Walk north on Tremont from the Calderwood Pavilion and three neighboring storefronts each tell a different part of the same story. At 570 Tremont, the old Aurora Market & Bakery space now sells bagels. At 560, Frenchie is still taking reservations for a dinner service that already has a replacement lined up. At 550, the windows of the former B&G Oysters have been dark since a flood in December 2024, and the restaurant meant to fill them is about six months away.
On this block, the order of events has been the reverse of what you might expect. The legal handoff comes first. A liquor license or a common victualler license changes hands, or a petition to move one shows up on a city hearing notice. The chef, the concept and the opening date come after. Twice this year, the first public sign of what was coming to a South End corner was a filing.
Three doors, three handoffs
| Address | Was | Becoming | Where it stands as of October 10, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 570 Tremont St. | Aurora Market & Bakery | Brick Street Bagels | Open since mid-September |
| 560 Tremont St. | Frenchie | Osteria560, proposed | License transfer hearing October 14 |
| 550 Tremont St. | B&G Oysters | The Shell Bar | Renovations over winter, Spring 2027 target |
Each row got to the right-hand column by a different route. The longest of the three, and the one that set the pattern, is at 550.
How a liquor license became the lure at 550
B&G Oysters ran at 550 Tremont from 2003 until late 2024, a run of about two decades that made it one of the street's fixtures. Reports differ on why it ended. Universal Hub ties the shutdown to a December 2024 flood. MassLive described Barbara Lynch as deciding to retire. Boston Magazine points to both the flood and the wider wind-down of her restaurant group.
The turning point came in February 2026. That month the Boston Licensing Board approved a plan to transfer B&G's liquor license to the owner of 550 Tremont as settlement for outstanding rent. The building's owner told the board, through his lawyer, that he had no plans to run a restaurant himself. He would use the license to attract a chef willing to open one there.
In Boston a license can be harder to find than an empty room, and that offer proved enough. About six months later the Saltie Girl team announced The Shell Bar for the space. Reporting names restaurateur Kathy Sidell, Sidell Hospitality culinary director Matthew Gaudet, and Ben Sidell, the group's managing director, who will develop the desserts.
The plan is deliberately small for a corner that once drew crowds from across the city:
- 38 indoor seats and 22 on the patio, according to Boston Magazine, plus a four-seat bar and possible extra sidewalk seating. The coverage doesn't say whether the bar seats are part of the 38.
- A seasonal raw bar, seafood towers, and kettle-fried fish and chips.
- Lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch.
Patch describes it as neighborhood-oriented, and the menu fits a place you could walk to on a weeknight. Renovations are planned for this winter. Boston.com and the restaurant's own site both list the opening as Spring 2027, with no firmer date yet.
Frenchie's paperwork showed up before any farewell
Next door at 560, the same kind of process is running much faster. On October 8 the city posted a Licensing Board notice for a virtual hearing on October 14 at 10 a.m. Cazarossi, LLC, doing business as Frenchie, is asking to transfer its common victualler license and its seven-day wine, malt, and liqueurs license to 562 Tremont, LLC, doing business as Osteria560.
That one notice spells out more of the new restaurant than any announcement so far. The plans show a first-floor dining room, bar, kitchen, and greenhouse dining area, a garden-level kitchen with storage and restrooms, and a 17-seat seasonal patio. The proposed closing time is midnight. Boston Restaurant Talk found the filing the day it was posted. A day later, Aquitaine Group founder and executive chef Seth Woods confirmed to What Now Boston that Osteria560 is his group's project. He described an ingredient-driven Italian concept aiming to open in late 2026 or early 2027, depending on the license transfer.
Frenchie itself has made no public goodbye. The Parisian wine bistro opened in early 2017, following Kitchen and, before that, Pops Restaurant at the same address. As of October 10, its online reservation page still showed same-day bookings and open tables for October 11. No last day of service has been reported. Until the board rules on October 14, Osteria560 is still a proposal.
At 550, the building owner held a license and went looking for a chef. At 560, the exiting business is handing its licenses straight to the incoming one. Both paths ran through the same board.
The one door that already opened
At 570, the change is already finished and doesn't run through a liquor license at all. Aurora Market & Bakery closed in July, and Boston Restaurant Talk reported its last day as the Sunday before July 20. One week later, Brick Street Bagels announced the space would be its permanent South End shop. The business had started as a South End popup and by then had a storefront on West Broadway in South Boston, with another planned for Charles Street on Beacon Hill. Its Instagram announcement read:
Brick by brick we've been building in the South End. So many people, places and memories in the neighborhood where this all began. At long last we've found a permanent home here @ 570 Tremont.
A September 18 update to the same report said the shop had opened. Before that, its bagels were sold at the Clarendon Street location of the South End Buttery, so many South End neighbors had probably tried them before the storefront opened.
On this block, a counter-service bagel shop took about two months to go from announcement to open doors. The two full-service restaurants with bars next door are on timelines measured in seasons, and each depends on a license changing hands first.
Down the street, a closing with no successor named
The 400 block shows what it looks like when a storefront closes without a filing behind it. Rome Pizza at 416 Tremont closed in September after 30 years. The owners' farewell, signed "George & Jocelyne," thanked customers and said they were moving on to the next chapter of their lives.
As of this writing, no local reporting has named a replacement for 416 Tremont. No transfer petition has made news either, so the city's notices have nothing to say yet about what's coming. If something is on the way, the 550 block suggests the first clue will probably be a hearing notice, well before any paper goes up in the windows.
Dates on the block's calendar
From today, October 10, here is what's set:
- October 11 through November 15. The last Sundays of the SoWa Open Market season, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 500 Harrison Ave. and Thayer Street. November 15 is the listed finale.
- October 14, 10 a.m. The Licensing Board's virtual hearing on the Frenchie-to-Osteria560 transfer.
- November 20 through December 27. The SoWa Christmas Market, which SoWa lists with more than 100 vendors at the SoWa Power Station, 550 Harrison Ave.
- This winter. Renovations at 550 Tremont ahead of The Shell Bar.
- Late 2026 or early 2027. Osteria560's target window, if the transfer is approved.
- Spring 2027. The Shell Bar's planned opening.
For now, the bagel shop at 570 is the only one of the three that's open, Frenchie is still serving at 560, and 550 is waiting on a winter build-out. By next spring, all three doors could be open under new names.
If you own on or near Tremont and want to talk through how changes like these affect your street, the team at Donnelly + Co follows the South End block by block and is always happy to compare notes. Contact Us.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
