"Lockheart is, I'd like to say, a place for everybody," co-owner Mark Hicklin told Wicked Local at the end of September. "We want people to feel comfortable walking in the door."
That door belongs to the stone station building at 70 Union Street, right beside the Newton Centre stop on the Green Line. Before Lockheart opened, the door had been locked for about four years. Last year the city turned part of the Langley Lot into a pilot plaza meant for outdoor dining, better lighting and seating. For that first season, the most visible building in the area had dark windows. This fall it has a working kitchen, so Newton Centre's evening now begins where the trains stop.
A Building That Has Mostly Been a Restaurant
The station is older than most of the houses around it. The City of Newton's heritage report says it went up in 1890 and was designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, the firm that succeeded H.H. Richardson. Richardson's sketches shaped Newton's railroad buildings, and the report calls the style Richardsonian Romanesque. According to the city's Newton Centre history brochure, an earlier passenger station stood at Langley Road, and the Boston & Albany added the old Charles River Railroad to its circuit commuter line in 1886.
Since then, the building's history has mostly been a list of restaurants, pieced together here from the city report, Fig City News's June reporting and Boston.com:
| Year | What happened at 70 Union Street |
|---|---|
| 1890 | Station built for the Boston & Albany circuit line |
| 1976 | Station and its baggage/express building listed in the National Register's Newton Railroad Stations Historic District |
| 2012 | MBTA sells the building |
| 2020 | Deluxe Station Diner becomes Jamie's on Union under the same ownership |
| 2022 | Jamie's on Union closes and the building goes dark |
| Early 2024 | Interior demolition and buildout begin |
| Week of Sept. 20, 2026 | Lockheart opens |
Fig City News followed the permit trail during the empty years. It found a demolition permit in January 2024, a restaurant fit-out of roughly $1.2 million that March, and a fire-protection acceptance test in June 2026, which is usually one of the last steps before a restaurant opens. The plans call for 86 indoor seats and a seasonal patio. The buildout took up more than two of the four years the building stood empty.
What the Kitchen Clock Says
For an evening on Union Street, the hours matter more than the menu. Lockheart's own website lists 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. The kitchen closes at 10 p.m. every night. Its OpenTable page tells a different story: dinner from 4 to 10 p.m. daily, with the bar open until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight on weekends. The two listings agree on evenings and disagree on lunch, so check before planning a midday visit.
The late hours were part of the plan from the start. At the June licensing hearing, the restaurant's attorney said the kitchen would serve until at least 10 p.m. each night. She said the 1 a.m. license limit was mostly for occasions like World Cup matches or late West Coast baseball games. The applicants also agreed to close the patio by 10 p.m.
The restaurant's About page says its menu draws on Southwestern flavors. The kitchen menu lists tacos, shareable plates, bowls and larger dishes, with weekend brunch marked as coming soon. On the adult menu, prices run from a $5.50 Korean Brussels sprouts taco to a $36 18-ounce al pastor rib eye, and a $3 kids taco sits below that. Cocktails on the current drinks list are $13 to $16. Boston.com's September roundup also mentioned lobster guacamole, Texas dry rub wings and veggie enchiladas. Early diners have been mixed. OpenTable showed a 4.5 out of 5 from six reviews, and October comments ranged from praise for the atmosphere to complaints about cold tacos.
Put those hours together and you get a kitchen beside the platform until 10 p.m. seven nights a week, with a patio for the warmer months. No other building in the village has that connection to the train.
The Plaza Was Built for This Kind of Evening
The city's Newton Centre Pilot Plaza went in during May and June 2025. Its stated goals include outdoor dining, seating, improved lighting, public art, areas for play and separation from cars. All of those describe what a downtown needs after the shops close.
It took up 24 spaces in the Langley Lot. Sixteen spaces in that lot had already been closed to the public for employee parking, Zipcars and a Bluebikes station, and the city moved those uses to Centre Street, Lyman Street and Herrick Road. The city puts the net loss at eight spaces. If you drive in, the city's plaza page points to municipal lots on Cypress, Pelham and Pleasant Streets, plus about 60 street spaces that recently opened to the public.
The plaza already has a winter track record. The city's page shows a "Winter Refresh" with planters, snowflakes, an arch installation and new lighting. It also has a photo of carolers at Newton Centre's Holiday Shop & Stroll on December 4, 2025. As of this week, that page does not list a 2026 Shop & Stroll date. The city also waives the Outdoor Special Event Permit application fee for events held in the plaza. Hosts still pay for extra services such as police details.
Last December's carolers sang beside a station that had been dark for three years. This December, the plaza's lights and the station's windows can both be on.
Before Dinner, and After It
The station is now one stop in a village that changed a lot this year. These Newton Centre addresses come from Fig City News's August roundup and its September bakery-crawl guide:
- Blackbird Doughnuts, 55F Union Street, a stop on the September 25–26 bakery crawl.
- Tess, a clothing boutique now in the former Sweet Dream storefront at 91 Union Street.
- Tea22, 212 Sumner Street, which soft-opened in June in the former Pon de Joy space.
- Something Sweet, a candy and chocolate shop at 1280 Centre Street, Suite 8, which opened this summer.
- Formosa Bun & Dumpling Factory, 740A Beacon Street, owned by Kristina Pan, which held its grand opening March 28.
Most of these are daytime businesses: doughnuts, tea, candy, dumplings and clothes. The station adds the later hours on the same streets. The city's Newton Centre Green listing describes the 2-acre green at 1221 Centre Street, split by Langley Road, with lawns, benches, gardens, a memorial and pathways. That gives the village a place to walk off dinner, too.
The Newton Calendar Into December
Until Newton Centre posts its own holiday date, here are the scheduled evenings and weekends elsewhere in the city:
- Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Woman's Club of Newton's 23rd Annual Craft Fair at Hyde Community Center, 90 Lincoln Street, and the Woman's Club Workshop, 72 Columbus Street, in Newton Highlands. Admission is free.
- November 14 and 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Large-lantern workshops for the city's "Shine a Light" program at New Art Center in Newtonville. Participants must attend both days, and the lantern parade follows on January 24 at City Hall.
- Sunday, November 15, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free 3rd Annual Newton Children's Book Festival at American Legion Nonantum Post 440, 295 California Street.
- December 4 to 6. Mayor's Mini Golf at City Hall: Friday 6 to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Sunday, December 6. Coletti-Magni Park lighting in Nonantum, with hot chocolate and caroling at 6:15 p.m. and the lights at 7 p.m. The Nonantum Christmas Parade follows on Sunday, December 13, at noon.
Nothing on that list is in Newton Centre. For now, the village's own December is whatever happens in the plaza and the converted station at 70 Union Street, both lit up together for the first time.
If you live near Union Street and want to know how this year's changes in Newton Centre show up in your home's value, Peridot Properties can go over the specifics with you. Let's connect.
