A Restaurant Born of Washington Square

There's something about Brookline that chefs and restaurateurs can't resist.

From Temptations Café and Rod Dee to American Craft, Brookline restaurateurs have a way of staying neatly within the town's borders even when they move on to new ventures.

So perhaps its no surprise that Damian Dowling and Josh Sherman – the longtime manger and chef, respectively, at Washington Square Tavern – ended up just a few storefronts away when they decided to head out on their own.

"I've been looking for a number of years to start something on my own," Dowling said, speaking with a slight Irish brogue while on a break from construction earlier this week. "It's just a coincident that it's so close."

Dowling's new venture, called Abbey, is slated to open by the end of the month in the gutted storefront of Dalia's Bistro & Wine Bar, which closed last month. Gina Medaglia, the former owner of Dalia's, will be a partner in the new restaurant, though she said she plans to take a backseat this time around.

According to Dowling, Abbey will feature a bar stocked with a good selection of beer and wines, but it won't be an Irish pub and it won't try to compete with the offerings of established beer bars like American Craft and Publick House across the street. Dowling plans to offer a good selection of single malt scotch and Irish whiskey, but he doesn't necessarily want to be known for that either.

"Restaurants develop their own personality – the Publick House wasn't always a beer bar," he said. "We're not trying to compete with anyone's concept."

Though Sherman is still developing the menu, he said Abbey would serve "American bistro style" dishes, including lamb lollipop chops, bison Bolognese, charred Caesar salad and other favorites he developed while at Washington Square Tavern.

And Dowling said he's not going to keep his chef cooped up in Abbey's kitchen. The plans for the restaurant call for an open kitchen, exposed to the dinning room and lined with four front-row seats. He hopes patrons will engage with the chef and ask questions about what they're doing and the ingredients they use.

Dowling said he got the idea for the arrangement after watching patrons peaking through the small window that separates the kitchen from the restaurant at Washington Square Tavern.

"We see people looking in there all night, so we thought, why not open it up so people don't have to stare in there all night?" he said.

The two first-time restaurateurs have gutted the old Dalia's space, tearing down the walls and ripping out several restaurants' worth of plumbing and electrical wiring. From underneath an old disused compressor in the basement, they unearthed an old-fashioned cash register that Dowling is now trying to restore.

When construction is completed in about three weeks, the restaurant will boast 25 seats – eight outside in good weather – hardwood floors, exposed brick and reclaimed cherry paneling. Medaglia, the former owner of Dalia's, said she hopes it will feel more casual and accessible than her old restaurant.

"I think sometime people didn't feel comfortable coming into Dalia's because they though it was too high end or up scale," she said. "I think in Washington Square, people are looking for a more casual dining experience."

Medaglia said it was difficult to give up Dalia's, which she had kept running for eight years. But the former occupational therapist said she had simply lost the drive to keep it going.

"I was starting to feel a little bit rundown. I wasn't being as creative as I wanted to be and I wasn't as interested as I wanted to be anymore," she said. "When I was approached, I did a little soul searching and decided it was a good time to do it."

For his part, Dowling insists there were no hard feelings at Washington Square Tavern when he stole the chef and left to open up shop down the street, calling the tavern's owner, Gerry Finnegan, a "very generous guy." And he said he doesn't expect to move in on his old boss's business either.

"He wished me the best," he said. "I think there's plenty of people to go around."