Krista Kranyak drops hickory and walnut wood chips into a small smoker set over a rocks glass and lights them with a handheld torch. The smoke curls down over a smoked old fashioned made with Nkd bourbon, a spirit with no alcohol in it. She is standing behind the bar at 597 Centre Street, where she has worked off and on for most of three decades. She worked here when the room was chef Tim Partridge's Perdix. She opened Ten Tables in the same room in 2002. In April 2026 she reopened it as Beyond Proof, which Boston Magazine called the city's first non-alcoholic cocktail bar.
Her switch is the clearest example of what happened to this stretch of Centre Street over the past year. Four storefronts between 597 and 660 Centre got new tenants, and each one is built around a single thing: drinks without alcohol, Japanese shaved ice, Dominican fried chicken, coffee and a place to study. Two more announced projects at 606 and 668 have yet to open.
The Room That Changed the Most Had the Longest Tenant
Beyond Proof is small and focused. Boston Magazine's May profile describes a 40-seat, 800-square-foot room run by Kranyak and one bartender. They handle all the food and drink: thirteen cocktails, a few non-alcoholic wines and beers, broadly Mediterranean mezze and a handful of larger entrees. Cocktails cost $13. The bar uses craft amari, house-made syrups, rose oil and cacao grated at the table.
The backstory is what makes 597 the anchor of the block. Kranyak once ran five restaurants, including Ten Tables locations in Cambridge and Provincetown. She sold them off and kept only the original in Jamaica Plain. She spent time as a broker at Corbett Restaurant Group, where she kept telling clients that Boston could use a good zero-proof bar. Then she put the last Ten Tables up for sale. When that sale fell through, her wife suggested she open the bar herself.
Six months later, it's still going. Beyond Proof's OpenTable page lists evening reservations for this week, and it has a diner review dated September 25, 2026.
Every Door on the Block Has a Lineage
Most of the new arrivals took over rooms that had already hosted several concepts. Here is how the block reads as of early October 2026, pieced together from Jamaica Plain News and the businesses' own announcements.
| Address | Earlier tenants | Now | Status, fall 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 597 Centre St. | Perdix, then Ten Tables from 2002 | Beyond Proof, zero-proof bar | Open since April |
| 606 Centre St. | Not reported | Mr. Drinky, cocktail bar with light fare | Announced in March, opening not confirmed |
| 613 Centre St. | When Pigs Fly, closed August 2025 | Café Selah | Open since April |
| 660A Centre St. | 100% Delicias, Fritay, The Hub | Equis Pica Pollo | Operating by September |
| 660B Centre St. | Cacao 2018 to 2022, Bluefin 2024 to March 2026 | Gori & Co., kakigori café | Open since June |
| 668 Centre St. | Not reported | Unnamed fusion tapas restaurant | Proposed in March, no name yet |
The two doors at 660 Centre have turned over most often, so that's where the specialist pattern is easiest to see.
Two Doors at 660, Two Single-Item Menus
Bluefin, the fish market at 660B, had sold chowder, oysters and lobster rolls since opening in 2024. Owner Jason Tucker announced on Facebook that it closed permanently in March. The business didn't leave the neighborhood. Tucker said Bluefin would keep selling seafood at the Jamaica Plain Farmers Market on Saturdays and Tuesdays, and at the Roslindale Winter Market.
Gori & Co. took over the 660B storefront. Owner Delasie Dela-Seshie Jr. grew up in Dorchester and found kakigori on a trip to Japan. He told What Now Boston that Gori would be the city's first kakigori-inspired café, and he described the texture as "closer to a perfect fresh snow rather than the snow cones or slushes that come to mind." The room was planned for about 15 to 18 seats, with a menu that rotates by season and sweetness levels that customers can adjust. Before it opened, the business raised money through a NuMarket campaign that offered perks to backers.
Boston.com listed Gori as open in June. It described the flavors as matcha and sweet red bean, classic strawberry and chocolate, and a mango chamoy topped with house-made mango syrup, fresh mango, chamoy, lime and Tajín. The shop also planned to sell onigiri and spam musubi on the side. Its website still says "NOW OPEN" this month. A place listing updated October 1 shows the shop closed on Tuesdays, so check its Instagram before you plan a cold-weather visit.
Next door, 660A has had more turnover still. Jamaica Plain News traced it from 100% Delicias, which served Dominican empanadas and mofongo, to the Caribbean restaurant Fritay, then to The Hub, which closed this spring. Equis Pica Pollo took over the space next. It's a Dominican-style fried chicken chain, and this is its seventh location. It's the chain's second in Boston, after Blue Hill Avenue; the others are in New York and New Jersey.
The menu at 660A is short. You order fried chicken by the piece count, from 3 to 12, choose tostones or French fries as a side, and can add Dominican fried rice. Jamaica Plain News summed it up as "That's about it for entrees." The June article didn't give an opening date, but a DoorDash order review dated September 9, 2026 shows the Centre Street location was serving by then.
At 613, a Bakery Became a Study Café
When Pigs Fly closed at 613 Centre in August 2025. Café Selah opened there early this April. On Instagram it calls itself "study friendly," and its menu is built around coffee. The house "Signatures" list includes an affogato, a berry mocha latte, an island foam latte, a passion fruit matcha and a shaken brown sugar espresso. There are four frappes: caramel, coffee, mocha and pistachio. The food runs to a ham and Swiss croissant, a BLT, a chipotle chicken melt, an avocado cobb salad, pastries and pastelitos.
When it opened, the café posted hours of 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends, which makes it the earliest door on this stretch. It's still serving this fall. Its delivery menu now has a "FALL AT SELAH" section, and the most recent dated order review is from September 23, 2026.
What's Still Behind the Paper
Two projects on the block haven't been confirmed as open, and the most recent public reports on both date from March.
- Mr. Drinky, 606 Centre St. Jamaica Plain News reported on March 24 that the craft cocktail bar with light fare had received an alcohol license from the Boston Licensing Board, but little work had been done at the site. No opening has been reported since.
- Fusion tapas restaurant, 668 Centre St. The proposal reported on March 25 had no name, planned to serve alcohol, and showed little or no visible work.
If both open, the block will have a licensed cocktail bar four doors up from the zero-proof one at 597.
One Way to Walk It This Month
The block's hours run from early morning to evening, so you can cover it in a single day, heading north to south:
- Morning at Café Selah, 613 Centre. It opens at 6:30 on weekdays, per its posted hours, and the fall menu is new.
- Lunch or a late-afternoon snack at Equis Pica Pollo, 660A Centre. Order chicken with tostones, or take a box home.
- Shaved ice at Gori & Co., 660B Centre. It's next door, but confirm the hours before going, especially on a Tuesday.
- Evening at Beyond Proof, 597 Centre. OpenTable showed seatings from 6 to 8 p.m. this week, and the smoked old fashioned is the drink Kranyak makes at the table.
And on Saturdays and Tuesdays, Bluefin's seafood is still at the Jamaica Plain Farmers Market, even though its old storefront now sells shaved ice.
We follow every storefront change on Centre Street because it's how we know which blocks are gaining foot traffic and what a home near them is worth. If you own near the 600 block and want to hear what the new businesses could mean for your home's value, Juan Real Estate Group will walk the block with you and put together a free valuation, no pressure attached.
