Travel + Lesiure, October 2001

What's Your Mantra?

That's what everyone in Boston is asking now that this French/Indian restaurant has opened in the newly coined Ladder District. Within blocks of Copley Square, this rare grid-like section of town that, yes, looks like a ladder from the sky, was until recently, part of the seedy pedestrian mall, Downtown Crossing. The Ladder has split apart with some shiny new rungs-a Mediterranean-style jazz club called Limbo, pan-Asian Jer-ne, in the new 193-room Ritz Carlton, and best of all, Mantra. As the turn-of-the-century Old Colony Bank, Mantra has had a $2.5 million facelift and now uses the 30-foot-long teller's counter as a polished marble bar and a downstairs bank vault as the entrance to the loo. Modern touches have been added by Office da, two young Harvard profs who were finalists in the design of the Institute of Contemporary Art building. Metal-mesh curtains give tables a sense of privacy in this huge space; a long wavy mirror reflects the international hipsters who mingle at the bar. Most stunning is a freestanding wood-woven hookah den at the far end of the dining area where one can order hits of crushed tobacco leaves laced with fresh fruit in a glass-bellied water pipe. Chef Thomas John, formerly of Le Meridien Bombay, infuses classic French fare like seared crusted tuna with Indian spices to enhance the global feel.