Upper Falls Got Its Old Tavern Back This Year. The River Walk Behind It Is Moving Slower.

At 1205 Chestnut Street the pressed-tin ceiling is back, and so are the wainscoting and the maple floors, according to the new owners. In July the old Biltmore Bar & Grille reopened as The Biltmore Tavern. Two blocks over on Oak Street, a kitchen that sold takeout for years won city approval in September for ten seats.

Down the embankment the Charles is still there, along with the Riverwalk tread, the fenced-off overlook and the steep scramble between the Greenway and the river. In February a well-funded plan to fix all of it targeted the end of 2026. Each piece of that plan needs sign-off from several parties, and in Upper Falls this year, that number has set the pace. Projects one owner could decide moved within months. The work that needs five landowners moves on a much longer clock.

A street that changed one owner at a time

The Biltmore went fast. Fig City News reported that the team behind Needham's Blue on Highland took over the building, closed it for renovations on February 9 and reopened it July 27 under the new name. That is about five and a half months from last call to first service. Wicked Local's September 4 story names the owners as Melrose restaurateur Scott Drago and his business partner Adam Patti of Needham. It calls the building the spot of Newton's oldest bar and describes the new place as upscale-casual.

The tavern's online ordering page lists Sunday hours of 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Monday through Saturday hours of 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. So the bar room on Chestnut Street now opens earliest on Sunday, the morning a walk along the Greenway is most likely to end there.

Jean and Lee Kitchen at 108 Oak Street took a smaller step. The restaurant had been takeout-only for years, and dine-in required a common victualler license. On September 15, 2026, Newton's Board of License Commissioners approved that license 3–0, along with an annual entertainment license, on the condition that the restaurant file a certificate showing its liability and workers' compensation coverage. The application asked for 12 seats, and the board adjusted that to 10 on the record. The approved hours run 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Tuesday, when the kitchen is closed. The entertainment license covers recorded music below conversation level and televisions. The board's minutes record the vote along with that night's other items, which run from a Boston College reunion tailgate to a new pizza counter in Newton Centre.

The third change took no hearing at all. Little Luke's Cafe at 1225 Chestnut Street now also scoops as Frozen Falls Ice Cream. Fig City News describes it as one storefront with two names, the same owner and the same phone number.

Lauren Berman, Newton's Director of Economic Development, told Fig City News that when a restaurant space opens up in the city, other restaurateurs are usually eager to move in. "Newton continues to be a desirable place to open a restaurant," she said. The Biltmore shows that. A building with a long name on its sign changed hands, closed in February and reopened by late July.

What the river side is asking for

The river project has a design, cost estimates and a funding plan. What it still needs is permission from several separate parties.

The Spring 2026 Newton Conservators newsletter lays out the plan. With support from the Upper Falls Area Council, the Community Development Corporation and the Conservators, the group hired Conservation Works and Terramore, LLC, the firms that built the Pony Truss Trail, to study feasibility, design the work and estimate its cost. The work comes in three pieces:

That comes to about $180,000. The design team dropped an earlier idea for a boardwalk under the bridge, linking the two arms of the Riverwalk, because attaching it to the narrow foot of the abutment was too hard to permit and too costly.

Money moved quickly, by the newsletter's account. When Mayor Marc Laredo and Chief of Community Services John Rice heard about the project, they joined Ward 5 Councilors Julie Irish, Rena Getz and Brittany Hume in deciding the city should fully fund it with Northland funds and run it through the Parks and Recreation Department. The Parks and Recreation Commission already approved an earlier version in 2022, so that step can be skipped. The newsletter lists the steps that remain:

1. The Ward 5 councilors docket a proposal with the City Council's Public Services and Finance Committees.
2. After both committees endorse it, the full City Council gives final approval.
3. The city finds a capable contractor through its bidding process.
4. The MBTA, which owns the land the Greenway sits on, issues a construction permit.
5. The work meets wetland rules. Inside the 100-year flood zone, any gravel added to the trail has to be balanced by removing the same volume of soil nearby, and about half the Riverwalk falls under that rule.

The newsletter calls permitting "the major challenge" and counts five landowners and three easements. The uncertainty forced the designers to draw two options for the south stairway until those permissions were settled. Its forecast is conditional. If every approval comes through and a suitable contractor is available, the work "should be built by the end of 2026."

The easement that sets the river walk's clock

Each of those landowners and easements is a separate negotiation, and the June meeting of the Upper Falls Area Council showed where one of them stood. According to the June 18, 2026 minutes, the city was still working with American Tower on an easement "on the correct side of the tower to enable the river walk as planned." At the same meeting, Councilor Rice said he expects construction at Braceland Playground to begin in Spring 2028. Northland Mitigation Funds will reimburse that work, and the minutes note a $50,000 earmark from January 2024 for playground design and feasibility work.

The minutes also cover the Greenway's far end. Councilors Irish and Rice walked the area with Jenn Martin, Newton's Director of Transportation Planning, to look at extending the Greenway there, and found it unlikely because of the electrical substations. Martin confirmed that the mitigation money "will be spent in Upper Falls." She also said that extending the Greenway and studying the Oak Street and Elliot Street intersection would both face challenges.

The river walk will come together in stages. The playground anchors the Blue Heron link, and its construction is planned for 2028. The stairways depend on easements, and as of June one of those still involved a cell tower company. Committee votes, a bid and an MBTA permit come after the easements. On Oak Street, by contrast, one applicant, one board and one evening were enough to win conditional approval for ten seats.

The Conservators' Greenway page still describes the Blue Heron connection as "plans underway," and it treats the larger goal, reconnecting across the Sunset Bridge toward Needham on the "Community Way," as a longer project for citizen advocates.

A November loop that uses both halves

The village and the river are close enough that a November afternoon can take in both.

• Start on the Greenway and walk the Riverwalk as it is now, before any gravel goes down. Seeing the fenced-off overlook and the embankment today makes it easier to judge the stairs later.
• Pass Bobby Braceland Playground, the spot the new Blue Heron Trail link is meant to start from. The plan routes that link away from the off-leash dog area.
• Come up to Chestnut Street for a table at The Biltmore Tavern, which opens at 10 a.m. on Sundays and 11:30 a.m. the rest of the week.
• Stop at 1225 Chestnut Street, where Little Luke's Cafe and Frozen Falls Ice Cream share a counter.
• Finish at 108 Oak Street. Jean and Lee Kitchen's approved hours are 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., with Tuesdays closed.

Anyone who wants a say in the river side can go to the Upper Falls Area Council, which meets in hybrid format at the Emerson Community Center at 45 Pettee Street. That is where the Northland fund list, the Braceland plans and the Greenway questions have come up this year.

If you own a home a short walk from Chestnut Street or the Greenway and want to know how a reopened tavern down the block or a planned river walk might factor into a future sale, Valerie Wastcoat is glad to talk it through over coffee in the village. Request a complimentary home valuation whenever you'd like a clear read on where your home stands today.