Opening Alert: Serafina Opens in Boston Tomorrow With Unique Design and Menu Items

Bostonians get their own Serafina tomorrow when the newest venture from restaurateur Seth Greenberg (Mistral, Bastille Kitchen) and Sterling Group Management opens at 11 a.m., and it truly is Boston's own. The location at 10 High St. in the Financial District features an old-world-meets-new-world design aesthetic, and corporate chef Brendan Burke has brought some of his own recipes to the menu, Zagat reports.

Designer Petra Hausberger of Somerton Park Interiors, who also designed Greenberg's French bistro Bastille Kitchen (a 2014 finalist in Eater's Stone Cold Stunner design awards), looked toward Italy for modern furnishing ideas and also incorporated some New England touches, like wainscoting. The bright color pallette of gold, cream, and yellow is unique to Boston's Serafina (though "Serafina yellow" is a theme throughout the chain). Hausberger retained the distinct molding around the airy main dining room that was there when the space housed Michael Schlow's late, great Radius. The result is a totally different-looking Serafina than the world's other 17 locations of the chain. As Greenberg purchased the New England rights to the company, this restaurant could serve as a prototype for more area locations.

And of course, the food. Burke most recently worked for Greenberg as sous chef at Bastille Kitchen. All Serafina menus focus on thin-crust pizza, lighter Italian entrees, and antipasti; Greenberg brought the restaurant chain to the area because it's his favorite pizza in New York, he has said. But Burke has also created several items exclusively for the Boston outpost, including charred octopus with Sardinian pasta fregula, green harissa sauce, roasted bell peppers, and pickled butternut squash and halibut crusted with almonds, lemon zest, and panko bread crumbs, served over a carrot purée with asparagus and a lemon-caper sauce.

Over two floors and 12,000 square feet of space, Serafina Boston has seating for 140 and will eventually have an outdoor patio, too. The space offers three private dining rooms, including one for 30 guests nestled inside a former bank vault — which is now a pizza vault, Urban Daddy notes.

Greenberg told Zagat he is "focused on developing the brand in New England," and other Boston-area locations are already in the works. The new location will be open Monday - Saturday from 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. and from 4 p.m. - 11 p.m. on Sundays. A press release indicates Sunday brunch will come later this year.