A Major New York Restaurant Group Will Open a Rooftop Restaurant at a Boston Hotel

When one rooftop restaurant in Back Bay closes, another one apparently opens around the corner (well, eventually). In the wake of rooftop bar-bedecked Globe Bar & Cafe’s recent closure on Boylston Street, some new details are emerging over on the corner of Arlington and Newbury regarding the glitzy hotel formerly known as the Taj.

The hotel, now closed, is set to reopen in spring 2020 as the Newbury, revamped to include more guest rooms and a 4,000-square-foot, glass-enclosed rooftop restaurant with retractable roof panels run by a dominant New York-based restaurant group.

Major Food Group — which was founded by Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick and operates more than a dozen restaurants in New York, Las Vegas, Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong — will run the rooftop restaurant at the Newbury, in addition to overseeing the food and drink for the hotel’s forthcoming bar, Street Bar, in partnership with Highgate, a hospitality investment and management company. Major Food Group is behind acclaimed restaurants such as the Drake-approved Carbone (with locations in New York, Hong Kong, and Las Vegas), Dirty French (located in a New York hotel), and New York’s the Grill, which earned a four-star review from Eater NY critic Ryan Sutton.

The hotel has a 92-year history of serving Boston’s Back Bay, starting as the country’s first Ritz-Carlton Hotel and later as the Taj. It’s been 18 years since the hotel has undergone renovations, and this will be a significant overhaul and redesign, with the entrance to the Newbury moving from Arlington Street to its namesake street.

In terms of dining options, the renovations will involve eliminating the hotel’s first-floor cafe and building out the rooftop restaurant, which will feature glass panels enclosing the space and retractable roof panels. The restaurant will operate from morning until night, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

• Say Hello to the Newbury, Boston’s Grand Dame of Hotels [BG]
• Taj Boston to Reopen in 2020 as Rebranded Newbury [Curbed Boston]