Former Doyle’s Cafe Site in Jamaica Plan to Get Liquor License for New Restaurant

Doyle's Cafe in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood operated for nearly 140 years before it was forced to shut down in 2019. The closure of Doyle's left a void in the community for a gathering place frequented by civic groups and political figures. The property at the corner of Washington and Williams streets was sold to a developer who is building a mixed-used condo complex with space for a restaurant on the site.

This month, city officials awarded one of the city's new liquor licenses to the Stoked Pizza Company, which operates pizza establishments in Brookline, Cambridge, and Cohasset. The new Jamaica Plain establishment will open at 3484 Washington St. 

Lee Goodman of Watermark Development, owner of the property, confirmed with MassLive that Stoked Pizza would be the building's new restaurant occupant when construction is completed. “We're about a year out for it to be 100% complete and the restaurant open,” he said.

In 2022, the Boston Business Journal reported that Watermark purchased the former Doyle's property, an adjacent two-family home on Washington Street, and a site on Williams Street for approximately $5.5 million.

According to MassLive, the liquor license that Stoked received is one of 37 that the city of Boston distributed in February to locations across 10 of Boston's neighborhoods. These licenses were among the first batch released from a trove of 225 new liquor licenses approved for Boston by the Massachusetts Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey in September 2024. According to a city news release, this figure for licenses was the largest increase in Boston's liquor license storehouse since the ending of Prohibition more than 90 years ago.