The Maugus Kept Its Booths and Changed Its Clock

The counter stools are still at 300 Washington St., and so are the booths and the back room. That room has always held the big tables, the birthday breakfasts and the monthly catch-ups. The red carpet is gone. A new counter with a few stools now looks out on Washington Street, and a handful of tables with umbrellas sit outside, across the street from Clock Tower Park.

The Maugus has been in this storefront since the 1930s. Under its new name, Maugus Cafe, it held its grand reopening on Friday, Oct. 9. The cafe had soft-opened over the summer and waited for the full celebration until school was back in session. The more important news for Wellesley Hills came the same week from the Select Board, and it concerns the hours the Maugus is allowed to keep.

A familiar room under a new owner

For nearly 45 years the Papakonstantinou family owned and ran what was then The Maugus Restaurant. It changed hands in 2025. The new owner, Kostas Saranteas, refreshed the space and the menu before reopening. When The Swellesley Report visited during the soft opening, it wrote that he chose to polish the old place rather than erase it, and that the room now "feels lighter and more contemporary."

Here is what a longtime regular will find.

The menu keeps the diner basics and leans further into the Mediterranean flavors the Maugus has long carried. Breakfast runs from steel-cut oats and yogurt bowls to Nutella pancakes and waffles. There are six omelette styles, including a Spanakopita Style Omelette made with spinach, feta and a phyllo crumble. Lunch covers burgers, buffalo chicken wraps and salads, plus a Souvlaki Bowl with a lemon-herb chicken skewer, jasmine rice, Greek salad, tzatziki and pita. An avocado burrito with chipotle aioli is also on the menu. The coffee program is built around Atomic Coffee Roasters, with about a dozen drinks from drip to cold brew to lattes.

All of that still fits inside a day that ends at 5 p.m.

The change you can't see from the counter

In the same week as the grand reopening, The Swellesley Report reported that the Select Board had approved amendments to the cafe's common victualler and all-alcohol licenses. According to that report, the amendments let the Maugus run from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, serve dinner and host special events after 5 p.m. The cafe's opening announcement also mentioned an expanded drink menu that includes alcohol.

The approved hours are not yet the posted hours.

The same Swellesley Report article described longer hours, including dinner on select days, as plans "in the works for the coming months." No start date has been announced. So for now, the Maugus is the breakfast-and-lunch room it has been for decades, and it closes at 5. What has changed is that the permission for an evening Maugus is already granted. Before you plan a weeknight dinner, check the Maugus Cafe website for current hours.

Why evening hours matter on this side of Clock Tower Park

The license matters because of where the Maugus sits. The Swellesley Report's Wellesley restaurant directory, updated in October 2026, lists the food businesses along this part of Washington Street:

• Maugus Cafe, 300 Washington St.
• Singh's Cafe, 312 Washington St.
• Caffe Nero, 339 Washington St.
• Pho Station, 352 Washington St.
• Le Petit Four, 380 Washington St.

Three of those five names say "cafe." The new arrivals on this stretch in 2026 were not restaurants. Gaya Beauty & Spa opened at 332 Washington St., Suite 10, offering facials and microneedling. Code Ninjas moved to 386 Washington St. from its former Linden Square location and held its grand opening March 28.

The same directory places a separate group of restaurants a short distance away on Central Street:

• black & blue Steak and Crab, 65 Central St.
• Laughing Monk, 90 Central St.
• Alta Strada, 92 Central St.
• Lockheart Restaurant, 102 Central St.

On the Central Street list, the names are steakhouse and restaurant names. On Washington Street, the biggest dining room facing the park has been a daytime counter for nearly a century. If the Maugus adds dinner, even on select nights, the Washington Street side of Clock Tower Park gets a long-running sit-down room that stays open after the morning crowd and the coffee runs.

The Maugus is a good candidate for that role partly because of what the renovation kept. The back room was built for groups. The booths and counter stools are still there. The new Washington Street counter and the outdoor tables add seats facing the park. Hosting events after 5 p.m. is now allowed under the license. Until dinner launches, all of that serves the same 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. day.

November around Clock Tower Park

Clock Tower Park already pulls people to this block on daytime dates. Wellesley's Halloween Stroll started there on Oct. 31, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., with trick-or-treating at Wellesley Hills businesses. Across the street, the pumpkin patch at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church ran daily from Oct. 9 through Oct. 31, its 23rd year.

Here's what is next on the calendar:

1. Saturday, Nov. 14, 4 p.m. Mission Ammonia performs in the "Saturdays at 4" concert series at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, 207 Washington St.
2. Saturday, Nov. 21, 4 p.m. New England Baroque plays the same series at the church. The church's listing shows each concert ending at 5 p.m. The Swellesley Report's calendar shows 5:30, so confirm with the church if timing matters.
3. Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Wellesley Marketplace runs at Wellesley High School, 50 Rice St. VIP entry opens at 9 a.m., and general admission runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Nov. 21 lands both events on one Saturday. The Marketplace starts that morning, and the concert begins at 4 p.m. on Washington Street, in the hour before the Maugus closes under its current posted hours. A late lunch at 300 Washington St. followed by the concert at 207 fits within today's schedule. Breakfast before the Marketplace works too, with the cafe opening at 7:30 a.m. on weekends.

Neighborhood details like this are how I think about the Hills, a storefront and a park block at a time. When I price a home near Clock Tower Park, what's happening on that block is part of the conversation, from the cafe on the corner to how late its lights may soon stay on. If you own in Wellesley Hills and want to know how your street compares today, Valerie Wastcoat is glad to put together a complimentary home valuation for you.