New eats for Dudley streets

Local restaurateurs Solmon and Rokeya Chowdhury and managing partner Biplaw Rai will soon open their newest venture, Dudley Cafe, in the new Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building

A local restaurant-owning couple soon will expand their roster when the retail side of the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building finally opens its doors this summer. Roxbury residents Solmon and Rokeya Chowdhury hope to bring a new experience to the area with their aptly-named Dudley Café, which will sit on the Warren Street side of the building that has been the center of much of Dudley Square’s recent development activity. The couple says they are getting the final details in place to open, including hiring staff.

“This is a project close to our hearts, because it’s something that we just wanted in our community for a long time,” said Rokeya Chowdhury in a conversation with the Banner. The Chowdhurys have lived near Dudley Square for eleven years.

“We are excited we will be able to walk down to get a coffee,” she added. “We always talked about being able to walk down to the square to get something, so when the opportunity arose, we took it and realized we could do it ourselves.”

The city first issued a Request for Proposals for the Bolling building in December 2013, and the Chowdhurys filed their paperwork soon after.

Chowdhury said the restaurant will have a relaxed coffeehouse vibe where people can sit and work or gather with friends, or grab something quick to eat on the run. The menu will include pastries, soups, salads and sandwiches, as well as pre-packaged food from two of the couples’ other restaurants: Indian rice-bowls from Dorchester-based Shanti and pan-Asian cuisine from Moksa in Cambridge.

New life, nightlife

The Chowdhurys also are going for a wine and beer license. They are awaiting their hearing in front of the Boston Licensing Board on May 20.

The Dudley Café will be open seven days per week from 7 AM to 7 PM, although the owners say things may change as the area becomes more of a local restaurant and entertainment hub.

“Right now Dudley Square is kind of quiet in the evenings, but as things open up, we might expand,” Rokeya said.

The couple mostly has financed their venture with their own seed money, but they have received help from the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development in reviewing options for lower-interest bank loans. Rokeya says the DND was helpful with their Shanti restaurant, which now has branches in Dorchester and Roslindale.

Rokeya said the help is welcome in an industry that is notoriously difficult for business owners.

“Especially for the restaurant industry, it’s super tough to get bank loans,” she said. “Even the ones who want to do it, they make the interest rates so high.”

Global, local roots

For a couple that now will own five venues — both Shanti locations, Moksa, Dudley Café and NAGA night club in Central Square, not to mention the now-closed Om restaurant and lounge in Harvard Square – they started off in the business on a casual note. Rokeya says Solmon opened the Shanti restaurant as a kind of “pet project.”

“He opened it just to have a closer place to eat Indian food,” she laughed. The Chowdhurys are Bangladeshi but she said the two cultures shared similar foods. After Shanti did well, she said, they decided to invest in more eateries and become more involved in local commerce. Solmon is an active member of the Central Square Business Association and Rokeya is a board member of Roslindale Village Main Street.

Now they are ready to hit the ground running.

“Everything is ready on our end,” said Chowdhury, adding that they have furniture piling up in a nearby office space in anticipation of their opening. They are just waiting on the city to finish its renovations of the Bolling building so they can start setting up, with the hope of opening by the end of June.