A Week of Jazz in Newton

The Newton Jazz and Wine Festival will be holding two events this week and the Newtonville Village Day will also feature a jazz program.

The city will be swingin' this week as the annual Newton Jazz and Wine Festival is planning not one, but three days of music in Newton.  The festivities will kick off this Thursday, Sept. 27 with a reception at Karoun Restaurant in Newtonville with renowned jazz vocalist Patrice Williamson. Newton's own Nate Aronow will open the event with his trio at 6 p.m. and Karoun owner John Erdolian will be serving food and some of the finest wines during the show. Tickets are $50 in advance, $65 at the door and can be purchased online. The Newton Jazz and Wine Festival strongly urges patrons to purchase tickets in advance.  Then, on Saturday, Sept. 29, the Newtonville Village Day, which runs from 10 a.m. - dusk, will feature free jazz performances …

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Newton in the Kitchen

It's a Family Affair

Karoun's John Eurdolian and his entire family have been a part of the Newton restaurant scene for nearly 35 years. He talks about how he stumbled into the business and how passion keeps him in it every day.

When he opened Karoun in 1977, John Eurdolian basically fell into the restaurant business. And he took his entire family with him when he did. “It was totally accidental,” John recalls. “I was getting my master’s degree in business at Boston University and I needed money, so a friend of mine suggested that I work in a restaurant. I just fell in love with the business. I knew very little about cooking or managing, but everybody helped – my mother started cooking, my dad, my sisters got in.” From that point on, it has been a non-stop love affair between John, his parents and three sisters, and Karoun. From the day it opened on Newbury Street in Boston, to the move to Newtonville in late 1979, to today John has had a passion for his family’s …

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