While haute diners seem to be the overwhelming trend in local eateries these days, one new entry isn’t stewing over how to make their mac ‘n cheese “different” or “the best.”

Verbena, at the corner of Robinson Street and Floyd Avenue, has burst onto the scene with exciting and innovative creations that you not only haven’t tried elsewhere, you haven’t even heard of them.

That’s because Chef Todd Richardson and owner David Bess are bucking the trend. “All restaurants in the Fan are pretty much the same,” says Richardson. “We’re trying to step out of that mold and do fine dining at a reasonable cost.”

These days, it’s all too common to pay $25 for a slab of meat, a mound of whipped potatoes and the chef’s momma’s recipe for overcooked kale. At Verbena, plates run in the $20s, but we’re not talking steak and taters. All Verbena’s dishes are conceived by Richardson. Got a taste for rabbit? For Verbena’s menu, Richardson devised Mexican Rabbit Stew Three Ways: mole-roasted leg empanadas; tequila-glazed liver pate; and seared loin with chimichurri sauce. If you prefer meat on the hoof, try the Cinnamon-Brined Pork Chop. You’ll love the hominy and pumpkin seed stew, with some Caesar-splashed frisee on top.

“I get disappointed when I go out for dinner,” says Richardson. “I know what the plate costs, and I could do it at home. This place, you pay a couple of dollars more, and you get food you can’t make at home.”

Also somewhat unique, Verbena offers a small-plate menu that is as inventive as the dinner menu, and an internationally-rounded cheese menu, both perfectly suited to the upstairs lounge which encourages grazing and conversation. Equally enticing is a well-edited wine list, comparable to store retail in price rather than the 150 percent markup most often used by restaurants.

Together Richardson and Bess, 35 and 32 respectively, have a combined 30 years experience behind them. When restaurateurs Michelle Williams and Jared Golden bought The Hill Café, Bess and Richardson wound up cooking together there.

Back then, Bess was always agitating to open a restaurant, but Richardson just wasn’t of a mind. Their paths parted after awhile. Each went on to other food industry jobs.  Then, last September, Bess was walking to the bank when he spotted Richardson, sitting outside on a lunch break, eating pizza. They hadn’t spoken in two years.

“I’d been thinking for a couple of months that if Todd was around, we could make this happen,” Bess says. “Then there he was. I said, ‘Let’s do a restaurant together,’ like I had in the past. This time he said ‘yes.’”

Bess anticipated that it would take the two nine months to find the right Fan location. Two weeks later, Richardson found the space where Konsta’s had been for 15 years and Carlton’s had most recently occupied. “Without even going in to look, I said we’d take it,” says Bess. Contracts were signed in November last year, and renovations began in January.

They painted the stamped tin ceiling copper, built wine shelves, refinished the floors, and reconfigured the dining room to accommodate any occasion from an intimate dinner to a business breakfast with presentation space.

It all came together in time to serve a full dining room on Valentine’s Day.

Neighbors, they say, have received them warmly. In the first week-and-a-half, Bess says, “one couple has been in three times,” says Bess.  Five floors in the Retreat Hospital parking deck across the street make it mighty attractive to those outside the Fan. And a no-dress code policy, no doubt, appeals to both.
Richardson and Bess say passion drives the enterprise.

“We didn’t think, ‘Great we have another restaurant under our belt,” says Bess, who also owns Lucky Buddha and Cha Cha’s. “You’re going to meet the owner when you walk in. If you’d like to meet the chef, he’s right back there. We don’t have line cooks. The chef is cooking. You get the owner. You get the chef, and a bar staff that ‘s professional and knows what they’re doing.”

—Lisa Antonelli Bacon

Thanks Jen.  We like to feature places we think our readers would enjoy as cool places to go eat, drink and have fun.

Verbena has a lot to offer.  I recently went there with friends for an after work get together and the appetizers were delicious and the service was fantastic.

I’m really happy with this review Lisa! I couldnt agree more. Loved the mac and cheese comment. It made me smile