Centre Street Got Six New Liquor License Filings This Year. Here's Which Ones You Can Actually Walk Into.

Ask anyone who's walked Centre Street between Hyde Square and the Monument this summer, and they'll tell you something's shifting. A storefront that sat dark since December has string lights in the window again. There's a hand-lettered sign taped to a door that used to say Ten Tables. The pub on the corner has a second address attached to its liquor filing. Something is happening on this block, and if you live within walking distance of it, you've probably already noticed six months of "coming soon" without always knowing which "soon" arrived.

Here's the part that doesn't show up in the neighborhood group chat: a liquor license approval and an open door are two completely different events, and this year's crop of Centre Street filings prove it. One of these spots went from closed sign to open door in about four months. Another has had an approved license sitting unused since March. A third hadn't seen a contractor as of the last public report on it. If you're trying to plan a Friday night on this block before the weather turns, the paperwork alone won't tell you where to go.

What Boston's Licensing Board Actually Approved

In March 2026, Boston's Licensing Board approved four alcohol licenses tied to Jamaica Plain addresses in a single batch: an all-alcohol non-transferable license for Behan Caffe, the same for Ethiopian Cafe, and beer and wine licenses for Third Cliff Bakery and Ula Cafe. That's on top of Beyond Proof, which opened in April without needing any liquor license at all, and an as-yet-unnamed fusion tapas concept at 668 Centre Street that was still seeking approval as of late March.

Six filings, six different stories. Here's where each one actually stood as of the most recent public reporting:

The fastest mover is also the one that needed the least paperwork. Krista Kranyak closed her longtime restaurant Ten Tables in December and had Beyond Proof, a zero-proof bar in the same 597 Centre Street space, open by April 7. No liquor license, no waiting on a board hearing. Kranyak has said she's treating the bar program with the same rigor as any cocktail bar, just building every drink around a base that never includes alcohol.

Compare that to Behan Caffe, three doors down at 380 Centre Street. Pub owner Michel Soltani filed for a 7-day all-alcohol license to open a roughly 1,300-square-foot cafe-bar right next to his existing Brendan Behan Pub, matching its 1 a.m. closing time. The board approved it in March. Half a year later, nothing in local reporting suggests a firm opening date has landed. And at 668 Centre Street, the fusion tapas concept was still nameless as of its last public update, with a Jamaica Plain News report from late March noting the storefront hadn't seen meaningful work done inside it.

The lesson for anyone who's already circled a date on their calendar for a new spot: a license approval is a starting gun, not a ribbon cutting. Ethiopian Cafe is the exception that proves it. This isn't a new restaurant at all. It's a Centre Street fixture at 377 Centre Street, known for its lentil sambosas and its Doro Wat, that simply added alcohol service to a menu it's been running for years.

A Sober Bar Opening on the Same Block That's Adding Alcohol

Here's the part that's easy to miss if you're just skimming a list of openings: Centre Street is pulling in two directions at once. The same three-block stretch that produced four new alcohol licenses this spring also produced what local reporting has called the only zero-proof bar in Boston.

Beyond Proof is built for people who like the ritual of a well-made cocktail but skip the alcohol itself, whether that's about avoiding a hangover or just preferring something more interesting than a mocktail off a syrup gun. Meanwhile, thirty seconds down the sidewalk, a pub that's been on Centre Street since the late 1980s is opening a second room specifically so it can pour drinks until 1 a.m.

That's not a contradiction so much as a signal about who's actually moving to this block. Centre Street isn't consolidating around one kind of night out. It's getting more options at both ends of the spectrum, which means the practical move for a resident is knowing which door to walk through depending on what kind of Tuesday you're having.

What Actually Changes Before Halloween

The restaurant turnover is the loudest story on Centre Street this fall, but it's not the only clock running. The Jamaica Plain Farmers Market, set up in the Bank of America parking lot at 677 Centre Street, runs its Saturday session year-round from noon to 3 p.m. Its Tuesday session, though, only runs from June 16 through November 24, 2026. Once that Tuesday date passes, the market drops back to Saturdays only until next June. If Tuesday has been your grocery run, you've got a little under three months left on that habit before it disappears until spring.

A few blocks over, the 12th Annual Road to Wellness 5K Run and 2-Mile Walk takes place September 12 at 55 Dimock Street, one of the more established community fitness events tied to Jamaica Plain's health center network. And Egleston Square's Peace Garden, at the corner of School and Washington streets, has kept its run of community programming going through the summer, with events like the Egleston Square Latin Dance Social filling the small park with music on weekend afternoons.

None of these are dramatic changes on their own. Together, they mark the actual turn of the neighborhood's calendar, the point where a Centre Street routine built around long summer evenings starts resetting into a fall one.

If You Want Dinner or a Drink on Centre Street Tonight

Given everything above, here's the realistic rundown for anyone deciding where to walk tonight rather than reading about it later:

• Want a cocktail-style drink with zero alcohol and Mediterranean small plates: Beyond Proof at 597 Centre Street is open now.
• Want the neighborhood's long-running Ethiopian spot, now with a full bar to go with the injera: Ethiopian Cafe at 377 Centre Street.
• Want to check on Behan Caffe or the Centre Street tapas concept: both had approved paperwork or pending applications as of the most recent reporting, but neither had a confirmed open-for-business date. Worth a walk-by before you plan an evening around either one.
• Want groceries from the farmers market on a weekday: get there before November 24. After that, it's Saturdays only until next summer.

The Real Takeaway for Centre Street Regulars

The story here isn't that Jamaica Plain got some new restaurants, every neighborhood in Boston can say that this year. It's that six license filings on one street produced six completely different timelines, and the only way to know which is which is to track the paperwork against what's actually happening at street level. A license approval from March doesn't mean a March opening. A storefront with a hand-painted sign doesn't mean the kitchen's stocked. On a block this compressed, the gap between announcement and reality is measured in months, not days, and it's different for every address.

That kind of granular, block-by-block read is exactly what it takes to actually understand a neighborhood rather than just visit it. If you're the kind of person who tracks which Centre Street storefront is really open this week, you already have the instincts that make Jamaica Plain worth calling home, whether you're renting the top floor of a triple-decker or you've owned here for twenty years.

If you ever want that same level of granular attention applied to your own address, whether that's a valuation, a sense of what's moving in the neighborhood, or just a conversation about what's next, the team at Zander Realty Group spends its days doing exactly this kind of block-by-block homework across Greater Boston. Get an Estimate whenever you're ready to see what it means for your street.