Construction is underway at Cafe Zing in Porter Square, with “Cafe Zing 2.0” expected to open in three months and a new business opening next door, owner Mark Ostow said Wednesday.
The coffee shop has been able to sprawl, occupying the front of a generous 25 White St. space and its front patio, since Porter Square Books left in October 2024, moving about 1,000 feet from the Porter Square Shopping Center to a space on Massachusetts Avenue.
A vintage and artisans’ marketplace called the Chartreuse Microbus Collective moved in for several months, selling its goods behind Zing into and beyond the holidays.
For a while it looked like the Cambridge Naturals health and wellness store would knock down a wall and expand into the space behind Zing. “We did explore the expansion possibility quite extensively. We had drawings made, and there were a lot of positives,” said Emily Kanter, who runs the store with her husband, Caleb. Her parents, Michael Kanter and Elizabeth Stagl, opened it in 1974 and moved into the shopping center in 2006.
A Boston Landing branch of the health store closed in early 2024 after a run of five and half years, and with Porter Square Books leaving, there was a lot of anticipatory energy around an expansion, Kanter said Wednesday.
That faded. “We realized that with our current lease restrictions, we couldn’t have the product mix that justified that expansion of space,” Kanter said, referring to rules against competing with Star Market as a food seller. “Without the ability to become a full-line grocery store, it didn’t make sense.”
It also would have a business strain to align Cambridge Naturals’ hours with those of Cafe Zing, which opens earlier. Meanwhile, Zing was thriving in its larger space and “buildout costs kept rising,” Kanter said. Increasingly, the expansion “looked like a no-go.”
Shopping center owner Wilder has turned the original architectural plans on their axis: Instead of having a front and back, the Cafe Zing space is being subdivided into a left and right. Zing is operating on the left, closest to Cambridge Naturals; in three months, Ostow expects Zing to move into a renovated space on the right, closet to the Tags hardware store.
Zing might have to close for a week for the transition. “I’m just praying it doesn’t happen,” Ostow said.
When Zing switches to the right side, work can begun preparing the space on the left for the next occupant.
Wilder isn’t saying what business is expected to open between Cambridge Naturals and Cafe Zing. The rumor is that it will open as a pilates studio, which Kanter said would be a “huge boon for the shopping center” and offer chances for collaboration.
A voicemail was left Wednesday with Wilder seeking more information.
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