A few days before Brookline Lunch opened at 108 L Street, Jamal Abu-Rubieh stood in the open doorway and gave a spinach-stuffed savory pie to every neighbor who came in asking when the place would open. Boston magazine was there interviewing him and his son Mahmood, and its reporter noticed that nobody left without something. "We love to give," Jamal told the magazine.
For a lot of people around L and Fifth, those pies answered a question that had been sitting on the corner for most of a year. The L Street Diner & Pizzeria was gone, its beer-and-wine license had moved across the channel, and its fixtures had gone out the door in a cleanout. What took its place is a family breakfast-and-lunch spot from Central Square. It is building a pizza oven into the room on purpose, as a nod to the place before it.
How the corner went quiet
The old diner had been at 108 L Street since 1986. Its own site promoted brick-oven pizza, Southern barbecue and all-day breakfast. Here is how the corner went from open to dark to reopened:
- The sign. An "on vacation" notice went up on the door. Caught in Southie wrote in May 2026 that it had been posted more than a year earlier. A neighbor who spoke to WBZ NewsRadio remembered it going up about six months before.
- The license. The Boston Licensing Board's March 25, 2026 hearing list included a petition from AOB Corp., doing business as L Street Diner & Pizzeria, to transfer its seven-day wines-and-malt license from 108 L Street to Ballers Boston Seaport LLC at 25 Pier 4 Boulevard. Hoodline, citing the board's voting minutes, reported the transfer as granted on March 26. Ballers is a pickleball and padel club in the Seaport.
- The cleanout. On the first weekend of May, Caught in Southie saw a crew emptying the restaurant. The outlet concluded the diner was done and wrote that it never got "one last pizza and order of chicken tenders."
- The paperwork. A Licensing Board agenda for May 21 listed a Common Victualler application, which is a food-service license, from Brookline Lunch Inc. at 108 L Street. Mahmood Abu-Rubieh was named as manager, and the proposed hours were 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
- The reveal. Caught in Southie announced the new tenant on August 30, and an update to a Boston Restaurant Talk post said the restaurant was open as of September 28.
Steps two and four together explain what the corner has become. The beer and wine left in March. The food-service application arrived in May with hours running into the evening. Hoodline noted that any future operator wanting to pour wine or malt beverages at the address would need Licensing Board approval or a different license. The new tenant opened with breakfast and lunch.
Who moved in
Brookline Lunch is a Central Square institution with a long history. Jamal came to Massachusetts from Jordan in 1976 to attend Wentworth Institute of Technology. In 1989 he and his wife Manal bought a former Greek diner on Brookline Street in Cambridge. All seven of their children have worked there. Jamal calls Manal "the number one cook," and Mahmood told Boston magazine she has been there every day for 37 years. Their son Majdee runs the Cambridge location full-time with his parents, and their daughter Abeer came up with the baklava pancakes that send people to wait in line on Brookline Street.
The South Boston location is Mahmood's. He is the family's fourth child, and he grew up doing homework in the Cambridge booths. The family has started calling the new spot "B-Line Southie," and its Instagram handle is @blinesouthie. The business's announcement on Instagram, quoted by Boston Restaurant Talk, struck a sentimental tone:
"...we have a new, second space to share in Southie! This not-so-secret project has been underway for four months... We've been extra nostalgic as we take this step forward and know that no place will ever create the magic and memories like the original Brookline Lunch."
That post puts the business at 37 years, and so does Boston magazine. Caught in Southie's announcement called it a 38-year staple.
What came across the river, and what's new
Inside, the room was built to fit the old space. Mahmood made the wooden booths himself so they would fit the odd corners of the former diner, and they resemble the booths in Cambridge. At the original, years of scrawled notes and drawings cover the booths. In Southie the walls are still filling in, with a few prints, including a collage of doors from across the Middle East and a bottle of rose water, the same ingredient that goes into the baklava pancake syrup.
The menu combines dishes from Cambridge with a few additions just for this location, based on what Boston magazine described in its September 25 feature:
| From the Cambridge original | New at 108 L Street |
|---|---|
| Baklava pancakes | Spinach, cheese, za'atar and meat pies baked on site |
| Spicy sausage shakshuka | Espresso drinks on a La Marzocco machine |
| Za'atar bowl with poached eggs, feta, naan, homefries and vegetables | House-made coffee syrups, like the cherry in the karaz iced latte with vanilla cold foam and a candied cherry |
| Scratch cooking with a focus on fresh vegetables | Fresh-squeezed lemonade, including the mint Lemonana |
| A pizza oven for house breads, pizza and possibly subs, still in the works as of late September |
Boston magazine's photos from the new location also show a butcher's breakfast with eight ounces of NY strip, Levantine chimichurri, eggs, homefries and sourdough, plus a baladi bánh mì with eggs, pickled turnips, mint and goat cheese. On October 2, the magazine's roundup of hot new restaurants recommended the Southie location for its pancakes at brunch.
Why the oven matters most
Most of the table above is about drinks and pastry. The last row is the one that ties the place back to the corner's history. Boston magazine described the pizza oven as "a bit of an homage to the previous tenant, and what the neighborhood might still want from this space." For almost four decades, the address meant pizza and chicken tenders. Caught in Southie's farewell in May named those two items specifically.
Mahmood isn't hurrying it. "Our pizza kitchen will hopefully open in the next month or so," he told Boston magazine on September 25. He said it would serve full pies and slices at lunch and dinner. "We're taking our time to learn how to make the dough from scratch, perfect our sauce, and come up with a handful of signature pies that will make up the full menu."
When that interview ran, the hours didn't include dinner. He framed the "month or so" timeline as a hope, and that window ends right about now. Dinner is what would bring the corner back to something like its old shape, with slices on a weeknight and people grabbing a pie on the way home from the beach end of L Street. The May license application already asked for hours until 10:30 p.m., so the evening plan has been in the paperwork since spring.
Before you walk over
- Go early. Brookline Lunch is a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant first. Until pizza service starts, plan on a morning or midday visit.
- Check Instagram for the pizza launch and hours. The @blinesouthie account is where the family posted its opening news, and it's the most likely place to announce the pizza kitchen and any dinner hours.
- Ask about payment. The Cambridge original is cash-only. The Southie location hasn't publicly said whether it follows the same policy, so carrying a little cash makes sense until you know.
- Order what Cambridge regulars line up for. Start with the baklava pancakes, then try something only this location makes, like a za'atar pie or a karaz iced latte.
For now, 108 L Street serves baklava pancakes and za'atar pies during the day, and the first slices will come out of the new oven once Mahmood is satisfied with the dough.
Corners like L and Fifth shape the blocks around them, including where you get coffee and how a Saturday morning starts. If you're looking at homes within walking distance of 108 L Street and want an honest sense of how this part of the neighborhood feels day to day, Joyce Lebedew can walk it with you. Find your place in South Boston, and book a consultation.
