Seaport to get Euro-Egyptian bakery with a liquor license

The Boston Licensing Board today approved plans by Sherif and Nadine Farag to buy the beer, wine and liqueurs license of the failed Our Father's Deli in the Fenway for their upcoming Elephantine Bakery at 332 Congress St. in the Seaport, where they will serve up not just baked goods, but small-plate dishes with European and Middle Eastern influences from breakfast though dinner.

Elephantine Bakery will move into the space where Metro Cafe used to be, with a planned May opening.

At a hearing yesterday, their attorney, Kristen Scanlon, said that while the Farags have run an Elephantine Bakery in Portsmouth, NH, Boston represents a homecoming of sorts for the couple - they met and married here 17 years ago.

Both started out with different directions in life than running a restaurant - he was a McKinsey consultant, she was a first-year PhD public-health candidate at Harvard - when they both quit, feeling a yearning for something else.

The name of the restaurant is an homage to Egypt - both are Egyptian-American.

Scanlon said the new eatery would meet a "public need" because that stretch of Congress has lost several restaurants in recent years and because the dishes - "not quite dinner, not quite lunch, but something in between" - and pastries would be unique to the area.

She added that the restaurant, near the Children's Museum, would be kid friendly with "affordable price points."