By the end of the year, the Chinese restaurant Encore Café, 1007 Mass., plans to expand into the space next door.

Wanna Zhao, manager of Encore, said the restaurant wanted to expand its kitchen so that the wait staff can work more easily but didn’t want to move from the current location. The addition would also increase the amount of seating in the restaurant, which would include booths.

“We didn’t just want to leave and have to redo everything,” Zhao said.

The space used to house White Chocolate before it moved a block down to 933 Mass.

Part of the wall would be torn down between the two spaces, and because the restaurant uses a historic building, this had to be approved by the city.

Lynne Zollner, the city’s historic resources administrator, said the review commission had approved the proposal, but the restaurant must still submit final construction documents and have those approved as well.

Zhao said she hoped the expansion would be completed by December. Encore opened in October 2007.