Lenox Sophia is a special restaurant. It is a tiny place, just a counter and a few tables, with room for 20 diners. The counter is best, because this is where chef-owner Shi Mei and sous chef John Piecewicz prepare your food, the tidy galley kitchen just behind them.
Inevitably you wind up in conversation, about the ornate antique duck press on the counter (more on this later), or the sugar cereal garnishing your dessert, or Boston restaurants, or something not food-related at all. Overhead, ingredients hang, drying for later use: bunches of herbs, persimmons spinning like small orange satellites. Advertisement The restaurant opened in 2022 in South Boston, away from the fray in the former KO Catering & Pies spot.
Mei previously spent time in the kitchens of French Laundry in California, Asta, Whaling in Oklahoma, and others; Piecewicz’s resume includes Hugo’s in Portland, Cafe du Pays, and Orfano. The restaurant has five people on staff, including Mei and Piecewicz; Ernest Imoisi handles the front of house and is a ray of sunshine. It is open four days a week, serving a five-course tasting menu available in omnivore and vegetarian versions.
Dinner is $99 per person. If there is such a thing as an affordable splurge, this is it; it’s hard, anymore, to go out for a nice meal for much less. The restaurant is BYO, so bring the special bottle you’ve been saving.
This is a good place to drink it. The menu changes in rhythm with the seasons and depending on what’s availab.
