The McCarthy’s restaurant and attached Toad nightclub celebrate their year anniversary April 5 with a party featuring a day of live music.
“We’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our neighbors, regulars, staff, musicians and media outlets who have supported and helped promote the establishment,” owners and managers said in a Wednesday email. “We couldn’t have done it without you all.”
Tommy McCarthy and Louise Costello, owners of The Burren in Somerville’s Davis Square, bought Christopher’s Restaurant & Bar and Toad in April 2024 from Charles Christopher and Holly Heslop.
The two-story space known as Christopher’s since 1981 needed as many as 70 workers to run and never reopened amid post-Covid pandemic economic doldrums; an early attempt to sell – which Christopher described as a $3 million all-cash deal – collapsed. Then McCarthy and Costello stepped in, making around $1 million in refurbishments, McCarthy said, and opened in 2025, expanding music and other entertainment from Toad to the restaurant space.
The lineup at the adjoining properties during the April 5 party includes a noon to 3 p.m. Scottish brunch and 7 to 10 p.m. Irish session at McCarthy’s and music on the tiny Toad stage from noon to 1 a.m. (The last three hours is turned over to the pop-rock cover band Prestige Worldwide.)
“Here’s to many more years of live music, great Guinness and hearty Irish, American and plant-based cuisine,” owners and managers said in Wednesday.
McCarthy’s and Toad, 1920 Massachusetts Ave. and 1912 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge
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