SUSHI MEETS BEANTOWN

Written By: Robert Cocuzzo | Photography By: Rachel Gianatasio & Terry Pommett

Lola 42 brings a taste of the island to the mainland.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a hungrier entrepreneur on Nantucket than Marco Coelho. Since buying Lola 41 back in 2009, this dishwasher-turned-serial-restaurateur has opened six smash-hit restaurants. Now, in little over a year since launching Station 21 on Water Street, Coelho and his crew are extending their reach to Boston by opening the doors on a new venture on the waterfront called Lola 42.

“I had been looking to get something in Boston for the last three years,” Coelho says. “Then one of my investors met the developer of the whole Seaport and told him a little bit about Lola 41.” Associates of the Fallon Company, which has spearheaded the development of Boston’s waterfront over the last ten years, visited Nantucket and ate at Coelho’s flagship restaurant on 15 South Beach Street. “At the end of the meal they came up to the podium and said, ‘We want you in Boston.’”

Although five times the size as its Nantucket namesake and offering double the seating, Lola 42 is being designed with the same seductive feel. Located on the ground floor of Twenty Two Liberty in the Seaport, Lola’s double doors will open to a glass foyer that gives way to a sprawling space complete with a yakitori grill and sushi bar, oak banquettes, high tops, and a private dining area. Tall windows look out to Boston’s waterfront where there will be a patio with forty seats offering outdoor dining.

“We took specific and identifiable elements such as finishes, color and tone of Lola 41 and applied them to the new space while adding some slight updates,” says Matt MacEachern of Emeritus, who designed Lola 42 with Coelho. “Marco is very clear about what he wants and has specific language for what he’s looking for.”

Sexy is a word you might use to describe the dining experiences Marco has created over the years. With a wait staff as elegant as its sushi, Lola 42 will be no exception. Add to the mix that a number of the Patriots — including owner Bob Kraft — live in the multi-million-dollar apartments above the restaurant, and Lola 42 is sure to be a hot scene come this summer.

As for the cuisine, Chef Robert Boslow says, “The menu will be as close to Lola 41 as possible [and there will be] a common thread with what you experience here on Nantucket to what we will be offering in Boston.”

In addition to staples such as the Lola burger and tuna burger, Chef Boslow will be using a wok to execute authentic Asian dishes such as crispy tangerine beef, wok fried garlic and chili lobster, and Sichuan eggplant. Meanwhile, the yakitori grill will offer skewered meats, fish, and veggies, including traditional offerings such as chicken hearts, beef tongue, trumpet mushrooms, and pork belly. Chef Boslow adds, “With the fact that we are working our way around the 42nd parallel, it will give us an opportunity to include chicken souvlaki, lamb koftas with traditional Tzatziki, to octopus with lemon and caponata.”

At press time, Lola 42 was set to open sometime in May. So the next time you’re stuck in the city and looking for a taste of the island, head to the waterfront.

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