July 26, 2024 A Year of Success for Upham’s Corner’s Comfort Kitchen
Comfort Kitchen has seen quite the first year! After opening their doors in January 2023, the team at Comfort Kitchen has jumped from one success to the next and they certainly do not seem to be slowing down. HBI completed the $1.9 rehabilitation of the 1912 Upham’s Corner Comfort Station in December 2022 after acquiring the building in 2018 from the City of Boston. The Comfort Station restaurant is the work of local business partners Biplaw Rai, Nyacko Pearl Perry, Kwasi Kwaa, and Rita Ferreira whose success has brought nearly twenty quality jobs and a new level of healthy and diverse flavors to Upham’s Corner. Their home – the “mission style” stucco building – is also a story of new beginnings. Built as a public bathroom for travelers on the region’s streetcar system, the Upham’s Corner Comfort Station has been transformed for indoor and outdoor dining and is now part of Upham’s Corner’s new National Register Historic District, designated earlier this spring for the significance of the Dorchester North Burying Ground and the neighborhood’s iconic historic commercial buildings, such as the Strand Theatre and the S.B. Pierce Building. Our tiny Comfort Station stands proudly among them.
From early features in Boston Magazine and the Globe, to a celebratory ribbon-cutting attended by Mayor Wu, to landing 2023 Best New Restaurant, to placing amongst the top 50 Restaurants in the US on the New York Times Restaurant List, and a James Beard nomination, the velocity of the Comfort Kitchen continues to climb to stratospheric levels, and they’re taking the neighborhood with them. Here’s the top 10 achievements of the Comfort Kitchen team in their first 18 months of operation:
1. January 26, 2023: Boston Magazine: “Comfort Kitchen brings global flavors to a historic Dorchester space”
2. February 1, 2023: Boston Globe: “An early look at restaurant and cafe Comfort Kitchen”
3. February 24, 2023: WGBH: “Celebrating Black and African American Cuisines means eating around the world” featuring Chef Partner Kwasi Kwaa.
4. March 1, 2023 Biplaw Rai and Kwasi Kwaa feature in NBC10 Special on Comfort Kitchen
5. June 2023: Boston Magazine votes Comfort Kitchen “2023 Best New Restaurant”
6. June 27, 2023: Boston Business Journal: “In Upham’s Corner, a restaurant from the neighborhood for the neighborhood”
7. September 2023: New York Times: “The Restaurant List: The 50 places in the U.S. we’re most excited about right now”
8. December 2023: The Boston Globe: Restaurant of the Year: Comfort Kitchen
9. April 2024: Comfort Kitchen named among the James Beard Award nominees for Best New Restaurant in 2024
10. Boston Magazine: 2024 Best Neighborhood Restaurant, Dorchester: Comfort Kitchen
Comfort Kitchen team at the 2024 James Beard Awards in Chicago this past June.
HBI also helped bring historic preservation awards to Comfort Kitchen. The project’s rehabilitation won both Preservation Massachusetts’ Paul & Niki Tsongas award and the Boston Preservation Alliance’s 2023 award.
While Historic Boston is proud to breathe new life into nearly any historic space, it is the end-user and their mission that brings the impact of HBI’s work full circle. With their thoughtful, heartfelt approach to feeding people, creating job opportunities, and telling the stories of their communities through their dishes, the Comfort Kitchen team has been an extraordinary partner to HBI and its preservation mission. By preserving this little 1912 Comfort Station and working hard to make opportunities available for local entrepreneurs like Comfort Kitchen, HBI is committed to uplifting Boston’s neighborhoods and communities.
Comfort Kitchen has just given their already-stellar menu a reboot, so make your reservations while you can, this itty-bitty award-winning restaurant fills up fast!
Congratulations Comfort Kitchen! And cheers to many more years of tasty creations to come!