First Look: Menotomy Grill & Tavern

Here are the latest details on Menotomy Grill & Tavern, the new East Arlington restaurant slated for 25 Mass. Ave.

Opening date: Owner Billy Lyons, of Arlington, said Menotomy Grill & Tavern should open to the public by the end of next week. “We’re just waiting on a gas connection,” he said Friday.

Lyons, who has been in the restaurant for roughly three decades, said he designed about 90 percent of the restaurant himself. “I’ve had it in my head for years,” he said.

Chef and menu: Lyons has hired Mark Thompson as the restaurant’s chef. The two worked together at Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ale in Boston. Thompson was also the chef de cuisine at Chez Henri in Cambridge for nearly a decade. Here is the restaurant’s opening menu.

Drink special: The restaurant will serve the “Cooper’s Flip,” a drink in homage to Jason Winshep and Jabez Wyman, two of the three Menotomy residents killed by British soldiers on April 19, 1775. The men are said to have been having the drink, which has dark rum, cask ale, molasses, pumpkin and egg, at nearby Cooper's Tavern when they were ambushed by the British on their march back to Boston.

Capacity: The restaurant will seat 150 with the patio (on the Homewood Suites side) adding another four to six tables. There are 24 barstools at the restaurant’s bar. Lyons said he expects to have about 45 employees.

More on Arlington Patch

• Menotomy Grill & Tavern's Opening Menu
• More Than $1 Million Going into New East Arlington Restaurant