The talk of Towne

Opened at the end of July, it is located in Hynes Convention Center, in a part of Back Bay that lacked such a venue and was ready for one. But the restaurant’s pedigree is what is really creating buzz. It’s a collaboration between night-life magnate Patrick Lyons and a pair of New England’s most famed chefs, Lydia Shire (Biba, Locke-Ober, Scampo) and Jasper White (Jasper’s, Summer Shack). Old friends, the two have shaped Boston’s restaurant scene over decades of chowder and pan-roasted lobster, lobster pizza and elaborate offal preparations. If they hadn’t made these dishes, how would we be eating now?

Towne is a blur of colors, noises, and tastes. The decor is a conglomeration of barn-wood beams, reflective ceilings, long windows, and chandeliers shaped like outsize slide carousels. The second floor features a glassed-in kitchen, and you can watch chefs play with knives as lobsters lie on the grill like sunbathers in hell. There’s a wood-fired rotisserie, a tandoor, and what may be the most beautiful vintage stove ever, a copper beauty turned outward, for display only. Beakers double as water glasses. Waiters’ outfits steer far clear of the sober monochromes favored at other establishments. They wear red and gray vests, the backs festooned with a pattern of swirls. Towne doesn’t do restraint.

On the menu itself, everything is a jumble. Type runs vertically, then horizontally. Category headings don’t match up — “ocean’’! “carnivore’’! Some dishes (but not all) are marked with their country’s flag. Burgers and lobster rolls fly the stars and stripes, ravioli and porchetta are marked as Italian, and Peking chicken with potpie as Chinese. Is this Boston or Epcot? And why is the menu laminated?

Then there is the quirky verbiage. Several beef items are described as “xtreme,’’ yellow split peas are “quite unctuous,’’ and fettuccine Alfredo is “ the truth as it was invented for our friend paul pierce.’’