傳揚經典：奇幻世界
With the introduction of Mystique and Mémoire at Encore Boston Harbor, dinner and dancing take on a whole new meaning.
Encore Boston Harbor內，隨著Mystique和Mémoire兩家店的盛大開幕，晚餐和夜生活被賦予了全新的含義。
IN MOST LOCAL MINDS, the Mystic River, the seven-mile-long stretch of water that flows through the Boston-area communities of Charlestown, Everett and Somerville to join the Charles River at inner Boston Harbor, is more closely associated with its roots as an industrial thoroughfare than as the inspiration for a restaurant and lounge. Yet here it is, reflecting the lights of the city, out the floor-to-ceiling windows of Mystique, the restaurant and lounge that is its (exotic) namesake. Architect Peter Niemitz, of Boston-based Niemitz Design Group, designed it to transport diners to another era, half a world away. Big Night Entertainment Group, which came in to Encore Boston Harbor as the local operator of both Mystique and nightclub Mémoire, originally conceived of the place as a replica of Empire, an Asian-inspired restaurant that Niemitz designed for them in the Seaport—but ultimately tasked him with a whole new concept for the 16,400-square-foot restaurant and lounge.
Like the cuisine, the overarching flavor of the décor is Asian. “It’s a sophisticated global style with clean, modern lines and some 1930s Art Deco motifs,” says Niemitz, who also custom-designed the furniture and fixtures. The restaurant, organized as a series of private dining rooms and salon spaces that seat 450 guests, has an open, three-sided exhibition kitchen with a robata grill as the centerpiece. Executive Chef Anthony Micari, an alumnus of Makoto in Miami, crafted a menu of
Pan-Asian cuisine. At the robata grill, Japaneseinspired steaks and seafood are cooked over white binchotan charcoal. At the integrated sushi bar, head sushi Chef Tony Mai oversees exquisite creations made from wild-caught fish, both familiar and rare, flown in daily from Japan. Examples of Micari’s main menu offerings include smoked black garlic short rib with robata charred okra, green garlic miso butter, and Szechuan duck with sanshō pepper chimichurri, and yuzu kosho muhammara. “It’s like being transported to another world,” Niemitz says—though nearly 100 feet of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the resort’s gardens and the Mystic River place diners in a romantic version of reality.
But then, with its intellect and youthful energy and an ever-expanding international community, Boston has never been riper for new nightlife concepts. And with its stable of successful local nightlife venues—The Grand in the Seaport, CBS Sporting Club at Patriot Place, and Shrine at Foxwoods—Big Night Entertainment Group was a shoo-in as operator for the nightlife at Encore Boston Harbor. Niemitz, who worked with his colleague, project manager Robert Buckley, to design the 8,000-square foot bilevel space, calls the concept “sexy, dark and mysterious.” Banquettes in embossed reptile patterns set behind creamy white marble tables with tubular polished brass legs (available by reservation only) line the perimeter of the dance floor. Elliptical swirls of programmable lights, punctuated by a sputnik-meets-flying saucer-like LED chandelier with articulating arms, hovers above. “Circles within circles of color chase each other around the ceiling, while rays of light from the state-of-the-art LED ceiling moves in time to the music,” Niemitz says of the nearly 20-foot high light show.
A brass-trimmed, mirror-paneled staircase ascends to the mezzanine, and over 37 feet of LED screens line the wall behind the DJ booth, where big names spin sounds over the Funktion One sound system. During the opening week, servers clad in black and gold Versace-reminiscent bodysuits and over-the-knee boots offered Louis Roederer Brut Cristal and Macallan 25 to packed tables there to experience the musical stylings of basketball legend-turned-entertainer DJ Diesel (you know him as Shaquille O’Neal). You might wonder precisely where you are, but in a place this transporting, the answer hardly matters.