Business & Tech

New Café Set for Washington St.

Developers say the 49-seat restaurant will be a "morning business and a night business."

In the vacant lots of Washington Street in Forest Hills there’s typically vehicle traffic and little else. Though, alongside the addition of the Harvest Co-Op, a new café will soon fill out the space.

Kevin Walker, president of WCI Corp., presented plans to build a 49-seat café at 3840 Washington St., which is now a lot south of the Forest Hills T station, at a meeting of the Jamaica Plain Business and Professional Association Wednesday afternoon.

BAPA member Jeffrey Ferris, owner of Ferris Wheels bike shop, said the area is a particularly difficult place to open a restaurant.

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“You don’t have the benefit of being near a residential neighborhood,” he said.

Walker called the café a “morning business and a night business,” adding that he expects it will primarily draw coffee-drinkers and afternoon commuters looking for a bite for dinner.

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“This will be successful,” Walker said.

Walker said he expects the sandwich restaurant, which may be called “Simpli Café,” will open at 5:30 a.m. every day and will have a liquor license.

WCI Corp. also developed the adjacent Arboretum Place, which has been a success, Walker said.


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