Downtown: GEM, featuring Russian-dressed tater tots in a classy setting, opens this weekend. [Earlier]
Harvard Square: Food Bar, UpStairs on the Square’s pizza restaurant within a restaurant, is slated to open soon. [Earlier]
Brighton: New Balance is coming to town, complete with a complex that includes restaurants. [Globe]
Back Bay: Pig party Cochon 555 happens at the Mandarin Oriental this weekend, and perennial winner Matt Jennings isn’t competing. Grub Street hears that Beard nominee Tim Cushman plans to make something called “Soondae Bloody Soondae.” Blood sausage? [Cochon 555]
Back Bay: Firehouse Subs, a Florida chain specializing in steamed subs, plans to open on Boylston Street in June. [EB]
Allston: Barley Hall will once again be known as Joshua Tree. [UH]
Fenway: Michael Schlow’s Happy’s is slated to open next month. [EB, Earlier]
Seaport: A six-story boutique hotel with a patio-equipped restaurant is moving next door to the Barking Crab. Scenic! [Herald]
North End: My Cousin’s Place has opened on Hanover Street, replacing Contrada’s. [BRT]
Forest Hills: Eugene O’Neill’s, an Irish pub named for a man who certainly knew a thing or two about drinking (and who’s buried nearby in the Forest Hills cemetery), will open in Jamaica Plain this spring. [EB]
Faneuil Hall: Unluckily for touristy boozers, the Purple Shamrock will close in September after 30 years in business. [BRT]
