Two New Eateries Open at Star-Crossed Sites

Two new restaurants in Harvard Square seek to break the curse of their predecessors.

Both eateries have opened in the past week at locations where previous occupants lost leases after seeing their business dwindle. But the owners of Small Plates Restaurant and Oggi say they can succeed where others have failed.

Oggi, a cafe which specializes in pizzas, filled the space left by Italian restaurant Campo de Fiori in the Holyoke Center. Campo de Fiori, which similarly offered sandwiches and pizzas, closed after it lost its lease. Farther south on JFK Street, Small Plates Restaurant serves tapas bistro—but lacks the city license it needs to serve wine. The owner of Small Plates, Jerome R. Picca, said he has had trouble securing a license from Cambridge because the last restaurant in that space, Conundrum, went bankrupt in March. Before that, Cafe Iruña offered traditional Spanish dishes there.

But for now, Picca still calls his restaurant, which opened Oct. 27, a wine bar.

In anticipation of a liquor license, he has been issuing coupons to customers for a free glass of wine to be poured at an unspecified date.

Small Plates offers food categories such as the French “pour potager” and the Italian “pan bagna.” Picca said he also hopes to support New England farmers by varying the menu according to the availability of local ingredients.

Despite its sequestered location at 56 JFK St., Picca said his restaurant has bookings with visitors from the Harvard Law and Business Schools.

Oggi, which opened last Monday, moved from Boston’s Financial District because owner Steve Welch wanted to broaden his customer base.

“While we were there it was usually only a two-hour window of business,” Welch said. “The same people came all at once during lunch, and no one in the morning or night.”

Welch said he had to spend more than three months renovating the equipment he had inherited from Campo de Fiori.

The restaurant started in the kitchen of a catering business in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood and is noted for its “daily special” pizza, such as a Bartlett pear and spinach combination.

“Our name is symbolic. I really wanted a word to express that the specialty of the day wouldn’t be offered tomorrow, or the next day, or even in a year,” Welch said.

While Oggi serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, its busiest hours are during lunch. Welch said students and tourists make up a large part of the business.

Holyoke Center, which usually closes at eight, keeps its doors open until 9 p.m. for Oggi.

“I really appreciate the constant foot traffic here,” Welch said. “The arcade has a nice inside-outside feel. People can sit and eat, get away from their desks for a while.”

Welch said he is considering other branches on college campuses or residential neighborhoods.

“I want to be as involved with Harvard as possible, period,” he said.

Some Harvard students, however, find the Holyoke Center location inconvenient.

“Honestly, I rarely ever go in that direction,” Lisa Yu ’11 said, “I can just eat at Annenberg.”