Feast Your Eyes Upon Bastille Kitchen, Opening Soon

Bastille Kitchen, newcomer to Boston's ever-growing Fort Point neighborhood, is getting close to opening. Led by executive chef Adam Kube and developed by Seth Greenberg (whom you might recognize from Mistral and The Ames Hotel, among others), Bastille Kitchen is a 240-seat French bistro with dishes ranging from classic to less traditional. Through a grand entryway including a floor-to-ceiling wall filled with framed French photos, a staircase leads diners to the main floor, which includes a large bar that runs the length of one of the space's massive walls. A lounge area surrounds the bar, featuring couches and chairs in varying plaids and leathers, and a tiled walkway breaks up the gleaming hardwood floors, dividing the two sections.

The dining room itself has cushiony banquettes, adorned with pillows and running along one of the other walls. Grand, circular booths are nestled in the back of the room and are black-and-white plaid with soft leather chairs. Past the banquettes is a private room that is closed off from the main dining room and features long wooden country tables, fireplaces, and exposed brick walls. A second room downstairs can be rented as well, but it regularly serves as a second bar and lounge area with reclaimed barn wood walls.

The space itself used to be an old textile factory that had been abandoned for years. The beams and pillars are original, and the look of the ceiling is modeled after how it originally looked. "The restaurant is designed so that guests can have a completely different experience at many different locales within this establishment, all under one roof," Kube says.

The menu is designed to appeal to a large crowd of people with varying tastes, but at the heart of it, it always goes back to its French roots. Classic bistro fare like French onion soup, bouillabaisse, and steak frites can be found on the menu, and items like flatbreads all have a French twist. (Pictured below, one of the dishes Kube is preparing is a grilled house-made tomato pistou flatbread with fresh mozzarella. The other dish pictured is moëlle rôtie — roasted bone marrow, sherry-maple glazed sweetbreads, and a toasted baguette.)

Additionally, there is a strong presence of tea in many of the dishes, a nod to the historic significance of the neighborhood. "Although it's a French brasserie-style menu, we incorporate as much local produce as possible," says Kube. "The seafood is all local and sustainable. It all comes from the New England area. There are a few things in every part of the menu that will have tea, including an Earl Grey tea and a tea-infused Manhattan." Keep an eye out for the tea-smoked mussels marinière, made with Earl Grey salt and rouille toast.