At this new Raleigh restaurant, the menu changes monthly and the kitchen’s open late
Before the last bell tolls on 2023, Raleigh will add a new restaurant and bar duo in one of the city’s most unique dining spaces.
Chef Alex Ricci will open Prospects, a new restaurant with a monthly changing menu, and Devereaux, an accompanying bar named for Raleigh’s long-lost minor league baseball field.
The restaurant is slated to hold its grand opening Wednesday, Dec. 27 and Devereaux could open any day now, Ricci said, as soon as the bar’s ABC permit is issued.
Ricci, formerly of Raleigh restaurants Cucciolo Terrazza and Young Hearts, grew up in Raleigh and has cooked in culinary locales like Las Vegas, Miami and Asheville. For Prospects and Devereaux the up-and-coming chef partnered with Justin Tatnell, a former IT engineer.
“It feels great to not be a spectator of my dreams, to act on them,” Ricci said. “It’s a lot more fulfilling. Prospects is the culmination of a lot of different things I’ve done, there’s a multitude of styles on the menu drawing on many different experiences.”
Taking over former Rainbow and Pink Boot spaces
Prospects and its sister bar Deveraux took over the former Rainbow Luncheonette and Pink Boot spaces, respectively, which opened a little over a year ago on West Street in Raleigh. The restaurants were owned by Jason Howard, who also owns The Cardinal Bar and Little Hombre.
Rainbow Luncheonette was billed as a modern diner and was notable for its colorful floor of rainbow stripes, while The Pink Boot was an affectionate ode to the Honky Tonk.
Though short-lived, Rainbow and the Pink Boot found their fans and Ricci said his new dual concepts will keep certain pieces alive — particularly the rainbow floor.
“We’ve heard from people saying that they loved Rainbow. I love it too,” Ricci said. “I loved it so much I bought it. I wanted to keep (the floor) as an ode to what was there.”
Devereaux has perhaps undergone the larger shift, transformed from its honky tonk vibe to something closer to a “Rainforest Cafe,” Tatnell said, with a plant wall built into the bar. Ricci felt the need to dispel any assumptions that the French-pronounced name and spruced-up space might conjure.
“It’s a neighborhood bar,” Ricci said of Devereaux.
Prospects menu
The menu at Prospects emphasizes the comings and goings of seasonality. Each month Ricci will rewrite his menu, putting out 12 new dishes reflecting that moment in the year.
The opening menu emphasizes winter with dishes like elk meatballs, mixed with pumpernickle breadcrumbs and spices and some sweet heat from blueberry and serrano compote. There’s also a warm rice congee with poached oysters and salmon roe, and a pork chop Ricci serves as an ode to his mom and his own Puerto Rican background. It’s flavored with olive and shishito escabeche.
Ricci and Tatnell said Prospects plans to shift to a late night crowd around 11 p.m., particularly for restaurant workers looking for a bite and drink after a shift.
“With Prospects, we’re bringing back the late night food that most bigger cities have that we simply don’t seem to have,” Tatnell said.
The Prospects Late Night menu will be a bit more casual and simplified, with comfort food like burgers and mac and cheese.
As Prospects evolves its menu with the seasons, Ricci said he hopes the restaurant’s open kitchen endears diners to offer feedback and perspectives on the kinds of dishes they’d like to see in the future.
“You’re not eating in a restaurant, you’re eating in my kitchen,” Ricci said. “As a chef you don’t get to interact with your guests enough. But we want to build a lot of regulars, I want it to be very collaborative with our guests.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 1:32 PM.
