Arlington Center Has a New Place to Sit Down, and Mass. Ave. Keeps Making Room to Stay

When did you last walk down Mass. Ave. in Arlington Center and find somewhere to sit, rather than something to grab on the way past?

That got easier on Friday, October 16. That's the day Patch reported Colette Bakery officially opened at 681 Massachusetts Ave., in the space that was Symmes Mini-Mart until it closed a couple of years ago. A new bakery in the Center is good news on its own. What makes this one worth a closer look is how it was laid out, and how well that fits with a few other changes along the avenue this year.

The fourth Colette is the first one with chairs

Colette is a family business. Nathalie and Franck Beddiar moved from Toulouse to the Boston area in 2017. Their son Valentin is the pastry chef, and their daughter Clémentine helps manage the operation, What Now Boston reported in August. They opened their first bakery in Medford in 2020 and added Melrose in 2022, according to Patch. A South End shop came after that, and Arlington is number four.

The other three shops don't have what Arlington has, which is room to stay. The Arlington café seats about 20, and Nathalie Beddiar told What Now Boston the goal was "to create a true French café atmosphere—a place where people can sit down and enjoy a coffee with a croissant or pastry."

The menu matches the other shops: house-made artisan breads, viennoiseries, pastries, quiches, traditional Parisian sandwiches, and coffee and other drinks. If you're planning a first visit, know that the hours don't follow the usual weekday pattern:

• Monday and Tuesday: closed
• Wednesday through Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Colette's own hours page lists the same schedule. So a Tuesday-morning croissant still means another stop, and Saturday is the long day for anyone who works weekdays.

The town paid to turn a parking space into seats

Colette isn't the first business on this stretch to bet on people staying put. A few blocks away at 787 Mass. Ave., Butternut Bakehouse added a shared outdoor dining parklet this year. The Town of Arlington's Storefront Improvement Program helped pay for it.

Butternut opened on a Saturday in June 2019. Chef and owner Suzana Samad makes French-style pastries, and Edible Boston has written up her cardamom swirls, morning buns, and croissant-pretzel "cretzels," with flavors like pandan and kaya. In the town's July 15 announcement, Samad described what the grant did:

"The grant made it possible to transform a single parking space into a welcoming community gathering place that extends our café into the neighborhood."

In the same announcement, she said people have been using the parklet to have coffee, meet friends, work outside, and spend more time downtown. One curbside parking space now seats a group of people, and the town paid for most of the change.

Five storefronts, one corridor, 75 cents on the dollar

The Butternut parklet was one of five projects funded this round. The town gave $27,000 in total to five Mass. Ave. businesses, covering 75 percent of each one's project costs, according to the town announcement and YourArlington's coverage. The money came from the town's Community Development Block Grant program.

The addresses run from 138 to 1370, so these weren't five neighbors on one showcase block. Each grant was small and went to a single storefront, and the improvements are spread along the whole avenue. With Colette's café added, a walk from Za to Utopia Cleaners passes a fresh awning, a new door, or a place to sit every few blocks. The town is putting money into the avenue's street front one storefront at a time.

November 7 puts the Center's two big buildings to work

The next big day for the Center is Saturday, November 7. Arlington Open Studios runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day, with more than 80 artists showing work in two places: Town Hall at 730 Mass. Ave. and the Community Center and Arlington Center for the Arts at 27 Maple St. The Roasted Granola is listed as a food vendor, according to the Arlington Center for the Arts.

Here's one way to plan the day:

1. Start at Colette at 681 Mass. Ave. when it opens at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
2. Walk up the avenue to Town Hall at 730 when the studios open at 11.
3. Head around the corner to 27 Maple St. for the second half of the show.
4. Finish at Butternut Bakehouse at 787 Mass. Ave., just past Town Hall.

If you're counting on sitting outside, check first. In a December 2025 memo, the town's planning department recommended shortening the outdoor dining season, which had run from April 15 through November 15.

The rules for what gets built next open for comment in mid-November

The storefront grants and the new café change what's already on the street. A separate town project will shape what gets built there later.

On October 1, the Department of Planning and Community Development announced that it had started updating the town's 2015 Commercial Design Standards with consultant OverUnder Architecture | Design. Town Meeting set aside $50,000 for the work in 2022. The new guidelines will be used to review new or significantly renovated commercial and mixed-use buildings along the town's main corridors. The town's notice names Massachusetts Ave., Broadway, Summer St., the Minuteman Bikeway, and the industrial and business zoning districts. The aim is clear guidance, in words and graphics, for "residents, architects, developers, and other decision makers."

Here's the schedule so far:

• August: kickoff walking tour around town with DPCD staff and the OverUnder team
• September 14: the consultants presented an existing-conditions report to the Redevelopment Board
• Mid-November: draft expected for public review
• Through mid-December: public feedback period
• Early 2027: final document expected to go to the Redevelopment Board for endorsement

This is where Arlington residents get a direct say. The awning at Za, the parklet at Butternut, and the seats at Colette all came from one business owner and one decision at a time. The design guidelines are the town's written statement of what good street-level design looks like on these corridors. If you have opinions on doors, awnings, seating, and how buildings meet the sidewalk, the comment window from mid-November to mid-December is the time to share them.

Still on the horizon in the Heights

A taproom may join the list eventually. Arlington Brewing Company plans a brewery, taproom, kitchen, and beer garden at 15 Ryder St. in Arlington Heights. The company's own site says permits are in hand and designs are being finalized, but construction hasn't started yet. For now it's a plan, not a place you can visit.

If you're thinking about how changes on Mass. Ave. affect life on your own block, or what a corridor that keeps investing in its storefronts could mean for your home, Flow Realty would be glad to talk it through over coffee in Arlington Center. Contact Us.