By Marc Levy
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Marc LevySteve Kurland, once of Evoo and Za, welcomes guests to the “housewarming” held Tuesday to introduce the Daily Provisions restaurant in Cambridge’s Harvard Square.
Harvard Square’s Daily Provisions is expected to open Monday with some soft-opening hours starting Saturday, said the chain’s regional director at a Tuesday “housewarming” event with food samples, wine and a DJ. It’s the first location for the esteemed quick-service all-day cafe outside of New York and New Jersey.
And that regional director? Steve Kurland, of the also-esteemed Evoo and Za restaurants that wound down in Kendall Square in 2024 after serving 14 years. “They wanted a local guy to run it,” Kurland said of Union Square Hospitality Group, parent company to Daily Provisions. The group next opens a location in 2026 in Boston’s Seaport with the second of its Ci Siamo Italian restaurants.
“They had already picked this spot” at 1 Brattle Square when he came aboard, Kurland said – but Union Square chose well. “This is such an obvious spot, we have the residences and the small businesses” around to take advantage of both aspects of the menu: the ready-made sandwiches, salads and pastry for lunch and dinner dine-in crowds, and to-go entrees such as roast chicken and seared salmon for people looking to bring home a family meal. (The address was once Spyce, the MIT robot-kitchen startup that closed soon after launch in 2021 after being acquired by the Sweetgreen chain.)
“We have super high standards,” Kurland said, and all food is made on the spot following the model of executive culinary director Claudia Fleming, who was also at the Cambridge housewarming event.
Marc LevyA tray of Chickpea & Veggie sandwiches is offered Tuesday at Daily Provisions in Harvard Square.
Fleming’s choice of favorite Daily Provisions meal is almost disappointing (“the most recent is always the favorite”), but in this case is a very good Garden Quinoa Crunch Salad, with a nutty base of the grain accented with snap peas, chickpeas, radishes, dill, feta and jammy egg.
Kurland has a more distinct couple of preferred menu items, both sandwiches: In the comfort food area, the Chicken Milanese; when he wants something lighter, the Chickpea & Veggie.
They had to be tried, and the housewarming event offered trays of each, along with salads and pastry to sample in the store and take home.
Marc LevyA guest at the Daily Provisions event heads toward a Tomato & Green Bean Salad.
The Chicken Milanese is an example of why Daily Provisions enters the market with such a solid reputation: This is a substantial slab of chicken with a crisped breading present only to complement the breast and not to displace it as a flavor, and the melted mozzarella and red peppers are equally deferential – every ingredient is inviting every other ingredient to step forward to be the star, and each one in turn declines to hog the spotlight after doing just enough to be really satisfying.
The Chickpea & Veggie is, if anything, even more baffling in its accomplishment, because this is a simple sandwich you will approach assuming you know exactly what it will be: just some hummus and a thick layer of greens on a good, fresh sourdough bread. But there’s an alchemy among the pickled cucumber, crispy shallots and feta (with a little more of those roasted red peppers) that makes it almost so fulfilling it’s unsettling, the kind of thing that can make throwing together a sandwich at home a little frustrating: It’s basically the same, so why doesn’t it taste as good? Kurland gives credit to the whole chickpeas in Daily Provisions’ version of hummus; Fleming names the shallots first and ends with a nod to the feta.
The breakfast sandwiches – I had the simplest, an egg and cheese – include a yolk that bursts and soaks the seeded bun in an especially pleasing way. But watch out for your fingers, it can be messy. Daily Provisions is also famed for its crullers, and I had a heartbreakingly sweet portion of the cinnamon, with a flagrantly, unrepentantly sugared crust over a wonderfully eggy dough. Staff swore the maple cruller is even better.
There’s plenty of sitting space for dining in, and Harvard Square Business Association executive director Denise Jillson said Thursday that she found the handsome dark blue and wood decor a good reason to do so. Whether choosing from the for-here menus or the meals, sides and bottles of sauces and dressings to go, all become available Monday. The site was approved by the License Commission in February for hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays; 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays.
