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Rumors about the fate of the former Terrace View/Joe’s Chili Bowl space at Citygarden finally materialized late this afternoon.
The owners of the Hades-hot, members-only Blood & Sand will be taking over where Kim Tucci and Joe Fresta's now-shuttered Joe’s Chili Bowl left off.
In an e-letter to its member/subscribers, the Blood & Sand partners buried the lede, first announcing their five-course Valentine’s Day Menu before matter-of-factly stating they’d taken over at the dramatic, mostly-glass building, the only one at Citygarden. (The P-D's Ian "Call me Carnac" Froeb tweeted the news several hours before transmission of the e-mail.)
Co-owner Adam Frager told Relish the new spot would be open to the public, and that the name—Death in the Afternoon—was both a book penned by Ernest Hemingway as well as a heady cocktail by the same name (one containing only champagne and absinthe), also credited to the scribe. “Since the name was both edgy and had a cocktail angle, like Blood & Sand” he said, “it seemed to fit our identity.” He went on to mention, however, that this restaurant would be centered more around food than alcohol.
Frager said the focus would be on the lunch trade, especially since there was “a lack of quality lunch options downtown.” The buzzwords du jour—approachability and affordability—were mentioned, in conjunction with thick pastrami sandwiches and grass-fed, double-stacked burgers. When asked for a short descriptor, Frager replied, “elevated diner food, in its approachability.”
Since the interior seating space is small, a secondary focus would be on grab-and-go business, “from the items offered, to their packaging, to the speed they can be produced,” Frager said.
Physically, Frager and partners were emphatic about cozying up the cold, hard interior surfaces. The Adam and Eve sculpture (right) that occupied dining room center would be removed, and “greener, softer” touches would be added, as in reclaimed wood. In the same vein, Frager said, the brash aluminum chairs (below) are being swapped out as well. Frager summed up the remodel by saying he was "simply trying to create a continuation of the beauty of the park” and that before, the building had been a disconnect.
A prep kitchen will be built downstairs in a former storage room, where there’s also room for a wine cellar and a charcuterie room, according to Frager.
In the evening, Frager anticipates doing private events, instead of competing in the already crowded nightly dinner business.
Nick Martinkovic, the former Central Table Food Hall exec chef who recently joined the Blood & Sand family, will be the lead chef at Death in the Afternoon.
Frager and Company are anticipating a mid-April opening.
(An addendum: While the names Blood & Sand and Death in the Afternoon are related and in the same vein, so to speak, Frager would neither confirm or deny the rumored name of a third restaurant: Zombie.)
