The new bar doubles as a takeout pickup station offering several local beers and tequila-based cocktails. Dining booths are located in the rear, but social distancing guidelines don’t allow for indoor seating yet.

By Denise Keniston
tw:@denisekeniston

Taco Party, Ball Square’s vegan taco restaurant located at 711 Broadway, has expanded to the space next door and is now serving alcohol and beer. Whether by luck or design, or both, owner Keith Schubert is well-positioned to benefit from a rare shift in the restaurant industry. Large swathes of eat-in restaurants are closing due to COVID-19 measures but many Mexican and vegan restaurants, well-versed in takeout culture, are surviving.

Be sure to tune in to the virtual edition of the Fluff Fest this coming Saturday. — Photo courtesy of Union Square Main Streets

By Isabel Sami

The first-ever virtual Fluff Fest takes place this Saturday, September 12. “In Fluff We Trust: Sticking Together Thru Fluff” is an all-day event viewable in the comfort of your home on the Fluff Fest website (https://www.flufffestival.com/). The beloved community tradition will be accessible to Somerville residents past and present, as people around the world will be able to view the events online for the first time in its 15-year history.

The Phase 3 Step 1 reopening has begun in the city this week, and several local business owners are already taking advantage of the newly eased restrictions. We wish them all the best of luck, while also cautioning them and all their patrons to keep following safety guidelines that are still in effect. We want everyone to remain safe and healthy as well as the business owner renewed success.

FAB Balloon Factory to create flagship location in Somerville
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Art, culture, and sciences will soon collide within the confines of the former Powderhouse School in Somerville’s Teele Square. This year, the flagship space will open as an artists’ collective that plans to create a new normal for the community.

The “What the Fluff?” festival, an event that has grown in the hearts of so many here, is going virtual this year. Obviously, this is necessary because of the restrictions imposed on public gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, it’s nice to know that the tradition will be carried on in some form that most of us can enjoy.

Arrests:
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Paul Phaneuf, of Woburn, September 1, 12:07 a.m., arrested at McGrath Hwy. on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.

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Review by Off the Shelf correspondent Zvi A. Sesling

I have rarely been a fan of big novels because I usually found the books too long and I could not even finish one on a transcontinental flight. Short stories, on the other hand, have allowed me to read and absorb a few stories on the same flight. The stories from old masters such as Malamud, Fitzgerald, Nabokov, and Porter can be quite lengthy. Short story authors tend toward a shorter story running from three or four pages to seventeen to twenty pages.

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Jennifer LeBlanc earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Her first full-length book, Descent, was published by Finishing Line Press (2020), and individual poems have been published in journals such as The Adirondack Review, CAIRN, The Main Street Rag, and Melusine. Jennifer was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize and works in the English Department at Tufts University.

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, Ward 7 City Councilor Katjana Ballantyne, and City of Somerville staff invite you to a virtual meeting to review plans to replace the Dilboy Stadium synthetic turf field and improve the natural-grass Dilboy Auxiliary Fields adjacent to Alewife Brook Parkway.