Category — Chestnut Hill

The Urban Grape 7 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill (near Star Market) Business hours: Monday through Wednesday, 9:30AM to 9:30PM; Thursday through Saturday 9:30AM to 11:00PM; Sundays from 12:00PM to 6:00PM)

Husband-and-wife team TJ and Hadley Douglas of Boston opened The Urban Grape in 2010 offering a vast selection of wine, spirits, beer and sake with a philosophy of unparalleled customer service coupled with a “no wine snobs” mentality.    What makes the Urban Grape different is the way in which they organize their store; they call it simply, Progressive Shelving. Essentially, the bottles are grouped together by their weight or viscosity. TJ tastes every bottle that comes in (they have a rotating 850 bottle collection) and categorizes the wines by color, then weight. The progressive setup allows customers to experience similarly styled wines that they might not have otherwise tried.

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Tony Moreira, who teaches technology courses at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, has posted an article about a series of items he’s hidden around Newton as part of a “geocaching” project, a scavenger hunt that require the use of GPS technology.

He’s hidden caches in 13 different village locations — even in Thompsonville. (Given today’s forecast, I’m hoping some are located near ice cream vendors.)

Moreira writes:

Childhood memories were the inspiration for the hides, and while looking for each cache, be sure to take in the local sights, shops, and check the cache’s listing at the geocaching.com website for interesting historic information about each location.

At the monthly meeting of the Chestnut Hill Association, WS Development Associates LLC will present its proposal for the demolition and reconstruction of part of the building at 33 Boylston Street.  The proposed new building will include three stories, with new ground floor retail uses, potential second floor office or retail space, and the development company’s corporate offices on the third floor. The developer is also requesting a zoning change because the building will be 50 feet in height.

The meeting will be held at 7pm on Tuesday, June 7th, at the Church of the Redeemer, 379 Hammond Street, in the Parish Hall. For more information, please contact Alexandra Ananth, 617-796-1121, aananth@newtonma.gov.

Macy's soon-to-be-vacant building in Chestnut Hill. (Source: City of Newton)

Within a week, Macy’s will vacate its Chestnut Hill location. This vacancy raises questions about (1) what will become of the building and (2) how a new use of that commercial space may affect the area.

Admittedly, while Chestnut Hill and Thompsonville are listed among the 13 villages of Newton, the area along Route 9 is today more of a commercial corridor than a village center. But its health has implications for its residential neighbors, for nearby villages like Newton Centre, and for Boston College, the city’s largest employer.

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Restaurant Week Boston starts today, and Chef Michael Leviton’s restaurant Lumiere in West Newton is offering diners special special menus March 6-11 and March 13-18 (subject to change).

Lumiere is the only village center restaurant participating. Other Newton restaurants offering Restaurant Week specials include the Riverbend Bar and Grill in Auburndale; Aquitaine, The Capital Grille, and the Metropolitan Club, all in Chestnut Hill; and Bokx 109 American Prime in Lower Falls.

The proposed development of the former Omni Foods site on Route 9 awaits the approval of approximately $15 million in state funding, according to an article in Friday’s Boston Business Journal.

Newton-based New England Development hopes to obtain money from the state’s Infrastructure Investment Incentive Program, known as I-Cubed, to help finance public infrastructure improvements, especially changes to travel lanes and traffic controls along Route 9. These improvements were part of the package Newton aldermen approved last month.

Background: A summary of the board’s order.

Friday’s article notes that the largest previous disbursement from the I-Cubed program for a single project was $10 million for Somerville’s Assembly Square. The funding request for improvements around Chestnut Hill Square may be 50% higher.