Less than two years after opening in Somerville’s Bow Market, Nagomi Bento is expanding to Cambridge. The Japanese restaurant, between Harvard and Porter squares, is expected to open the second week of April. Toward the end of March, after the interior is built out, the restaurant will have a soft opening on weekends and Mondays, chef and co-owner Nagisa Ikemura said.
“This is my first time having indoor seating,” Ikemura said, on a laptop as reconstruction continued on the former Wrapro Falafel & Grill. “We wanted to make this place very comforting and relaxing, and a place you can feel a little Japanese culture.”
The Cambridge location will have a larger menu – drinks such as a matcha and a latte made from hojicha, a green tea, and more varieties of the filled rice balls known as onigiri – and will fulfill most catering orders.
It was always the goal to have two locations, Ikemura said, even when Nagomi Bento began on April 5, 2022 as a vendor at farmers’ markets and local events. The business took a pop-up slot in Somerville’s Nibble Kitchen incubator between March 2023 and April 2024, and moved to a permanent space in the surrounding Bow Market that summer.
Ikemura and business partner Naohiro Shimaguchi began renovating the Cambridge storefront after Wrapro closed in November. They are investing $150,000 in the new location, Shimaguchi said.
“Our first year was challenging with the economy and all that, but we did get a lot of repeaters, and those people really supported us. We’re almost at the end of our second year, and I think it was even harder than the first – we don’t have that first-year excitement anymore,” Ikemura said. “Bow Market also got more vendors in. It’s a lot more competitive.”
The Cambridge location, which is near Harvard Law and Lesley University, will complement the Bow Market shop. “There’s a lot of people walking by, taking the bus or going to Harvard or Porter, people who need some snacks to eat or a lunch to take somewhere,” Ikemura said. Over time, the space in Cambridge may add bento box options beyond salmon, eggplant, tofu, pork katsu curry, a beef bowl that replaced a too-expensive short rib and – Ikemura’s favorite – karaage fried chicken.
Ikemura was born, raised and got her accounting degree in California, but in her tween and teen years, she lived in Japan. She spent four years in Chicago at an accounting firm but became restless during the Covid pandemic’s extended work-from-home period. “I thought, this is not a place that I can stay. This is not a place I can show my character or utilize my skills. I kind of had to think about what I really wanted to do, what I was passionate about, what’s the next step in my life,” she said.
Combining her background as a competitive athlete in Japan, a bachelor’s degree in sports science and other attributes – “I like talking to people. I like to cook. I have this energy.” – she decided to start a bento business. And she chose to do it in Boston, a city new to her but that seemed perfect in its size and diversity. She lived first in Somerville; she’s since moved to Watertown with her husband to improve his commute time to Springfield College.
“I’ve worked in a public accounting department. It’s chaotic. Lunchtime is the time that you get for yourself and relax,” Ikemura said. “This cute bento can make somebody’s day a little happier.
Nagomi Bento, 1670 Massachusetts Ave., Neighborhood 9, Cambridge