Highly Rated Boston Seafood Restaurant Opens in Kenmore Square

A beloved Boston seafood restaurant has made a new home inside Kenmore Square's Commonwealth Hotel. The popular Row 34 opened at the hotel on Thursday, Aug. 7.

Row 34 is owned by Shore Gregory and chef Jeremy Sewall, both of whom split from the Island Creek Oyster business in 2021. The two operated Island Creek Oyster Bar inside the Commonwealth from 2010 until its closure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Kenmore Square location joins Row 34's locations in Boston's Seaport neighborhood, Cambridge's Kendall Square, Burlington, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

This new establishment features a well-placed raw bar and Row 34's signature menu board. A section of the dining room has been partitioned off from the main space for private events of up to approximately 50 people.

“[The original] Row 34 in the Seaport is occupying a space that was something else for 100 years before Row, but it's so real to us now," Gregory told Boston magazine. "This space was Island Creek for 10 years, and we spent a ton of time here and have physical memories as much as emotional memories. But it's not a homecoming, because it's a new chapter.”

Several Row 34 favorites on the menu include oyster lettuce cups, lobster rolls, and butterscotch pudding. Plenty of raw seafood options abound, including oysters. Sewall has also envisioned new specialty dishes. A Boston magazine article noted that menu items include a chilled lobster salad with avocado and sweet corn, grilled bluefin tuna with baby bok choy and smoked uni butter, and steamed littleneck clams with black garlic-slathered toast.

“Row was always supposed to be more approachable, easy, less complicated food, and I'm definitely going to honor that,” Sewall said. 

In addition to Row 34's impressive menu, the beverage program is equally dynamic, headed by beer director Suzy Hays.  Patrons can find specialties such as imperial milk stout from Brooklyn that's reminiscent of eating a cinnamon babka, a Vermont lager with lemon and yuzu, or a strawberry sour ale from New Hampshire, according to Boston magazine. 

Bar director Vannaluck Hongthong has taken advantage of the restaurant's full liquor license with out-of-this-world cocktail creations such as the Pink Pony Club, a blend of gin, lemon, strawberry amaro, guava, and basil oil.

Learn more about Row 34 at Hotel Commonwealth.