HOT RESCUE FROM THE BRINK: Bella Luna Restaurant and The Milky Way Lounge
by
Stuff Boston
| July 27, 2009
After the public was jolted by a scare that it would
disappear forever when the landlord raised the rent, JP’s Bella Luna and Milky
Way Lounge & Lanes, a Centre Street landmark in most hipsters’ minds,
relocated to slick new digs in the Brewery Complex and opened its doors as Bella
Luna Restaurant & The Milky Way Lounge (284 Amory Street,
Jamaica Plain, 617.524.3740) in late April. Sadly, the
so-kitschy-they’re-fabulous bowling lanes were left behind, but we hear that
competitive types will be able to go head to head with free Wii bowling nights.
And there are DJs or live musicians nearly every night in the Milky Way section
of the space. Regulars may miss the live-band karaoke (which, we hear, could
possibly make a comeback one of these days), but everything else is intact —
and sometimes even improved. There’s room for more diners than before, and
that’s without counting the patio, which can seat about 35 and is slated to
open in early August. And the meandering bar is more than double the size of
the one back in the subterranean pad. The signature lighting fixtures with
star-cutout shades grace the new space with cosmic luminosity, and you’ll still
find the gourmet but down-to-earth pizzas on the bigger and better menu. Folks
in the neighborhood and beyond are over the moon.