'Chef-driven' restaurant with circular fireplace and indoor trees planned for West Broadway in South Boston

The Zoning Board of Appeals today approved plans by the Broadway Restaurant Group to open a 352-seat restaurant called Cook House next to its Lincoln Tavern on West Broadway in South Boston.

Chef Nick Dixon, in fact, will move over from Lincoln Tavern to oversee the kitchen at the proposed restaurant, which needed zoning-board approval in part to offer take-out.

Broadway attorney Ryan Spitz said the group's newest restaurant would consist of a series of small spaces offering different dining opportunities: There will be one seating area along an open, wood-fired kitchen, another group of seats surrounding a circular fireplace, still more seats in more intimate settings beyond ceiling-height trees, Spitz told the board.

Cook House will also include a bakery cafe - and will offer breakfast lunch and dinner - Spitz said, adding a large skylight will "flood the room with light" during the day.

Dixon, along with Broadway Restaurant Group owners Eric Aulenback and Michael Conlon, will create the spaces by combining two long closed takeout places - the South Boston Chinese Restaurant, which closed not long after the pandemic hit, and the Certified Meatball Co., which closed even before the pandemic started.

Besides the takeout issue, the proposed restaurant also needed approval from the zoning board because ISD said it had "insufficient parking." Spitz said the three own a parking lot along Silver Street behind the restaurant, which will provide parking for 14 employees, although he added the owners already live nearby and probably so will most of the employees. There's a municipal lot across the street for public parking, he said.

In addition to zoning approval, the restaurant - and a liquor license acquisition - will need the approval of the Boston Licensing Board.