Grill 23 & Bar - Twenty Years Young

For Immediate Release

Contact: Martha Sullivan
Sullivan Communications
Tel 508.786.0729

Twenty Years Young
Grill 23 & Bar Celebrates its Twentieth Anniversary

~ Chef Jay Murray takes the Grill to the
next level of culinary expertise & passion

~ Wine Director Nathalie Vachi, a native of the Bordeaux region, France, assembles one of the top wine lists in the city

~ Bar Chef Brian Simpson stirs up creative cocktails in the kitchen

Boston, MA……Grill 23 & Bar, Boston’s powerhouse dining room and one of the city’s most successful restaurants, is celebrating its Twentieth Anniversary year in 2003. Tim Lynch and Ken Himmel, the city’s most respected restaurant entrepreneurial team, opened the doors to Grill 23 in May 1983. The collaboration has proven successful indeed, with the 1998 addition of the culinary gem in Harvard Square, Harvest, and their newest collaborative effort, Excelsior, opening mid-May 2003, in partnership with renowned Chef Lydia Shire.

The time was 1983, the setting - Boston, MA, “Home of the bean and the cod.” Proper Bostonians gathered at the top restaurants like Jasper’s, L’Espalier, Seasons and grand hotel dining rooms. There wasn’t a grill concept in sight. Chicago was synonymous with Morton’s, New York had The Palm – and now Boston had Grill 23 & Bar.

Boston embraced the concept of upscale grilling with the opening of Grill 23 & Bar. The only steakhouse in Boston, and the first exhibition kitchen the city had seen, it immediately earned a coveted Four Star review from famed restaurant critic Anthony Spinazzola of The Boston Globe. Thus began one of Boston’s greatest restaurant success stories.

Located in the historic Salada Tea Building, on the corner of Berkeley and Stuart streets, Grill 23 preserved the essence of classic Boston with original turn-of-the-century sculpted ceilings and massive Corinthian columns, combined with mahogany paneling, green marble accents, oak flooring, and spotless brass detailing. Lynch and Himmel added to these elements top talent in the kitchen, waitstaff and management teams, and a winning formula was created.
“Our culinary philosophy when we opened was quality ingredients simply prepared to showcase the intrinsic quality of the food” says Lynch. “We didn’t want our prime dry-aged beef to hide behind sauces. We were committed to making Grill 23 represent everything that was “The Best.” Our guests were to taste the ‘best salmon ever’, ‘the best steak ever.’ A restaurant is only as good as its last meal. That was our mantra then - and still is today actually.”

Respected for its staying power, the Grill remained committed to its code of excellence thru the years. “We experienced the recession in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s just like everyone else. Perhaps what we did differently was to recognize the need for changing with the times. We focused on building the business and tweaked our concept to become a ‘steak and seafood grill.’ I think with this re-positioning, with something new to offer, and the quality never wavering, Grill 23 emerged from the recession more quickly than most” explains Lynch. In 2000 the restaurant added the up stairs dining room, lounge and kitchen – to much acclaim. It is often said “Boston’s biggest deals are made upstairs and celebrated downstairs at Grill 23.”

But Lynch and Himmel are quick to acknowledge that no amount of business acumen can save a restaurant if it doesn’t have the extraordinary talent in the kitchen a four star restaurant demands.

Executive Chef Jay Murray, at the helm since 1998, continues to raise the bar on the classic American cuisine for which the restaurant has long be