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Back Bay Restaurant Group is a restaurant company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts which operates 35 restaurants under seven different concepts, primarily in New England.
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History
The Back Bay Restaurant Group was founded as The Westwood Group in the late 1960s by Charles Sarkis. It was reorganized as the Back Bay Restaurant Group in 1991 and taken public under the ticker "PAPA". The company has since returned to private status. Sarkis remains the company's CEO and principal shareholder.
In January 2011, Sarkis sold all of the restaurants, except the Papa Razzi chain, to Tavistock Restaurants, LLC based in Emeryville, California.
In March 2012, Sarkis sold 7 of the 12 Papa Razzi restaurants to Newport Harbor Corporation of Newport, Rhode Island. Newport Harbor owns and operates the Newport Restaurant Group, Castle Hill Inn, the Newport Exhibition Group and Papa Razzi. The 7 Papa Razzi restaurants are in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Sarkis Restaurant Group still owns one Papa Razzi restaurant in Short Hills, New Jersey.
Joe's American Bar and Grill
With 10 locations currently operating in New England and New Jersey, Joe's American Bar and Grill is Back Bay Restaurant Group's largest chain. The restaurant serves casual, American fare.
Papa Razzi
Papa Razzi, now owned by the Newport Harbor Corporation has 7 restaurants in New England. An upscale-casual Italian restaurant, the concept was named and themed after the Italian paparazzi. Although no longer public, when the company was listed on the NASDAQ exchange, it used the symbol "PAPA".
Other concepts
In addition to the concepts above, Back Bay Restaurant group operates four stand-alone restaurants, Abe & Louie's a "classic, upscale steakhouse", Atlantic Fish (formerly the "Famous American Fish Company"), an upscale seafood restaurant, and Coach Grill, a steakhouse in Wayland, MA once known as the "Red Coach Grill" and owned by Howard Johnson's. The Abe & Louie's concept has won many regional awards, including Boston Magazine's "Best of Boston" award and the Wine Spectator's "Award of Excellence" for the restaurant's wine list.
Defunct concepts
From 1975 until the early 2000s, the company also operated a concept called "J.C. Hillary's", a Victorian-style pub and restaurant.
In August 2010, Back Bay Restaurant Group closed the only instance of its Bouchée establishment, a French brasserie-style restaurant. Papa Razzi, in turn, replaced the concept at its 159 Newbury St. address. Papa Razzi still operates today at 159 Newbury Street in Boston, in Concord, Wellesley, Framingham, Burlington and Cranston, Rhode Island.