Canada Continues Its Massachusetts Invasion With a Second Earls Location

Canada-based chain Earls Kitchen + Bar will open a second Massachusetts location, Zagat reports. It will be in the new wing being built at the Prudential Center in Back Bay, where it will span 14,500 square feet, including a "lower level lobby bar," a 300-seat main dining room and open kitchen on the second floor, and a 200-seat, three-season rooftop patio with fire pits and space for private dining.

The existing Massachusetts location opened in Somerville's Assembly Row in September 2014. The company was founded in 1982 and now has more than 65 locations across Canada and in a few parts of the US, with each one offering a few locally inspired dishes and artwork unique to the area. (In Somerville, for example, there's a sprawling map of the city taking up one wall.)

The menu is a chain restaurant jumble of around-the-world influences, from bibimbap to Jeera chicken curry to croque madames. Earls' beverage director, Cameron Bogue, is an alum of Daniel Boulud's empire, and Earls' cocktails tend towards the cutesy side in terms of presentation. The Bees Knees, for example, is served in a bear-shaped glass (in the style of a honey jar).

UPDATE, 8/20/15 at 2:30 p.m.: According to a press release, the restaurant will open in fall 2016. The company shared the following renderings of the new location: