The long walkway that leads to the entrance of Pano's & Paul's in Buckhead belies the strip mall in which it sits. Perhaps on purpose, the slightly slanted corridor feels like a stroll down the red carpet.
Fitting, since the restaurant, which will close next week after 30 years, has the reputation of treating its customers like movie stars. Once the flagship of the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group founded by Pano Karatassos, Pano's & Paul's is the last of a generation of restaurants that helped bring Atlanta's dining scene into national focus.
It started as a neighborhood spot, but somewhere between Feb. 19, 1979, and today it became an enclave of fine dining, with a high-rolling, clubbish atmosphere where crowds from the adjoining tony neighborhoods expected not just an evening of fine food, but a bit of a show — and they got one.
"We never intended Pano's & Paul's to be fine dining," said Karatassos. "I think of it as a luxury bistro. Over the years we've served everything from onion rings to sweetbreads."
The restaurant is a bastion of old-school service, where maitre d' Sam Than, from Bangkok, has been serving the kitchen's signature Dover sole sautéed in olive oil with lemon and capers tableside from a gueridon since 1984. Ask a waiter how long he's been with "Uncle Pano" and the answer will most likely be at least 10 years. Resplendent in tuxes, the staff here has stayed put, opting for the kind of tips and treatment that come with stalwart service and higher check averages than most of the competition that has built up over the years.
But dine here and you'll realize there's more to it than that. Something about this place defies the rushing currents of the restaurant world. There is a sense of timelessness to Pano's & Paul's; scratch the surface and it remains what it has always been: a very good restaurant with outstanding customer service.
The dining room is small compared with those created today, with a ceiling spun of dark wood inlaid in a conical fan shape and highlighted by a center that reflects an enormous vase of flowers.
The bar is the clubbiest thing about Pano's & Paul's, with rich upholstery, thick carpets and bartenders with a penchant for pouring stiff, by-the-book cocktails. The kicker is the half-moon booths upholstered in Valentine red velveteen that look as if they were off-loaded direct from a Vegas showroom. Most of the decor (but not those booths) was part of a 2000 renovation by the Johnson Studio.
Karatassos met Paul Albrecht, the "Paul" of Pano's & Paul's and former chef and managing partner, in 1968, when they began working at the same place in Washington — Karatassos as an assistant chef and Albrecht as a line cook. They formed a partnership of sorts when they joined the Lodge of the Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Mo., in 1969. Albrecht served as executive chef and Karatassos as food and beverage manager before they came to Atlanta to launch their own business.
The dynamic duo became legend. Karatassos proved the businessman, spinning the notoriety of his flagship restaurant into an industry empire that now includes Kyma, Buckhead Diner, Chops and Bluepointe.
Bavarian-born and classically trained, Albrecht brokered a brand of Continental kitsch that was a marvel to Atlantans looking for a glitzy touch in the kitchen and a heavy hand at the bar. He left in 1999 to open his own ventures in Florida, but returned to Atlanta, first at Spice, then opening Paul's Restaurant in 2005.
Gary Donlick, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., began his career with Karatassos as executive chef for 103 West and took the helm of Pano's & Paul's kitchen in 2001. It's a tough job for any chef who longs for creative input; the menu is continental and set in stone, with Rat Pack-style renderings of jumbo lump crab cocktail on ice and 10-ounce filet mignon with the kitchen's famous potato gratin. The restaurant's most famous creation (by Albrecht), fried lobster tails, has remained on the menu from the opening.
But Donlick is well trained, and manages to create small, pleasing flourishes such as butter-braised shrimp floating in roasted butternut squash soup and sweetbreads with prosciutto and brown butter laced with sage.
The doors will be shuttered on Feb. 14. Buckhead Life will open two new Buckhead restaurants later this year. Donlick will become executive chef of the brasserie Balon Rouge, slated for the Sovereign Building at 3344 Peachtree Road. And Pano's & Paul's will become simply Pano's, moving down West Paces Ferry to be a part of the opening of the St. Regis Atlanta.
"I don't think of this as a closing," Karatassos explained. "We're moving."
Still, anyone who has ever spent a special occasion here — and special occasions are a specialty — will miss the old Pano's & Paul's. Ask Than how many times he has filleted that Dover sole tableside and he'll muse a moment, then quip, "about 90,000."
That's the kind of meaningful mileage to which shiny new restaurants can only aspire. In a world where everyone easily gets their 15 minutes of fame, Pano's & Paul's managed for 30 years to hold on to an old-fashioned sense of style, one lobster tail at a time.
• Pano's & Paul's, 1232 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, 404-261-3662,www.buckhead restaurants.com
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