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Adarra is located at 618 N. First St. in Jackson Ward.
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The bar at Adarra seats 14 guests.
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The space was outfitted with the help of Renmark Design.
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Adarra is an intimate, 30-seat restaurant.
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Bar Manager Paul Blumer, formerly of Rogue, plans to bring his ingenuity and knowledge to the cocktail menu at Adarra.
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On Thursday, Feb. 14, husband-and-wife team Randall and Lyne Doetzer will open their first solo project, Adarra, in the former Rogue space. Nestled in Jackson Ward at 618 N. First St., the restaurant has been a labor of love, serendipitously coming to fruition on Valentine’s Day.
Adarra is the result of Randall — former executive chef of Nota Bene and Julep's New Southern Cuisine — and Lyne — formerly part of the front-of-house teams at Metzger Bar & Butchery, Nota Bene, and the Stables at Belmont — giving themselves time to breathe, reflect on their past decades in the dining industry and figure out what they wanted from their next venture.
The restaurant strives to be a neighborhood destination, evoking a rustic European villa that serves tapas, a countryside tavern in the foothills of Spain, and a wine bar with a thoughtfully selected lineup of offbeat offerings. The Doetzers, both Level 2 sommeliers, will serve vintages from Sicily, Greece and Austria, including field and orange blends and a delightfully peculiar rosé hybrid.
Rogue owner John Maher, who sold the business to the Doetzers in early January after being approached by Randall, says it's being left in good hands. “I think he’s one of the best cooks in the city by far ... I’ve been wanting him to do his own thing for a long time, and he’s been searching for a long time,” Maher says.
After acquiring the business, the Doetzers set out to make the former Rogue space feel like their own. They spent weeks transforming the space. Letters spelling out Adarra — named after a mountain that overlooks the Spanish city of San Sebastian — welcome passersby from the window facing North First Street. Terra cotta walls, exposed brick and dimly lit, dark wood bar shelves blend rustic, cozy and sultry vibes. The hand-painted bar top, reminiscent of marble, combines neutral shades of clay and sand. Gold-tone candle holders embellish table tops, complementing gold-framed paintings by artist Ronnie Renmark of Renmark Design.
Lyne says that the space now feels like home, and jokes that it kind of looks like it. But that’s not far off from the vibe they want to create.
"I want that European feel," says Lyne, who will be focused on front-of-house operations at Adarra.
Many of the off-the-grid places where the couple have traveled and eaten since their first trip to Spain in 2015 offered a sense of community, and they want Adarra to do the same.
"I wanted to try and really turn it back to the guest, take it away from us and from the chefs," Lyne says. "This is a service of hospitality. … We want to have that interpersonal connection that’s missing."
Randall and Lyne aspire for Adarra to be a culinary and cultural outlet, where a concise, technique-driven menu, reliant on simple, high-quality ingredients, can imprint a memory on the diner. The dishes will draw inspiration from Spanish and other European cuisines, while incorporating seasonal, local nuances.
“It’s the whole idea of making it not like everywhere else. It doesn’t smell like anywhere else, doesn’t look like anywhere else, and you can’t get things here you can get everywhere else,” explains Randall.
For Randall, Adarra is his chance to let his culinary creativity flourish. He is joined by chef Nick Hancock, with whom he's worked for over seven years. Together they will aim to make the 30 seats in the house the most interesting in the city, and part of a personal experience.
“We want to empower the guest to make more interesting decisions and expect more,” says Randall, who notes that Adarra is comprised of like-minded individuals, one of them being Bar Manager Paul Blumer, a former member of the Rogue staff.
The hope is that a sense of home creates a comfortable, welcoming environment where conversation and questions about food and drink are encouraged, expected and desired.
The Doetzers know their eccentric yet elegant Jackson Ward venture carries risk, but if met with support, the rewards will be rich.
“I think people are coming here for the level of trust we’ve developed over 20 years of doing this,” says Randall, who wants to push diners to the next level.
“We have the ability to educate, and that’s one of the things we're really getting into is education, so we can do what we want to do — we don’t like the regular,” he says.
And the people who don’t like the regular, the food- and drink-curious, tend to flock together.
“It’s a place for everybody but also a place for those that are hyper-interested, and I think that will be what happens in here — the people with the like minds will gravitate and like being in places like this,” Randall says.
Adarra will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 4 to 11 p.m.
