Revival Cafe + Kitchen to open in Town Center

The Starbucks in the Town Center poured its last cup of coffee over two years ago. Soon, locally-run Revival Cafe + Kitchen will open in the vacant space.

Revival Cafe + Kitchen’s Lexington location will open at 1729 Massachusetts Ave is expected to open in the early spring of 2024, the team behind the business said in an interview with the LexObserver. 

“I’m hearing a lot of excitement around our opening, and it’s getting us even more excited,” said Liza Shirazi, co-owner of Revival Cafe + Kitchen, with her business partner, Steve “Nookie” Postal.

Shirazi said the cafe is currently in limbo as the pair are waiting for permits to transition into the building phase. Once opened, the cafe will serve breakfast, lunch, and savory options with a rotating seasonal menu. 

The Lexington addition will be Shirazi and Postal’s fifth location, with three currently open in Somerville, Cambridge, and downtown Boston. The pair had to shut down their former Back Bay location permanently earlier this year. 

“We expect this will be a really great location for us,” Shirazi said. “We have the staff to support it, and now we are excited to get in there and build our relationship with the community.” 

Shirazi, a Lexington resident, said the cafe’s previous location on Newbury Street closed when its short-term lease had ended. She and Postal decided to discontinue operation there, adding that the rent was unaffordable for their business in the long run. 

The pair immediately began to look for new locations, and quickly opened its fourth location on Milk Street in Boston in July. 

“We have a really solid, core management team and we were able to pivot pretty quickly,” from closure, Shirazi said. “The resilience really came from closing one location … and finding new leases to support our growing business now.”

Shirazi selected Lexington as its fifth location when she noticed the former Starbucks space was still vacant and seeking a tenant. Revival’s addition in the Town Center, Shirazi believes, will fill Lexington’s shortage of independently-run coffee shops and quick-serve breakfast and lunch spaces for different audiences throughout the day. 

“I do think it’s going to add a lot of value to the Town Center and it’s filling a niche,” Shirazi said. “Being part of the community, we will have an insight into what people want and need. I think there’s a match for what we’ve been doing.”