Mike’s Pastry, Sullivan’s Castle Island, and More Vendors Announced for Boston’s Hub Hall
The food hall by North Station will have plenty of local flavor when it opens this winter.
Hub Hall will be an 18-vendor food hall adjacent to the TD Garden and North Station. / Rendering courtesy of Studio V Architecture
Next year, Bruins and Celtics fans won’t have to wander to the North End to snatch up post-game cannoli: Tourist-friendly Mike’s Pastry is among the just-announced vendors for the forthcoming Hub Hall food hall, slated to open next to the TD Garden and North Station in the winter. Today, Hub Hall’s team also revealed plans to include locations of Monica’s Mercato, another North End institution, as well as Sullivan’s Castle Island, a beloved South Boston seafood shack. They’ll join Apizza, a New Haven-style pizzeria by Mida chef Douglass Williams, and 14 other to-be-announced food operators.
Hub Hall will open sometime this winter at 80 Causeway St. The food hall is separate from the highly anticipated Guy Fieri’s Tequila Cocina, which is opening at the Hub on Causeway development in conjunction with Big Night Live, a music venue and club from local nightlife impresarios Big Night Entertainment.
Patina Restaurant Group, which owns and manages more than 60 restaurants and concessionaires across the country, is behind Hub Hall. Patina, which also recently took over food service operations at the New England Aquarium and opened the new Reef Bar there, is a subsidiary of Hub on Causeway developer Delaware North.
Hub Hall will have 18 offerings, spanning local favorites, international cuisines, health-conscious choices, and more, per today’s announcement. The mix is intended to make the food hall “an authentically Boston dining destination for all ages.”
All three vendors announced today fit squarely into the “local favorites” camp. Mike’s Pastry, Monica’s Mercato, and Sullivan’s are all family-owned Boston institutions, together bringing more than 150 years of service to the table.
Photo courtesy of Monica’s Mercato
The Mendoza family owns the sandwich shop Monica’s Mercato, Monica’s Pasta Shop, and Trattoria di Monica in the North End. Hub Hall will be the family’s first venture beyond that nearby neighborhood, and it will offer Monica’s Best of Boston-worthy sandwiches at a second outpost of Monica’s Mercato.
Photo courtesy of Mike’s Pastry
Mike’s Pastry is an iconic Boston brand, thanks in part to more than 70 years of people arguing about who has the best cannoli (RIP, Maria’s!). Besides the Hanover Street original, it has bakeshops in Harvard Square and at Assembly Row. At Hub Hall, Mike’s Pastry is eyeing the crowd using the nearby North Station commuter rail in an effort to make “bringing treats home that much easier.”
Photo courtesy of Sullivan’s Castle Island
Sullivan’s Castle Island is a seasonal landmark on the South Boston waterfront, but at Hub Hall, it will “give customers a taste of New England summer all year long.” Sullivan’s, which has been open since 1951, temporarily expanded into the Hood Milk Bottle outside of the Boston Children’s Museum. When that opened in 2017, third-generation owner Brendan Sullivan told Boston that Sullivan’s was open to new endeavors “if a situation and spot will work for our brand.” Suffice it to say, a food hall at a crossroads like North Station works for Sullivan’s. Its Hub Hall menu will feature clam strips, lobster rolls, grilled hot dogs, and more.
Patina Restaurant Group hasn’t officially announced other Hub Hall vendors, but a rep today confirms that Mida chef Douglass Williams is bringing a New Haven-inspired pizzeria to the food hall. Called Apizza, Eater Boston has reported that Williams’ pie shop will use high-heat deck ovens, rather than the coal-fired hearths of a traditional New Haven spot like Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana. The innovation will make for fast service at Apizza, Williams told Eater.
Stay tuned for additional vendor announcements as Hub Hall gets ready to open this winter. It’s one of several new food halls for the Boston area. Time Out Market is now open in the Fenway, and High Street Place is coming later this fall with new efforts from chef Tiffani Faison, bartenders Daren Swisher and Joseph Cammarata (Hojoko), and more.
Besides developing the food hall, Patina Restaurant Group is also bringing a new sports bar to the TD Garden area. Banners Kitchen & Tap is on track to open this fall, before Hub Hall, with 60 beers on tap, a gigantic TV screen that’s nearly as wide as the parquet court of the arena below, and a cool virtual golf game.
Along with the Big Night Entertainment projects, the Hub on Causeway will also be home to an Arclight cinema, and the city’s biggest grocery store (a 60,000-square foot Star Market). It boasts a new residential tower called Hub50House, owned by Boston Properties and Delaware North; as well as a new hotel called Citizen M.
Hub Hall, coming winter 2019/2020, the Hub On Causeway, 80 Causeway St., Boston, patinagroup.com.
