Carver Road Hospitality will open its first Boston-area restaurant next spring at Encore Boston Harbor.
ROCKWELL GROUP

A Las Vegas-based restaurant group is set to open its first Boston-area restaurant next spring. The location is a natural fit: Encore Boston Harbor.

Carver Road Hospitality will open Seamark Seafood & Cocktails at the casino next April, joining outposts from other local restaurateurs like Frank DePasquale and Nick Varano and the restaurant and nightlife chain Big Night.

Carver Road’s co-founder and CEO, Sean Christie, is a Framingham native. He called the upcoming Encore opening a kind of homecoming, since Seamark evokes the kind of seafood restaurants he remembers from Cape Cod.

Christie began working in the hospitality industry in the Boston area before moving out to Las Vegas. There, he became an executive for Wynn Resorts, which made its name in Las Vegas but came to the Boston area itself when it opened Encore in Everett in 2019.

Christie recalled being in Everett when construction kicked off, and says the casino is now his entry back into Boston’s hospitality scene. He once worked shifts on Lansdowne Street for the Lyons Group, including at Bill’s Bar and Avalon. He also grew up around restaurants through his family: his father, Peter, was a longtime head of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.

“I always wanted to come back to Boston,” the 49-year-old Christie said. “This is probably the most excited I’ve been about a project since we opened the company.”

Seamark will sit between Encore’s main lobby and the club Mystique in a space that was originally the restaurant Sinatra and later Harbor Lounge.

Seamark is the second restaurant Carver Road will have at a Wynn property, joining one in Las Vegas called Casa Playa. The company also has restaurants in New York, Salt Lake City and Glendale, Arizona, and more on the way in South Florida and Durham, North Carolina.

In other retail news:

• The Belmont beer hall Trinkitsch and sibling shop Craft Beer Cellar will close Dec. 31. Co-founders Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker first planned to sell the businesses but said in a social media message to customers of both places that a series of factors made continuing operations too difficult: the pandemic, staffing shortages and differences with their landlord. “While not the outcome we envisioned,” they wrote, “we intend to enjoy our final two months of operation and will hope that we see you as often as possible, as we wrap up both businesses.”
  
  
• With the Bruins and Celtics both off to hot starts for their young seasons, TD Garden is bound to be as packed as ever for games this year. The arena has new dining features this season that include the ice cream stand Causeway Cones. There’s also an array of new food options with dietary restrictions in mind, including vegan cheese pizza and plant-based tacos and bowls, as well as a broader cultural offerings, such as naan and pork carnitas. The offerings are available in part thanks to two new kitchens on the Garden’s fifth and sixth levels. A part of the exclusive Boston Garden Society club area formerly known as the Absolut Lounge has been rebranded after a sibling liquor brand, the Jameson Lounge.

• There’s drinking a rare beer, and then there’s drinking a beer that remains illegal in 15 states. Samuel Adams’ Utopia beers, which come out every other year, are back on store shelves for their 13th edition. Utopia beers have a 28% alcohol content, multitudes stronger than a beer normally has, and they’re aged in various whiskey barrels. Among the states where Utopia can’t be sold are New Hampshire and Vermont.
  
  
• New Hampshire-based Planet Fitness is poised to expand its already strong footprint in the Boston area under a new franchisee. Middleton-based Alder Partners, which operates Planet Fitness locations in the Boston area, has been bought by San Francisco-based Flynn Group, which says it is the largest franchise operator in the world, with 2,600 restaurants and fitness clubs. Flynn Group has previously in restaurants exclusively, including Applebee’s, Panera Bread and Arby’s. Planet Fitness adds a new industry, and the company said it plans with the Alder Partners purchase to significantly scale its fitness club count in the Boston market, including three additional Planet Fitness clubs within the coming four months. Locations weren’t disclosed.
  
  
• One of the newest restaurants at Somerville’s Assembly Row, Civility Social House, has added brunch. Civility opened early this year from Legendary Restaurant Group, which also includes Assembly’s Papagayo and Downtown Crossing’s Sip Wine Bar + Kitchen. Brunch at Civility started Nov. 4.
  
  
• Big Fin Poké is the latest restaurant from Maine to come south into Greater Boston, following in the footsteps of Eventide Oyster Co. and Bennett’s Sandwich Shop, among others. Big Fin Poké started in 2016 in Westbrook, Maine, immediately outside Portland. It added South Portland and then the Northshore Mall in Peabody. Now, a location on Melrose’s Main Street is next, with an opening date not yet set.
• The airbrush tanning chain Pure Glow plans to expand beyond its two Boston-area locations through franchising. Pure Glow has locations on Newbury Street in Boston and Church Street in Wellesley, and now it’s slated to branch beyond its home region. The company said it has signed franchise agreements to open in the New York tristate area, as well as Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.