East Coast Grill Changes Ownership, Starts Saturday Lunch

After much anticipation, the East Coast Grill has officially announced a change in ownership, with longtime chef-owner Chris Schlesinger transferring the reins to three of his staff: executive chef Jason Heard, general manager Robin Greenspan and former line cook James Lozano. Schlesinger opened the restaurant 27 years ago. "The concept was novel at the time, faintly radical: popular price, high quality," writes Sam Sifton of the New York Times, who extolled the restaurant's cornbread in an article last month. He also writes that in 1989, The Times "named the East Coast Grill a pioneer in a movement that was bringing the Boston restaurant scene to life."

Since then, the Inman Square restaurant has become a neighborhood favorite and a target for heat-seeking chili fiends looking to test the strength of their intestinal lining at the Hell Night series, where the food is hot enough to have sent at least one patron home in an ambulance. What does the new team have in store? Saturday lunch, for one thing. Lunch will now be served from 11:30am to 2:00pm starting April 28. On the menu: smoked, grilled pork belly sandwich with ginger-Sriracha aioli.

· All coverage of East Coast Grill on Eater [-EB-]
· East Coast Grill launches lunch on Saturdays [GS]

[Photo: Flickr/ruba8]