Update 5:40 p.m. EST: Stoked says via twitter that the rumors linking them to T.T. The Bear’s are “not true,” adding: “I know where it came from and understand how, but sadly not something that ever was seriously discussed.”
Longtime Cambridge rock club T.T. The Bear’s Place is scheduled to close on July 25, creating an air of uncertainty about what will eventually replace it at 10 Brookline Street in Central Square. With the building owned by Joseph and Nabil Sater of the adjacent Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub, there is the wide assumption that it will continue to operate as a live music venue.
But sources have told Vanyaland that the 340-capacity room could take on a whole new flavor — as a pizzeria.
We’re told that the owners of Stoked Wood Fired Pizza Co., which includes Letters to Cleo bassist and longtime Boston music producer Scott Riebling, have had talks to open their first brick-and-mortar location in the soon-to-be-former home of T.T.’s.
An email sent to Stoked Wood Fired Pizza Co. for comment was not immediately returned.
UPDATE 3:53 p.m.: Via Twitter, Stoked says this is all news to them. They also just tweeted out “Not true.”
@RachelCraves @vMichaelv Uh, first I have heard of this. Not true, at all.
— Stoked Pizza (@StokedPizza) June 8, 2015
[Original post continued below]
Of course, this is all speculation, and it’s unlikely that anyone will comment until a deal is struck. But while some of the rumors about 10 Brookline St.’s future include another independent rock club opening or the Middle East renovating its downstairs to make use of the space, word is that Stoked are in contact with the Saters about setting up a permanent pizzeria residence.
Successful food truck businesses expanding into brick-and-mortar locations are becoming increasingly common. Roxy’s Grilled Cheese opened an Allston shop last year, and Clover Food Lab, which opened a storefront a few weeks ago in the space across from the Middle East where Hi-Fi Pizza was located, began as a food truck around Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008 before opening several shops around Boston and Cambridge.
Learn more about Stoked via the video below, as well as this Boston Magazine feature from March 2014…