Twenty-two stars arch around Utah’s Ben Lomond peak on the Paramount Pictures logo. They stood for the number of actors and actresses who originally contracted to work for the studio.
I learned that on Google.
About 50 stars are on the ceiling above the granite-topped bar at The Paramount, the new bar/restaurant slated to open in July at 265 South Front.
I learned that from Mac Edwards, consultant for the 4,800 square-foot restaurant, which was used as the law office on the TV series, Bluff City Law.
And they are supposed to be stars, Edwards says. “That’s the effect.”
I recently got another sneak peek at The Paramount, which is owned by the restaurant’s chef, Derk Meitzler, and I’m astounded. It’s absolutely beautiful.
Describing what they wanted the place to be, Edwards says, “Elegant, but not stuffy. We don’t want to be clubby.”
Project manager Tony Gooch, who came in “to do the final work on the columns,” ended up staying, Edwards says. “He’s kind of been the only carpenter on the job. He’s done work for Rhodes College, and you know how beautiful it is. He’s a finish carpenter, a cabinet maker by trade.”
Looking around the restaurant, Edwards says, “He built those walls. He built the vestibule. He did everything.”
All the restaurant’s mahogany veneer, which includes the columns, the bar front and back, and the surround on the exhibition kitchen in the dining room, came from the same tree. “We bought a tree,” Gooch says.
Graham Reese, the design architect, came up with the color scheme, which is “carmine” red, “caviar” black, and “black fox” — the brown on the walls. The brown on the front of the building is “urbane bronze.”
And, Edwards says, “We left the brick.” No painted brick at The Paramount.
Kathie Foy covered the large hanging light shades with fabric. The six lights, which are 30 inches across, hang from the ceiling, which is 20 feet from the floor.
Paintings by Sue Layman adorn the restaurant, which will also feature work by other artists. Layman’s art can be purchased, Edwards says.
A look at the working menu shows a range of small plates, including crab beignets, pork belly cracklings, duck poutine, fried green tomatoes, smoked salmon dip, ricotta dumplings, poached shrimp, bronzed yellowfin tuna, purple hull pea mussels, wings, and sea scallops. You can even get fried bologna — with pickled peach mustard.
Soups are crawfish and crab soup and caramelized onion soup with smoked bacon and blue cheese.
Entrees include a pork porterhouse with apple riesling jus, a grilled skirt steak with chimichurri, cornbread and andouille stuffed quail, shrimp and grits with NOLA sauce, tasso ham, and smoked gouda cheese, and a lamb roast with rhubarb butter with a glaze of olive oil, white soy sauce, fish sauce, sorghum syrup, miso, and garlic.
And you can order the Paramount Cheeseburger on a brioche bun.
As I said in an earlier story, The Paramount was one of the offices of Paramount Pictures distributing company. My father, who was branch manager of the distributing company, worked in this office and at Paramount’s other downtown offices until he retired at 70.
They’re coming up with a drink named in his honor, Edwards says. I told him my dad liked bourbon highballs.
The Backlot Sandwich Shop, another part of The Paramount, already is open.
An old logo dating to when Paramount Pictures occupied the space is on the front of the building. In case you want to count the stars.
