Bondir Concord Is On the Market
Bondir Concord. / Photo by Andy Ryan provided
After three years at his Metrowest outpost, chef Jason Bond is wrapping things up at Bondir Concord. The restaurant is on the market, Boston Restaurant Talk reported today. While an end date isn’t yet on the books, it’s time to get a reservation in while you still can.
Bond put his Concord restaurant up for sale on November 1. For the past year, the numbers haven’t been quite where they should be, he says. In October, he informed his staff of his plans to sell, and he’s keeping them in the loop as interested parties continue to inquire. It could be several more weeks to months before Bondir Concord shuts the doors.
“We’re just cooking, continuing to do what we’re doing,” Bond says. That means he’s finalizing a New Year’s Eve dinner menu, and he just booked the bagpiper and fiddler for the next Burns supper on January 24.
The Concord restaurant followed Bond’s quintessential Cambridge spot, the original Bondir, which debuted in 2010. The romantic, quirky gem immediately earned critical attention: In 2011, Boston magazine critic Corby Kummer wrote, “In its humble way, Bondir serves some of the most elegantly conceived and executed dishes in the area. Bond manages to avoid the overwrought pretension that runs through too much of the current farm-to-table approach.” In 2012, Bond was nominated for a James Beard Award.
The impetus for the move out to Concord was to expand upon what works in Cambridge, but Bond admits the restaurant three times larger than his first isn’t a fit. He doesn’t quite know why, but he doesn’t blame the uptick in of-the-earth fine dining, with Woods Hill Table and Saltbox Kitchen recently joining the likes of 80 Thoreau and Bondir.
“There are serious chefs and serious restaurants out here in Concord, Waltham, [etc.]. Even the difference of three years is amazing. I don’t know exactly why Bondir Concord didn’t work as well as we wanted it to. Largely, I came out here to just do literally what we were doing in Cambridge. I opened a Cambridge restaurant, not in Cambridge,” he says.
So, he’s refocusing on his first love. While chef de cuisine Pierce Kelley has been holding down the day-to-day in Cambridge with fresh prix-fixe menus showcasing New England produce, game, and seafood, “I’m looking forward to spending more dedicated to it,” Bond says. He plans to pursue a full liquor license for the Area IV restaurant in 2017, he adds.
And in Concord, he’s happy to wait for the right buyer.
“I love the neighborhood, the town, the farmland around here,” Bond says. “We wanted to offer something good for the town and be a positive memory for the community, so we want to find something that makes sense here.”
The property is listed by Boston Restaurant Group.
Bondir Concord, 24 Walden St., Concord, 978-610-6554, bondirconcord.com.
