"Cafe Artscience will close at the end of service on Saturday, December 21, after five years of operation — and evolution — at 650 Kendall St. in East Cambridge. Founder David Edwards announced the news to customers in an email newsletter on December 20, also giving a hint of what’s to come. Samdo, who was beverage director and partner at Artscience at the time of his death from liver cancer in January 2019, was a beloved fixture in the beverage industry in Boston (and beyond). Earlier in his career, he worked for Adams at her downtown restaurant Trade. In Artscience’s five-year span, it went through several different eras along with major staffing changes, especially in 2017, when its name changed to Artscience Culture Lab and Cafe. That summer, executive chef Brandon Baltzley departed to focus on his pop-up dinner series on the Cape, the Buffalo Jump, which is now a permanent restaurant. He had replaced Artscience’s opening chef Patrick Campbell, who went on to open the Stones Common House in Stoneham. Mid-2017 also saw the departure of opening partner and cocktail wizard Todd Maul (a Clio alum), who has consulted on various projects since then. Carolina Curtin (an alum of Haley Henry and Menton) came onboard as chef de cuisine at the time, but departed in 2018; these days, she’s at Yellow Door Taqueria, which is expanding from Dorchester to the South End. Since mid-2018, chef Benjamin Lacy has been at the helm of the Artscience kitchen; he’s an alum of Cambridge’s now-closed En Boca and Ten Tables, among other restaurants. Throughout the changes, the food hovered in the fine-dining arena, showcasing bits of Edwards’ work as an inventor and scientist but without hitting diners over the head with modernist cuisine, aside from hints like Edwards’ “WikiPearls” of foie gras or “flavor clouds” from “Le Whaf” at the bar." - Rachel Leah Blumenthal
