Soul Food and a Vegan Restaurant Headed Downtown

The row of three restaurant taverns set to transform Carson Avenue are starting to reveal themselves. The strip of properties were bought in May 2012 for $600,000 by Zappos head Tony Hsieh for his Downtown Project to redevelop. The odd mix of former tenants including a tattoo parlor, poker dealing school and T-shirt store are now gone, leaving behind A Cut Above The Rest barber shop, who will ride out the makeover.

Joining them will be a soul food spot, a vegan restaurant based around "an environmentally conscious theme" and a tavern serving food. All will be very booze friendly and all will feature plenty of options for al fresco dining.

612 Carson [Photo: Bradley Martin]

A block away from the Container Park, chef Natalie Young's Eat restaurant and the future John E. Carson Hotel project, the vegan restaurant will be housed inside the former Downtown Tattoo space. Current paperwork explains a DJ will be on hand at least two times a week.

The 2,000-square-foot corner property will also add a 685-square-foot rear patio into the alleyway behind the building. The design includes large glass windows with a traditional storefront look, adding a brick veneer along the side leading to the wrought iron fenced patio. An additional entrance to the patio is being created on Seventh Street. Twenty-one guests will be able to enjoy the open air experience and trees and plants will be predominant in the mix.

The restaurant is being cultivated to receive a Green Restaurant Certified award from the G.R.A., an acknowledgment of the owner's commitment to "water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable furnishings and building materials, sustainable food, energy, disposables, chemical and pollution reduction."

612 Carson [Photo: Bradley Martin]

Next door, but with no arching theme revealed, will be a tavern restaurant. The 1,633-square-foot interior features a small 385-square-foot patio, unconnected to the vegan restaurant outdoor space. Only 14 seats are estimated at the rear of this tavern, but a small, fenced patio out front will also serve a couple of tables. This taller structure hosts a plainer, darker veneer. Live music is promised at least two nights per week. Frequent rumors point to a wine bar eventually arriving downtown, but no hints in the current plans reveal if this will be exact location.

612 Carson [Photo: Bradley Martin]

Next to the tavern sits the barber shop, which will revive a new upgraded frontage. Then, on the corner will be the soul food restaurant. They will also program live music at least twice a week. The 875-square-foot, thin rectangular space, is bolstered by the 760-square-foot patio on the western side of the building. Thirty-two outdoor seats at eight tables is the current projection. A gray, painted brick veneer is the design here, with trellises providing shelter from the sun inside the wrought iron fenced patio.

A service window will be built into the front of the restaurant for take-out. While possibly coincidental, chef Natalie Young of Eat, located just across the street, has long planned for a downtown concept called "White Bread." The notion was to serve up one very special menu item, her "fried chicken and white bread served in a brown bag." A key design component of the project was the service window allowing guests to enjoy the specialty while roaming downtown.

A planning commission meeting for the entire makeover is scheduled for March 11.
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