Category: Newton Beacon

Newton has its first Michelin-recommended restaurant.

Thistle & Leek is among 26 Greater Boston restaurants featured in the new Michelin Guide Boston 2025. The British-inspired gastropub in Newton Centre, which opened in 2020, is the only Newton restaurant in Michelin’s first-ever Boston dining guide.

Thistle & Leek—a “true neighborhood gem” with “a kitchen that doesn’t cut corners,” says Michelin’s entry—is the effort of chef-owners Kate and Trevor Smith, who have been together for 17 years.

“It’s a long-standing, worldwide, highly respected guide, so it means a lot to be part of it,” Kate, 42, said. “We’re just hoping it keeps us nice and busy, and a place that people want to work.”

Michelin’s selection process is “very secretive,” Kate said, and the restaurant’s mention in the guide came as a surprise. Michelin inspectors dine anonymously and pay for their own meals to fly under the radar and keep their opinions independent.

A note sent to Thistle & Leek’s general information email invited Kate and Trevor to the Michelin Guide Northeast Cities Ceremony in Philadelphia on Nov. 18.

“We showed up to the ceremony not really knowing what to expect at all,” Kate said. “It was pretty amazing to be on the stage with a group of extremely talented chefs and just to be recommended by Michelin.”

Recognition from Michelin is a “huge honor,” Kate said, but accolades were never the goal for Thistle & Leek.

“We’ve never done any of what we do with the hopes of getting that recognition,” she said. “[Michelin is] looking for people who are true to themselves, who are cooking what means something to them, cooking something that is inspiring to them.”

Trevor, 43, said he thinks Michelin values unique stories and themes in the restaurants it recognizes.

“Our food definitely has a personality and a style in and of itself,” he said. “There’s a classical European theme that runs through it, and that is reflective of our travels and who we are as people and where we’ve cooked previously.”

Thistle & Leek was inspired most by the couple’s honeymoon, Trevor said. During three months traveling across Europe, they ate at a handful of neighborhood restaurants run by people who had worked previously in Michelin-starred establishments—gastropubs in England, bistros in France. 

The restaurant’s name is an ode to the couple’s ancestry. The thistle is the national flower of Scotland, where much of Kate’s ancestry is from, and the leek is a symbol of Wales, where much of Trevor’s ancestry is from, Kate said.

Thistle & Leek’s small-plates format was born from Trevor’s experience cooking at Coppa, an Italian small-plates enoteca in the South End, and Kate’s at Toro, a South End tapas restaurant. Toro also earned a recommendation in the new Boston Michelin Guide.

“Both of us have come from fine-dining backgrounds, where tasting menus were king,” Trevor said. “In a way, small plates are that tasting menu, slightly shifted.”

Kate and Trevor met working at a French fine-dining restaurant, the now-closed Craigie Street Bistro in Cambridge. Owning a restaurant together had been “a goal for a long time,” Trevor said, before they opened Thistle & Leek in Newton Centre in September 2020.

“Working together is hard,” Kate said. “We see each other all the time, but it’s also in the context of the stress of the day-to-day work. But we also can’t imagine doing anything else.”

This is the first time Michelin has recognized Boston with its own dining guide. The South End’s 311 Omakase, a Japanese restaurant, earned the city its first and only Michelin Star.

Michelin released its first North American guide in 2005 for New York and has since expanded its guides for cities and regions across the continent, including Chicago, Toronto and the American South. Its highest award is the Michelin Star, marking exceptional cuisine, but it also distinguishes restaurants as “recommended.”

The arrival of Michelin in Boston is a push for Boston-area restaurants to “up their game and make us a more recognizable city,” Trevor said. It gives restaurants a feat to aspire to and keeps those on the guide determined to return next year.

Thistle & Leek is one of three restaurants on the Boston guide not located in Boston or Cambridge. The others are Mahaniyom, a Thai restaurant in Brookline, and Nightshade Noodle Bar, a French- and Vietnamese-inspired seafood restaurant in Lynn.

Newton is a “perfect spot” between Boston and the MetroWest suburbs, Kate said.

“We have a lot of loyal regulars, faces we see all the time. It really feels like a neighborhood restaurant, and this neighborhood has been very good to us,” she said.

Thistle & Leek is already experiencing the effects of the Michelin nod. Reservations have spiked, weekends are booked until the end of the year, and a boost in applicants looking to work in a Michelin-lauded kitchen, Trevor said.

Regardless of the Michelin nod, Trevor and Kate are engaged in a “continual process of always trying to up our game,” he said. Ultimately, Thistle & Leek’s goal remains unchanged.

“The fact that they, out of the blue, recognized us for doing what we do every day, I think that’s it,” Trevor said. “We just keep doing what we do every day to be included next year.”

This story is part of a partnership between the Newton Beacon and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

If you pass by Coletti-Magni Park in Nonantum during December, you’ll see an 18-foot-tall Santa Claus statue waving toward the street. The neighborhood’s Santa tradition dates back to the 1950s, and this is Nonantum’s third Santa, replacing earlier ones that served the community over the past 70 years.

Each Christmas, the Nonantum Children’s Christmas Party Association decorates the park with lights and holiday displays. This year’s Christmas lighting ceremony was on Sunday. Dan Fontaine, an Elvis Presley tribute artist, will perform a Vegas Christmas show Dec. 19, and the Nonantum Christmas Parade will roll through the village Dec. 21.

In addition to the Christmas celebrations it hosts, the association provides help to local charities such as the John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club and Newton Athletes Unlimited, and contributes floats for the Memorial Day parade.

“We’re always there at anybody’s beck and call,” said association chairman Anthony Pellegrini Jr. “So if anybody needs something, they can come to us. That’s what my father used to do, so our goal is to keep it going so if someone in need is out there we can help them out.”

The Nonantum Children’s Christmas Party Association was founded in 1954 by his father, Anthony “Fat” Pellegrini Sr., and a group of friends. After Pellegrini Sr. died in 2004, his children took over. Today, Anthony Jr. (people call him “Fatty” or “Uncle Fatty”), his sister Linda Anderson and the third generation carry on the family tradition.

Every December, the association gives out gift cards and food baskets to families in need. “My father had a list, and I’m still going by the list,” Pellegrini said. “So we give out a couple hundred gift baskets, and we have a list from not just Nonantum, but from Watertown, Newton Corner, the (Newton) Falls, throughout the area.”

Preparations for the season begin right after Halloween, from purchasing supplies to organizing activities. Arrianna Proia, 24, a Nonantum native who was recently elected to the School Committee, has been involved with this association her whole life, helping “Uncle Fatty” decorate the park.

“It’s a good way for us to connect with our neighbors and also honor the traditions that have been going on for over 50 years,” she said. “This is a tradition we love to keep on doing.”

Seeing hundreds of kids gathered at the park and watching the lights turn on really brings the community together, Proia said.

“My grandparents grew up in this neighborhood, and being able to come back now as an adult and help out with people who have done this their whole lives, and get to know everyone on a different level is really special as well,” said Rebecca Torcasio, friend of the Pellegrini family.

Although it’s called Nonantum Children’s Christmas Party Association, the party tradition ended in 1992, after Pellegrini Sr. got lung cancer. Pellegrini said his father was “the cog in the wheel”—no one was able to pull off a party like him.

Pellegrini, 68, remembers when a family’s house burned down in Roxbury, and his father gathered people together and supplied the household with everything they needed. When a young person died, the association would step in to pay for the funeral. He recalls his father always brought a basket and a radio to visit people in local hospitals.

“My father’s benevolence was unsurpassed by anybody. He solicited money and he gave it out,” Pellegrini said. “He kept the neighborhood together.”

These collective Christmas celebrations in Nonantum might date back to 1899, Pellegrini said. One day he found a newspaper from Christmas 1965, marking the event as the 66th annual Christmas celebration.

Nonantum is Newton’s most densely populated village, and it’s known as the Italian village with Italian immigrants and blue-collar roots. Locals call their neighborhood “The Lake,” even though the actual lake—Silver Lake—was landfilled a long time ago.

The older generation can talk in “Lake Lingo,” which is a slang that originated from Romani language. “Friends” star and Nonantum native Matt LeBlanc once showed his Lake Lingo on a talk show.

Pellegrini said “a passing of the torch is coming”—he hopes his nephews can keep the traditions going.

One of his nephews, Daniel Anderson, said the association depends on support from families, local businesses, and the police and fire departments.

“Without the donations and the dedication from the community, this would not happen,” Anderson said. 

This story is part of a partnership between the Newton Beacon and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

The Newtonville MBTA station will undergo long-awaited renovations in the spring, but people who rely on the rail are still waiting to hear how the work will affect their commutes.

The MBTA announced in November 2024 that it would spend $50 million to renovate the Newtonville commuter rail station. The timeline called for the design to be finalized by late 2025, with construction to begin early in 2026.

The project website was updated last week to say that early construction work will start in spring 2026, after the Newton Beacon began inquiring into the progress. The most recent event listed on the site is from April 2024.

The transit authority hasn’t figured out whether it can keep the station open during construction, according to an MBTA spokesperson. The project schedule is still in development, so it’s not clear how long construction will take.

Meanwhile, the MBTA has scheduled a public meeting about the project at Newton City Hall on Dec. 11 at 6 p.m.

Some commuters have questions in the meantime.

“How long is the construction going to take, and does that mean that the station is going to be closed?” asked Jeff Pagliano, 50. “Or is it going to be something [like] we’re going to have to go to West Newton in order to access it?”

Pagliano commutes from the Newtonville station to the Back Bay station twice a week to attend a graduate program at Emerson College. Pagliano—“a big believer in public transportation”—said he relies heavily on the commuter rail to get to Boston. 

“If the train wasn’t here, I simply wouldn’t be able to do it,” he said.

Erin Green, 17, is at the station almost every weekday to get to Boston Day and Evening Academy in Roxbury. The station definitely needs an update, she said, but it’s “confusing” to not have dates for the construction.

“Right now, this is my only way to school,” she said. “If they are doing renovation, they should tell us when they’re doing it, so we can know how we’re getting back and forth.” 

Upgrades to the Newtonville station have been decades in the making, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in an interview, and the renovation will be a “game-changer for the city of Newton.” 

Fuller said it’s too early to know the exact construction management plan, but the MTBA is “very serious” about providing buses when train service is impacted.

“We’ll stay on top of that the next few years and make sure that people can continue to use the service, even if the station requires it to be shut down during the construction,” Fuller said. 

The station has two tracks and one low-level, single-side platform, which can be accessed only by a steep set of stairs. The renovation will make the station fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“As somebody who lives in Newtonville, I’ve always been just shocked by the stairs that you have to take to get down to the platform,” said Jonathan Yeo, chief operating officer of the city of Newton. “Even for the most fit, enabled person, there is a challenge, and it is something that is years and years overdue.”

The renovation will add two accessible, high-level platforms and elevators to reach the station, among other features including benches, canopies, bicycle racks and dedicated pick-up and drop-off areas. 

“All three of the stations in Newton are inaccessible and have infrequent service because they only have single platforms,” Fuller said. A second platform will allow for “regular, two-way transit, so that people can get in and out of Newton in either direction, all day, every day.” 

Better service is what commuters most want to see from the renovations.

Moira Orr-Mullane, 27, lives near the station and commutes from Newtonville to South Station two to three times a week to her job in human resources at a software company.

“If the commuter rail ran more frequently, that would be amazing,” Orr-Mullane said. “If you miss one, you have to wait, like, an hour. You have to plan it out really well.”

On weekdays, outbound and inbound trains stop at the Newtonville station 14 times a day—half as frequently as South Station, which sees 28 trains a day. The same is true of Newton’s other commuter rail stations, Auburndale and West Newton.

More popular stations like South and Back Bay are bound to have more service, but Newtonville sees two-thirds the service of stations in other Boston suburbs. By comparison, the train runs inbound from Natick Center and from Wellesley’s three stations 21 times a day, as of the 2025 fall and winter schedule. 

Alexis Armstrong, 27, said for the last few months, the train has consistently been at least 10 to 15 minutes late when she commutes to South Station to get to her job at a nonprofit. 

On Wednesday, Nov. 19, the scheduled 8:48 a.m. inbound train arrived in Newtonville about 15 minutes late. 

Armstrong said she’s in favor of service improvements but worries disruptions to service that might result from construction would impact her already-difficult commute.

“This is my only way to get to work,” said Armstrong, who lives in Watertown. “It’s already difficult, the schedules with the commuter line, and so any impact to the schedules would definitely impact my daily commute.”

Olivier Bouissou, 44, moved to Newton Highlands from Paris a year ago. Compared to the Paris Metro, he said Boston’s transit is “very bad.” He said he welcomes renovations to improve the service and comfort of the Newtonville station. 

“The station is freezing cold in the winter, and the trains are often late,” he said. “The more they can do, the better.”

Bouissou commutes from Newtonville Station to South Station four days a week to his job in the Seaport District. His alternative would be to take the Green Line from Newton Centre, adding a half hour to his commute. He said it’s important to know what the train’s service will be during construction. 

“If we could have that information by the end of the year or a couple of months before they start the real construction, that will be very helpful,” he said. 

Nine years, 55 countries. Half their time on land, half on cruise ships.

That’s the life rhythm of pianist Ivan Danylets and vocalist Arjana Vizulis Danylets. The two met 11 years ago while performing with a rock band on a cruise ship, and they’ve built a jazz career alternating between Brooklyn, N.Y., and cruise ship performances.

The couple formed a jazz duo in 2017 and started The Gingersnap Band in 2019 with other rotating members. On Saturday, the band will bring a jazz concert to The Allen Center in Newton, Arjana’s hometown.

Arjana and Ivan describe their music as eclectic—drawing from many genres and incorporating many improvisations.

“Sometimes we’ll take a rock song and we’ll make it into a jazz ballad, because we feel that song showcases the message in a way that resonates with us,” Ivan said in an interview from their cabin on the Royal Caribbean Star of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships in the world. The band began their three-and-a-half-month cruise performance run at the end of July.

On their second album, “Caribbean Manhattan,” they adapted Bon Jovi’s rock classic “Livin’ on a Prayer” and the Jason Mraz pop hit “I’m Yours” into jazz-style arrangements, giving them fresh takes.

Arjana said they always try to add curiosity and playfulness into their music. “Both within the lyrics and the music itself—there are stories, and there are interpretations of those stories that are new for us every time we play.”

The couple released their debut album, “Us Now,” as a duo in 2017. “One day Arjana woke up and said, ‘Hey, how about next winter we fly to Puerto Rico and record an album for two months?’ And I said, OK,’” Ivan said.

“I think we both bring different ingredients that we care about to the music,” Arjana said. “An ingredient for me absolutely comes from my love of storytelling.”

Arjana studied musical theater at New York University. Before becoming an independent musician, she was on the road for a couple of years with a national tour of the musical “Hairspray.”

The storytelling in musical theater has always had a place in her heart, but she also loves “being able to be in the driver’s seat of our own music and interpret it the way that feels sensitive and organic.”

Growing up in Newton, Arjana was surrounded by music. Both of her parents, Andris and Becky Vizulis, played violin in Newton Symphony Orchestra. She grew up going to her parents’ rehearsals, learning violin at New England Conservatory Prep, and singing in chorus and music camps.

“I can see how privileged I was with my artistic education growing up in Newton,” Arjana said. “I see it as a golden childhood experience to build an artistic framework for me.”

Music has been a central part of Ivan’s life from an early age. Born and raised in Ukraine, he began taking piano lessons and music theory classes, and participating in choir and orchestra at the age of 8. He went on to study at the Kyiv Institute of Music in Ukraine and earned a master’s in jazz performance at William Paterson University in New Jersey.

“These classes in Ukraine were all government subsidized,” Ivan said. “Now I’m realizing it was actually very special, how much access to music and to music education I actually had back in Ukraine.”

Music has brought the two together across continents and carried them to stages around the world. From performing at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Osaka, Japan, to Bora Bora, Arjana and Ivan embrace a life that balances land and sea.

As a 42-year-old female musician, Arjana finally found the authentic artistic message she wanted to convey. 

“I feel very grateful and lucky and proud that I’m still kicking,” Arjana said. “It has been a journey and an evolution of what I feel like as an artist, and I want to get stronger with time, get funkier with time, and gain my own confidence and continue to grow. I want to try to encourage and hold the hands of other artists who are trying to find their footing in an industry that is incredibly difficult.”

Usman Salahuddin, The Gingersnap Band’s drummer, said working with Arjana and Ivan is easy and joyful. 

“They’re consummate pros,” he said. “They’ve been doing this for a long time, so they’ve really cultivated and sharpened a band-leading style that works.”

Salahuddin played one gig with the duo in Manhattan this spring and soon signed on to play with The Gingersnap Band on cruise ships. Saturday’s concert will be his first in the Boston area.

“I’m just excited to perform,” he said, “to bring this product that we’ve been sharpening, cultivating and developing night in and night out to the audience.”

Playing in Newton with a six-piece-band feels like a homecoming for Arjana. Her mother, Becky Vizulis, a teacher at Dover-Sherborn High School, died in March.

“It feels like coming home, doing what I am proud to be doing with my husband, and in kind of what feels like the beginning of a new chapter,” Arjana said.