The Veneto Comes to Mass Ave

There's an interesting pattern as you move along the north edge of C-port, from the Harvard Bridge to Central Square. There's constant activity in the first few blocks near Lobby 7 and the heart of MIT. After you cross the railroad tracks, there's a major dropoff in vitality, a gap of surface parking lots, and corporate bioresearch buildings before it ramps back up to the MIT Museum, Cambridge Bicycle Co., Miracle of Science, Middlesex and the beginning of the retail strip that runs nearly uninterrupted to Harvard Square. (Some people, none of whom are me, have started trying to identify the area as "LoMa", as in Lower Massachusetts Ave).

The innovation and variety along the Mass Ave corridor is an amazing asset to C-Port--and the thousands of students and visitors that move along it every day, and every address it moves southeastward toward the river bridges that gap. The next small step toward that comes in the form of Central Bottle wine + provisions, a don't-call-it-an-enoteca to be opened next month in the old New England Confectionary Co building (NECCO!) at 196 Mass Ave. Central Bottle will serves small bites and an offering of wines that will expand what's available in the neighborhood. The owners, four Cantabridgians, embrace their new establishment's revitalizing location and hope it provides a taste of the bella vita they found together in Venice. The foodies out there will recognize a few of the owners from Kendall Square's The Blue Room.

Central Bottle hopes to open October 15th.

(h/t Central Square Blog)