New neighbors bring fresh tastes to North Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE -- Massachusetts Avenue north of Porter Square may not look much different than in years gone by. Two - and three - story buildings house mom-and-pop restaurants, shops, and convenience stores, and more often than not you can find a parking spot while running daytime errands.

Unlike the facelift of formerly-funky Harvard Square or the industrial-chic lofts in a gentrified South End, North Cambridge is changing in subtle ways. Still, new condo complexes and an influx of young professionals are attracting businesses that cater to the demographics. On a recent stroll, we found a new location of the Italian market, Capone Foods; the stylish Good Food Cafe; and Verna's, now under new management.

OK, so Capone Foods isn't new, but it's new to Cambridge . After years of planning, Al Capone has opened a second outpost of his Union Square, Somerville, store. "This is the first big jump for us," says Jennifer Capone Hegarty, store manager and daughter of papa Capone. Capone Foods Cambridge is a bright, large, efficient space filled with all the specialty foods from Italy, Spain, and France that have made the Somerville shop a beloved institution.

The difference here is that the cheeses, meats, and olives are all pre-cut and packaged, designed for the harried consumer who needs dinner -- this minute. "Our busiest time is between 5 and 8 p.m., when people arrive for prepared microwave dinners," says Hegarty. But they'll also find all kinds of fresh and frozen selections.

One freezer case is stocked with vegetable lasagna, chicken dinners, and stuffed shells. Another standing freezer has assorted ravioli, tortellini, pasta, gnocchi, sauces, and a recent addition to the Capone repertoire, empanadas in four varieties. Products from Spain, including smoked paprika, red piquillo peppers, quince paste, gazpacho, and Ormaza tuna in olive oil, join dried imported pastas, high-end coffees, and an expanded selection of chocolates.

On a recent afternoon, Luann Stackhouse ran in for some fettuccine Alfredo sauce and fresh pasta. It was dinner for her children, she said, before dashing back to her office.

Lime green and saffron walls, orange chairs, red couches, and a wall of mirrors makes the Good Food Cafe a fashionably casual place to stop for homemade soup, press-grilled sandwiches, salads, and smoothies. Open since May, owner and chef Jim Walsh has been happy with the response he's had from the neighborhood. "I used to live in the area. I looked in Davis and Porter squares but there wasn't much space available to rent," says Walsh, who put in the wainscoting, painted the space, and laid the wood flooring himself. "It took six or seven months to build the place," he says.

After attending University of Massachusetts- Amherst for hotel and restaurant management, Walsh did some catering and then worked in the financial industry for years but didn't like it. His main cooking experiences were with his family in Weymouth. "We're an Irish family who cook like an Italian family. Everyone loves to cook -- my mother, my sister. Cooking defines the family."

Almost everything at Good Food Cafe is made from scratch, including soups (at least one vegetarian offering each day), salad dressings, and cookies. Every morning Walsh cooks a turkey breast for sandwiches he makes with Iggy's bread. "It's not cold cut, mushed-together, processed turkey meat. It's an actual turkey breast," he says.

Up the street is one of the neighborhood's most cherished institutions. The sign outside Verna's reads, "Still Here! Why Don't You Try Us!"

Some neighbors thought this venerable doughnut and coffee shop had closed for good last December. The legendary honey-dipped donut, which Tip O'Neill is said to have fondly recalled on his deathbed, is back in all its sweet and fluffy glory, thanks to Richard Brunet. The man responsible for Verna's resuscitation has been an instructor for 20-plus years in the culinary arts baking program at Somerville High School.

Raised in Somerville, Brunet remembers his grandmother bringing home boxes of doughnuts embossed with Verna's orange bubble-letter logo. (This was replaced over the years by standard black lettering.) His memories are part of the motivation that allowed him, he said, to "seek my dream to own a bakery." Indeed, on the day Verna's officially announced its closing, Brunet knocked on the back door and spoke to the owner, Andy Stasiak, about buying the business. Stasiak agreed to stay open for a training period, and to teach Brunet the recipes for the 24 types of doughnuts that Stasiak's family had been making for 61 years.

Two weeks after knocking on the door, Brunet became the new owner.

"My plan was to stay in this location, keep the name, use the same formulas, and retain much of the original help. Continuity is important. We weren't closed for one day," says the new entrepreneur. In addition to the doughnuts , Brunet is adding a lineup of baked goods using recipes he's worked with for years. He's now featuring more than 30 items, including Bismarks, Napoleons, eclairs, lemon and fig squares, cinnamon sticks, jelly rolls, mocha cakes, and assorted cookies.

The teacher hasn't retired from his day job, so he's hired former student Cliff Soares to make the doughnuts . Brunet arrives after teaching to supervise an expansion -- into the adjacent former cake-decorating shop -- scheduled for completion this fall. Eventually, Brunet will become a full-time baker.

"I'm trying to hold on and recapture some of the past," says a wistful Brunet, pointing at the original bubble-letter logo that he reinstated from long ago.

The new Verna's proves the adage, "Everything old is new again." Even on the new Mass. Ave.

Capone Foods Cambridge
2285 Massachusetts Ave., 617-354-0599

Good Food Cafe
2378 Massachusetts Ave., 617-876-2450

Verna’s
2344 Massachusetts Ave., 617-354-4110