Ambitious Heights Bar Puts Chefs First — and the Result is Food to Remember

The place looks fabulous. The bar is welcoming, the main dining room comfortable and casual, and the tasting room (as I will call it) draws one to it alluringly, promising good conversation and food at communal tables. An eclectic mix of items made of wood, fabric, tile, metal and glass attract the eye, producing an ambiance of low-humming calm.

One feels that satisfying things happen here.

Decatur Bar & Popup Factory in The Heights (2310 Decatur Street) is the place, and I liked the look of it from the first. Now I’m seated at the restaurant’s bar for dinner, and I’m liking the food, as well. We’re sampling the pork rillettes, a version that comes topped with an an Asian pear mostarda.

Rillettes are dear to me, going back to the afternoon I had a ramekin of them — rabbit — in Paris, and I order them (and make them) as often as I can. The dish here is rich and salty and slightly tangy (thanks to the mostarda), an exemplary version. Spread some of the pork and mostarda on the crisp and slightly charred bread that comes with the dish.

Evelyn Garcia is the chef behind the rillettes, and she’s studied and worked well (and won top honors on an episode of Chopped). Time spent in Asia, including Vietnam and Thailand, serves her with aplomb here, and the proof of that will come to you in bowls filled with curries, including Massaman (brisket, peanuts, coconut), Green (vegetables, crisp kafir, and basil oil), and Sour Yellow (poached shrimp, herbs, shallots).

We sampled the trio of curries, something I’d recommend that you do with the three companions you bring to Decatur. These dishes are sensory overloads — and I mean that in the best way — so you’ll need the additional palates and brains to deal with them.

Garcia uses spices and herbs with grace and finesse — nothing dominates in these dishes; instead, especially in the Massaman, heat and depth and richness mingle and dance as if they were one. The meat in the latter curry was infused with coconut flavor, and the shrimp and vegetables in the other two dishes were cooked perfectly — tender yet still full of texture.

Let us talk cocktails, because we were drinking a few with our food. Leslie Krockenberger has put that program together here, and I reckon most people would state that she’s done a fine job.

The Red Silk Smoking Jacket, with which I began my evening, is seductive and strong, with its mix of Monkey Shoulder Whisky, white Port, Granada-Vallet, Rhuby Molasses, Angostura bitters and a secret blend of smoked spices. Sip and savor this one.

The Red Silk Smoking Jacket is part of Krockenberger’s Asian Persuasion lineup, which will rotate but on our visit included the Take Out Tonic (white rum, almond, plum, and lemon) and the Thai-Islay Tea, which was my dessert for the evening.

It’s delicious, alluring. Monkey Shoulder Scotch is the base, and Oloroso sherry, Lapsang Souchong Thai tea, sweetened condensed milk and tapioca pearls have their say. To my thinking, it was the ideal end to my meal.

Decatur Bar & Popup has the lofty goal of giving cooks and chefs who don’t have their own (non-home) kitchen the opportunity to present their food to paying guests, a chef-in-residency program, and I hope they are able to achieve that goal. Garcia, meanwhile, is making delicious food in the kitchen in The Heights (the space formerly housed Beaver’s), and that, along with Krockenberger’s cocktails, is worthy of your attention.