Image courtesy of Historic Boston Inc.

What: Upham’s Corner Comfort Station
Where: 611 Columbia Road, Dorchester
Owner: Historic Boston Inc.
Built: 2019-2022 

A former rest area built in 1912 to serve Boston’s expanding streetcar system has new life as Dorchester’s newest purveyor of global cuisine. 

Historic Boston Inc. recently completed a $1.9 million project rehabilitating the 1,880-square-foot mission-style structure and leased it to Comfort Kitchen. Open since January, its menu features immigrant-inspired cuisine from Senegalese braised chicken to Basque cheesecake. 

The building is located on the former Dorchester North Burying Ground, a Boston landmark. HBI acquired the property for $100 through a disposition by the Boston Department of Neighborhood Development in 2018, and raised $883,000 to offset the cost of the project, which also received $44,000 in funding from the city of Boston and $225,000 in state historic tax credits. 

They Said It: 

“Dorchester’s Upham’s Corner Comfort Station sat vacant and decaying for 45 years before the non-profit Historic Boston Inc. restored it last year for Comfort Kitchen, a new restaurant that celebrates the cuisine of the African diaspora. The $1.9 million project showcases Historic Boston’s mission of redeveloping endangered historic buildings for new uses, and transforms the tiny Mission-style building into a modern restaurant and bar that seats 30.”
— Kathy Kottaridis, executive director, Historic Boston Inc.