Category: . REGULAR FEATURES

Foodie Friday: Menton by Barbara Lynch

Photo: Justin Ide

Boston chef and restaurateur Barbara Lynch‘s new Fort Point restaurant Menton (rhymes with Vuitton), opened on Saturday. Yesterday her publicist sent along some official interior photos. (You can see the artsier shots on photographer Justin Ide‘s  blog.)

As fitting for a high-end, special occasion spot (she’s hoping diners will wear jackets), the décor, designed by Cheryl and Jeffrey Katz, is subdued. Looks like the entry has some nice details, and the Moroccan style lighting in the dining room keep it from coming off as dull.

It’s named for a small French village near the Italian border, and according to the press kit, “The cuisine is a marriage of refined French technique and soulful Italian cooking.”  There are two menu formats: a 4-course prix fixe menu for $95 and a 7-course chef’s tasting menu for $145. Pricey.

Photo: Justin Ide

The palette is composed of earthy greens, grays, and browns, with accents of silver, bright white, and black.  A Murano glass chandelier hangs above a silver leather reception desk. Iranian carpets cover the floor of the lounge.

Photo: Justin Ide

The main dining room features Italian wood veneer-clad walls, traditional black slat back chairs, glittering banquettes, and natural linen and white cotton table cloths

Photo: Justin Ide

The main dining room features paintings by Matt McClune, an artist and onetime bartender at Lynch’s No.9 Park, who is now based in the Burgundy region of France.


Photo: Justin Ide

Painter Matt McClune, who has a BFA from Mass Art, is represented locally by the Howard Yezerski Gallery at 460 Harrison.


Photo via Grubb Street Boston

The kitchen has marble mosaic floors and a stainless steel Molteni cooking suite, imported from France. Apparently it was a huge deal to get it into the space, since it’s all one piece.

There’s a view of the kitchen from the chef’s table, a glass-fronted room at the back of the kitchen. The space includes a silver banquette runs the entire length of the room, Philipe Starck ghost chairs, a faux-bois floor, malachite wallpaper, and stark graphite drawings of trees and flora by Dean Brown. Nineteenth-century reproduction French garden mural wallpaper covers the hallway leading to the private dining room. I wish I had a pictures!

Photo: Justin Ide


M E N T O N

354 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts

617.737.0099

•  •  •

Read my interview with Lynch on her new cookbook Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition on eBay’s new style site The Inside Source, where Lynch names her must-haves for every kitchen.


TV Alert: Sixx Design on Bravo


The Novogratz Family

The husband and wife design duo behind Sixx Design, Robert and Cortney Novogratz, plus their brood of kids (two sets of twins, a couple of singles, and a new baby), have landed a TV gig. Nine by Design premieres Tuesday at 11pm on Bravo, then moves to its regular time at 10pm.

The series follows the couple over the course of six months, during which they worked on six large-scale design projects including a 24-room hotel on the Jersey Shore, a 10,000 square foot glass house on the West Side Highway and a home conversion of a gun shop located on the edge of Soho.

With any luck, this reality docu-DIY will focus on the team’s talents as taste makers rather than the antics of their ever growing family, though apparently Cortney goes into labor with the newest addition at the end of episode one. I’m definitely tuning in and hoping to get a taste of the magic behind their funky interior transformations. And besides, I need a new show; a girl can’t exist on Gossip Girl alone.

For more on Sixx Design here’s a NYT article from last spring.

Shopping Trip: South End Formaggio

I took a little field trip over to the South End two weeks ago to meet up with Ricardo Rodriguez about the Urban Showhouse he’s organizing (more on that later). I stopped into Hudson, tried to figure out what movie they were filming in front of The Buttery, and grabbed a sandwich at Formaggio. It’s neighborhood shops like this that make the South End a tempting place to live. (Not that I could give up the orderliness of Back Bay and proximity to the Esplanade, but still.) It’s a wonderful gourmet gem – so picturesque – and chock full of inspirational ingredients. Plus, my ham and butter pressé was de-licious.

ARTmonday: The Art Bus


Now you’ve pretty much got no excuse for not checking out the art scene.

This past weekend, the Boston Art Dealers Association launched The Art Bus, a free shuttle between the Newbury Street and South End art districts.

The bus goes between the Back Bay and South End free of charge from noon to 4pm on the first Saturday of the month from through June, and will start up again in September.

The bus  runs a continuous loop making stops at:
• Thayer Street at Harrison Avenue
• Newbury Street at Berkeley Street (in front of the Church of the Covenant)
• Newbury Street at Dartmouth Street (in front of Fitz Inn parking lot)

Each ride requires a pass. Passes are free and are available at all BADA member galleries.

All aboard!