[ATL] Element under Richard Blais

[biskuit]

Bad news - Element has closed as of yesterday. It was reported in the AJC. Best wishes to all involved for future success. From my personal perspective (as a diner), Element was a huge success, but I know the financials of running a restaurant are never easy.

Thanks for the memories!

[Reignking]

Well, I'm glad that my friend and I had a chance to go a month ago, but at 9 on a Saturday night there were just a few tables occupied. I think the problem is that it is a fun an interesting thing to do every once in a while, but not something you want to go back for constantly.

As soon as I get some photos sent to me from my friend, I'll post them. I really enjoyed the sous vide salmon with smoked mayo -- alone, the "elements" were boring, but bringing the two together made you think that you were eating smoked salmon. The other thing that I really enjoyed was the make-your-own-ice-cream dessert, allowing you to make your own dipping dots to add to either sweet tea or cream cheese ice cream.

I wonder how his Kennesaw airport project is going? Can his concepts work out there if they didn't in midtown (this time around)?

Do you have a link for the story?

Edited October 5, 2007 by Reignking (log)

[Reignking]

There's a link on ajc.com now (has a "]" in it so won't post here).

Element Gastro Lounge abruptly closes

Element Gastro Lounge and Food Lab — the Midtown venue for chef Richard Blais' better-living-through-technology brand of cuisine — shuttered its doors today. Citing financial woes after a tough summer downturn in business, owners Anouk Esmail and Christopher Neal put all the furnishings and equipment into liquidation.

Blais took over the kitchen this past spring, immediately capturing the attention of a small but impassioned group of local restaurant goers who applauded dishes such as kumamoto oysters with Meyer lemon "dippin' dots" and panna cotta with frozen Coca-Cola "rocks."

"It was exciting and so playful," says Jennifer Zyman, who often praised Element on her food blog, blissfulglutton.com. "As much as I like new Southern cooking, it was nice to have somebody who was switching it up a bit."

Blais has brought out his liquid nitrogen and calcium chloride at several local restaurants over the years, including One Midtown Kitchen, Bazzaar and his brief-lived showcase restaurant. The chef, on a "culinary sabbatical" for the next month in California, was unavailable for comment.

Edited October 5, 2007 by Reignking (log)

[docsconz]

Once again I didn't get to a restaurant I very much wanted to try quickly enough.

Here's hoping that Chef Blais returns soon from the embers rising like a phoenix. I would love to see him return in a restaurant called "Glory".

[Fat Guy]

Rough month for the New Paradigm. Element in Atlanta, schwa in Chicago . . .

[jmolinari]

I don't know. I'll be the Nth person to say this.

I just don't think Atlanta WANTS this kind of food. Don't get me wrong, I personally LOVE it. But how many Atlantans are like me? Not many, me thinks.

Maybe the problem is that Element wasn't the place most people would go more than once every month or 2,as exciting as it is/was.

There may be something behind the fact that it seemed, to me, that Blais was most successful at One Midtown Kitchen, where 80% of the patrons could choose standard dishes (seared tuna, steak/fries, chicken etc.) OR the option to let chef do a tasting menu for you at the bar with all the interesting dishes he's become famous for.

I think a restaurant in Atlanta needs to offer the option for diners to have a "normal" meal, where they can go for a steak, or some scallops and risotto or items like those, and have the option of having Blais dishes too.

jason

[docsconz]

I don't know. I'll be the Nth person to say this.

I just don't think Atlanta WANTS this kind of food. Don't get me wrong, I personally LOVE it. But how many Atlantans are like me? Not many, me thinks.

Maybe the problem is that Element wasn't the place most people would go more than once every month or 2,as exciting as it is/was.

There may be something behind the fact that it seemed, to me, that Blais was most successful at One Midtown Kitchen, where 80% of the patrons could choose standard dishes (seared tuna, steak/fries, chicken etc.) OR the option to let chef do a tasting menu for you at the bar with all the interesting dishes he's become famous for.

I think a restaurant in Atlanta needs to offer the option for diners to have a "normal" meal, where they can go for a steak, or some scallops and risotto or items like those, and have the option of having Blais dishes too.

jason

←

Unfortunately, I do not think this atitude is limited to Atlanta.

[Fat Guy]

It's not a question of whether "Atlanta" wants that kind of food. I'm sure "Chicago" couldn't care less about Alinea. The question is whether there are enough people to support the restaurant. A restaurant that does 100 covers a night 365 days a year (just as an example) needs to fill only 36,500 seats. If the average person in the room has been to the restaurant twice, that's only 18,250 actual people needed to fill those 36,500 seats. Then you have tourists, where any ambitious restaurant is likely to get a big chunk of its business -- call it half. Are there 9,125 people in Atlanta who want to go to our hypothetical restaurant on average twice a year? There may be.

[docsconz]

It's not a question of whether "Atlanta" wants that kind of food. I'm sure "Chicago" couldn't care less about Alinea. The question is whether there are enough people to support the restaurant. A restaurant that does 100 covers a night 365 days a year (just as an example) needs to fill only 36,500 seats. If the average person in the room has been to the restaurant twice, that's only 18,250 actual people needed to fill those 36,500 seats. Then you have tourists, where any ambitious restaurant is likely to get a big chunk of its business -- call it half. Are there 9,125 people in Atlanta who want to go to our hypothetical restaurant on average twice a year? There may be.

←

The problem is that they all probably want to go on the same nights of the year!

[Reignking]

Tourists? A restaurant like this could really shine in a tourist trap area...

You were right about having 80% "real" food -- even I couldn't see going except if I had guests in town (and those guests would have to just as adventurous/curious).

[Dave the Cook]

It's hard -- and it's going to continue to be hard -- to draw conclusions about whether or not a restaurant like Element is supportable until one opens with a sound financial model in place. Element was in trouble before Blais showed up; perhaps it was too much to hope that a new culinary program would save it. Back in 2004, the backers for Blais (the restaurant) weren't prepared to stick with a young chef and a daring menu for long enough to see if it could generate sufficient momentum (see my comments here and here). On the other hand, the chef will tell you (he told me) that it was an ambitious -- perhaps overly so -- concept. On a slow night, he would sit in the dining room and stare at the flat-screen video panel (fed by a battery of cameras in the kitchen) and think "There's $20,000 I could use right now."

Find the right-sized place (25-30 seats), deck it out with an in-your face kitchen layout (see Upstairs at Bouley for an example), and finance and market it properly. If that fails, I'll agree that it's not workable here yet.

[Reignking]

Could we call minibar (Jose Andres, DC) successful? That is certainly small (6 seats?). WD50?

The trick is to elevate is from novelty to really good food. I thought the salmon & smoked mayo did that, but other dishes were more about presentation than taste.

The manhattan with a smoked cherry was also unique, different, and quite flavorful.

[BryanZ]

Wow, this sucks, too. Never got to Schwa (through no fault of my own, though), never got to Element. I suck.

[The Blissful Glutton]

I do think there is enough of a client base to support him here in Atlanta, but he needs to think small and focus. Something the size of Momofuku with an open kitchen would suit him well. He does not belong in a closed kitchen. He is at his best when he is able to cook and entertain. I know he'll bounce back--he always does. This closing has very little to do ith him and more to do with a restaurant that was already in trouble.

You can view my photos from one night's tasting menu HERE if you missed out.

Edited October 11, 2007 by The Blissful Glutton (log)

[Doodad]

Did I hear right though, he is out in California at the moment?

[The Blissful Glutton]

That is what the AJC article (posted above) said.

[The Blissful Glutton]

A chef friend of mine told me yesterday that Blais is out in California trying out for Top Chef. Could be a rumor, but that is what I heard.

Edited October 16, 2007 by The Blissful Glutton (log)

[jmolinari]

I assume that would be season 5, since season 4 is already well into shooting in Chicago

[The Blissful Glutton]

Yes, that is what I heard. But, it is just a rumor.

[syoung68]

Not a rumor

http://nbcumv.com/bravo/bio_detail.nbc/top...4-richard-.html