CLOSE, AND YES, CIGARS
Attention: The folks who brought us Lolita Cocina, Yvonne’s and Ruka are at it again, with plans to bring a new restaurant and cigar bar, currently dubbed Santeria, to Post Office Square.
Mark Malatesta, restaurateur and partner at COJE Management, has applied for a “Club Malt, Wine & Liqueur License” with the city’s Licensing Board. The application included a copy of the lease for “a full-service, sit-down, restaurant and bar with an ancillary smoking bar and a private members club” in the 3,831 square feet of basement space at 10 Post Office Square.
The lease also references “cigar odors” that need to be controlled on the premises.
A spokeswoman for the food and hospitality group confirmed that “COJE Management is working on a new restaurant concept at 10 Post Office Square that will feature a private members lounge.”
She added that the application filed is specifically for the liquor license at the lounge, which will have “a separate trade name,” as the lease put it.
Don’t get too antsy: The restaurant, the spokeswoman said, is still in the very early stages. We’re talking more than a year out from becoming a reality.
COJE Management — which includes Malatesta and his business partner Chris Jamison — are behind some of the swankiest places to see and be seen in town.
They’re responsible for Back Bay’s Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar, a spooky Mexican joint that makes it feel like Dia de los Muertos all year round. Within the next few months, the team will be growing Lolita’s footprint, adding a new outpost in Fort Point. The space, located at 253 Summer St., promises to be about twice the size of the original — as does the menu.
On a more recent note, the group also created the most Instagrammable watering hole in the Hub: Yvonne’s. And with the old Locke-Ober in Downtown Crossing, they brought us “a modern reinterpretation of a supper club” that screams haunted-mansion-meets-speakeasy.
Down the street from Yvonne’s, at the Godfrey Hotel, COJE opened its latest venture, Ruka. It boasts Peruvian-Japanese fusion that brings all the hip kids to the bar.
Given the group’s track record, Boston is bound to be clamoring to get into the upcoming Post Office Square establishment. Honestly, they had us at “private” and “cigar odors.”