Between the summer of 2025 and the summer of 2026, two of the longest-running restaurants in Wellesley Hills changed hands. The Maugus has sat across Washington Street from Clock Tower Park since the 1930s. It changed owners in 2025 after nearly 45 years with the Papakonstantinou family. Around the corner, Amarin of Thailand had been at 27 Grove St. in the Rotunda Building since 1990, and it closed after its lease ran out.
Both spaces are open again, and both are still being worked out. Maugus Cafe started on soft-opening hours. Rani Mahal, the restaurant now at 27 Grove, is still BYOB, and the buffet it advertised in the window more than a year ago hadn't started as of late September. The village block around them is in the same position, with a bank planning a move and a fitness studio putting up signs. This fall, the Hills is a set of announced plans more than a finished street, and the details below show where each one stands.
The Maugus Kept Its Booths
Kostas Saranteas, the new owner, reopened the restaurant as Maugus Cafe and was running soft-opening hours by mid-June 2026. The Swellesley Report visited during that phase and found the room updated rather than rebuilt. The counter stools and booths are still there, and so is the back seating area for larger groups. A new counter with stools faces Washington Street, and a few outdoor tables sit under umbrellas. The red carpet is gone.
The menu changed more than the room did. Maugus now uses Atomic Coffee Roasters beans, and a new espresso machine makes about a dozen coffee drinks, from drip and cold brew to lattes. Breakfast still covers the basics, including steel-cut oats, yogurt bowls, Nutella pancakes, waffles, and six kinds of omelette. One of the omelettes is spanakopita-style, with spinach, feta and a phyllo crumble. At lunch there's a souvlaki bowl with a lemon-herb chicken skewer, jasmine rice, Greek salad, tzatziki and pita, plus a Greek village salad alongside the burgers and wraps.
The Maugus has always leaned Mediterranean, and the new menu says so more clearly.
The hours are the clearest sign the reopening is still settling. The restaurant's website now says "Now Open!" and posts hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Those are the same hours reported back in June, when the restaurant called them soft-opening hours. No separate grand opening has been announced, so breakfast and lunch is the schedule for now. That's the posted schedule as of this writing, and it could change.
At 27 Grove St., a Buffet Promised Since August 2025
In early August 2025, the Swellesley Report noticed a sign in Amarin's old window. It announced Rani Mahal, promising "authentic Indian & Nepali dining" and a "grand lunch buffet." Almost a year went by before the Select Board's consent agenda for July 21, 2026, included votes on the restaurant's common victualler and entertainment licenses for 27 Grove Street. By late July, Rani Mahal was open for takeout and delivery. By September it was serving dinner in its 60-seat dining room.
The owner, Ram Dhital, also runs restaurants in Newton Centre, Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury. The dinner menu is long. It starts with soups and appetizers and has a "Nepali Corner" with momos, noodles and chili, followed by northern Indian dishes such as biryani, kadhai and tandoori. Each dish is marked vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free where it applies, and there's a kids' menu. On the Swellesley Report's September visit, entrées ran about $20 to $25 and every appetizer was under $20.
The same visit pointed to two things that aren't done yet. As of mid-September, Rani Mahal had no alcohol license, and guests were bringing their own wine. The buffet equipment was set up in the dining room, but the reviewers described the buffet as something coming "down the road." No liquor license item for Rani Mahal appears on the Select Board agendas posted for September 23, September 29 or October 6. The restaurant's website lists its address and phone number but doesn't post a lunch schedule. For now, plan on dinner and bring your own wine. Call ahead before going for a lunch buffet.
WhatNow reported that Amarin's owners, for their part, had planned to reopen in the former Spice & Pepper space in Wayland, but those plans fell through and, as of August 2025, they were negotiating for a location they hadn't named, keeping the same name and recipes. No new address has turned up in the sources reviewed for this post.
Where the Block Stands as of October 3, 2026
The rest of the village is in the same unfinished state. Here's what has been announced and what's actually open:
| Address | Business | Announced | Status as of Oct. 3, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 Washington St. | Maugus Cafe | Reopening under new owner, June 2026 | Open, with the soft-opening hours now posted as regular hours |
| 27 Grove St. | Rani Mahal | Indian & Nepali dining and a "grand lunch buffet," August 2025 | Dinner and takeout. BYOB as of mid-September. Buffet not yet started |
| 35 Grove St. | Truly's Next Door | Events space next to Truly's | Open since December 2025 |
| 380 Washington St. | Le Petit Four | Formal opening January 21, 2025 | Open Tuesday through Sunday |
| 278 to 390 Washington St. | Middlesex Savings Bank | Branch move, state approval February 20, 2026 | Branch page still says it "will be relocating." No date |
| 251 Washington St. | Pvolve | Fitness studio, "this winter" | Studio page says "Coming Soon" |
The Older Fixtures Around the New Ones
Truly's, on the same block as Rani Mahal, serves scooped and soft-serve ice cream and yogurt, along with Peet's espresso drinks, tea and hot chocolate. The Swellesley Report's reviewers finished their Rani Mahal dinner with Truly's soft serve. Truly's Next Door opened at 35 Grove St. as a small gathering and events space by December 2025. Truly's hasn't announced a date for closing for the season.
Le Petit Four at 380 Washington St. had a short Christmas Eve opening and then held its formal opening on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. Its first-week schedule said it expected to sell out each day. It now sells French pastries, breads and café items Tuesday through Sunday. Of the businesses described here, it has the most settled routine.
The bank move will change the west end of the village. Middlesex Savings Bank told customers it plans to leave 278 Washington St. for 390 Washington St. at Forest Street, the corner Citizens Bank left in spring 2024. Massachusetts approved the relocation on February 20, 2026. No plan for 278 Washington St. has been announced.
At 251 Washington St., in the Marathon Sports block, Pvolve has covered its windows with images of Jennifer Aniston, who promotes the brand, and has said it will open "this winter."
October Dates on Washington Street
Several events will bring people onto this stretch of Washington Street in October:
- October 7 through October 31. The Wellesley Hills Congregational Church runs its annual Pumpkin Patch at 207 Washington Street to raise money for its Youth Service Trip and the Wellesley Food Pantry.
- October 10, 4 p.m. The same church hosts a free children's concert of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the puppetry group Really Inventive Stuff.
- October 31, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Wellesley Recreation Department and the Wellesley Hills Merchants hold their Halloween Stroll for children ages 0 to 8. It starts at the Clock Tower, with trick-or-treating at stops along the way. Clock Tower Park is across from Green's Hardware.
The Clock Tower is directly across Washington Street from the Maugus, so the Halloween Stroll begins in front of the restaurant whose reopening started this year's changes in the village. By the stroll, Rani Mahal's buffet may have started, the bank may have set a moving date, or neither may have happened. The Select Board agendas and the businesses' own websites are where those updates will appear first.
If you own in Wellesley Hills and want to know how this year's turnover on Washington and Grove Streets affects your street, Nekky Parkiotis is glad to go over it with you in plain terms. Let's Connect.
