Bocado owner Brian Lewis is capitalizing on the attention his famous burger has brought to the small Westside restaurant. He’ll be opening Bocado Burger Bar in Alpharetta’s Avalon complex mid October and is working on negotiating a lease for a new beverage concept in Inman Park.
“What we’ve learned in the last couple of years is Bocado has become this incubator of ideas,” Lewis says. “We’re moving things that have been successful at the restaurant into their own individual spot.”
“Our burger has been wildly popular. We never started out to be a burger restaurant. It just happened that we produced a good burger and people got excited about it.”
Bocado Burger Bar will offer that notable burger, as well as a turkey burger, fried chicken sandwich, dry aged burger (with beef aged in house), and some specialty sandwiches. Additional “signature” burgers are being tested at Bocado’s Tuesday night burger-and-beer nights, and some design-your-own options will be available.
In addition to traditional sides like fries, Lewis says the burger bar will offer “really cool sides and tasty bites” like deviled eggs, and salads made with locally grown lettuce.
It will serve lunch and dinner seven days a week and offer a few breakfast sandwiches on weekends, such as farm egg with prosciutto, arugula, and Gruyere.
“We’re going to manage the kitchen from Bocado in the sense of how the menu is put together—it’s style and philosophy,” he says. There will be a kitchen manager/chef de cuisine and a bar manager, but Bocado executive chef Adam Waller, general manager and wine director Ari Form, and bar and cocktail manager David Durnell will take the lead in each of their fields.
The majority of the cocktails will come from Bocado’s menus with the possibility of some new options. Select cocktails will be batched and sold in pitchers; two wines will be available on tap; and some craft beers will be sold by the pitcher.
Bocado Burger Bar will be a quick-serve restaurant in the sense that customers will order at the counter. However, there will be employees assigned to different sections of the dining room responsible for refilling drinks and clearing plates. Plus, when the restaurant is busy, someone will be at the door taking drink order while customers ponder the menu.
“I’m a large believer that once you have your first cocktail, the mood changes,” Lewis says.
The space itself is 31,000 square feet including a 9,000-square-foot patio with a bocce court. As for the design, Lewis says to expect elements of farmhouse, warehouse, and a modern feel to give it its own identity.
