Corby Kummer: The Return of Eastern Standard

Local restaurateur Garrett Harker announced the return of long-beloved Boston restaurant Eastern Standard in 2023, just down the street from the original restaurant.

The famous Kenmore Square establishment — along with Harker’s Island Creek Oyster Bar, and Hawthorne — shuttered in 2021 after negotiations with their landlord fell through.

“This is just fantastic news,” award-winning food writer Corby Kummer told Boston Public Radio on Monday, “But what’s great about Eastern Standard is you could go at any time with any mix of people, and having restaurants creates that sort of equalizing effect in a city, from the most elite, rich people to families just out for a really good time.”

Kummer is executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.