Chef Frank McClelland Will Open a Restaurant at Somerville’s Assembly Row

Somerville’s massive Assembly Row development, which features a sprawling collection of retail and residential buildings, keeps growing, and a familiar face from Boston’s restaurant scene is slated to open a restaurant there later this year. Chef and restaurateur Frank McClelland, best known for his now-closed fine-dining destination L’Espalier in Boston’s Back Bay, will open an offshoot of his North Shore restaurant, Frank, in Somerville this fall, per an announcement today from Assembly Row.

McClelland closed L’Espalier at the end of 2018 after the restaurant’s 40-year run (he was at the helm for 30 of those years); the lease was up, and McClelland said at the time that he “needed[ed] to go and do something else that feeds [his] soul.” The high-end restaurant featured special-occasion-worthy tasting menus of French-meets-New-England cuisine and had been located at three separate Back Bay addresses over the years.

A few months later, he announced that he’d open a casual farm-to-table restaurant, market, and cafe called Frank in Beverly, and it debuted in late 2019. The all-day spot features a mix of cafe fare, prepared foods, and retail through the market (including an extensive wine selection) as well as onsite dining at the restaurant with a menu that emphasizes seasonal, local sourcing.

The new Somerville location will open adjacent to the Row Hotel at Assembly Row. The development also announced today that local fast-casual vegetarian chain Clover Food Lab will be opening, and Night Shift Brewing’s Owl’s Nest beer garden is coming back for the summer.