Above Restaurant & Bar Targets Aug. 4 for Soft Opening

The second floor of Eden Gourmet will soon reopen to the public, but under a different name. The market's long-awaited restaurant and bar, Above, will have a soft opening on Aug. 4.

The restaurant will seat 150 people in and around the main dining area, which is shaped like a horseshoe around a working fountain. The two separate outside dining areas—facing the upcoming Vose Avenue condos and the train station—will also seat 150 at tables with Hoegaarden umbrellas. The third floor dining area for private parties seats a maximum of 48.

Eden's cafe, which opened in January and focused on brick-oven pizza and make-your-own salads, was shuttered in mid-June so that renovations for the restaurant could commence. It's been replaced with the restaurant's bar area, which has been set up so that patrons seated at the bar will face the windows overlooking South Orange Avenue. The kitchen is still visible from that room, though the brick oven area is now encased in frosted glass.

According to Eden's marketing manager Lia Malatesta, the original plan had been to keep the cafe—which didn't have table service—open and to create a separate entrance so that cafe patrons wouldn't have to walk through the main dining area of the restaurant. However, Eden didn't get the necessary permits from the Village to build the entrance. "We realized there were a lot of logistical problems getting into the cafe without a separate entrance," she said, explaining why Eden's management opted to close the cafe.

Main dishes on Above's menu range from $11 (burger) to $28 (sirloin steak; lamb). It also includes $6-$9 pizzetas in varieties including ahi tuna and margherita.

The restaurant is planning to open next week for dry runs with friends and family members of Eden staff standing in as customers. They're targeting a grand opening on the first weekend of October.