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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Blais IS Back in Town
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Photo: Joey Ivansco/AJC staff
AT RIGHT: The boy is back in town: Richard Blais’ crystal burger and foie gras milk shake from his now-closed restaurant, Blais. He’ll be making them again at a new spot called Flip.
Chef Richard Blais, who will be one of the contestants on Bravo’s fourth season of Top Chef (premiering tonight) has struck a deal with businessman and investor Barry Mills to design the menu and serve as executive chef for an upscale hamburger restaurant, tentatively called Flip.
Blais was most recently chef at Element in Midtown, which closed last fall due to financial woes (the chef, who has become known in Atlanta for his whacky take on molecular gastronomy, was actually away taping the Top Chef series when the restaurant closed). His restaurant, Blais, was a critical smash, but his destructured brand of gourmet-goes-gonzo left diner cold. It closed in 2004. He later enjoyed a short-but-successful stint at One Midtown Kitchen, then left for a consulting job in Florida before returning last year to work at Element.
Located on the West Side near the Atlanta Waterworks, the Blais’ burger palace plans to offer ground meats of all sorts, not just beef. And Blais says he intends to spend a lot time and effort creating the “best veggie burger in the world.”
“We’ll be offering house-made sodas like root beer, and I’m looking to make side dishes a focal point, like maybe house-made tater tots,” Blais told me by phone. And what of foie gras milk shakes, the his most infamous dish and critically acclaimed dish?
“Oh yeah,” Blais said, “they’ll be there.”
Blais will continue consulting at Elevation in Kennesaw, as well as other projects for his consulting company, Trail-blais.
The opening of Flip is planned for later this summer.
Blais still plans to eventually open another fine dining establishment, hopefully in Atlanta. ‘I want a five-star experience,” he said, “and I hope I can do that in Atlanta.
One of the issues Blais had was location. If the bad boy of brunoise was to open a white-linen concept, where should it be?
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