Look Inside Lucie Drink and Dine, Now Open in the Back Bay
The Colonnade Hotel now has stylish, pop art-filled "local bar with a global kitchen."
A neighborhood bar and restaurant with a global kitchen, Lucie Drink + Dine is now open at the Colonnade Hotel. / Photos by Andy Ryan
Though it’s located just off the lobby of a luxury hotel, Lucie Drink + Dine is for us, Boston. The Colonnade Hotel’s new restaurant, which opens tonight at 5 p.m., is a large and comfortable place with a menu and bar program to satisfy everybody, from the visitors to the Copley Square area, to the A-list guests at the hotel, to the locals who live and work in the Back Bay and beyond.
Lucie Drink + Dine is the first Boston restaurant from Howard Wein Hospitality, the restaurant developer and operations group that’s also behind Western Mass.’s unique Alvah Stone at the Montague Book Mill, among many national properties. Lucie brings a restaurant back to the Colonnade Hotel, which has been without a ground-floor dining option since 20-year-old Brasserie Jo closed in 2018.
The restaurant boasts more than 200 seats, including 27 oversized, leather bar chairs around the focal-point 360-degree bar; a spacious, 22-seat private dining room; and several comfortable couches and lounge chairs. Lucie will also have 26 seats on an outdoor patio in the warmer months. Fun details, like pop-art portraits of Mick Jagger and Kate Moss mashed up with iconic cartoons by Portuguese artist Rui Pinho, contribute to the relaxed vibe of the stylish space.
Chef de cuisine Michael Chandler, formerly of Oak Long Bar and Grill 23 & Bar in Boston, as well as Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s the Mercer Kitchen in NYC, has created a menu with comfort food from around the globe. There are pizzas (including gluten-free) topped with the likes of San Marzano tomatoes, or clams with buffalo ricotta. Pastas, meanwhile, include bolognese tagliatelle and spicy crab lumache, plus gluten-free options for each style. Mains include a house double-stacked burger; several different cuts for steak frites; Ora King salmon with curried black rice and a spicy cucumber slaw; and a brown rice bowl with grilled tofu, kale pesto, and a poached egg. Most dishes range from $14-$29, though frites with grass-fed filet mignon or a 12-ounce prime NY strip steak are $35 and $39, respectively.
There are also substantial salads ($11-$21), like a lobster Louis-style wedge; and shareable small plates ($7-$18) like garlic rolls drizzled in scallion-garlic butter; spicy eggplant with tahina, pistachio, and pickled figs; daily oysters on the half-shell; and smoked salmon toast with goat cheese. Desserts ($4-$10) include an any-day slice of birthday cake, a deep-dish blondie, and soft-serve ice cream (or frozen yogurt), available by the scoop, as a float, and as make-your-own sundaes.
The beverage program is equally as extensive, helmed by bar director Eric Kurss, who previously helped star chef Jody Adams open her Back Bay spot, Porto, and created the bar program for her fast-casual chain Saloniki. Kurss, who also did a stint at the Hawthorne, has updated a half-dozen classic cocktails at Lucie, such as a negroni augmented by a dash of vanilla, and a draft margarita. He also offers a lineup of call drinks (classic spirit-soda cocktails), made with Harmony Springs Sodas from Western Mass.—think: vodka with black cherry soda, and bourbon with lime, ginger, and bubbles. There are plenty of other house creations, including the Glamour Profession, made with vodka, yellow chartreuse, and Lillet Blanc; and the Colonel Forbin, with cognac, vermouth, dry Curacao, and pomegranate.
Draft beers are all local, including a “Lucie” New England IPA, labeled especially for the bar by Wachusett Brewing Company. Wines by the glass and an extensive bottle list feature small producers making organic and offbeat juices, and there’s a full coffee program.
In other words, there’s a little something for everyone. “This is such a high foot-traffic area, and with so many tourists coming in, you need to appeal to that crowd,” Kurss says. “But I think this will be really cool for people who live at Avalon [Prudential apartments], or go to the Symphony, or work in the Back Bay.”
Lucie launches this weekend with dinner at 5 p.m., and will be open nightly Thursday-Sunday for now. Additional dinner hours, full-service breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunch are all coming soon, though—because, after all, this new, Back Bay restaurant aims to have whatever you need.
120 Huntington Ave., Boston, 617-425-3400, luciebackbay.com.
