Chef Michael Schlow Is Returning to Boston’s Fine Dining Scene

Michael Schlow, a chef who built his name on now-closed Boston restaurants including Financial District fine dining spot Radius and white-tablecloth Italian restaurant Via Matta, is re-entering Boston’s fine dining scene. The gig comes courtesy of Las Vegas-based restaurant group Carver Road Hospitality, which has hired Schlow to lead a forthcoming New England seafood restaurant, Seamark Seafood & Cocktails, and a speakeasy called Old Wives’ Tale, both slated to open inside the Encore casino and hotel in Everett on April 12, according to a press release. In recent years, Schlow has mainly focused on expanding his restaurant empire beyond Boston, but still maintains two food hall stalls in the city (Sauce Burgers at Hub Hall and Italian Kitchen at Time Out Market), plus an outpost of Italian restaurant Alta Strada in Wellesley.

Grace by Nia announces a second location

Hot on the heels of a successful debut in the Seaport last spring, supper club and live music venue Grace by Nia is taking its sparkly show on the road. The restaurant, in partnership with entertainment company Big Night, will be opening a second location at the Foxwoods casino and resort near Norwich, Connecticut. The 5,000-square-foot spot is slated to open in May.

A cream puff chain with a cult following draws lines on Newbury Street

Beard Papa’s, a Japanese cream puff chain with locations across the U.S., made a splashy debut at 232 Newbury Street, in Back Bay, this past weekend. Lines snaked down the block as customers waited for their chance to grab a handful of the chain’s colorful cream puffs in flavors like green tea and Oreo cookie crumble. While this is Beard Papa’s only current location in Massachusetts, it’s actually a return to Boston for the brand: The cream puff chain once ran several Boston locations, including in Chinatown and Allston, but all have since closed.

Two restaurant ownership switch-ups to know

French Vietnamese coffee shop Phinista in Fenway has new ownership; as does beloved Ethiopian restaurant Blue Nile in Jamaica Plain. At Phinista, Yeanie Bach and Phi Pham announced that they’d be moving on in order to spend more time with their daughter. “With the joyous arrival of our new baby girl, we’ve made the decision to prioritize family and be present for this precious time in our lives,” the pair wrote in a post on Instagram. (The announcement did not mention who the new owners are.) At Blue Nile, which was previously run by restaurateur Yosef Haile, ownership has switched hands to Rob Eugene, a prolific Boston entrepreneur who is also behind restaurant and nightlife spot Hue in Back Bay.