Walk down Union Street past the old train depot this month and you'll still see paper taped inside the windows of 70 Union Street. That's the building everyone in Newton Centre has been talking about since June, when the city's Board of License Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve liquor, common victualler, and entertainment licenses for Lockheart, the Wellesley taco-and-cocktails spot that's been trying to move into the historic depot beside the Green Line stop. Eight weeks later, the state's Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission still hadn't issued the license, according to Fig City News' reporting in late August, the most recent update on the project. The applicants' attorney told the outlet the restaurant was awaiting final ABCC sign-off and would open within "a matter of days" once it came through, then hedged to "a few weeks hopefully."
That gap between the headline and the actual dining room matters if you live here, because the story Newton's been telling itself this year, that the village is in the middle of a restaurant boom, is only half true. Some of it already happened. Some of it is still sitting on a permit. And while everyone's been watching the storefronts, a few longtime spots closed without much notice at all.
The Three That Are Actually Serving Food
If you want a meal tonight, three of this year's most talked-about additions are genuinely open and have been for months. Wonder Group opened its eighth Massachusetts location at 170 Needham Street in Newton Upper Falls on March 19, a food hall built around what the company calls an "infinite kitchen," with 29 restaurant concepts spanning Thai, Indian, and Mediterranean cooking under one roof. A month later, The Halal Guys held its grand opening at 55 Needham Street on April 18, the chain's eighth Massachusetts location, run locally by Imran Asghar and Jamal Bourote, who also brought the chain to Boston's Theatre District back in 2017.
Closer to the village center, Formosa Bun & Dumpling Factory took over the former Jake's Falafel Corner space at 740A Beacon Street, serving handmade Taiwanese street food including fried bao cooked on a cast iron pan and grilled Taiwanese sausage. Owner Kristina Pan built the menu around a family recipe she rediscovered during the pandemic, and the shop was confirmed open as of early March.
All three of these are real, finished, and taking your order right now. None of them required a wait past what the openings themselves announced.
The Two Everyone's Still Waiting On
Lockheart is the bigger one to watch, partly because of where it's going. The depot at 70 Union Street sits directly beside the Newton Centre Green and the T stop, and it's been dark since Jamie's on Union closed in 2022, following the Deluxe Station Diner before that. A four-year vacancy on the Green isn't a small thing to reverse, and the buildout has been underway since 2024, including a roughly $1.2 million fit-out and a fire-protection system test in June that's typically one of the last inspection steps before a restaurant can open. The license board approval in June looked like the final piece. It wasn't.
CircleBack Kitchen & Bar is in a similar holding pattern. Restaurateur Roger Zeghibe, who also runs Beantown Pub and The Hub Pub in downtown Boston, is bringing an all-day eatery with global comfort food and live music into the former Hopsters space at 292 Centre Street in Newton Corner. It was originally described as a spring opening, but as of Fig City News' August update, it was still listed as "taking over" the space rather than serving customers.
Neither of these is a rumor. Both have real ownership, real permits, and real buildouts behind them. But if you've been planning a dinner around either one, the honest answer this month is: not yet.
What Closed While Everyone Was Watching the Openings
The same stretch of 2026 that brought the new names also quietly took a few away. Thai Amarin at 287 Centre Street in Newton Corner closed in June, and with it went San Ryo Ka, the Japanese kitchen that had been operating inside the same storefront. Ninebark Kitchen + Drinks in West Newton closed in early 2026, a little over a year after it took over the former Burke's Alewerks space, and the same owners have since opened Mexicana Grill & Cantina in its place. Pon de Joy, the mochi donut shop that arrived in Newton Centre in February 2023, also closed quietly in early 2026, and Tea22 now operates out of that Sumner Street space. Clover Food Lab's Newtonville location served its last meals on May 28, when the Cambridge-born chain shut down company-wide. Clover has since reopened five locations elsewhere, but none of them are in Newton.
Put the two lists next to each other and the picture looks different than a scroll through opening announcements suggests. Fig City News, which maintains a running directory of Newton dining spots, counted 187 places to eat as of its August update, up from 160 in December. Most of that jump is better record-keeping rather than actual growth, since roughly two dozen chain locations, nine Dunkin's, six Starbucks, three McDonald's among them, simply hadn't been logged before. Counted like for like, 2026 has brought at least 12 real openings and reopenings against nine closings. That's a net gain of three. Not nothing, but a much smaller number than "boom" implies, and it means at least two of this year's most-discussed arrivals still haven't tipped the scale at all.
The Plaza Has Its Own Countdown
Even once Lockheart and CircleBack do open, where you'd actually sit down with that food outdoors has its own expiration date. The Newton Centre Plaza, the pop-up seating and gathering space on Beacon Street that the city built during the Fuller administration, was set to be reviewed this spring. After a City Council vote in March, in which councilors rejected an amendment to move the end date up from October to June by a 15-9 margin, the plaza is staying put through October 2026. Councilor Susan Albright described the pushback for keeping it as coming from residents who value it as a place to get takeout from village restaurants and eat with family, while critics have pointed to the parking spaces it uses. Either way, it's a pilot, not a permanent fixture, and the council still owes Newton Centre a longer-term plan for what the village center looks like next.
That gives this fall a shape worth knowing if you live nearby. Whatever opens in the next few weeks at the depot or the old Hopsters space, the plaza that ties those blocks together is only guaranteed through the end of October.
October brings its own fixed dates regardless of how the restaurant situation shakes out. Historic Newton's Hayfest returns to the Jackson Homestead on Sunday, October 4, with apple cider pressing, candle dipping, and corn husk doll making. Two weeks later, the city's Harvest Fair takes over the Newton Centre Green on Sunday, October 18, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a full carnival, two live music stages, food trucks, and pumpkin decorating, an event that has historically drawn more than 3,000 people from Newton and the surrounding towns.
Between the depot that's almost open, the corner spot that's almost open, and a plaza with a countdown clock, this is the kind of fall where it pays to check before you plan an evening around any one address. The village is genuinely changing. It's just changing more slowly, and with more give and take, than the opening announcements alone would have you believe.
If you're watching Newton for reasons beyond dinner plans, whether that's a move within the village or a first look at what a neighborhood like this offers a family, our Newton neighborhood guide goes deeper on schools, commutes, and housing stock. And whenever the time comes to think about what a home here is actually worth, the team at Condon Droney Team is glad to help you get a clear answer with our free home valuation, no obligation required.
