Dr. Francis Lobo arrived in New Haven as a Yale School of Medicine student in 1987, and he’s never left. After completing his field of study in allergy and immunology, he’s practiced in greater New Haven for more than two decades and serves as a faculty member at his alma mater. Now he’s channeled his love for the Elm City into a brand-new project: a foray into restaurant ownership.
Twenty-six years ago, Dr. Lobo settled into New Haven’s historic City Point neighborhood, falling in love with its waterfront charm.
“It’s a neighborhood one doesn’t enter by accident,” he says. “You have to know it’s here. That’s part of the charm of it, being off-path. I love it…It’s a magical place.”
As a member of the Pequonnock Yacht Club at Oyster Point, Lobo became interested in a potential restaurant location by the marina, envisioning a “beautiful space for a gathering place,” he says. He approached the club about renting the space, and in mid-June, six weeks after signing a lease, opened the 30-seat breakfast and lunch restaurant by the name of City Point Kitchen.
“It really was an opportunity,” he says. “I am a doctor; that’s my life and my passion, but I also love the neighborhood. I thought we could make a little magic here.”
Lobo pulled together an experienced team, including executive chef Derek Amodio, who he describes as “a real genius, a savant with flavors and ideas,” to create the intimate restaurant. To match the feel of the sunny space with sailboat décor and blue-checkered floor, they designed a menu around comfort, “delicious American food with no pretensions,” he says. This translates into all-day breakfast, meant to be unhurried and comfortable, and lunch items showcasing the availability of fresh produce from local purveyors. (Lobo sits on the board of New Haven Farms, a nonprofit urban agriculture organization.)
Breakfast ($4 to $9) starts with locally roasted Willoughby’s Coffee and ranges from healthy and virtuous (the “Dr. Frank’s Smoothie with organic berries, banana, greens and yogurt; quinoa-charged oats) to sinful (Amodio’s fluffy buttermilk biscuits blanketed with creamy sausage gravy; the sausage is also housemade.)
There’s a daily omelette special, often concocted with seasonal produce. Sweet potato hash, punctuated with more sausage and bacon, is topped with two over-easy eggs. A breakfast “sharpie” sandwich – a term for a flat-bottomed sailboat used for oystering – makes reference to the long, flat roll used to contain two eggs, bacon or sausage and choice of cheese. Buttermilk pancakes are served with New England maple syrup.
Morning meal lovers will be happy to know breakfast is available all day, but lunch at 11 a.m. ($5 to $20) brings additional intriguing options: a hot lobster roll with hand-picked, butter-poached meat; roasted chicken sandwich with bacon and buttermilk herb dressing, spicy veggie cakes, shrimp cocktail with a creamy Colombian cocktail sauce and a weekly burger special. The menu pays homage to New Haven’s long, storied oystering history with a fried oyster po’boy and oysters and grits, a New England interpretation of the classic Southern dish with buttermilk and cornmeal-battered sauteed bivalves and cherry tomatoes.
Though City Point Kitchen doesn’t serve dinner and is quick to say it’s not a bar, the restaurant still offers three craft beers on draft and a small, affordable wine list, along with mimosas and sangria. Cocktails ($10) are of the classic variety: Bloody Mary, Dark and Stormy, Pimm’s Cup, Manhattan, Negroni, Moscow Mule.
Chef Amodio, originally from Long Island, says he’s loving the daily opportunity to work with quality ingredients.
“Everything’s fresh,” he says. “We get deliveries every other day. The herbs are from our garden right outside. I love cooking, I love waking up in the morning thinking of what specials I’m going to do.”
Lobo’s enjoyed “good and honest” feedback from locals who have become regulars – for instance, taking constructive criticism about the restaurant’s granola and modifying the recipe.
“We really want to be a collaborative effort with the neighborhood,” he says. “Overall, it’s been fantastic. I feel as though this has satisfied a hunger.”
He admits that after a quarter-century in medicine, entering the restaurant industry was “very intimidating.”
“But medical colleagues are intrigued by it,” he says. “They think this is a fantastically interesting thing I’m doing.”
>>City Point Kitchen, at 98 S. Water St., in New Haven, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., but will move its hours from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the school year. Information: 475-238-6101, citypointkitchen.com, facebook.com/citypointkitchen.
