Bubble Bath Back Bay
Boston, MA

Tiffani Faison Is Serving Caviar Carts and Champagne High Above Boston

Boston Magazine, Nathan Tavares, 08/01/25

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Ascend to the 15th floor of the CitizenM hotel at Back Bay’s Lyrik development once Bubble Bath opens on August 6, and you’ll find yourself practically swimming inside a Champagne bottle. From cushy, dusty-rose banquettes to floating gold-bar shelves to the frosted bubbles on the ceiling, the rooftop bar bows down to bubbly. But to soak it all in, you’ll have to tear your eyes away from the breathtaking skyline views. Giant windows, mini telescopes, and an expansive patio showcase unencumbered vistas, from the Charles River to Bunker Hill and beyond.

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From chef and restaurateur Tiffani Faison’s Big Heart Hospitality, this is a new location—and an evolution—of the group’s three-year-old Bubble Bath at downtown food hall High Street Place, a petite Champagne-focused bar with a low-brow/high-brow mix of snacks (hot dogs, popcorn, caviar). Much like when Faison expanded the Tenderoni’s food stall into a now-closed Fenway flagship, the new, larger Bubble Bath digs are a chance for customers to fully soak up the fantasy in a space designed in collaboration between Faison and CitizenM, an international hotel chain that pitches “affordable luxury” as its claim to fame. Seems like a perfect pairing for Bubble Bath’s casual-meets-fancy mix.

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“This is not a restaurant; it’s a bar,” says Faison of the new Bubble Bath, which has been in the works for almost as long as its downtown sibling has been open. “It’s really about getting out of the way for the beverage program to be really gorgeous and robust, and then just having food that complements it.”

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About that beverage program: Charlie Gaeta, once Big Heart’s wine director, has been building the Back Bay menu from scratch over the past half-year. (He curated the first Bubble Bath menu at High Street Place, where Ben Walton is now wine director.) Since departing Big Heart in 2023, Gaeta has been busy in the wine world—working for a boutique importer, starting his own label, and consulting on a variety of drink lists, like this one.

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“I want this to be the wine bar that has [everything from] German orange wine from a cool importer all the way to classic caviar and Champagne pairings,” he says. (There’s also old-school vodka service if you’d prefer to sip the ice-cold elixir between your bites of caviar.) Gaeta’s bottle list is rooted in old-world wines—everything from an approachable $50ish bottle to more upscale and obscure, like Jacques Lassaigne Champagne Rosé de Saignée, which he’s never seen in Boston before.

The by-the-glass list, meanwhile, is meant to “have everything and anything for everyone,” says Gaeta, “whether it’s a straight-down-the-middle gorgeous Sauvignon Blanc, or a high-end pour from Burgundy. I basically want my dad to feel as comfortable coming in here as a wine collector, which he is not.”

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Beyond the wines, and new to this location of Bubble Bath, is a list of nine cocktails designed by bar director Daniel Andres, who most recently worked at the Golden Swan in New York City.

Whatever you’re sipping, the food menu fits seamlessly with the drinks and the views. The theme is a mix of indulgence and irreverence, a philosophy that unites all of Big Heart’s spots. Here, that means ham-and-cheese sandwiches made with imported Italian cold-smoked speck and nutmeg-y sottocenere cheese; lobster rolls with emulsified lobster oil mayo; fancy fries. It’s as if the house staff in The Gilded Age have the run of the Russell mansion and are whipping up a comfort food spread from a tycoon-tier panty.

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Given the flourishes inspired by cuisines that waltz from Europe to India and Japan, it’s impressive to learn of the constraints on Faison and Big Heart culinary director Dan Raia: a tiny rectangle of a kitchen with one induction burner, one fryer, a salad station, and “the smallest oven you can imagine,” says Raia, with a laugh.

“I love living in a box, because then you know how to push it,” says Faison.

The opening menu includes “fancy lil’ sammies,” such as a butter-and-gruyère callback to the opening menu at sibling spot Fool’s Errand, a Fenway “adult snack bar”; “chilled and dressed” selections, salad-like bites including one of Faison’s favorite things ever, a ventresca tuna salad with aerated lemon mayo; and slightly heartier “warm and roasty” options, like crispy tempura-battered cod cheeks with yuzu aioli. “Those are probably one of my favorites so far,” says Raia of the togarashi-seasoned cheeks, which come wrapped in a shiso leaf.

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Nathan Tavares is a writer and editor from Boston. His second novel Welcome to Forever came out on March 12, 2024 from Titan Books.