Garrett Harker strides boldly back on the scene with the opening of four new restaurants, including everybody’s favorite Eastern Standard.
If you’ve dined out in Boston in the last twenty years, chances are you’ve crossed paths with Garrett Harker. The industry vet began his career as the general manager of No. 9 Park under the tutelage of Barbara Lynch. His lanky yet distinguished frame clad in well-tailored suits commandeered that swanky dining room, making first-timers feel like regulars and regulars feel like family. At the time, it was one of the hardest dining rooms to get into, but Harker was always cool under pressure and warm to guests. I would know—I had a bird’s-eye view from my spot as the coat check girl.
He remained the consummate host, even as he became a partner at B&G Oysters and the Butcher Shop. But it was with the opening of Eastern Standard that Harker went from being a successful restauranteur to a first-name-only industry celeb. Eastern Standard was enormous compared to the intimate spaces Harker had previously run, and yet he brought the same attention to detail, the same camaraderie, the same presence and shrunk that room to feel as intimate and energectic as the cafe at No. 9 Park.
“Eastern Standard was always meant to be like a room full of extended family. You can pick up conversations where you left off and watch people’s kids get older. And that’s what was happening in the cafe bar at No. 9. That’s where I learned it,” he says.
There have been a lot of tearful goodbyes to restaurants since the pandemic, but the closing of ES, as it’s known to its fans, caused a collective wail of grief so loud that people from outside Boston heard. AOC even tweeted about the closure.
But like a reboot of a favorite show, ES is coming back this fall. And with it, so is our favorite host. Harker will be opening four restaurants in the new residential building, the Bower, a short walk from where ES once was.
Tapping Harker to fill the 20,000 square-feet of commercial space at the Bower was the obvious choice for developer John Rosenthal, who had been a regular at ES. “John had all of his meetings in our boardroom and he celebrated milestones at the bar. After rough setbacks, he’d be at the restaurant rallying his team. We got to be very close,” says Harker. Rosenthal knew the space would be the perfect setting for his friend to re-establish the family of restaurants that included siblings ES, Island Creek Oyster Bar and The Hawthorne cocktail bar.
The new development where Harker is opening his new restaurants
One building will have All That Fish & Oyster, the next expression of the oyster bar that Harker does so well, and a cafe that’s yet to be named. The other building will have flagship ES and a craft cocktail bar. All properties will have beloved bartender Jackson Cannon as the beverage director and celebrated chef Nemo Bolin as the culinary director. The spaces were designed by New York City’s award-winning Parts & Labor. And the cherry on top? An enormous 100-seat, covered, heated, three-season outdoor patio. The concept will be, as Harker says, “a little ecosystem of the things that I get fired up about.” What you won’t find is an exact replica of ES, but a newer version with the same DNA.
One fun addition to the bar menu will be an exclusive Narragansett Pilsner, a collaboration between ES and the legacy beer company. “They have never done a collaboration with a resrtaurant in Boston before. And yet, the brand has stood the test of time. It’s for the people, but still purses excellence. That’s the story I want to be part of,” says Harker.
The Narragansett pilsner for Eastern Standard
This new chapter in Harker’s story came after many thought perhaps the book had ended. When ES closed during the pandemic, Harker took a forced break from the career he had so dilligently built and with it, time for self-reflection. Was the life he had begun so many years earlier still the one he wanted to be living? “It was an opportunity to hold things up to the light and say what do I want to do? Honestly, I want to walk from my oyster bar to my brasserie to my craft cocktail bar to my cafe. I want to be in four places at once. I want to see old friends and everyone I’ve gotten to know over the years,” he says. Us too. We’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Photography by: CHERYL RICHARDS
