It's been more than six months since we heard wind of the fact that Lazy Bear chef-owner David Barzelay was plotting a craft cocktail bar with the restaurant's bar director Nicolas Torres. Now Inside Scoop brings some further details about the place, set to open in about four months in the former Tradesman space (753 Alabama Street), dubbed Flowershop.
The main front bar is going to be a casual, a la carte, food-and-cocktail experience, with drinks priced between $12 and $15, and dinner options available as well as snacks. Barzelay says he wants to provide a "bigger showcase" for Torres's talents, and to that end, there will additionally be a reservation-only, cocktails-and-bites prix fixe experience available at a more secluded bar for a smaller number of people at a time, with drink elements all prepared a la minute, or in the moment, as opposed to having multiple pre-made elements. Though similar tasting experiences can be had at Wilson & Wilson, within Bourbon & Branch (minus the food), or more recently on the mezzanine at ABV (with food), Barzelay was inspired specifically by a eight-seat cocktail bar in Tokyo called Gen Yamamoto, which the preparation of each cocktail serves as a kind of entertainment in itself.
The five-course, 90-minute, prix-fixe cocktail-and-snack experience could run north of $100 per person, but Barzelay hasn't given a price yet only that it will be "less than dinner at Lazy Bear," which is currently $185 per person before beverages, tax, and tip.
Snack items on the menu will come in part from Lazy Bear's repertoire, including a dish of tempura-fried maitake mushrooms with sour cream and alium dip, as Inside Scoop tells us.
Further down the line, expect Barzelay to branch out with a third restaurant as well, this one perhaps more casual and family-style, with the Lazy Bear experience becoming even more elaborate and reducing from two seatings per night to one.
See more of Torres's handiwork and inspiration via his Instagram.
Previously: Lazy Bear Team To Open Cocktail-Centric Spot In Former Tradesman Space
