By Laura Finaldi, News Staff
It’s a Thursday night. The Savant Project, a laid-back, inconspicuous restaurant and bar in Brigham Circle, is bustling with a young, artsy crowd. A live band is playing smooth, feel-good jazz music as patrons mingle and take sips periodically from their glasses of absinthe and cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
They say home is where the heart is, and if that’s at all true, Savant’s many loyal patrons will be searching for a new home this weekend. The bar, a Mission Hill gathering spot located at 1625 Tremont St., closed its doors Saturday night after an accumulation of debt forced an end to its four-year run.
Savant’s fully stocked bar, live music and weekly sex and drugs trivia nights always drew a crowd, said Tristan Conover, a Savant regular and Mission Hill resident.
“[Savant has] incredible aesthetics and a great beer selection. The staff is not only friendly, but will also actually take the time to take care of you,” he said.
The food and entertainment options aren’t the only things that kept Conover coming back to the bar, however. He said he always felt like both his business and his presence were appreciated at Savant.
“I’ve been coming here for a year and a half and it just felt like there was a sense of belonging,” he said. “To me, being a part of something is very important and to me, this is an institution in the neighborhood where I can feel at home.”
Restaurant manager Christiaan Kutauskas said business at The Savant Project was never booming. Financial troubles started almost immediately and began to accumulate over time. Kutauskas said the owners had no choice but to close the restaurant.
“From the start it was slow getting going. We built up a lot of debt, and there was never enough business to sustain it,” he said.
The restaurant was the dream of its owner, Benny Kraines, who is taking some time off after its closing to recollect himself, Kutauskas said.
“I’ve put a lot of myself into [The Savant Project], just a lot of time and a lot of work,” Kutauskas said. “This is my best friend’s dream and I kind of took it on as my own as well.”
Abraham Finkelstein, who graduated from Northeastern with a civil engineering degree earlier this month, said he goes to Savant once or twice a week. He said he likes how every time he visits The Savant Project, he can expect something different and exciting.
“Now we’re having a nice conversation with our friends, but tomorrow we could be dancing,” Finkelstein said last Thursday. “There really isn’t another place like this around here that I know of. I wish there were more. There’s such a rich variety of music playing; there’s something for everyone.”
As one of the first to hear of Savant’s closing, the news is still hard for Conover to process. He said he is not sure where he’s going to drink on future weekends.
“I was told [Savant] was closing in confidence, but it tore me up inside. I’ve started to come here as much as I could since then–within reason, of course,” he said. “It’s been very hard for me to deal with the closing. I don’t know if the staff or the owner or the other regulars appreciate it, but it means something to me.”
Although Kutauskas has another job lined up, he said the end of The Savant Project has not been easy for him because the experience of working there has been fun for him.
“It’s a lot of fun. I’ve turned drinking and meeting people and enjoying good food into a career,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
