nine – the restaurant which opened last summer at 9 Park St., in the space previously occupied by No. 9 Park, just across from the Boston Common, embarked on a new chapter Tuesday, March 3, when Chicago native Kevin Girshman came on board as its new Chef de Cuisine.
“We’re doing a total menu rework,” Chef Girshman said by phone last week from Chicago, just ahead of his move to Boston. “We’re going to implement a new tasting menu. We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into one cuisine. We would like to go more international.”
Drawing inspiration from its numerical name, nine’s menu will venture away from its European cuisine roots to eventually offer fare from nine different regions of the world at any given time, including a rotating selection of coastal seafood dishes. And with each new season, fare from three or four regions will be swapped out to make way for new menu offerings from other parts of the world.
The new menu won’t be rolled all at once, however, and changes will instead be “staggered,” said Chef Girshman, who comes to nine from Ambar Chicago, an acclaimed restaurant in that city’s River North neighborhood.
Chef Girshman won’t be directly involved in planning the cocktail menu, but he said he expects nine will continue to be ‘gin-centric’ while eschewing “the generic wine pairings that every restaurant does.”
And while nine’s dinner menu won’t offer some dishes commonly found at other Boston restaurants, like a salmon filet with lemon and mounted butter, it will feature a few comfort-food staples, such as steak frites and a classic smash burger.
“We want to serve the best lobster roll you’ve ever had,” added Chef Girshman.
But above all else, Chef Girshman hopes nine will expose patrons to some new food they might otherwise not try on their own.
“We’ll have some comfort food options, but we want to try to break everyone out of their comfort zones if we can,” said Chef Girshman, advising diners to “keep an open mind, and get ready to be challenged.”
nine was launched last August by Allan Rodriguez and a group of local businesspeople who wanted to keep the team together when No. 9 Park was closing. Rodriguez is also the restauranteur behind two Newbury Street establishments, La Neta and Sabina Mezcaleria, along with El Centro, which has locations in both the South End and in Dedham.
nine is serving dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5-9 p.m. Call 617-936-3440 for reservations; or visit ninerg.com to view menus, make reservations, and for more information.