DORCHESTER – Aware of the potential profit from the modernization of Peabody Square, Chris Douglass, owner of the Ashmont Grill restaurant on Talbot Avenue, has been cooking up a new plan to serve the community.
In July, Douglass, who also owns Icarus, a restaurant in the South End, plans to open Tavolo, an Italian restaurant in the mixed-income Carruth building on Dorchester Avenue.
Tavolo will serve quick pickup fare, such as pasta, paninis and pizza. He said he is expecting a high number of take out orders, given its proximity to Ashmont Station and its location in the Carruth.
“I wouldn’t have taken it on if I didn’t think the market could bear another option for people,” Douglass said. “It will take a lot of time for the market to mature.”
The aim of the Ashmont Grill is to make its menu options, prices and general ambiance appeal to a wide audience. Douglass has the same goals with Tavolo, but he plans a non-traditional, Italian restaurant with a modern, stained-concrete floor and a black lab stone for the bar.
“Who knows what business will be like in the future; we hope that everyone who comes [to the Ashmont Grill] will check [Tavalo] out,” Douglass said.
As the reconstruction of Ashmont Station and construction of the Carruth near completion, Douglass and his employees are hopeful that the Ashmont Grill will draw new customers.
“We expect business to grow,” said Megan Noone, assistant general manager of the Ashmont Grill. “We have a strong local, loyal clientele that will hopefully spread the word to incoming neighbors.”
Kendy Amazan, the daytime bartender at the Ashmont Grill, will start working at Tavolo when it opens. The idea is to have a familiar face from the Ashmont Grill for people to recognize at the new establishment, she said.
“I remember when this place was the old Ashmont Grill,” said Mac McNulty, a patron who frequents the establishment three to four times a week, referring to the restaurant before it reopened in 2005. “It made the Eire Pub look like the Four Seasons.”
Douglass said he thinks restaurants are pioneers in the sense that they help new businesses prosper by bringing life to the surrounding area. Icarus, which opened 30 years ago, contributed to change the definition of the South End to the trendy scene it resembles today, he said.
The Ashmont Grill has endured construction outside its doors for several years, and it will enter a new phase this summer as transit reconstruction begins in Peabody Square, transforming Talbot Avenue into a pedestrian plaza and the five-corner intersection to four, Douglass said.
“The whole area is changing,” Douglass said. “It has not [yet] affected us negatively.”