A Restaurant Was Supposed to Open Inside Boston’s Barneys New York Store This Fall [UPDATED]

Update, October 18, 2019: Barneys New York is closing all of its stores following a bankruptcy filing, so Boston will never taste the planned Freds at Barneys restaurant.

Previously:

What goes with $1,250 jeans? A $25 cheeseburger and an $18 cocktail, of course. Coming this fall, the Barneys New York location at Copley Place (100 Huntington Ave., Boston) will get an upscale restaurant to go along with its upscale merchandise.

Freds at Barneys will open in October on the store’s second floor, and there will be a designer burger series. (Past iterations have included burgers “designed” by Alexander Wang, Martha Stewart, Thom Browne, and Rick Owens. What does a Rick Owens burger look like? Is it wearing a black leather jacket and complicated pants? Well, not exactly, but it’s tied up with a licorice ribbon that looks sort of leathery.)

In addition to burgers, the restaurant will serve an “Italian-inspired and contemporary American menu” that will include dishes from other Freds locations as well as some new dishes that make use of local ingredients.

The Boston Freds location will also offer a takeout menu at lunch, a first for the brand, per an announcement from the company. The space will be designed by Studio ORO and built out by Lalire March Architects, and it will incorporate “mixed metals, wood accents, warm hues of blue and green, and large windows overlooking the Back Bay neighborhood,” according to the announcement. There will be seating for 120 customers.

This isn’t a new thing for the iconic department store — Barneys New York’s Downtown location has been serving food in one form or another since the 1920s. At the moment, six Barneys locations have restaurants inside, including three in New York City, one in Chicago, one in Los Angeles, and one in San Francisco.

Barneys plans to open Freds at locations in Miami and New Jersey as well, according to CNBC.

Freds at Barneys [Official Rendering]

Freds at Barneys [Official Rendering]

• Freds at Barneys New York to Open at Copley Place in Boston [BRT]
• Lunch at Barneys’, Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Retailers are Becoming Restaurateurs to Boost Sales [CNBC]