JP's Bella Luna To Reopen In Collaboration With The Haven

JAMAICA PLAIN, MA — The brewery-based restaurant and venue Bella Luna will now reopen after closing due to COVID-19 in March in collaboration with the Haven, another Jamaica Plain treasure just around the corner.

Bella Luna co-owner Kathy Mainzer, created a Facebook post saying say she is re-opening the place in December - in collaboration with Jason Waddleton, owner of the Haven, the Boston area's only Scottish restaurant.

The original Haven, in Hyde Square, will remain open and the combined Bella Luna/Haven space will occupy the Brewery complex, featuring food, live music, and events.

In the Facebook post, Mainzer explained that partnering with the Haven was the best way to keep the restaurant alive after receiving a large federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant after it had closed and creating a GoFundMe campaign to help the staff.

"By teaming up, we are able to make the small business vendors whole and launch a refreshed concept with priority for jobs given to former Bella Luna staff," Mainzer said in the post.

Back in April, Waddleton appeared before the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council to explain his plans to move into a larger space. He signaled that he had been eyeing the vacant Brewery Complex left behind from when Bella Luna closed from the pandemic, according to an article from Universal Hub.

Waddleton said he is looking at a guest-chef series, in which chefs from other parts of the city would spend a weekend or week preparing their own dishes, in addition to expanding his existing menu at the new location. The article from Universal Hub says he also wants to make the Haven a new music venue for JP residents and musicians.

Just down the street, the Frogmore, a southern-style popular Jamaica Plain restaurant shut its doors for the pandemic and never reopened, and loyal patrons to Bella Luna thought they were expecting the same fate.

This new arrangement between two of Jamaica Plain's popular restaurant spots sparks a relationship no one thought possible in a pre-pandemic world but allows a struggling industry to remain on its feet for now.