Boston Garden to Close for Good Jan. 31

After 30 years serving Mainstreet customers, Boston Garden will be closing its doors for good next week, co-owner Felix Kerawala announced Thursday afternoon.

The restaurant will close Jan. 31 when its license expires, Kerawala said. In its place, three former owners of a Bloomington restaurant whose lease expired will be opening a pizzeria. Renovation in the Boston Garden space will start next month, and the new pizzeria should open in the spring.

(Kerawala didn’t immediately have details about the owners or the new restaurant, but he will be putting Patch in touch with them. Patch will have more information afterward.)

The closure is not unexpected. Kerawala, who owns both the restaurant and the building in which it’s located, said in December that he was ready to sell the restaurant after 13 years running the Mainstreet eatery and 16 years at another restaurant before that.

However, he wanted to first find a tenant for the Boston Garden space because he said he couldn’t afford to have the space empty—and he didn’t want Hopkins to have another vacant storefront.

Meanwhile, the new pizzeria derails Twin Cities chef Bill Ansari’s plans to open Adam Basha Café: American Mediterranean Grill and Bakery in the Boston Garden space. Ansari announced in December that he’d be opening the restaurant in February—an announcement that Kerawala quickly shot down as premature since the two hadn’t reached a deal.

Kerawala said Thursday that the two were never able to see eye-to-eye and that Ansari had been hard to deal with, which he said was not the case with the owners of the incoming pizzeria.

Kerawala said he’s enjoyed Boston Garden and its customers, but he thinks residents will like the new pizzeria.

“I’m going to miss them, but it’s time for the next chapter,” he said.

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