By james art News
An Irish pub and cocktail bar reopens today, with a third restaurant due early next year.
Duxbury mussels with New Bedford Portuguese-style chorizo at Sweeney’s on Boylston. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
After a whirlwind 24 hours of renovations, two of the Lenox Hotel’s restaurants reopen today, refreshed and ready for a new era. The space that housed Sólás Irish Pub for more than 20 years is now Sweeney’s on Boylston, while City Bar has become Irving at the Lenox. Many things will look familiar (including many long-time employees): The former remains an Irish pub and the latter remains a bar, but now run in-house rather than operating as part of an outside restaurant group. The hotel’s third restaurant, formerly City Table, will also be rebranded and open early next year. Chef Daniel Kenny, an alumnus of the Liberty Hotel and Boston Harbor Hotel, will helm all three new locations.
Sweeney’s on Boylston
At Lenox’s new version of an Irish pub, New England merges with Ireland in many of the dishes. There is, for example, the sausage board called a ploughman’s cloth; highlights the Stilton-like Shropshire cheese from the UK, which Kenny and the team tried on a research trip and liked. “It was urging us to go to the menu across the pond here,” says Kenny. On the local side of things, the board also features New England meats and cheeses, as well as house-made apple jam made with Western Massachusetts Honeycrisp apples.
Shropshire cheese and homemade apple jam, part of the ploughman’s platter at Sweeney’s on Boylston. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
There’s also a beef and cabbage sandwich with Swiss cheese from Boggy Meadow Farm in New Hampshire, and a full Irish breakfast available at lunch that includes ham from a local Irish butcher and locally made anadam bread, a historic New England bread made with molasses. “It’s really like brown bread you’d get in Ireland,” says Kenny. A little more New England in breakfast? A drizzle of small-batch maple syrup from the Vermont-based company Republic of Vermont over the otherwise traditional (Irish bacon) shavings “makes it really tasty,” says Kenny.
On Fridays, diners will find a weekly special of the Duxbury Pub Scallops with New Bedford-made Portuguese-style chorizo served in a white wine broth, herbs, garlic and shallots. “Tying that little bit of local into it is the best part for me,” says Kenny.
Variety of food at Sweeney’s. / Photo courtesy of Lenox Hotel
In addition to his enthusiasm for local sourcing, Chef Kenny is particularly excited about making a Sunday roast. The meat will change with the season, but the plan is to start with half a chicken, brined on Saturday and roasted on Sunday with herbs and garlic, along with mashed potatoes and a roasted garlic sauce. “We’ll have famously great Sunday roasts,” claims Kenny.
Irving in Lenox
Irving’s seafood platter featuring house-made hot sauce and local scallops. / Photo courtesy of Lenox Hotel
The Lenox’s new cocktail bar, Irving—named after Irving Saunders, the patriarch of Lenox’s parent company, Saunders Hotel Group—is a blissfully free space off the hotel’s lobby. The food continues in the New England spirit—check out a seafood platter with Wellfleet oysters, local crab and Maine lobster—but also draws inspiration from around the world. It’s a nod to the Lenox’s early days in the early 1900s, when the hotel served “very interesting cuisine, not just local,” says Kenny. “It was very French and you’d see a bit of Asian cuisine as well, which was unique at the time.”
Think of Irving as “eclectic, international and focused on sharing,” Kenny says—more of a snack than a full meal. “It’s a very transitional space: diners are somewhere or have come from somewhere.” Still, you could certainly make a full meal out of it, from pork belly bao to braised short rib tacos on homemade masa tortillas. “We’re blessed to have one of our longtime employees, Gabby Velazquez, come from deep in Mexico, and she’s been making beautiful handmade tortillas for staff food,” says Kenny. “They were amazing and now they’re on the menu.”
Espresso Martini in Irving. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
There’s also pizza “almost in the style of an elevated pizza bar,” says Kenny. A gas pizza oven approximates the effect you’d get from a wood-fired oven: “You get that char, you get bubbles, a nice crust on the outside.” There’s duck confit and foie gras pizza, vegetarian Mexican street corn pizza, hot honey pepperoni and many others. Again, it’s a mix of New England ingredients (New Hampshire mozzarella, for example) and well-sourced imports (semolina and San Marzano tomatoes from Italy).
The most local ingredient of all on the menu? Honey from the hotel’s own 20,000 bees on the roof. A 35-pound crop should provide enough honey for Irving’s pasture board for cheese and charcuterie for the fall, Kenney says.
A spicy take on Paloma in Irving featuring Ghost tequila, Chinola (passion liqueur) and fresh grapefruit juice. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
On the cocktail side, many of the drinks are pretty classic: a traditional Boulevardier, an espresso martini (“they’re the pride and joy of the city, so we didn’t reinvent the wheel here,” says beverage director Corey Witt); Spicy game of Paloma. Show pieces elevate the offerings—attractive glassware, a tabletop pour from that Boulevardier. There are also seasonal creations, such as Sweater Weather, a high proof whiskey with cinnamon, maple syrup and white cream of cocoa. Spirits lovers should also look out for Lenox’s usual blends of Knob Creek and Maker’s Mark; the team stocks a barrel of each and features Knob Creek in an Old Fashioned version, Witt says.
Beverage director Corey Witt pours Boulevardier in Irving. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
The as yet unnamed third restaurant
The City Table replacement required a little more than a 24-hour turnaround for the remodeling — including the installation of an 18-foot tree inside the restaurant — so expect a debut around February 2025. The team isn’t sharing much about the location yet, but it will have a “Back Bay focus, a sense of place,” says Dan Donahue, president of Saunders Hotel Group. Industrial brunch will be highlighted, and the space sounds inviting, featuring brick, greenery, cobblestones and an expanded bar.
For now, locals and guests of the Lenox Hotel can check out the first two-thirds of the renovation, from Sunday roasts and rugby games at Sweeney’s to burgers and bourbon at Irving. Look out for part three next year.
Hotel Lenox, st. 61 Exeter, Back Bay, Boston, 617-536-5300, lenoxhotel.com.