Ames Street Deli and Study (Recently Merged as ‘Study at Ames’) Closed

Photo by Jared Kuzia for Best of Boston 2016

Bad news for Ames Street Deli fans. As of Tuesday, July 12, the popular Cambridge spot has closed for the foreseeable future. A note posted out front reads, “Ames Street Deli is closed until further notice. We’re sorry to dissapoint you.”

A rep confirms the news. In late June, it was announced that Ames Street and next-door neighbor Study would merge due to a shortage of staff. The press release cited the city’s chefs shortage as the reason the two concepts were merging as Study at Ames:

While Study has seen much success since opening in November 2014, being lauded locally as a “Best New Restaurant” by both Boston Magazine and The Boston Globe Magazine, ultimately the technique-driven daily-changing menu became increasingly more difficult to execute with the limited restaurant and kitchen staff available in the Boston area. Always wanting to put their best foot forward, and not shying away from change (as exhibited by the group’s recent wood-fire overhaul of the Journeyman kitchen and introduction of Monday-Wednesday a-la-carte offering Heat), Owners Tse Wei Lim, Diana Kudayarova and Sam Treadway have decided to run their space in Kendall not as two separate concepts, but as one super-restaurant.

Back in the kitchen full-time is Owner Tse Wei Lim, who got his start alongside partner Diana Kudayarova at their popular home supper club that eventually spun its way into Journeyman.

Ames Street has previously been recognized for its standout fare, from pastries to sandwiches, and superlative cocktails—we awarded them our 2016 Best of Boston award for Best Cocktail Bar, and just today, the Globe published a “how to” for the Brazilian Limeade by Ames Street’s Ginny Areizaga.

Ames is hardly the only restaurant that was or is negatively affected by Boston’s chefs shortage. (For more on that, read Corby Kummer’s in-depth look at “The Great Cooks Shortage.”)

It’s also not the only crowd favorite to call it quits this week. Central Square’s River Gods also closed.