Tiffani Faison Is Serving Caviar Carts and Champagne High Above Boston
Bubble Bath Back Bay, the restaurateur’s new rooftop bar atop the CitizenM hotel, offers luxe bites and outstanding views.
The caviar cart at Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
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.
The view from the patio at Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
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.
Whipped ‘nduja toast with straciatella and a cocktail at Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
“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.”
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.
Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
“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.”
A cocktail and one of the “chilled and dressed” selections at Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
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.
Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
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.
A “fancy lil’ sammie” with speck, sottocenere, and honey at Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
The food is as much a conversation with the beverage program as between Faison and Raia, who started working together when Faison took over the kitchen at the now-closed Rocca for its last year of service in 2010. “We fight like a married couple, and then we figure things out and talk to our therapist,” laughs Faison. The hill she was ready to die on? French fries. Bubble Bath’s upscale spin is a lovechild of fries and salt and vinegar chips, served with a martini aioli made with caramelized shallots and vermouth, and finished with gordal olive purée and a splash of raw gin. Raia’s hill, so to speak, is the mortadella bun, with layers of pistachio-flecked mortadella drizzled with warm brown butter on a toasted brioche bun slathered with browned butter and giardiniera cream cheese. “It’s a tall, super-luxurious bite,” he says.
Mini Sweet Cheeks honey butter biscuits are part of the caviar cart at Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
Speaking of luxurious, cue the caviar cart: Customers can choose among three or four different caviars, and in various serving sizes. Tea stands are vessels for the trimmings, from traditional boiled eggs and chives to the internet’s favorite high-end potato chip, Bonilla a la Vista, a Spanish brand that fries Galician potatoes in olive oil. Instead of blinis, diners can dab caviar on brioche toast points or mini honey butter-topped Sweet Cheeks biscuits, a rare opportunity to taste these beauties outside of Faison’s Fenway barbecue stalwart. Another nod to a sibling: In a throwback to the now-closed glam Italian spot Orfano, the caviar cart includes mini cannoli shells and a piping bag of savory cream for a make-your-own-caviar-cannoli adventure.
Sure, the caviar carts and the inimitable views feel tailored for a special occasion, but to Faison, “it’s important that this become people’s living room.” Snack on mini sandwiches of pastrami smoked salmon and rich Brillat-Savarin cheese or a summer tomato salad, find an intriguing glass of wine that doesn’t break the bank, and relax. “Hang out on a Wednesday night and enjoy yourselves,” says Faison. “Make the space your own.”
Bubble Bath Back Bay. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
Opening August 6. 408 Newbury St. (CitizenM Back Bay Hotel; take the first elevator to floor 2 and the next elevator to “R”), Back Bay, Boston, bubblebathboston.com.
A version of this story appeared in the print edition of the October 2025 issue with the headline, “Roof Raised.”
