DW French, a brand new brasserie within the Fenway, opens this week

Eating places

Chef Douglass Williams mentioned the brand new restaurant will serve up brasserie staples and excessive vitality within the Fenway.

Coming off the heels of opening Mida’s East Boston location, Boston’s award-winning chef Douglass Williams this time is transporting company to the Metropolis of Lights along with his latest restaurant.

DW French, a French brasserie that brings Williams’s coaching and experiences in France to the plate, opens for dinner service Oct. 19 within the Fenway.

Paying homage to the French brasserie is one thing of a full-circle second for the chef. DW French might look like a departure for Williams — his different 4 eating places, all Italian eateries, deal with pasta and pizza — however Williams was skilled in trendy French cooking strategies.

Williams first moved to Boston when he was provided a job within the kitchen of French-inspired Radius, which closed in 2013. The chef additionally hung out cooking in Paris at Akrame, a two-star Michelin restaurant and an expertise known as a “pilgrimage.”

It was that have in Paris — not simply studying to cook dinner the meals, however taking within the excessive vitality and hospitality that comes with being in a French restaurant — that made him need to open up his first restaurant Mida within the South Finish.

“You count on the vitality to be excessive, having that form of rush and the bustling,” Williams mentioned. “It’s thrilling. It’s a part of the menu.”

Williams needs DW French to duplicate the bustle, with waiters transferring shortly behind company, and smells from dishes wafting within the air. 

Additionally whenever you consider what is likely to be on the menu at that energetic brasserie, just a few staples come to thoughts: French onion soup, steak frites, crème brûlée, to call only a few. No want for dramatic interpretation, both.

“That’s what’s so attention-grabbing about brasserie delicacies — it’s a love affair for repetition with out it feeling boring,” Williams mentioned.

So as a way to pay his contribution to a fare that has existed for many years, even centuries — and for good purpose, count on French onion soup — steak frites, crème brûlée, and extra on the menu.

Williams mentioned his private favorites are the French onion soup with broiled Gruyère cheese — the restaurant was based mostly off of this single dish, Williams mentioned — and the Hake En Papillote, fish and greens wrapped in parchment paper then steamed. In theatrical vogue, the dish is delivered to the desk nonetheless wrapped, then minimize, displaying off a effervescent sizzling, fragrant dish.

Then there’s the beverage program, which features a wine checklist of small-production French wines, each creative and traditional cocktails, and mocktails. DW French may also quickly have a Saturday and Sunday brunch menu, however for now, it’s simply dinner service, in response to a press launch.

Simply as he and his group did with opening Mida in East Boston, Williams noticed this Fenway location — contained in the Pierce constructing on Boylston Road — as a chance to influence a neighborhood that’s modified a lot within the final decade. 

“The town is, in my view, gently rising,” Williams mentioned. “I simply thought it was an enormous alternative to not simply develop the model and our attain within the metropolis, however for the primary time seize that tourism piece.”

It might be seen as a tall order to draw Fenway’s many guests — seemingly donning baseball merch — for French fare earlier than or after a ballgame. However with DW French, Williams units out to carry French tradition and delicacies to diners in an inviting approach. He calls it “French for all.”

And the neighborhood, in fact, isn’t simply made up of vacationers. Williams mentioned DW French might be for the enterprise individuals in fits, the well being care staff, the college group, and sure, the vacationers carrying baseball hats, coming in and having fun with the delicacies as they’re.

“The world walks by Fenway,” Williams mentioned. “It’s a beehive of vitality.”

DW French is positioned at 1391 Boylston St. Hours are 4-10 p.m. Monday by means of Thursday, 4-11 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, and 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday.