The Triangle’s most prolific restaurateur has a new project. What to know about Krill
The pandemic has not slowed down prolific Triangle restaurateur Giorgios Bakatsias. In the past year he closed and reopened one restaurant, announced and opened another, and started work on two more.
Now Bakatsias plans to open another this fall, bringing a new concept to Durham for the first time in years.
Bakatsias will open Krill, a new Asian concept, near the popular Ponysaurus brewery in Durham. Krill will move into a space next-door to Durham tech company Smashing Boxes.
Krill draws on Bakatsias’ travels through Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong, trips made over the past decade and that linger in his memory as tastes of lime and lemongrass and ginger, he said.
“Travel has been my home of inspiration,” Bakatsias said. “I was mesmerized in Taiwan, snaking through alleys and going into markets. There’s a vibrant energy and ingredients we’re never confronted with in this part of the world.”
The essence of Krill
The name Krill comes from the tiny sea crustacean, which is a significant source of food for some of the largest creatures on earth. In that relationship, Bakatias said he sees small healthy things serving larger purposes.
“It has enormous amounts of omega three fatty acids, with incredible benefits for blue whales and other animals that live and thrive on it,” Bakatsias said. “I like the essence of that.”
Krill will be a smaller restaurant for Bakatisas, at less than 3,000 square feet. There should be room in the dining room for 50, he said, plus additional seating on an outdoor patio.
The space was already built out for a previous restaurant project that didn’t come to life, Bakatsias said, so the upfit has been quick.
At this point, as the Krill staff is still being assembled, Bakatsias talked about the menu in broad strokes. Expect broths and noodles, seafood as well as local pork and dishes that travel well during these takeout-heavy times. Krill will also specialize in making its own sauces and pastes, like the chili paste sambal, Bakatsias said.
“A simple broth speaks to me a lot more than a lot of food on a plate,” Bakatsias said. “The body has a way of knowing what nourishes itself.”
The dining room will include a bar and four or five seats and the kitchen window as a kind of chef’s table, Bakatsias said.
Krill will open in a part of Durham with few restaurants, but with several new apartment buildings and more on the way.
“Durham and that area is a discovery zone that’s been discovered,” Bakatsias said. “I like the accessibility there, the residential community that’s going there, the walking community.”
Bakatsias said he found the location while just driving through Durham one day and decided to get in touch with the property owner.
“I’m non-traditional in the way I find locations,” Bakatsias said. “One day I was driving around and it was right there. I had seen the building and everything going around. ... When I walked into the space I fell in love with it. I instantly thought of Asian flavors and was salivating in my mind. The space kind of winked at me.”
A busy three years
It’s been a busy three years for Bakatsias. He opened his first Raleigh restaurant, Rosewater, at the end of 2019. Then through the pandemic he moved his popular Greek taverna Kipos in Chapel Hill, opened Italian restaurant Osteria Georgi, announced French restaurant East End Bistrot in Raleigh and is now opening Krill.
“It’s a marathon, and if you don’t have the leadership and team willing to do the right thing, it can be difficult,” Bakatsias said. “The teams we have, the leadership we have, has been enormous. They’re powerful individuals, being able to close and come back and reopen. It makes it all worthwhile.”
Krill will be the third Asian concept Bakatsias has been involved with in the Triangle, following Jujube with chef Charlie Deal in Chapel Hill and the now-closed Grasshopper in Durham.
Though the impact of the pandemic lingers and continues to change the restaurant industry, Bakatsias said he opens his restaurants as a means of escape.
“We all make movies in our minds,” Bakatsias said. “I choose to make beautiful movies instead of horror movies. My devotion is serving the community in a way that’s small.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
