Check Out Lolita Cocina’s New, Shareable Menu
Crispy cauliflower tacos at Lolita Cocina & Tequlia Bar. / Photo provided
No one would fault Lolita Cocina & Tequlia Bar if the Back Bay restaurant was feeling a little jealous of its sister spot. Yvonne’s debuted last year with “look-at-me opulence” in the hallowed halls of the former Locke-Ober, and with deftly crafted small plates by chef Juan Pedrosa that helped earn it the title of Boston’s Best New Restaurant.
Now, managing partner Christopher Jamison and culinary director Tom Berry have turned their focus to their original cocktail bar. This is in part because the team is expanding the Lolita brand with a Seaport location in early 2017, but mostly because the cocina hadn’t had a menu overhaul since it debuted in 2010.
Berry and executive chef Nicholas Cox, who joined the Lolita team in 2014, began developing a new menu late last year. Yvonne’s Pedrosa was on hand this weekend to help with the relaunch, sharing mouth-watering Instagram previews of new dishes, like the fried queso pambazo, with chorizo and corn salsa on chile-dipped Mexican toast.
The new menu retains a section dedicated to tacos, a range of different guacamoles, the ever-popular Mexican grilled street corn and other favorites, but it offers more street food-style snacks and “feasts.” In place of any traditional main plates, these shareable platters offer protein like grilled ribeye, or a large slab of pork belly carnitas, with salsas, flour and corn tortillas, and black beans and rice for a roll-your-own adventure. Check out the new dinner menu in full below.
A photo posted by Tom Berry (@tbprops) on
“The dining culture has changed a bit since we opened Lolita in 2010,” Jamison says. “The app-salad-entrée-desert dining model is falling by the wayside. We hadn’t changed the style of our menu in almost six years. We think this new format is more conducive to what sets Lolita apart—a raucous, festive, fun style of dining with a little tequila and lots of friends.”
Jamison, Berry, partners Mark Malatesta and Ting Yen (of Oishii), and chef Preston Miller are also developing Ruka, a contemporary Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian) concept in Downtown Crossing. Located on the ground floor of the Godfrey Hotel, Ruka is slated for a fall 2016 debut.
Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar, 271 Dartmouth St., Boston, 617-369-5609, lolitatequilabars.com.
