When The Palm restaurant re-opens in Boston, May 15, the owners will have spent over $4.5 million to renovate the new, 8,300-square-foot Financial District space. Other owners have budgeted far less to build a free-standing restaurant.
When complete, the Palm will accommodate 320 diners in the lobby of the 1 International Place office tower, including a 40-seat mezzanine and 75 seats on a glass-enclosed patio facing the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Per person, dinner will cost near $90.
In addition to the patio, the work – still very much in progress – includes building out a complete kitchen, as well as covering some of the existing walls and columns. A wall bearing a large mural of Boston editorial cartoons and political caricatures had to be hung carefully to preserve the marble behind it. Columbia Construction is handling the job.
Chiofaro Co. director Donald Chiofaro Jr. has said the property owner is looking to do another restaurant project next door, in the lobby at 2 International Place.
Related: Here's why the Financial District is Boston's next dining hot spot.
The menu will be similar to the fare at the Palm's 28 other locations, but, "We're going to do our best to keep it New England style," said executive chef Karen Mitchell, whom the Palm poached from Legal Sea Foods' Copley restaurant. For example, the smallest lobsters served at the Boston Palm will weigh three pounds, she said.
L'Espalier owner Frank McClelland last week said the proliferation of new, large, chain restaurants in the Seaport has hurt business for the flourishing scene of chef-owned establishments in Boston. There's an especially large number of chain steakhouses, but Palm general manager Brian Brosnihan said he isn't worried.
Brosnihan said the Palm's management knows the Financial District location is going to do a "killer lunch" (including a $26 prix fixe) and attract a "great bar crowd." He said the Palm will woo concierges in downtown hotels and luxury apartment buildings it will draw in diners for dinner, too.
"I think there's enough business for everyone," he said. "Everyone's serving a great steak. To me it's more the personal part of it."