The ownership team of Luke’s Lobster has leased the former Dry Dock Restaurant and Tavern on Commercial Street with plans to reopen the long-vacant seafood venue early next summer. The restaurant will still be called Dry Dock and will not be a Luke’s-branded venue. “It’s an iconic location and brand, and we’re just excited and honored to be the ones to bring back this seafood tavern,” said Luke’s Lobster founder and CEO Luke Holden.
The menu hasn’t yet been finalized, but Holden’s team is talking with longtime fans of Dry Dock to learn what they loved most, and he expects the newly reopened venue will feature plenty of old favorites. Dry Dock launched at 84 Commercial Street in 1983. When it closed 35 years later, in 2018, it had plans to renovate.
But those plans never came to fruition. Having been shuttered all this time – and during the damaging storms of last winter – the space will require extensive renovations this winter, according to officials at Luke’s. They hope to expand the deck and build an addition for a new kitchen and bathrooms but will preserve the Dry Dock’s interior aesthetic.
“We want to revive all that amazing old character for the guest area,” Holden said. “The old architecture and exposed beams and brick are really quite magnificent.” “Our family has loved the Dry Dock location for decades,” said Jeff Holden, managing partner at Luke’s Lobster.
“I was a regular when I had my business here on Commercial Street ba.