December 11, 2024
Fresh News for the Neighborhood You Love
Caffè Nero is set to open its JP location on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015. Credit: Chris Helms
Jamaica Plain’s newest coffee shop, Caffè Nero, is scheduled to open at 8 a.m. Thursday. While many residents have welcomed the family-owned coffee house, others decry an international chain planting its flag in competition with mom-and-pop coffee purveyors.
Despite opposition from some residents who wanted to keep the international chain out of JP — but with strong support from others — the city’s Licensing Board approved Caffè Nero‘s permit to serve food. This means the European-style coffee house has cleared all the red tape it needs before opening across from Blanchards.
Caffè Nero, the international coffee house chain on the verge of gaining approval to open in JP, committed verbally to a list of neighborhood demands but won’t sign the document.
A neighborhood advisory group won’t give its blessing for Caffè Nero to open in JP until the international coffee house chain crafts a “memorandum of understanding” with it.
A very large coffee chain in Europe, Caffe Nero, who does not regularly pay their taxes is close to coming to 733 Centre Street, right next to Blanchards. They already have one cafe in downtown Boston and plan on opening up to 10 more in the next five years.
Today there is the ZBA meeting at 10:30 on the 8th floor at City Hall AND THE JPNC PUBLIC SERVICE COMT MEETING AT 7:00 TONIGHT AT CURTIS HALL where they both will address Caffe Nero. Come to one or both of the meetings if you can!
Give Caffè Nero executives credit — they waded into a basement meeting room crammed with local business owners already on record as not wanting the international coffee house chain in Jamaica Plain.
