Centre Street Cafe

Front and Centre

A Date-Friendly Italian Joint Rises in JP

None 3 Photos Centre Street Cafe
Centre Street Cafe is coming back. And nothing’s changed.

With the exception of everything.

Welcome to its second life as a lasagna-laden, date-night promised land, opening tomorrow in Jamaica Plain.

For 17 years, Centre Street Cafe reigned supreme as a no-fuss joint for stir-fried noodles and enchiladas. Well, that chapter ended in June when the Tres Gatos team decided to take it over with chefs from Rialto and Clio. Going Italian was proposed. No one disagreed. And here we are.

You may, however, recognize those same date-appropriate two-tops. That’s about it, though. There definitely weren’t any whitewashed tin panels and walls treated to look like Italian tile work last time. (See the slideshow here.)

In fact, it’s become the kind of place you’d take a comely accomplice to get acquainted over buckwheat lasagna with kale-and-sage pesto and a bottle of Sicilian red (here’s the sample menu).

But part of you might miss the old place. And that part of you is advised to return when their diner-style brunch launches sometime next month, complete with recreated dishes from their previous incarnation like the notorious Truck Stop Breakfast with eggs, sausage, hash browns and pancakes.

You weren’t expecting pancakes three sentences ago.

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