MACON, Ga. — There’s a new restaurant in Macon and it has a raw bar, tapas, and specialty cocktails.
It’s called Miramar Raw Bar & Tapas. The restaurant opened on Feb. 13 and it’s located at 4420 Forsyth Road in the Vineville Crossing plaza.
“Keep it sleek and modern, but also comfortable,” managing partner Chelsea Leverett said.
There are five managing partners involved with Miramar, but this isn’t their first restaurant venture. They also have hands in Circa, an American brasserie right next door.
“We wanted to do something different. Something that Macon hasn’t seen yet,” managing partner Christopher Barton said.
Many of the dishes on Miramar’s menu involve seafood. Barton says traveling to big cities throughout the southeast inspired the team to give the menu a coastal touch.
“We like to travel. We’re foodies,” Barton said. “Oysters are one of my favorite foods, so it was pretty easy to transition to wanting to serve oysters.”
Barton says the restaurant offers three different types of oysters. Ones from the Gulf Coast come from places like Texas, Louisiana, and the Florida Gulf Coast.
Their East Coast oysters are from anywhere between Prince Edward Island and North Carolina. The West Coast oysters are from Canada, Oregon, Washington State or Northern California.
The restaurant gets a new shipment of oysters every three days.
“Oysters have my heart. My first job was at an oyster pub, so it’s just coming full circle right now,” executive chef Jacob Workman said. The Florida native moved to Atlanta before relocating to Macon about a year ago.
Workman says the menu was a joint effort between him and Barton.
“We built something unique to the area,” Workman said. “I know a lot of people are very excited because it’s a different dining experience than what you get regularly in Macon."
He says people must try the steak rolls, which consist of ground ribeye, aged white cheddar, caramelized onions and chimichurri. The Katsu Fried Octopus with mole sauce and micro greens is a must-try as well.
“It’s blending a lot of different cultures together, but it goes very well and it’s very clean on the pallet,” Workman said.
Workman says one of his favorite dishes on the menu is the Duck Confit Gnocchi served with smoked Gouda cream sauce.
“If you don’t come out for the food, come out for the cocktails,” Workman said.
There are over 10 items on the specialty cocktail menu. Workman says his favorite drink is a gin cocktail with candied jalapenos and jalapeno honey syrup, named after him.
Barton says the process to build Miramar took about seven months. A day before Valentine’s Day when the restaurant opened, the team got started about eight hours prior to opening time to prepare.
“It was a lot of work, but we managed to pull off a great night,” Barton said.
Leverett says the storefront the restaurant occupies used to be a boutique. Barton says the partners tried to build the restaurant and menu around the location.
“It was exhausting and exhilarating all in one package,” Leverett said.
Barton says the bar at Miramar has oyster shells from Boca Raton cemented into it and it was designed by a sculptor named Tanner Coleman.
“We came in and completely gutted everything in here. Started from new. New plumbing. New electrical,” Barton said.
The restaurant is open on Monday to Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. Barton says so far, business is going well.
“We’re filling up every night and we’re happy to have people come in and try new things,” he said.
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