Aka Bistro may soon be replaced by Blazes.
By Alice Waugh
Mother’s Day will be the last day of business for AKA Bistro, which garnered widespread praise for its innovative French and Japanese cuisine but was a victim of not one but two natural disasters.
Meanwhile, Richard Card, the Lincoln resident behind the proposed Blazes bookstore/coffee shop/cocktail bar, has made an offer to lease the space currently occupied by AKA Bistro and has launched a website detailing what Blazes plans to offer.
Rumors have swirled for some time that Aka Bistro might be closing. “AKA is a tenant at will and has been struggling to pay the rent for the space,” Geoff McGean, executive director of the Rural Land Foundation (which owns the Mall at Lincoln Station), said in an email last week. “We have talked with several new potential restaurant tenants about the space. Richard Card/Blazes is one of the potential tenants that has expressed interest in the space, and we have had discussions with them.”
Card confirmed that he has made an offer on a five-year lease for the AKA Bistro space for Blazes, which he hopes to open as soon as this fall if all goes well, but said on Tuesday he had not gotten a response.
“This is very sad because I like the town very much. It reminds me of the village in France where I grew up, a small community where everyone knows everyone. This is something I’ll miss a lot,” Christian Touche, co-owner and general manager of AKA Bistro, said in an interview Tuesday night. “It would have been easier if there was something bad” such as substandard food or poor service, but such was not the case, he said.
AKA Bistro was was never able to recover from a pair of unfortunate events: the lengthy closure of nearby Donelan’s after its roof collapsed in a snowstorm in February 2011, significantly reducing business traffic for the entire mall, and the closure of AKA itself for several months starting in December 2013 after a burst ceiling pipe caused extensive interior water damage. “I learned a lot about insurance,” Touche said ruefully.
The plan for Blazes had its first public airing at Town Meeting in 2015 when Card applied for a liquor license. He told the Lincoln Squirrel beforehand that his business would aim for a “salon atmosphere” with a breakfast, lunch and light dinner menu, and a small bookstore that would stock “only high-minded and literary works.”
At that time, Card said he did not have a specific site identified, though he later said he was looking at space on 10 Lewis St. That later turned out not to be workable due to a shortage of parking space.
Even though nothing has been signed, Blazes now has its own website noting that the establishment will be a “cultural cafe” with “an inviting chic and urban edge.” Offerings will include crafted coffees, loose-leaf teas, fresh fruit drinks, and food including “meticulously prepared soups, local cheeses and charcuteries.” The website includes a sample menu and an undated list of events Card hopes to hold there.
Asked about pricing, Card said that Blazes would be somewhere in between Concord’s Woods Hill Table and the Whistle Stop in Lincoln “so people can come here once or twice a week and not feel it’s going to be a big expense. We definitely do not want to be a ‘special occasion’ place.”
Card has assembled a committee of about a dozen Lincoln residents who are investing and/or lending their expertise in the design and planning process. He’s also planning to launch a Kickstarter online fundraising campaign featuring a promo video and a song. Among the committee members is Wendy Harrington, who said she and other Lincolnites are excited about what Blazes could offer beyond just its menu and merchandise.
“Italy and France have cafes in town squares, England has the pubs and Iceland has the baths,” Harrington said. “The problem with a small town like Lincoln is that it doesn’t have a town center” where people can run into each other and socialize with a cup of gourmet coffee or a cocktail.
“I’ll still go to Concord or Waltham or Lexington” to eat out for dinner, “but I would much rather have a casual meal [at a place] where I can throw on a coat and and go downtown [in Lincoln] with my daughter, or drop in during the day,” Harrington said. “I think Richard has really hit on it. I think he’s got a very holistic approach to the culture [of Lincoln] and the food part of it that was really missing.”
The impending closure of the well-regarded AKA Bistro came as a surprise to gourmets outside Lincoln as well. The restaurant was featured on April 22 in Boston Magazine’s “Best Food Instagrams of the Week” and was reviewed in detail on April 15 in The Passionate Foodie, a blog by Richard Auffrey, who said he had no idea about the upcoming change when he wrote his blog post.
Touche said he had considered “downgrading” the AKA Bistro menu a bit to get more local customers, but decided it was too risky. “I may or may not gain people from Lincoln, but I’d certainly lose the people who drive half an hour” for AKA’s fare, he said.
Touche isn’t certain what’s next for him, but said there will definitely be another restaurant in his future, and the AKA Bistro experience has taught him a lot. “I wish the best for the new people who are coming. It’s a great spot and maybe they’ll get a better sense of the needs of the residents,” he said.