impresario Bob Bernstein has announced the name of the company's upcoming "modern diner" in the Melrose complex on Franklin Road: Fenwick's 300.
Bernstein says the name is a reference to two separate things: one of his favorite movies, Diner, and the fact that the new restaurant is going into the strip that was the site of beloved former bowling alley Melrose Lanes. Concerning the first part: "Fenwick" was the name of the Kevin Bacon character in Diner. (He was the guy who had to stop to get coffee on the way to getting coffee at the diner, something with which we maintenance users of caffeine can certainly relate.) In fact, the Fenwick's 300 menu will include a sandwich called the "Kevin BLT" in homage.
As for the second part of the name: The numeral 300, of course, represents a perfect score in bowling. Bernstein says he has secured the last recovered slab of wooden bowling lane from the Melrose Lanes to create the bar at Fenwick's 300.
With the tagline "breakfast, lunch and diner," Fenwick's 300 is situated between two high-profile restaurants: Dale Levitski's Sinema and the new Sutler.
Bernstein says Fenwick's 300 isn't precisely a sister restaurant to the other Bongo enterprises — the original Bongo Java cafe on Belmont, the popular cafe Fido and neighboring Hot & Cold in Hillsboro Village, Grins Vegetarian Cafe on Vanderbilt campus, Bongo Bakery, Bongo East Cafe and Bongo Java Roasting Co. — instead, he calls it a "cousin."
That's because with Fenwick's 300, Bernstein is partnering in ownership with his longtime employee Derek Wolfe, the manager of Bongo Java Roasting Co.
"We realize children of one same parent and a different parent should be called a step-child," the company says in a release. "However, we thought 'cousin' was a more businesslike term. That, plus 'cousin' in Spanish is 'primo,' and that coupled with Bongo’s parent name Bongo Production makes this new cafe a Bongo Primo Production, a pretty cool name, if you ask us."
"It's about trying to grow some of my employees as well as my business," Bernstein adds when I talk to him by phone, noting that over the past 15 years, Wolfe has progressed from being a line cook to a barista to the key role of managing the company's roasting operations.
Fenwick's 300 is Bongo Java's first full-service restaurant; Bernstein jokes that it will be a bit like "Fido with waiters," saying he wants it to be "an affordable place, a neighborhood place ... a place you can go every day."
It will serve breakfast all day — with pancakes, waffles and egg dishes — plus sandwiches and entrees in the (the latter in the $8 to $17 range). As at Fido, Bernstein hopes to offer "plenty of good vegetarian stuff."
The new restaurant will serve wine and beer on tap, and will have a separate coffee bar.
In addition to Bernstein and Wolfe, the Fenwick's 300 management team includes:
Veteran restaurant manager Damien Domenack, who spent 14 years in the New York City hospitality industry. Domenack started out as barista bar manager at Dean & Deluca in Soho and a waiter at Greenwich Village's Cornelia Street Cafe. A Southern California native, he opened the first Trader Joe’s in New York City and later served as executive GM of The Meatball Shop, "where he helped grow a mom-and-pop shop into a culturally relevant, multi-unit corporate group." Last year he did a stint at Union Square Hospitality Group’s management team at Maialino.
Chef Nathan Miller, who started cooking at restaurants in Little Rock, Ark., while studying politics at Hendrix College. He later ditched plans for a law career and attended the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont. Between 2008 and 2013, Nathan served as executive chef for two of Little Rock’s more popular restaurants: The House and YaYa’s Euro Bistro, the latter of which "was consistently ranked among the best restaurants in the city during his tenure." Having relocated to Nashville, Miller has worked at Pub5, Bernstein says.
The Fenwick's 300 site is a flurry of activity, Bernstein says. The design is by architect Ethan Levine of Manuel Zeitlin Architects. Over the bowling-lane bar, a lighting fixture with 13 illuminated globes is being installed.
The team is aiming to open just before Thanksgiving, serving breakfast and lunch, then closing for the holiday and hopefully reopening the following Saturday with dinner service. Fenwick's 300 is located at 2600 Franklin Pike in Melrose. You can follow the progress on Facebook and Twitter.
The bar in progress at Fenwick 300
