Instead of a Doyle's-like restaurant and bar, new condo building in Jamaica Plain could get a wood-fired pizza place
Jamaica Plain is suddenly awash in pizza news. The day after Mario's held a soft opening at its new Hyde Square location comes news that the developer behind the condos going in where Doyle's used to be has a deal with Stoked Pizza to move into the ground-floor space and second-floor balcony where Forest Hills' Brassica once planned to open.
According to a posting in the Jamaica Plain Facebook group, the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council's Public Service Committee has scheduled a Jan. 2 hearing on the proposal.
Stoked, which started as a food truck before putting down brick-and-mortar roots in Cambridge and Brookline, is seeking an full-service alcohol license and a 2 a.m. closing time for use in both the main dining area and the second-floor balcony that Watermark Development is putting in above and next to the original Doyle's building.
The next step after that would be for Stoked to seek alcohol and food-serving licenses from the Boston Licensing Board. In the likely event the board has no licenses to dole out, the pizza place would have to either keep hoping a license turns up or buy one on the open market, where they currently go for prices approaching $600,000 as the state legislature continues to restrict how many licenses Boston can issue.
Watermark had initially announced plans with Brassica to open a larger restaurant up Washington Street from its current Forest Hills location. In August, however, Brassica won city approval to instead expand next door to its Forest Hills location, into the space where the Dogwood Cafe used to be.
Watermark's plans call for reusing and renovating a significant part of the original Doyle's building and dining area - in large part so as to avoid work that might disturb Stony Brook, which flows in a large pipe under the building. Anything that might cause issues related to that pipe might require additional regulatory review.
The neighborhood-council meeting begins at 7 p.m. on Jan. 2, on Zoom (ID 837 6575 2926 with a passcode of 017124).
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Hard no. We deserve better
Hard no. We deserve better pizza.
Feel free to take the reins yourself, Mr.
Bold Entrepreneur. Meanwhile, I'll keep hoping this venture succeeds instead of that space standing vacant.
Stoked Pizza does awesome wood-oven pies and always brings a strong beverage program. I reviewed the original Washington Square, Brookline brick-and-mortar: https://www.improper.com/food-drink/reign-of-fire/ and have been to the Harvard Law adjacent location, too, which does fantastic Tiki drinks alongside the usual cocktail suspects.
Hmmm. Good to know.
Most of what the old Dogwood by Forest Hills had to offer was forgettable and the service often crappy, but they did make a decent wood-fired pie. A fake Doyle's would likely be just that, fake. So I'm hoping for the best!
+1 for Stoked
I’m not vegan, but Stoked was a place I could take vegan friends to eat only off the vegan menu and enjoy cheesy and fried food food.
Agreed
Stoked rules. They also have the absolute best buffalo cauliflower I've ever had - it's better than their buffalo chicken!
Isn't wood fired that thin,
Isn't wood fired that thin, hard crust pizza with hardly any tomato sauce? Not high up on my list of gastronomic pleasures.