The acclaimed New York chef will open Amar at Raffles, a luxury condo and hotel development located in Boston’s Back Bay Area.
Amar will be a Portuguese dining spot located on the 17th floor of the Trinity Place Complex. Mendes, the owner of the Michelin-starred restaurant Aldea, will now be entering the Boston food scene.
Originally from Connecticut, Mendes is the executive chef and Partner at Veranda, a restaurant in the ModernHaus hotel in New York’s SoHo. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1992 and has been in the culinary business ever since.
“It really sets the stage to put forth what I like to call a very humble cuisine. I give it a modern interpretation, but my goal is really to stay true to the authenticity of the recipes and then build on them,” said Mendes to The Boston Globe.
The fine dining will consist of traditional Portuguese cuisine with a modern touch to all the hand-crafted dishes.
Amar, which means love in Portuguese is yet to have a finalised menu as Mendes prepares to curate each item with utmost dedication and sincerity.
“I don’t like to create a menu until I’m in the kitchen, and we don’t have access to the kitchen at the restaurant yet. But it’s a modern Portuguese menu,” exclaimed Mendes.
Aldea, that served high quality Portuguese and Spanish food in New York City’s Manhattan closed in 2020 after 10 years of operation.
If things go as planned for Mendes, Amar will open its doors to the public this summer at 40 Trinity Place, Boston, MA, 02116.
