Seafood could return to Pier 4 by year end
The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let a chain of high-end seafood and steak places open in the new building atop what used to be part of the parking lot for the shuttered Anthony's Pier 4.
Ocean Prime is seeking permission to spend $315,000 to buy the liquor license of the old Mantra restaurant in Downtown Crossing for its $3.8-million restaurant at 100 Pier 4, attorney Joe Hanley told the board this morning.
Hanley said the restaurant will have about 312 seats - the exact number will be determined by Fire Department inspectors - and a 28-seat patio.
He estimated construction will take six to eight months.
The mayor's office and several city councilors supported the proposed license sale. Nobody spoke in opposition.
The increasingly ramshackle Anthony's Pier 4, which closed in 2013, still sits at the end of the pier, surrounded by a fence and scheduled to be demolished to make way for a harborside park.
Ad:
Comments
In case get you get hungry for high priced seafood and steak
While walking between Legals and Delfrisco's on Liberty wharf and The Palm and Smith and Wollensky on Atlantic ave.
Zing!
Zing!
Legals
I always still chuckle that Legal Seafood is next to aquarium down there.
So you know.. you can look at fish at the Aquarium and then stop at Legal's after and eat some of their friends for lunch!
You know
Boston really does need more chain restaurants.
*Gag*
Of course it does!
I mean, how can the tourists possibly know what they are getting if it isn't exactly the same thing they can get at home?
Not like there's any way to find better, local stuff through Yelp, Chowhound, TripAdvisor, etc. Or by listening to friends who live in the area.
But Chris
We do.. we wanna be just like Houston Texas where it's just one big strip mall with chain restaurants. You know, we cannot have enough Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters, Applebees, Fridays.... you know, garbage that people wait in line to eat.
Buy local
They should make sure that all or most of the seafood they serve is locally sourced (not brought in frozen from China.)
Radical new decor concept may be needed...
A radical new decor concept may be needed to distinguish themselves from all the other seafood and steak available in the Waterfront and Downtown areas...
Hmmm...perhaps lots of old school genuine and fake seafaring objects (binnacles, signs, ship's wheels, engine telegraphs, ship nameplates, a whole freakin' ship). Some unrelated antiques to add character, like a real hand-cranked Gatling gun and a tiny steam locomotive. More restaurant and fraternal group awards than you can shake a bread stick at. Free meals for celebs, and put their photos all over the walls.
Excellent! What else could it need? Distinctive costumes for the serving staff, of course! The women in something sort of evoking the French revolution, and the men in pseudo-Colonial outfits, including stockings, waistcoats, and neck ruffles.
Brilliant! Where's that recipe for Baked Alaska!? We'll make millions!
The real key
Will be serving popovers and marinated mushrooms to every table.
I'll go
If it has a talking, flapping, big mouth bass on the wall.
it's a great place to
walk and see a few sites, enjoy buildings, water and museum but the dining is hugely out of whack for normal drop in adult casual food or affordable family food. Maybe one or two out of the 12-15 places in the area without walking back towards town.
Point taken ....
....but we hit Babbo Friday night past [after a visit to the Barking Crab to wet the whistle and ensure nothing had been 'improved']. The place was heaving, but the vibe was good.
Mario Batali's latest comes in a price point that is far more affordable than might have been anticipated. That said, by design, while it's real good food, it's not high-end.