If you’ve ever tried to score one of the dozen seats at the bar at the Charles, the Design District’s swinging party of an Italian restaurant, it will come as very good news that another 60 spots are about to open up.
Bar Charles opens at 4 p.m. Dec. 10 ― look for a separate entrance off of the Charles parking lot ― serving an excellent list of Champagnes and sparkling wines, plus cocktails and snacks. You’ll also be able to order wine from the more extensive Charles restaurant list, which has grown a little longer thanks to a new wine room that is part of the expansion.
The original bar will now be reserved for dinner seating at the restaurant, which earned a three-and-a-half star review in October 2018.
Earlier this year, partners Chas Martin, chef J Chastain, and designers Corbin and Ross See took over the back of a neighboring locksmith shop and created this swanky backroom bar and wine room, plus a private party room for up to 21.
“Our goal was maximalist,” Martin says. “We wanted a lot of pattern and texture, and to keep the theme of Old World meets New.”
The Sees’ signature madcap design extends into the new space, which features anything from a ceiling mural based on a digitized 16th century Italian painting (wrapped in pink neon, of course) to an original wallpaper pattern imprinted with breasts and buttocks, courtesy of the wives of Corbin and Ross. (The wallpaper pattern will soon also grace a line of hats and umbrellas. “I’m as serious as a heart attack,” Martin says. “They’re about two weeks out.”)
The bar is meant for drinking and mingling, so it serves only six small dishes. Chicharrones and caviar can be ordered as an $18 “base model” that’s plated like nachos, with the chicharrones dabbed with labneh and paddlefish roe. A more deluxe version for $99 features a 1-ounce jar of royal ossetra caviar from Holland plus a pile of chicharrones and a bowl of labneh to eat as you will.
Octopus tempura ($16) is coated in a spicy rice-flour batter and served with dill and Calabrian chile aoli and balsamic dill pickles. A bowl of warm, marinated cerignola olives, and two Charles restaurant mainstays — the oysters roasted with pepperoni and a sweetish version of steak tartare ― round out the menu, along with one pasta dish: a buckwheat cacio e pepe pasta, not made for sharing.
“It’s a small, single portion bowl, salty, peppery, spicy, everything you want after a cocktail,” Martin says of the pasta. “Food has to be fun.”
Drinks are “Italianish,” and include a classic spagliato, made with Campari, vermouth and prosecco, and a Negroni Sour, with gin, Campari and vermouth shaken with egg whites and served in a coupe.
Champagnes are the focus here, both by the glass and the bottle. Choices range from relatively obscure grower-producer selections such as André Clouet Brut Rosé and Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition to look-at-me wines including Louis Roederer Cristal and Krug.
Conveniently, sparkling wines are listed in ascending order of price, from a glass of Flor Rosé Prosecco ($13) to a 3-liter jeroboam of Pierre Peters Les Chetillons Champagne ($875).
“If there was any one area we let people down, I think the place felt too crazy at times,” Martin says of the Charles. “A little bit of chaos is cool in a restaurant and this will let us divide that energy.”
Bar Charles, 1632 Market Center Blvd., Dallas. thecharlesdallas.com.
