Glamorous Back Bay Spot Hue Is Ready for Prime Time

Thanks to a new opening in Back Bay, plotting a night out with lively music, fancy food, and a great cocktail or three doesn’t necessarily mean making three different stops across town. Hue, the glitzy new restaurant, bar, and entertainment venue located inside the Copley Square Hotel at 90 Exeter Street, hopes to keep diners hooked for the whole night.

The space itself — named after the corner of Huntington Avenue and Exeter Street where it resides — is split into three different dining areas. Walk into the lobby of the hotel off Huntington Avenue and there’s the Rose Bar, located on the hotel’s ground floor. The accordion-style front windows of the bar fold open in the summertime and there will be a 25-seat patio set up outside on the sidewalk.

But slip in through the other entrance on Exeter Street and patrons will find Hue’s main attraction: the supper club. Chef Barnett Harper, who formerly worked at the historic downtown restaurant Marliave, oversees a wide-ranging menu that includes whole fried red snapper with sweet and sour sauce, salt and pepper shrimp, and confited duck leg. “It’s American food with Asian flair,” says co-owner George Aboujaoude.

Josh Jamison/Hue

Josh Jamison/Hue

Josh Jamison/Hue

Josh Jamison/Hue

Josh Jamison/Hue

Josh Jamison/Hue

Next to the supper club is a speakeasy-style bar serving up playful cocktails like a New Old Fashioned made with tequila, and the Resting Spritz Face, a photogenic mix of pinot grigio, soda, peach puree, and strawberries.

Aboujaoude, along with business partners Maurice Rodriguez, Robert Eugene, and Nick Saber, also locked in a live music license at Hue and hope to introduce jazz performances in the near future. Decades ago, the location used to be home to the renowned jazz club Storyville. The team hired well-known local artist ProBlak to create a mural in the restaurant honoring the past jazz legends who have performed at the address.

Courtesy of Hue

There are some nightclub-adjacent touches, like a live DJ after 9 p.m. and bottle service. But the furniture won’t be pushed aside to make way for a dance floor in the late-night hours, and they are serious about investing in the food and drink above all. “It is a fine line between being a restaurant and being a nightclub, and you don’t want to blur that line,” Aboujaoude says. “We really want to make sure that we have zero to do with a nightclub — that it’s always food and cocktail-focused.”

Hue is for both tourists coming through the hotel and nearby residents in Back Bay and South End, Aboujaoude says. More broadly, it’s for a growing subset of Bostonians who have landed here via the city’s ever-expanding science and technology hubs (hello, Vertex and Amazon). They’re not going to nightclubs anymore, but they aren’t interested in white tablecloth fine dining spots at 6 p.m., either. Hue, and other party-ready restaurants like Back Bay neighbor Lolita, are aiming to fill that in-between void.

“The Bostonian is growing and changing,” Aboujaoude says. “It’s not just the proper Bostonian. It’s not just the college student anymore. We have a lot more people in Boston who are changing the infrastructure and it is able to support the type of business that we’re now launching.”

Hue is now open at 90 Exeter Street, in Back Bay. (The supper club and speakeasy are open from Thursday to Sunday to start while the Rose Bar is open every day except Monday; check hours before you go.) Reservations are available here.

Courtesy of Hue