Tuesday, July 22, 7:00 p.m.
Members $90, guests $115

The suburbs are where people go to raise their children. They are places with backyards, lots of room, good public schools, and neighbors who regularly host barbecues. They are not, according to the accepted wisdom, where one goes to dine out. But at Le Soir, chef/owner Mark Allen and pastry chef David James are bucking convention. In late 2001, they opened the restaurant in a suburb of Boston, and ever since, city folk have been reverse commuting in order to eat there. Why go to the trouble when you could dine conveniently in town? Because, according to a glowing review in the Improper Bostonian, Le Soir “C’est Magnifique!”

“Allen shows his mastery of technique and saucing in every dish,” Boston Globe critic Alison Arnett wrote. “His style is both precise and lush.” Critical kudos have come in the form of awards, as well. Boston Magazine gave Le Soir a Best of Boston for “general excellence,” while the Improper Bostonian nominated it as Boston’s Best Suburban Restaurant.

Allen, who spent his teenage years in Beantown, worked long and hard to earn these words of praise. He got his first restaurant job at 15. A few years later, he enrolled in the CIA. After graduation, Allen spent time in San Francisco at the Inn at The Opera, in the British Virgin Islands at Little Dix Bay, and in Arizona at Mary Elaine’s under chef Alessandro Stratta. Then, at just 28, he opened Mark Allen Restaurant in the Napa Valley. Three years later, Allen had the urge to return to Boston. At Boston’s Ritz-Carlton, he became the youngest and only American ever to be chef of The Dining Room. Bostonians still talk about his tenure. As Arnett wrote, he “lightened and intensified what had been stodgy food, propelling it into the late 20th century.” But when the hotel shuttered The Dining Room for renovations, Allen took advantage of the break to open his own place, in suburban Newton Highlands.

Pastry chef David James has been with Allen at Le Soir since the start. James started cooking in college. In Los Angeles, his career took him to Röx, which he helped Hans Röckenwagner open; the Encino branch of Tribeca; and the exceptional seafoodery Water Grill. At the East–West Jozu, he headed up the pastry department. After a decade on the L.A. scene, James moved to Boston to revamp the dessert menu at Harvest. One year later, he signed on at No. 9 Park. At Le Soir, customers “marvel at [his] dessert derring-do,” Mat Schaffer wrote in the Boston Herald. In fact, Schaffer added, “Everything is wonderfully right about Le Soir.”