New Raleigh restaurant from prolific restaurateur makes the case for fine dining
If we’re emerging on the other side of pandemic-style dining, perhaps the surest sign is on the menu at Raleigh’s new French restaurant, East End Bistrot.
There you’ll find the classic French dish Dover sole meunière, a whole fish filleted tableside for all to see, the delicate white flesh slipped from the bones while swimming in butter. It’s dinner as well as pageantry. It’s $95.
East End Bistrot opens Tuesday, March 7, in Raleigh’s new East End Market development, renewing the case for fine dining amid a trend in some of the newest restaurants towards casual and comforting menus.
Owned by prolific restaurateur Giorgios Bakatsias, East End Bistrot puts the act of dining front and center. For executive chef, Bakatsias tapped Triangle restaurant veteran William D’Auvray, who promises to show the whimsical side of the classics.
“It’s not a stuffy experience,” D’Auvray said.
The night out, the special occasion, the splurge of pleasure — that’s what fine dining continues to offer, D’Auvray said.
“It’s the ability to give an experience that you’re not necessarily going to get anywhere else,” D’Auvray said. “We’re trying to give the best of the best, but express it simply, nothing too over the top.”
Though it nods to the tradition of the casual French bistro, East End has higher aspirations. The menu focuses on classic steakhouse cuts and preparations of beef, including a two-pound porterhouse for the table. There’s an idealized Maine-style lobster roll, scallop crudo, lobster quenelles and raw oysters.
“I’m completely excited to sink my teeth in and get started,” D’Auvray said.
East End Bistrot, located at 2020 Progress Ct. off of Whitaker Mill Road, was built for the big moments. The intimate dining room, bordered with gold velvet booths, gives way to an outdoor space that can seat up to 100. Another small outdoor level has been dubbed “The Champagne Terrace,” D’Auvray said.
“Giorgios really outdid himself,” D’Auvray said.
A Bakatsias - D’Auvray reunion
D’Auvray’s ties to the Triangle include opening and running one of Raleigh’s favorite restaurants of its generation, Fins, a seafood-focused spot opened in North Raleigh and later moved downtown. Former News & Observer dining critic Greg Cox named it Restaurant of the Year in 2008, praising Fins’ touch with sushi and red curry lamb.
Later D’Auvray helped turn Fins into Buku, but sold his stake and became a restaurant consultant, opening restaurants in Florida and Maine. Now back at the helm of one of Raleigh’s most anticipated restaurants, he said he aims to play the classics with a touch of whimsy.
“It will be whimsical and romantic,” D’Auvray said. “Not your average New American restaurant.”
The partnership of D’Auvray and Bakatsias is a reunion of sorts, with the pair having worked together on more than a dozen past restaurants.
“We’ve done 15 restaurants together,” D’Auvray said. “It’s a privilege to work with him again.”
In the last year, Bakatsias has opened five new restaurants in North Carolina, including tapas bar Las Ramblas and Giorgio Pizza Bar in North Hills, Krill in Durham, a Wilmington outpost of Kipos and now East End Bistrot. The rapid expansion grows the Giorgios Hospitality Group empire to more than a dozen, built on decades-old institutions like Vin Rouge, Bin 54 and Parizade.
In a text message from London, Bakatsias said he’s still thrilled by opening new projects.
“It’s a reunion of classics with a new romance of the heart,” Bakatsias said.
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 11:33 AM.
