Between 597 and 668 Centre Street, the businesses that opened this year moved fast. They also had something in common. Each one sells a single, narrow thing, and none of them needed a liquor license to start. The spots on the same stretch that are still waiting tend to be full restaurants or bars, and they are tied up in licensing, a change of use, or construction.
That pattern explains why this part of Jamaica Plain can look busy and stalled at the same time. Here is where every address stands as of early October 2026, from the Monument end toward the 600s, and what separates the open storefronts from the ones that aren't open yet.
The stretch, address by address
- 597 Centre St., Beyond Proof. This is a zero-proof bar and restaurant. Jamaica Plain News reported in early April that it planned its first service for April 7. By mid-May, Boston Magazine was writing about it as open, with spirit-free cocktails and Mediterranean food.
- 606 Centre St., Mr. Drinky. A craft cocktail bar with light fare. It has a Boston Licensing Board alcohol license but is not open yet.
- 610 Centre St., Hinata Shokudo. A planned Japanese restaurant that is not open yet.
- 613 Centre St., Café Selah. Open since spring in the former When Pigs Fly space. It serves coffee, tea, salads, bowls, sandwiches and pastries.
- 636 and 638 Centre St., Edwin Barber Studio and JP Vape & Smoke. Both are open, and they are the first ground-floor tenants the building has ever had.
- 660A Centre St., Equis Pica Pollo. A Dominican-style fried chicken spot that took over The Hub's space. It is now taking orders.
- 660B Centre St., Gori & Co. A Japanese shaved-ice shop in the former Bluefin space. Its website says it is open.
- 668 Centre St. A proposed fusion tapas restaurant. As of March, Jamaica Plain News saw little or no work happening there.
Five addresses have open businesses. Three are still waiting. The difference between the two groups shows up in the details.
What the open storefronts share
Start with the menus. Jamaica Plain News described the Equis Pica Pollo menu as "very small." You order fried chicken, anywhere from 3 to 12 pieces, with a side of tostones or French fries. Dominican fried rice is the only other main dish. This is the chain's seventh location. Its first Boston location is on Blue Hill Avenue, and the others are in New York and New Jersey.
Next door, Gori & Co. is built around kakigōri, a Japanese shaved ice. Boston Magazine described "cloud-like bowls" in flavors like matcha and mango. There are also a few grab-and-go savory items, including spicy tuna onigiri and spam musubi. Jamaica Plain News first reported the plan on May 11. By July 2, Boston Magazine was recommending a seasonal strawberry cream special. That is about seven weeks from announcement to a working menu.
Beyond Proof was faster. Jamaica Plain News announced it on April 5, with first service planned for two days later. As a bar that serves no alcohol, it had no need for the licensing process its neighbor at 606 has already gone through.
The open spots also moved into spaces that already had a similar use. Café Selah replaced another café, When Pigs Fly. Gori & Co. replaced Bluefin, a seafood shop that opened in 2024 and closed for good in March 2026. Before Bluefin, Cacao operated there from 2018 to 2022. Equis is the latest food business at 660A. Jamaica Plain News lists the earlier tenants as The Hub, Fritay, a Caribbean restaurant, and 100% Delicias, which served Dominican food including empanadas and mofongo. The paper's announcement even said it hoped Equis could "break the curse" of the location.
Each of those spaces has changed hands often, so the next tenant can reuse what the last one left behind.
What the waiting spots are held up by
The three addresses still waiting are full sit-down restaurants or bars, and each one has a step the open shops didn't have to take.
At 610, the Jamaica Plain Gazette's June 26 issue reported a new Japanese restaurant asking for restaurant use and a wine-and-malt license. The chef is Moe Kuroki. WhatNow Boston reported in July that her restaurant, Hinata Shokudo, will serve teishoku-style set meals and ramen, and that she hoped to open before the end of the year. WhatNow also said the exact address had not been announced, so 610 comes from the Gazette's licensing notice, not from the restaurant. Boston.com also listed Hinata in July as an expected 2026 opening without a date.
At 606, Mr. Drinky has already been granted an alcohol license by the Boston Licensing Board. In March, though, Jamaica Plain News noted that little work seemed to have been done in the space, which used to hold the J.C. Fruit Shop and Caramelo Clothing Company. Turning a former fruit and clothing shop into a cocktail bar takes much more construction than reopening a food space as another food business.
At 668, the fusion tapas proposal had made little or no visible progress as of the same March report. We found no update since.
The building that took nine years to get a barber
The most extreme example of a project held up by permitting sits in the middle of the stretch. In 2017, a one-story building at 632–638 Centre Street was torn down and the shell of a new one went up. A 2020 proposal for a four-story mixed-use building with four commercial spaces and 18 units, four of them affordable, fell through.
On January 26, 2024, the city issued a stop-work order. The permit allowed three stories, with retail on the ground floor, offices on the second and three apartments on the third. A city building official found the project had grown to 12 apartments and dropped the retail space. The builder was told to get a permit for the 12 units or tear the structure down within 30 days.
In September 2026, Jamaica Plain News reported that the brick building "finally has ground floor tenants for the first time in its existence." Edwin Barber Studio opened at 636 sometime in the two weeks before September 13, according to its Instagram, and JP Vape & Smoke is next door at 638. Once the building's permitting was sorted out, two small service businesses moved in quickly.
The same pattern elsewhere on Centre Street and at Green Street
Farther down Centre Street, Bethlehem Cafe is a full-menu project, and it is moving more slowly. Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird is building a Palestinian café and restaurant in Hyde Square. The planned menu includes falafel, hummus, shawarma, maqluba and musakhan, plus morning coffee, tea, juice and pastries. WhatNow reported on July 31 that construction was underway with no official opening date. Jamaica Plain News gives the address as 376 Centre St., while one Gazette meeting report says 276.
At 775 Centre St., JP House of Pizza is closed for a different reason. Universal Hub reported on September 23 that the state Department of Revenue had shut the pizzeria over unpaid taxes and was taking control. The report did not say the closure is permanent.
The easiest way to open in Jamaica Plain is to skip the storefront altogether. Two food trucks, Tacoswey and Suya Joint, are parked outside Green Street station through October, serving Mexican and African food. Tacoswey's hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 3 to 10 p.m.
For now, the open places on upper Centre Street are a zero-proof bar, a café, a barber, a vape shop, a fried chicken counter and a shaved-ice shop. The cocktail bar, the ramen and teishoku restaurant and the tapas place are still waiting at 606, 610 and 668.
When a storefront changes hands, both the building and the block change. If you own on or near Centre Street and want to know how the new tenants down the block might affect your property, The Boston Home Team can walk the stretch with you and put together a free neighborhood market analysis based on what's actually open.
