Eater Inside: Bar Q

Kalina, 4/9/08

Welcome to Bar Q, Anita Lo's newest venture located on Bleecker and Grove Streets. The place opened Monday with over 120 seats, four separate dining areas (a bar, main dining room, and atrium, and an outdoor space), and an almost diner-sized menu of Asian barbecue dishes, raw bar options, and specialty cocktails. It's been getting the treatment from every outlet from NYMag to the Times to the slew of email newsletters cluttering your inbox. So yes there's a bit of a buzz.

So far there's only been one early review of the four day old space, but we're expecting the rest to come in soon enough. Nothing that big attached to a well known chef can open in the West Village without one critic or another and a deluge of food bloggers stopping in. For what it's worth, the first impressions from the blog review were mostly positive: menu is inventive but not revolutionary, food is tasty, main dining room looks good. The reviewer wonders, and other critics may too, if Ms. Lo will be in the kitchen full time or if she'll be distracted by other projects. We'll have to wait and see what the pros think. Further reading here and here.