After being closed for renovations since June, Balliceaux reopened its doors last night with a fresh new look, new menu and new music lineup.
After being closed for renovations since June, Balliceaux reopened its doors last night with a fresh new look, new menu and new music lineup.
The North Lombardy spot is known for packing Richmonders into a crowded room eager to dance to the latest DJ spinning tunes, or a cool new band jamming out, but owner Steve Gratz said it was time for a major overhaul.
“It’s been six years so we had to refinish all the wood, all the table tops the seats needed to be recovered,” Gratz said. “We busted down all the equipment in the kitchen.”
They’ve also added a little Buddhist-inspired shrine to the front bar, fixed up the lights and added some old school televisions according to Gratz.
“We found these old tvs that turn on we can change out different video loops it’s a little bit more installation to the front bar it’s kind of fun at night,” he said.
Besides a new look, Balliceaux also changed up its menu and brought in Richmond native and restaurant industry vet John Wilson to serve up a Southeast Asian-inspired menu.
“John’s got a big love of tapas and so we thought that fit really well with the space,” Gratz said.
Wilson, now the executive chef for Balliceaux, went to the Culinary Institute of America in New York for a little over three years, but started out as a line cook at Lemaire at the Jefferson Hotel.
“I worked my way up to head breakfast and lunch cook for about a year then did a short stint at 1 North Belmont before going to culinary school,” Wilson said.“After that I moved out to Washington, went down to Florida for a few months then ended up back in the northeast six months after graduating.”
Wilson worked a couple places as a sous chef in New York before coming back to Richmond after a skateboarding injury.
“I sort of planned on going back to ,New York but the longer I was here the more I started to see Richmond had some really cool stuff going on and I’d just been looking for something like this and I’m super stoked for this opportunity,” Wilson said. “I got to design the whole menu, hire the whole staff.”
Gratz and Wilson have been working on the menu since May which is centered around Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian dishes.
“I do love Southeast Asian food I hadn’t had a lot of experience with it, but that’s what Steve wanted to do so we sort of collaborated,” Wilson said.
Balliceaux is so pumped about this new menu they even named the kitchen Kampot, which is a small town in southeast Cambodia and is well known for its black pepper.
The octopus, the seared mushrooms and the cabbage dish are some of Wilson’s favorites from the new menu.
“If I had to pick one I think I’d pick the oxtail,” he said.
Wilson said in the winter they’ll switch up the menu, but they’re sticking with the Southeast Asian flavors for now.
Balliceaux is now open for dinner and brunch on Sundays and even has music lined up for the whole month. Check out the bands scheduled for September here.
