Brookline Village's Restaurants Are Changing Hands. Here's Who Holds the Keys Now.

At 6 Harvard Square, Garrison House has a pub upstairs, a lounge downstairs called Village Social Club, and a takeout window on the side street that dates from its pandemic-era opening. Before that the address was Magnolia Smokehouse. Next it is slated to become Clementine. In that whole run, the space has stayed in restaurant use.

The same thing is happening up and down the Village this fall. A wine shop is back under its founder. A kosher Mediterranean counter is passing from its owner to the manager who has been running the kitchen. The liquor license at 6 Harvard Square has been sold, furniture included, to the next operator. Brookline Village's businesses are being handed from one set of owners to the next, and most of the time the door stays open during the handoff.

6 Harvard Square Sold Its License, and the Furniture Went With It

Brookline.News reported on Oct. 20 that Garrison House, a gastropub that opened in late 2021, is closing. Restaurateur Mathew Freid's new bar and restaurant, Clementine, is taking over the space. According to town licensing documents cited in that report, Clementine paid $315,000 for Garrison House's liquor license plus other assets, including furniture.

That price explains why this kind of turnover rarely leaves a dark storefront. The license and the furnished room have value to whoever opens next, so the outgoing operator has a buyer for them and the incoming one starts with a working restaurant instead of a bare shell. Boston Restaurant Talk notes that Garrison House was run by Hawkeye Hospitality, the group behind Elm Street Taproom, Five Horses Tavern and The Chester Tavern.

Freid brings his own track record. He owned Idle Hour in downtown Quincy from 2017 to 2024 and previously worked at the Beehive, Capo and JM Curley in Boston. Here is what the filings describe for Clementine, set against what Garrison House runs today:

The town's hearing on the license transfer was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 21. Brookline.News explained that once a transfer is approved, the license still has to be physically picked up before the new restaurant can sell alcohol. In its Oct. 20 report, Freid had not announced an opening date. For regulars, that means Garrison House's last stretch and Clementine's first night are both still unscheduled in public.

Sorriso Market Went Back to the Person Who Built It

The second handoff on Harvard Street ran in the opposite direction. Sorriso Market, the wine and gourmet food shop at 27 Harvard St., closed its Coolidge Corner arcade location and then sold its Brookline Village store in 2023. According to Brookline.News, the firm that bought it went bankrupt in 2025, and after months of legal proceedings the original owner, Nick Lisotto, was able to take the business back.

He reopened in the same space around the start of September, with the floor rearranged for gatherings. Brookline.News listed the plans: wine tastings that run from casual Tuesday nights to openings of one-of-a-kind bottles, balsamic tastings, and eventually pasta-making workshops. A private membership gives access to the deep cellar and the rarest bottles.

"I've shifted kind of the focus of the store to be more encompassing, as opposed to before when I sold my pasta, wine and some art," Lisotto told Brookline.News. "We're going to amp up the art gallery piece as well."

September was a soft opening, Wednesday through Sunday, with the full lineup of events and offerings scheduled to return in October. Those were September hours, so check the shop's Instagram, @sorrisomarket, for the current schedule before you walk over.

This handoff kept more than the space. Shoppers who knew the old Sorriso get the same owner back at the same address, with a store now organized around tastings and events.

On Cypress Street, the Manager Is Becoming the Owner

The third handoff is the quietest. At Za'Tar, the kosher Mediterranean restaurant at 10 Cypress St. across from CVS, Mola Mekonant became general manager in June and is now taking over full ownership, Brookline.News reported in September.

Under him, the restaurant is already changing:

• The room, once bare bones, is painted a deep sage green with warm wood tables and a matching counter. Black-and-white photos of his mother and grandmother hang on the wall.
• The menu is shorter and built on his own recipes, starting with a hummus he estimates he makes at about 375 pounds a week.
• Burekas are off the menu for now. He took off the more labor-intensive items until he has the capacity to make them properly.
• Pink beet tahini and green mint tahini are planned as add-ons for bowls and sandwiches.
• The sabich, the falafel and the kebabs remain among the most popular orders, and a meal can end with Turkish coffee brewed in a traditional metal pot.

The name will change too. Once he has full ownership, Mekonant plans to rename the restaurant Mola, his first name, which means "satisfied" in Amharic. "We make the food from scratch every day," he told the paper. So if a new sign goes up on Cypress Street this winter, it means the ownership transfer has finished. The restaurant isn't closing.

The Owners Who Haven't Handed Anything Off

Every one of these handoffs depends on a neighborhood where a restaurant is worth buying, buying back or growing into. The Village's longest-running owners show why that holds. Josh and Jen Ziskin have owned La Morra at 48 Boylston St. since 2003. In 2021 they opened Punch Bowl at 700 Brookline Ave. after the Hilton Garden Inn approached them to run it.

In an October profile in Brookline.News, Josh said Punch Bowl had moved from more adventurous dishes toward approachable ones, while leaving room for a seasonal pizza or an olive-oil-poached striped bass. Jen is wine director at both restaurants and called a wine list built entirely around women producers, winemakers and vineyard managers "really fun to curate."

"Brookline is loyal to the end." — Josh Ziskin, to Brookline.News

Twenty-three years at one address and a second restaurant added within the last five give the clearest local evidence of the demand that the newer owners are buying into.

Who's Behind Each Counter This Fall

Junbi is the only true newcomer on the list. The Brookline Record reported that CT Nguyen opened the Los Angeles-born matcha franchise at 190 Washington St. in July, its second East Coast location.

The Date Already on the Village Calendar

The next fixed event in the Village is ArtsBrookline's Brookline Village Holiday Market at Station Street Studios, 17 Station St.

1. Opening reception: Friday, Dec. 11, 5 to 9 p.m.
2. Market: Saturday, Dec. 12 and Sunday, Dec. 13, noon to 4 p.m.
3. Market: Saturday, Dec. 19, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
4. Market: Sunday, Dec. 20, noon to 4 p.m.

Station Street sits a short walk from Harvard Square, Sorriso's counter and La Morra's door on Boylston. For anyone still waiting on Clementine, the Brookline Farmers' Market is another stop between now and then. It runs Thursdays from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. through Nov. 19 at the Centre Street West Parking Lot in Coolidge Corner, not in the Village.

When a Village storefront changes owners, the room, the license and the regulars usually carry over to the next operator. If you own nearby and want to understand how changes like these affect what your home is worth, Miller & Co. Team can walk you through it. Request a free home valuation or connect with the Miller & Co. team.