Lincoln Tavern Launches a Substantial Late-Night Menu in South Boston

Sliders at Lincoln Tavern anchor an expansive new late-night menu launching this week. / Photo courtesy of Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant

Lincoln Tavern has proven to be an indispensable reason to get out of bed in the morning, but beginning this week, the South Boston restaurant is also a prime place to stay up late. Lincoln launches an expansive new late-night menu on Thursday, Sept. 12, with new “test kitchen”—style menu items alongside lauded sliders, pizza, and more. The expanded menu will start off running Thursday-Saturday nights until 1 a.m., and beginning in October—for Lincoln’s seventh anniversary—it will be available seven nights per week.

Lincoln is the flagship of the Broadway Restaurant Group, which also includes Loco Taqueria, Capo Restaurant and Supper Club, and Fat Baby Sushi and Cocktails. It’s the only outpost that has a 2 a.m. liquor license, so it’s always been a popular post-work spot for Broadway and other restaurant industry workers who clock out earlier, says executive chef Nick Dixon. For years, Lincoln has met those night owls’ needs with its signature pizza and wings, available nightly until 1 a.m.

“Brunch took off and became its own monster,” says Dixon, who helped open Lincoln and is now culinary director of the restaurant group, as well as executive chef of both Lincoln and Capo.

A couple years after launching weekend brunch, Lincoln added holiday Monday service, then Friday brunch test kitchen program, which rotates in experimental dishes and has proven to be wildly popular. About a year ago, the restaurant began serving brunch seven days per week. “We’re very comfortable with where brunch is right now,” Dixon says. “The test kitchen has pushed us to try to do new things all the time, and now it’s time to ask, what can we do with late-night?”

The answer to that question requires more than just coming up with new dishes, though. The Broadway Restaurant Group pays ride-sharing fare home for its hourly cooks who stay til 1:30 a.m., so growing the late-night menu adds more to that expense. It also required Lincoln to rearrange its kitchen a bit to enable that skeleton crew efficiently fry and grill after-hours.

“It’s a tricky balance, but we really want to own that late-night business and give our customers something new,” Dixon says.

The late-night menu will still include pizza and wings, and it will also highlight Dixon’s signature prime beef sliders, which just won Boston magazine’s seventh annual Battle of the Burger. A new full-sized burger riffs on the regular-menu sandwich, but as a smash burger with crispy edges. Now there will finally be French fries available late at night, too.

Besides the always-available staples, Dixon, chef de cuisine Rick Tormey, and the Lincoln team is taking a “test kitchen” approach to nightly chef’s-whim specials, including some fun breakfast-for-late-night options.

“If we run out, we run out. If something’s a huge hit, we’ll try to keep going with it,” Dixon says of the experimental plates. “I see this becoming a very extensive menu.”

Check out this week’s late-night menu below, and expect much more to come.

Lincoln Tavern and Restaurant late-night, Sunday-Wednesday 10 p.m.-1 a.m., Thursday-Saturday 11 p.m.-1 a.m., 425 W. Broadway, Boston, 617-765-8636, lincolnsouthboston.com.

The Staples

Lincoln Sliders: prime beef, Muenster cheese, smoked bacon aioli, sunny side up egg, potato bun

Smash Burger: prime beef, French onion soup onions, Cabot cheddar cheese, smoked bacon aioli, sesame potato bun

Chicken Sandwich: fresh mozzarella, applewood smoked bacon, hot house tomato, watercress, pesto aioli, rosemary focaccia

Truffle Mac: four cheese sauce, truffle, English peas, ritz cracker crumb

Rosemary Truffle Fries

Goat Cheese Dip: house made fig jam, Vermont goat cheese, toasted almonds, Katz honey, sour dough bread

Chef Specials

Loaded Waffle Fries: waffle fries, jalapeno queso, house smoked brisket, bourbon barbeque sauce, bacon, and serrano peppers

Breakfast Burrito: Pork Carnitas, refried black beans, rice, avocado, and pico de gallo topped with queso, house hot sauce, and a fried egg

Stack of pancakes: Apple pie pancakes, cinnamon bourbon apples, cinnamon streusel, bourbon pecan maple syrup, whipped cream. A la mode- $2

Truffle Mac Dog: all beef wagyu frank, truffle mac & cheese, and bacon crumble on a house made hot dog bun

Bone Marrow Poutine: whole roasted bone marrow, rosemary truffle fries, oxtail marmalade, short rib gravy, local cheese curds

Ultimate Grilled Cheese: cheddar, muenster, and pimento cheeses, bacon jam, tomato, on Iggy’s sourdough francese

Add an egg to any menu item for $2