that already had a music room downstairs.
A pop-up that grew up at Merai
Some of the turnover starts with a business borrowing a corner of someone else's shop. Newbery St, a Thai specialty coffee roaster, has been popping up on weekends at Merai in Brookline Village. Its Kickstarter campaign launched August 1 and was fully funded on August 31, 2026, with roughly $34,800 pledged by about 265 backers.
Its permanent café is at 240 Harvard Street, the former Cremeux space, which the founder describes as near Coolidge Corner. That is the Village's version of a handoff as well. A small business tested its following on weekends at Merai, and that following helped fund a storefront farther up Harvard Street.
Coffee here already has strong neighborhood support. In a Brookline.News readers' poll published in September, Brothers & Sisters Co. at 7 Station Street came in second townwide. Junbi Matcha & Tea joined the mix when it opened in July on Harvard Ave in Brookline Village. Its menu runs from classic ceremonial matcha to specials like sea salt caramel, blueberry lavender and strawberry.
The owners who set the baseline
All this changeover stands out partly because some Brookline Village operators have stayed put for a very long time. Josh and Jen Ziskin opened La Morra at 48 Boylston Street in 2003. Twenty-three years on, Brookline.News describes it as still a popular spot for housemade pasta and wood-grilled meat and fish. Josh grew up in Brookline, and Jen spent years teaching middle school history in town before the couple went into restaurants.
Their second restaurant draws on the square's history. Punch Bowl, which opened in 2021 at the Hilton Garden Inn at 700 Brookline Ave, is named for the Punch Bowl Tavern. In the 1700s that tavern stood where Hearthstone Plaza is now in Brookline Village, and served as a watering hole and gathering place for early Brookliners. Jen is a Certified Sommelier and wine director at both restaurants. Her research on the old tavern led to Punch Bowl's wine list, which features only wines from women producers, winemakers and vineyard managers.
Josh summed up two decades in town in the same Brookline.News profile:
"We've catered our customer's celebrations, we've been to their funerals, we've had huge support from our neighbors. Brookline is loyal to the end."
That loyalty helps explain the handoffs. Lisotto came back to the same Sorriso space, and Newbery St built its café fund partly on weekend customers at Merai. Even Clementine is paying for an existing license and furniture at an address people already know rather than starting from scratch.
Where the square is through December 13
The next five weeks move from the townwide holiday kickoff to a market in the middle of the Village.
- November 30 to December 10: The Charles River Regional Chamber's First Light window-decorating contest runs townwide, with storefronts across Brookline taking part.
- Thursday, December 3: The main First Light celebration takes place in Coolidge Corner, a short trip up Harvard Street.
- Friday, December 11, 5 to 9 p.m.: The Brookline Village Holiday Market opens with a free reception at Station Street Studios, 17 Station St., with drinks and treats.
- Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, noon to 4 p.m.: The ArtsBrookline market continues with local artists and makers, crafts, seasonal gifts and small businesses.
Station Street Studios is on the same street as Brothers & Sisters, so a market afternoon can start with coffee at number 7. From there, Sorriso at 27 Harvard Street is the place for a holiday bottle, and dinner at La Morra on Boylston Street keeps the whole outing in the Village. On the way, 6 Harvard Square shows where the license handoff stands, whether the sign still reads Garrison House or has changed to Clementine.
We work out of Jamaica Plain and follow storefronts like these the way neighbors do, because they shape what a block is like to live on. If you own near Brookline Village and want to know how this fall's changes around the square fit into your home's value, The Boston Home Team can put together a free neighborhood market analysis for your street.
