Courtesy / Back Bay Grill
Back Bay Grill chef and owner Larry Matthews
August 6, 2021
Prominent, 34-year-old Portland restaurant will launch new course as eatery incubator
Courtesy / Zillow
Back Bay Grill, in Portland's West Bayside neighborhood, will close temporarily and reopen as a restaurant incubator next month.
By William Hall
One of the most iconic restaurants in a city known for restaurants, Portland’s Back Bay Grill, will close temporarily at the end of the month and reopen as a new business.
Beginning in mid-September Back Bay Grill will become a pop-up eatery incubator, the restaurant said on Thursday.
The new venture, Six Degrees at Back Bay Grill, will be owned by the restaurant’s current owner and executive chef, Larry Matthews, and led by a new management team, according to a news release. Back Bay Grill’s general manager, Adrian Stratton, will leave the restaurant after 18 years of service.
Steve Quatrucci opened Back Bay Grill in 1987. The white-tablecloth restaurant, which serves a mix of locally sourced meat and seafood dishes and stocks over 400 wines, has won numerous awards including the Wine Spectator Award every year since 1998.
Quatrucci is now the owner of Monte’s Fine Foods, an Italian gourmet market in Portland. Matthews, who joined Back Bay Grill as a sous-chef, purchased the restaurant in 2002 from then-owner Joel Freund.
Matthews also previously owned the West Bayside building that houses the Grill, at 65-67 Portland St., a block away from another incubator, Fork Food Lab. Earlier this year, he sold the 6,130-square-foot Portland Street property to Joël Mangan, a New York tech executive, for $1.25 million.
Matthews will provide oversight and guidance at the new incubator, but will step back from the kitchen, the release said. The new management team consists of Don Purdy, who has owned and operated The Rock House restaurant in the Bahamas for 20 years, along with Mariah and Matt Dyer. Matt Dyer, Tim Harrington and Kevin Lord are the co-founders of Batson River Brewing & Distilling, which also has a location in West Bayside, as well as branches in Kennebunk and Biddeford.
Courtesy / Zillow
Back Bay Grill has served upscale meals in Portland since 1987.
Also joining the incubator is chef Nick Gratton, who previously worked as group executive chef of Pure and Whole vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai, China, and was the lead chef in developing the concession program at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany.
Six Degrees at Back Bay Grill “will maintain relationships with local producers and is committed to the same high standards and level of service Back Bay Grill is known for,” the release said.
The restaurant will continue to serve its three-course, $108 prix fixe dinners on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through the end of August.
Back Bay Grill said in a Facebook post Thursday, “We're excited to share this next phase with you, and remain committed to the same level of quality and service.”
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