The sixth Boston restaurant from Columbus Hospitality—Sorellina, Ostra and others—will double down on the group’s French connection. Bar Lyon, a bistro-style restaurant in the South End, is slated to open in late September, joining the group’s decades-running and Provence-inspired Mistral on Columbus Avenue. Helmed by owner Paul Roiff and chef/owner Jamie Mammano, the new spot at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Washington Street will focus on Lyonnaise cuisine.

“Lyon is the culinary mecca of the world. That’s where it all began,” corporate chef Mitchell Randall says. “It’s kind of like ‘chef’s cuisine,’ if you will. That’s the stuff we really like to cook.”

Bar Lyon’s dinner menu will include smaller plates such as the confit de canard accompanied by summer farro and entrees like wagyu bavette with garlic confit, maître d’ butter, roasted bone marrow and grilled country bread. Another section will highlight traditional Lyonnaise dishes such as quenelles de brochet, featuring pike and crayfish tails with a lobster velouté, and a terrine en croute alongside dijonnaise and truffled mustard. Dessert will include a hefty serving of chocolate mousse topped with cacao nib and sea salt as well as an apple tarte tatin served with crème fraîche.

The bar program will also channel the French inspiration with cocktails like La Belle France, a blend of gin, blanche de Normandie, grenadine, lemon and egg white, and the Bon Temps, which mixes rye, amontillado, crème de banane, orange bitters and cacao, along with a host of local beers and French wines.

The 70-seat space, including a 13-seat bar, features an elaborate black-and-white tiled floor, bistro-style chairs and an open kitchen displaying a string of copper pots and pans hanging behind the line. Columbus’ vice president of operations Mark D’Alessandro says the latest venture will skew a bit more casual than some of the group’s other upscale spots.

“The style of food is very different. The concept is very different. Most of our restaurants—with the exception of Teatro—are more high-end. You have to really listen and pay attention to what your guests are looking for with the food and you have to evolve with that,” he says. “We want to make it a comfortable restaurant for the neighborhood and we’re hoping that they can really learn to appreciate the style of food that we’re doing here.”

Bar Lyon 1750 Washington St., Boston. barlyon.com

UPDATE: Bar Lyon opened Sept. 14.


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