The Middle Gray

The coffee was nice, but the staff was oh so snooty. I can go to a thousand places for good coffee, just thought I would try out this cute place. I just can’t give my money to people who treat me like I shouldn’t be there.

This is a hip cool place, fresh food nice service and it has a bathroom !!! (Unlike Virginia’s down the street). Isn’t it good business for an eating establishment to have a place for clientele to wash their hands at least?

It’s aiight. The coffee and the ambiance are good, and the staff is quite friendly. The food is meh though. TINY portions. Wouldn’t choose to eat here myself.
— Sandwich: Bland. Had a vegetarian sandwich and I felt like something was missing. It’s a tiny morsel, had too much greens in proportion to other fillings. I think it needs a bit more salt and some sort of sauce. It was kind of dry.
— Arepa: Bland, hard arepa with fillings that were not layered properly. The meat filling itself is pretty good actually. But (1) again, tiny piece of food even for a small Asian girl (2) the corn arepa is so thin that there’s no fragrance of corn… it’s already hardened by the time it hits your table… it probably should be 5 mm thicker so that the outside is toasted and crisped up but the inside is still slightly fluffy. There was a ball of arugula on the bottom and then a ball of meat on top, so that you get a mouthful of meat at first (the hot sauce helps) and then you just get arugula on the bottom. Ugh.
Also, looking at other people’s pics they got herbs and some crumbled cheese on top, we didn’t get either. Maybe there are some kinks to be ironed out…

I loved the ambiance and the menu at The Middle Gray, and its proximity to a T-​station.
He enjoyed his first pourover here, and I guess I am always a sucker for a good matcha latte (more like matcha anything).
I’m not in the area much, but if I am, I would definitely think of this spot for a revisit and to try the food.

I stopped in the other night (Thursday), for the first time, around 8:30. I was hoping to settle into the café area to get some work done and grab a late night snack with either a glass of wine or a coffee (it had been a long day, no judgements…).
There was hardly a crowd. Maybe 3 patrons in total: a woman on a laptop at one of the two small tables available by the register/​café area, and two people wrapping up a meal in the second room, where the bar is located.
That night, I couldn’t continue working from home, I was getting stir crazy. I had decided to drive across town because I saw that the hours listed said they would be open until 11pm. Free wifi+food+coffee sounded like a great idea. Unfortunately, when I walked in I was informed that the kitchen had been closed early and that they were closing the doors by 10. I was genuinely understand why they would close down early: traffic was slow and as I was explained, it has been slow during week days so they close the kitchen and the doors early.
Why four stars if I was disappointed? The polite gentleman behind the register offered to make me coffee and that coffee was the golden ticket. I’m a sucker for a great cup ‘o Joe.
I’m excited to visit again soon and give the food a go. The menu looks great and although I imagine that the space can get crammed, the atmosphere was still charming. I’ll keep you posted after I bite into their menu.
Cheers!

A-​OK. I stopped by for the first time very excited after hearing great things. The décor and ambience are very nice and there’s plenty of seating. But I wasn’t impressed with the food nor the service.
I decided to order the carne and egg arepas (since this place is know for their arepas) but mine were soggy and the meat was bland. My friend got the Colombian lunch and was far from satisfied. The portion was small considering the price. We also got oolong and green tea which were a bit too strong.
I also wanted to get some work done but the wifi was a bit iffy. Maybe next time I’ll try something else on their menu (a lot of people seemed to order the iced coffee).

Sad day on Monday morning. I’ve been here before and fell in love with the arepa egg sandwiches.
Maybe they got a new cook. But my mind has taken a 180. This egg and cheese arepa was awful.
One piece of cheese, one egg that was just flatly cooked with no substance and ZERO flavor, came in a full circle arepa as if stuffed in a pita (but with lack of flavor) with egg only in one side when I tried to cut it in half to mimic the others I’ve seen and had before. I wish I took a picture for this pitifully small breakfast arepa, about ¹⁄₃ of the size of the one I had previously. I still am just in shock of the one piece of mozzarella for the entire sandwich. Especially for the price.
Sad but truth, food may no longer be on my list here. And was basically the reason I made the trek.
The coffee is good, my au lait tasted great but there is great coffee closer to where I live

I’m a fan of their coffee, but the food is bland.
We went to The Middle Gray on a Saturday morning for some breakfast. I like the interior design and the people were friendly. You order your food, then they bring it to your table.
I had a very good latte breve, and my girlfriend liked her coffee. The food left a lot to be desired. I had the egg and carne arepas: egg, brisket, and cheese. I put a lot of hot sauce on it to have any flavor. My girlfriend had the Colombian breakfast: scrambled eggs, arepas with butter, and cheese. Hers was also dull, but the arepas was much better than mine. Seems like the ones they use for a sandwich are different from the others.
Pretty disappointed with the food — perhaps their American dishes are better?

Hubs and I came in while looking for dinner options in Brookline Village and was surprised to see that the knitting store was replaced by this tapas restaurant/​coffee house!
We liked the cool casual coffee shop, bar atmosphere. It was small in general– tables are best for parties of 4 or less. A loud group of 6 came in and suddenly the space seemed crammed.
The food was small plates, very tasty and good South American flavors. Had the meatballs and tortilla española as our favs. Decent wine and mixed drinks list too.
Service was good, few staff but always checked in and filled waters etc.

Stopped in the Middle Gray on a whim yesterday when I was walking to the Brookline Village T stop right next door. The interior is very nice and pretty spacious with a front café area and a larger seating area downstairs. It was a very cozy environment with Christmas lights and on a cold day and I was very much looking forward to sitting down inside for a bit. I ordered a macchiato and an arepa melt with cheddar off the lunch menu. I also noticed they served beer which is a nice option. They gave me a number and the food was brought over pretty quickly.
The macchiato was good quality, a tad bitter but much better than your average coffee shop. My problem was with the food. The arepa was like a sad little quesadilla, there was absolutely no flavor whatsoever. I had to douse the entire thing in Cholula hot sauce to even make it worth eating. I probably could have whipped up something better at home and I am a lousy cook. It’s hard to base Middle Gray’s food selection off of one very basic menu item but considering the arepa I got there is certainly some room for improvement. I would be open to stopping back in for a beer or coffee and hanging with a friend but would not order food here again! Bonus points for the music selection at Middle Gray, its perfect for a coffee shop vibe, whoever is in charge of the playlist A+!

Sandwiches are bland, extremely bready, and way over priced. The arepas are not great — fairly bland, very little filling, and over priced.
There are much better sandwich shops (Villa Capri, KooKoo’s, Brookline Spa) and places to eat arepas (Oronoco) within a few blocks.
Gave this place more than one chance twice, but no more.

Hands Down best coffee shop/​café in all Brookline Village.

Came back again and I must say I love the atmosphere and décor of this place. When it starts to get dark at like 4 (–_​_​-​), the white Christmas lights inside really make the place cozy and festive! It’s a great place to study and do work, which is what I was there for (yay for finals!).
However, still not very impressed with the food. Ordered the:
–Egg & Carne arepa: it sounded really good in the description (omelette with pulled brisket and fresh cheese), but I was disappointed with the lack of flavor and overall seasoning (without the hot sauce on the table, it would’ve been tough to finish — hot sauce definitely helped). Not only that, but it cost about $ 9.50 and it wasn’t all too filling as well.
Overall, still sticking with the 3 stars to take into account space, quality and quantity of food, and cost. I really want to love this place because it’s such a great place to study and it’s so close to my apartment, but I wish the food was on par with everything else.

I’ve waited for a long time before writing this review because I can see that the owner is really very active about responding to negative reviews, and that makes me nervous.
But the fact of the matter is that my opinion is valid, and I would not go here, and I would not recommend it.
Let this be my disclaimer: As a reviewer, I am looking primarily for these qualities in this order:
1. Reasonable price
2. Enough food
3. Comfortable, welcoming
The Middle Gray is really not that bad — it’s just so expensive! The owner argues that high rents are the cause of this — touché. That’s fair. But that doesn’t mean that this place is any more of a good value. I think that lots of places in Brookline are overpriced, and my reviews reflect that. I’m not going to let The Middle Gray off easy just because I know they are going to respond to this. Instead, I’ll go to Allston to buy my lunch sandwich.
Specific to the Middle Gray — the beer and coffee lists are good (though I neither enjoy nor drink coffee — so take this all with a grain of salt). I like that they have looseleaf tea. Their sandwiches and everything they serve really are just SO small, and they taste fine. In the end you pay $ 9 for a few bites. I don’t really care about the authenticity of the recipes when I don’t feel like I’m getting a sufficient value.
And let’s talk more about the experience. The service was slow. I haven’t gone back, so maybe this got better with time, but that was not my finding. On top of that, the atmosphere is not what I’m looking for — instead of comfortable, it was kind of slick and cold. I think a lot of people would like this; it’s just not my preference.
I will say that I did love the playlist. Good music. It was a really nice touch.
This place isn’t terrible at all — I would just rather go somewhere else. Every time.

Really sleek, clean look at this new space in Brookline Village. I enjoy stopping in for a morning coffee, snack, lunch, sometimes an afternoon coffee or an after work drink! I’ve had meetings here or snuck away to do some work with a beer. Upstairs showcases an open kitchen, the coffee station, indoor and a bunch of outdoor seating. Able hands provide high end coffee, nice selection of beers, sandwiches and light meals. I’m a fan of what they’re doing. They’re very supportive of local artists and I can see their group of patrons rapidly growing. The lower room is where they show some of the local artists work and has a nice bar with stools, different sized tables and a view of Station Street. Check them out!

I was super excited to try the middle gray after reading it had opened up not too far from me. To start, the space itself is beautiful. Very open and clean with plenty of seating. I came in on a Wednesday around 10am craving a breakfast sandwich. I decided to go simple and order the breakfast sandwich. It came with mozzarella, tomato, pesto and egg. As simple as it was, it was pretty delicious. The ingredients tasted fresh and the sandwich itself came out within 5 minutes. The only disappointment I have is they do not have flavor shots for their coffee so I didnt get to order a latte like I wanted. Hopefully they change that because I can’t wait to come back and try more food!

For T restaurant, i would give a one or a two. I don’t know about the café. The food was bad. It was cold. Felt like it was frozen and they forgot to microwave it.
The café might be nice but the tapas was just bad.

I just went to The Middle Gray with some friends. The menu was very limited, so much so that one of my friends left because there was just nothing he wanted to eat. If you like arepas, you should like this restaurant. Arepas appearing in at least half of the dishes. There was no other starch option. No bread, no rice, no pasta, no potatoes unless you count the ones in the tortilla espanola.
It looks like the basic idea there is that they don’t want to have to cook anything. I understand, I hate cooking too, but then again I don’t run a restaurant. All the meats seemed to be already cooked, and everything could just be combined in different ways, e.g. sandwiches made from arepas, salad with an arepa on the side, cheese and meat platter with arepas on the side.
I had the meatballs with couscous. I ate two out of six of them and that was plenty for me. I just didn’t like them very much. Were they lamb meatballs or something? Either way, they were room temperature and not exciting .
Is this supposed to be a Latin American restaurant? If so, why the couscous? To save on meat? And why the tortilla espanola? I have visited many countries in Latin America, including Colombia, and I never saw tortilla espanola being served. I have only seen it served in Spain.
Also, I noticed the sound track repeated more than once. I got to hear «Runaround Sue» twice, among other songs. What does 50’s music have to do with Latin American food?
The only thing I liked was the tortilla espanola which, by the way, is something you can make ahead so you don’t have to cook.
They have done a nice job decorating the space and the service was nice. I think they need to up their game on the food though. Why not serve some other options like meat pastries? Or something that would come out hot? I am sure they have a stove and an oven back there.
I think if they had live music it would be better. They still need some good snacks for people to eat while they listen though.

I’ve been around this neighborhood for a couple years and have been seen restaurants open and close at this location, and last week, The Middle Gray finally came — brookline village has been waiting for a great café like this for too long!
Great coffee (be it drip or espresso), great food, great staff. This is definitely the one that’s gonna stay.

It’s great to visit a place where coffee is not an afterthought. In fact, what is already so promising about The Middle Gray, is that nothing about it really seems to be an afterthought. From the drinks to the décor, it is clear that the owners of this restaurant take every aspect of the experience quite seriously.
A welcome addition to the neighborhood. I will definitely be back.