By 10 a.m. on a Saturday, people are already waiting outside Merai Bar at 14 Harvard Street for Pack Katisomsakul and his Newbery Street Coffee Roasters team to open the door. Brookline.News described the scene this August, as the Thai specialty roaster was getting ready to move from weekend pop-ups into its own café farther up the street.
That line of people answers a question many in town were asking a few weeks earlier. From Brookline Village to Coolidge Corner, this fall's arrivals are mostly owners. One founder took his business back. One pop-up crowdfunded its build-out. A handful of others are small, single-location shops with a named person behind the counter. That matters on a street where everyone has been talking about the closures.
The summer's worry, in the words of the people who run businesses here
In early August, Brookline.News reported on a run of closures: Golden Temple, Party Favors, Kaojiu and Sanela Salon had all closed within a few weeks of each other. Each closure had its own cause, and the people interviewed mostly saw them as unrelated. Still, Greg Reibman, president and CEO of the Charles River Regional Chamber, told the outlet that "there is a real concern about the future of our small businesses in Brookline and really across the state." The Chamber added Brookline to its footprint in April.
Chris Mutty, former executive director of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce, explained the math. A storefront today means a decade-long bet. "You've got to know that you're going to be profitable over the next 10 years, and able to pay your rent, and able to pay your employees," he said in the same article. "It's a huge investment to take on a commercial lease."
That ten-year bet is the background for everything that has opened on Harvard Street since. The businesses taking it on are the ones with the strongest existing ties to their customers.
27 Harvard Street: a founder back behind his own counter
Sorriso Market, the wine and gourmet shop at 27 Harvard Street in Brookline Village, reopened in early September under Nick Lisotto, the owner who started it. As Brookline.News reported, Lisotto closed the shop's Coolidge Corner arcade outlet and sold the Brookline Village store in 2023. The buyer went bankrupt in 2025, and after months of legal proceedings, which the outlet reports ended in a settlement, Lisotto got the business back.
He reopened in the same space with a different layout, rearranged for gatherings. The plan Brookline.News described includes casual Tuesday night wine tastings, openings of one-of-a-kind bottles, balsamic tastings, eventually pasta-making workshops, and a bigger art gallery. A private membership gives access to the deep cellar and its rarest bottles.
"I would like to have the same kind of culture and atmosphere we cultivated when we originally opened," Lisotto told the outlet.
The September report had the shop open Wednesday through Sunday that month, with the full program of events set to launch in October. For current hours and tasting dates, check Sorriso Market's website before you walk over.
In Mutty's terms, Lisotto is the clearest case on the street. He is signing up for the long-term commitment again, and he already knows what he's committing to.
From 14 to 240 Harvard Street: a café 265 backers helped build
Newbery Street took a different route to the same place. For more than a year it has run pop-ups around Boston, serving slow-brewed Thai specialty coffee and salt breads. Its permanent café is going into the former Cremeux bakery space at 240 Harvard Street, toward Coolidge Corner.
Part of the build-out was crowdfunded. Newbery's Kickstarter set a $25,000 goal and closed August 31 with $34,834 from 265 backers. That's about 39 percent over the goal, though short of the $50,000 stretch goal mentioned in the August coverage.
Katisomsakul's resume explains part of the following. He finished third at the U.S. National Brewers Cup in 2024 and again in 2025, earned an honorable mention at the 2025 Global Coffee Awards, and was named a Sprudge Coffee Hero of 2026. Brookline.News reported that his team of brewers is made up of former customers. The café is designed to get people talking to each other instead of working on laptops. "I want them to feel that when they come here, they will meet friends," he told the outlet.
The August article said construction was still underway and no opening date had been set. Katisomsakul was hoping for October. Until 240 Harvard opens, Newbery Street's website lists the Merai Bar pop-up at 14 Harvard Street, usually on weekends, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The rest of the street, south to north
Sorriso and Newbery are the two biggest stories, but the pattern runs the full length of the walk.
- 190 Washington Street, Junbi Matcha & Tea. Opened in July just off the foot of Harvard Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
- 240 Harvard Street, Newbery Street Coffee Roasters. The permanent café, under construction in the former Cremeux space.
- 305 Harvard Street, Glass Ripples. Owner Sifan Wu is opening an artisan glassware shop in Coolidge Corner. The Brookline Record reported in August that the shop was waiting on final town inspections and minor construction, with a grand opening targeted for late September or early October.
- 313A Harvard Street, Boston General Store. The previous tenant at 305 didn't leave the neighborhood. It moved a few doors down in early March.
- 406 Harvard Street, the former KaoJiu. Town licensing documents show a soup shop called Yu Yue planned for the space, with a full liquor license and an entertainment and outdoor dining license.
The 305 and 313A storefronts stand out. A local store moved down the block and an owner-run shop took its old space, so the street kept both.
Why the mix of businesses matters as much as the count
David Leschinsky, owner of Eureka! Puzzles & Games in Coolidge Corner, offered the most useful way to read these openings. He told Brookline.News that he is less concerned about any one closure than about the overall mix of businesses on the street. "Destination businesses," he said, can survive, "but they thrive when there is a supporting ecosystem with lots of other businesses that people want to go to."
He has watched Coolidge Corner go through waves of trend businesses: frozen yogurt, then ice cream, then nail salons, and now barbershops. Each time, more storefronts piled into the same concept than the neighborhood could support. "The mix is critical," he said.
Measured that way, the fall's arrivals mostly don't overlap. A wine and gourmet shop with a gallery and a tasting calendar, an award-winning Thai coffee roaster, a matcha bar, an artisan glassware store and a soup shop are five different reasons to walk the street. Each one sends foot traffic to the others. That kind of support is what Leschinsky says a destination business needs.
Walking it in the next few weeks
Because the new businesses are spread along the street, a few dated events can bring you back to different stretches of it this season.
The Brookline Farmers' Market runs Thursdays from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Centre Street West Parking Lot behind the Coolidge Corner Theatre. A vendor's event page lists the Thursday, October 29 market at that time and place. The Brookline Record reported that the market's 48th season ends November 19.
On Saturday, October 31, the Coolidge Corner Theatre's 25th Halloween Horror Marathon starts at 11:30 p.m. It's a 12-hour program with a costume contest, opening with The Mummy and The Mummy's Shroud. On Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, start at the bottom of the hill. Newbery's weekend hours at Merai and Sorriso's weekend days are a few blocks apart in the Village.
On Saturday, November 7, the Brookline Commission for the Arts holds its awards and grantee reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Brookline Village Library, 361 Washington Street. That's a short walk from Junbi and Sorriso.
If 240 and 305 Harvard open their doors in November, it will be worth walking the full stretch again with the new storefronts in mind.
If you'd like a local's view of how Harvard Street's storefronts are changing, from the Village to the Corner, Urban Circle Realty is glad to talk it through. Connect with Sherean & the Urban Circle team to discuss your Boston real estate needs.
