If you had to rank hotel amenities, what would be tops on your priority list? A pool? Free breakfast, Wi-Fi or parking?
C’mon! What about a full-service restaurant with a bar — and an outdoor terrace with a fine view of the city, to boot? After all, food, beverage and ambience are what attract even locals to hang out at hotels.
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Drawbar is one of the latest additions to the local hotel dining scene. Located on the third floor of the Bellyard Hotel at the Interlock, the newly opened $450 million mixed-use property at Howell Mill Road and 14th Street in West Midtown, Drawbar’s modern digs are expansive. There’s plenty of cushy lounge seating — with chair and sofa arrangements for parties large and small, a long bar with belly and elbow room for a dozen drinkers, and a breezy, flora-filled terrace that offers a vantage point of the Midtown skyline.
Drawbar’s menu, designed by executive chef Christina Wai, is as casual and contemporary as the space. It’s easily scanned, with just 14 dishes that range from snacks like fries with a black garlic aioli and some Fat Kid sauce (aka a McDonald’s Big Mac copycat condiment) for dipping to entrees like a miso-glazed salmon over sauteed veggies. The majority, however, fall in the shared plates category.
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Wai, who most recently worked at the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel, described the bar-centric menu as “a mish-mash of everything” when we talked on the phone a few days after my visit. “I drew a little bit from the South. I drew a lot from my background and how I ate at the dining room table at my grandmother’s house, how I ate at favorite Caribbean and Latin places,” said the first-generation Chinese American of inspirations for her menu at Drawbar.
Drawbar’s dishes are familiar and flavor combinations mostly play it safe, as you’d expect from a destination that looks to please the masses. They are also highly pairable with wine, beer or a cocktail and at a fair price point (smaller plates average between $9-$12; entrees cap at $25 for the grilled chimichurri rib-eye).
You’ll find thick, crispy disks of fried zucchini with a cooling cucumber yogurt sauce for dipping. There’s the top-selling, head-on Crispy Hot Shrimp flecked with fried pickles and chile rings. And the dish that has conquered seemingly every restaurant menu: shishito peppers.
Credit: Caleb Jones Photography
Credit: Caleb Jones Photography
“When I am sitting at a bar, when I see shishito peppers on a menu, I don’t care how it is. I just want to order it,” said Wai. When I ordered it at Drawbar, the blistered peppers arrived with nice dark bubbly patches. But, apart from its bright yellow color, the saffron aioli lacked personality.
One of the most flavor-filled bites comes from pimento cheese-filled arancini. “Who doesn’t like cheese and fried stuff?” quipped Wai. The golden nuggets sit on a colorful bed of chowchow whose briny, zesty flavor cuts through the fattiness of the fried balls. The teeny tiny dice of the chowchow was a reminder that the kitchen, while playful, pays attention to technique. The fine dice serves a purpose beyond a clean presentation: “When you run the arancini through it, it’s not dangling off of it,” Wai said.
The Coca-Cola Short Rib Toast is a nice little nod to the hometown soda, although the shredded meat was on the dry side. Far juicier were the trio of sliders holding peach-cider braised pork, herbed goat cheese and more of that applause-worthy chowchow.
There’s more applause in order. According to Wai, 75% of the ingredients are sourced from Georgia growers and producers. For a hotel restaurant to support the local food community to that extent is commendable. Even more striking is that the back of house is executing as a skeleton crew with just Wai, a sous chef and a kitchen supervisor. The trio has worked together previously at multiple other properties, which helps with synergy, commented Wai.
The front of house is similarly understaffed, which, understandably, can mean lag times in service. During my visit, I watched servers attentively cover for one another whether refilling water bottles, taking orders or running food. If there’s a bright side, noted Wai, the staffing issue has “really created a teamwork environment. We spend a lot more time with the people we work with than our own families sometimes.”
Keep that in mind as you head to this new hotel restaurant to spend time with your family or friends sharing a round of cold drinks, a spread of hot plates — and an unimpeded view of Midtown.
Credit: Caleb Jones Photography
Credit: Caleb Jones Photography
DRAWBAR AT THE BELLYARD HOTEL
Menu: Contemporary American cuisine, with focus on locally sourced, seasonal ingredients
Alcohol: Cocktails, wine and beer
What I ordered: Polenta fries, battered zucchini chips, charred shishito peppers, pimento cheese arancini, pulled pork sliders, frites, Coca-Cola Short Rib Toast, miso-glazed salmon
Service options: Dine-in and takeout
Mask policy: Not mandatory.
Address, phone: 1 Interlock Ave. NW, Atlanta; 404-806-8333
Hours: Breakfast: 6:30-10:30 a.m. Mondays-Fridays, 7 a.m.-noon Saturdays-Sundays; Lunch: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; Dinner: 4-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 4-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays.
Website: bellyardhotel.com/dine/drawbar
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
