"Eight years of Shore Leave is nuts for a weird little rum bar with occasional drag shows," Ryan Lotz, beverage director and managing partner for Shore Leave and No Relation, told The Boston Globe in July.
He said it in the same story that announced the closing of his bar, its sushi counter and Bar Mezzana across the street. All three are set to close on New Year's Day. As of this Thursday, that leaves seven weeks. Those seven weeks are also the South End's holiday season. The SoWa Christmas Market, SoWa's December First Friday and the South End Holiday Stroll all take place within a few blocks of the three closing rooms. That gives the neighborhood's usual December routine a second purpose this year: it's the last run.
Three Rooms, One Lease, One Date
The three businesses belong to Colin Lynch's Traveler Street Hospitality, and they work as a pair of addresses facing each other. Bar Mezzana is at 360 Harrison Ave. in Ink Block. Shore Leave sits across the street at 11 William E. Mullins Way, at Harrison Avenue. No Relation is reached through a hallway at the back of Shore Leave.
Each one fills a different part of the evening:
- Bar Mezzana is the coastal Italian restaurant that Boston Magazine praised for its crudos when it reviewed the place in 2016. It turned ten in June.
- Shore Leave is the tropical, tiki-inspired lounge. When it opened, Boston Magazine described a menu that paired tiki cocktails with food drawn from Pacific Rim cuisines.
- No Relation is the omakase counter. Eater Boston reported that it opened in January 2019 with nine seats in 230 square feet and nightly 14-course tasting menus.
According to the Globe, the decision came down to a lease. "It's a decision based on resigning the lease and whether we thought it was prudent," Lynch said. He described a strong relationship with landlord National Development and said a new lease "would have entailed a strain on the business." He added: "Leases go up. It's not like we didn't see it coming."
The group announced the closing six months early so employees had time to plan. Lynch told the Globe it was the right call even if it left the restaurants short-staffed near the end. Because the date was set in July, the final stretch lands on the holidays. Boston Restaurant Talk repeated the January 1 date on November 5.
Black Lamb, the group's South End brasserie, will keep operating.
The Season Runs Down the Same Stretch of Harrison
Put the holiday dates on a map and they line up along one avenue. Bar Mezzana is at 360 Harrison. SoWa's artist buildings are at 450 and 460 Harrison. The 11th annual SoWa Christmas Market takes over 550 Harrison. C'Yool Yemeni Cafe & Bakery, one of the neighborhood's newer openings, is at 600 Harrison.
Here are the dates as they fall from publish day to the closing:
- Friday, November 20. The SoWa Christmas Market's opening night runs 4 to 9 p.m. Admission is $10, and children 12 and under get in free.
- November weeknights and weekends. For the rest of November the market is open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m., Friday from 4 to 9 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is closed Mondays and on Thanksgiving Day. On Black Friday, November 27, the hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Starting December 1. Evening hours get longer. The market stays open until 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 p.m. on Friday and 10 p.m. on Saturday.
- Friday, December 4. SoWa First Friday opens the artists, galleries, shops and showrooms at 450 and 460 Harrison from 5 to 9 p.m. It's free.
- Wednesday, December 9. The South End Business Alliance's annual Holiday Stroll runs from 4 to 8 p.m., rain, snow or shine. Shops, restaurants and small businesses stay open late, and the evening brings pop-ups, the return of the Jolly Trolley and the South End Holiday Raffle. Businesses have until November 30 to sign up, and SEBA membership is not required.
- Thursday, December 24. The market closes early, running 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve. It is closed on Christmas Day.
- Sunday, December 27. The Christmas Market's last day.
The market's season ends five days before the restaurants close. From December 28 through New Year's Eve, the corridor's events are over, and the only thing on the calendar is the final week at Bar Mezzana, Shore Leave and No Relation.
Tremont Street Has Already Had Its Last Night
On the other side of the neighborhood, the farewell is already over. Banyan Bar + Refuge opened at 553 Tremont St. in July 2015 and became known for its raw bar, bao buns, noodle dishes, treelike sculptures and patio, as MassLive recounted. After an early-morning kitchen fire on June 30, 2025, Boston.com reported that a quick reopening had turned into a closure of several weeks for repairs, inspections and permits. The restaurant never reopened.
On Monday, November 2, the Gallows Group made it official on Instagram. "It's an exciting next chapter, but one that comes with a great deal of emotion about what we're leaving behind," the post read. The group said it would now put its time into Blackbird Doughnuts, which is adding an East Boston location.
Both restaurants reached ten years in the South End. Banyan's closing came after more than a year of being closed. Bar Mezzana's comes on a date that has been public since July, which puts the whole holiday calendar ahead of its last service.
What Comes After the Leases
The Gallows Group said Banyan has drawn "tremendous interest" from other restaurateurs and that it is confident in the space's future. At Ink Block, Lynch put the decision down to lease costs, telling the Globe that "Leases go up."
Lynch's next project is downtown. Boston Restaurant Talk, drawing on Globe reporting, said he is teaming up with Chris Jamison of COJE Management Group to open Leomatto. The planned restaurant will fill the upper two floors of the historic bank building at 10 Post Office Square in the Financial District, with room for 450 people, plus a private club called the NoX in the basement. If you've followed his cooking from crudo at Bar Mezzana to the omakase counter at No Relation, the next place to find it is across the city.
Some of the neighborhood carries on past New Year's. Black Lamb stays open. C'Yool Yemeni Cafe & Bakery opened at 600 Harrison in September, and Boston.com put it on its October list of restaurants to try. The Holiday Stroll on December 9 offers a chance to visit both corners of Harrison in one evening. You can finish at Bar Mezzana or Shore Leave while they are still open, and stop at the cafe that just arrived at the other end of the avenue.
At The David Green Group, we watch moments like this one closely, because the restaurants that open and close along a corridor like Harrison Avenue shape how a block feels to live on. If you'd like to talk about the South End, its buildings, or how Ink Block and the SoWa stretch fit what you're looking for, contact us.
