(as published in The Southern Voice, www.sovo.com)
Bazzaar Urban Bar
654 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
404.885.7505
www.bazzaaratlanta.com
Inconsistent, but promising Revered chef’s culinary creations are the stuff of dreams, but will dreams come true for gay-owned urban hot spot?
Bazzaar Urban Bar sits on the high-traffic corner of Peachtree Road and Ponce de Leon Avenue, next to the Fox Theatre and across from the Georgian Terrace Hotel. It’s a corner filled with theater goers, tourists and inhabitants of the pricey condo buildings springing up in the area.
But despite its glamorous location and proximity to so many potential diners, former venues in this particular space seemed to be damned to failure.
Enter owner Bill Kaelin and chef Richard Blais.
Blais’ creations are fresh, experimental and show real talent. Known for plates with edible works of art, he provides a decidedly new experience wherever he hangs his hat in Atlanta. Fresh off his journey with namesake restaurant Blais, he took the reins in Bazzaar’s kitchen earlier this year.
And Kaelin is fresh from the trendy Eleven50 club, so transforming this space into a hot spot for the sexy and sophisticated crowd seems a natural fit.
BAZZAAR IS a lush and vibrant vision of gold, red and brown. The bi-level space provides a downstairs conducive to drinks and noshing as well as a modern upstairs loft for dining.
The space is sensual and warm. A thumping of DJ-inspired music, artsy wall installations and colored light fixtures bring to mind the kind of place you’d expect to bump into Carrie, Samantha and the girls sipping Cosmos and launching puns.
And the assortment of servers is perfectly suited to the space. Young, sexy and energetic, they fit the mood perfectly.
Menu items of note include the Kobe beef tartare with Asian pear, an injected egg and smoked chili ($6) and tuna carpaccio served with pickled ginger, soy jellies and sesame crisps ($11). True to Blais’ form, both plates are visually appealing as well as tasty.
A dish of chicken fried tofu ($8) is accompanied by inflated edamame, Asian spices and pepper jelly. I’m not a fan of tofu, but fry nearly anything and it’s bound to be tasty. The spices, creamy-whipped edamame and jelly make these skewered square bites really work.
And French toast ($6) for dessert? At Bazzaar, expect a little of the unexpected. Small squares of french toast, topped with Canadian bacon and a side of truffle ice cream with berry compote is as salty-sweet a goodness as I’ve ever had.
My second visit to Bazzaar yields a fault that may have aided in the demise of past enterprises in this space: inconsistency.
The drawback of being the Fox Theater’s closet bar and restaurant is that the place is susceptible to whatever audience is attending whichever show that night.
Tonight, it’s a classic rock crowd. Gone is the hip SoHo feel and young clientele. Present is a congregation of cycle mamas and bandanna-wearing papas sucking back bottled beer and smoking cigarettes.
As distracting as the bottom level is, the loft is free from most of the tailgate feel below. The server arrives eager to please and is quick to announce menu changes.
And some items that remain the same still come out different. A tomato salad with pulled mozzarella and basil water ($7) has lost some of its original uniqueness but is still tasty.
That French toast dessert has changed too, making it more pedestrian. The Canadian bacon is substituted with small strips of pancetta, and the toasts are undercooked and doughy.
But Bazzaar still has its merits.
Crispy calamari with spices, papaya and spearmint ($8) proves to be quite good, as is prosciutto ravioli ($6), in which thin prosciutto is wrapped around whipped parmesan and figs. Also available is a cheese plate ($12) with an unexpected and sensually rich explorateur cheese.
Blais is extraordinarily experimental, but the lack of consistency puts me on edge. Time will tell if the combined talent and experience of Blais and Kaelin can keep Bazzaar from joining the long list of previous occupants.
The potential is there. Let’s hope the diners are, too.
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