Sunday, June 08, 2008
Food, In this Issue...

Good sport

STATS plays a winning hand for appetizing food, accessible beer and a fun atmosphere

By David Danzig

    Up until recently, this was a line you seldom heard before a concert or sporting event downtown: “Want to grab a bite before the show?”

    Let’s face it, our downtown choices were pretty limited: a gut bomb at the Varsity, the CNN food court or perhaps a traditional sport bar serving the standard issue lard-based, carbo-massacres. And even if there was a good spot to eat, convincing people to come—and then stay—downtown has been a challenge that local politicians and businesses have fought (and lost) for decades.
    The opening of STATS, a joint-venture of Bob Amick’s Concentrics Restaurant Group and local sports radio station, 790 The Zone, is a bet that the pre-/post-game scene around Phillips will soon be a requisite visit.

    STATS jumped on the recent revitalization of the downtown Marietta Street corridor around the corner from the Georgia Aquarium, taking over an old warehouse across from the soon-to-be completed Hilton Garden Inn. The space was gutted and retro-fitted it into a cozy yet chic complex of multi-level rooms including an outdoor, rooftop deck overlooking Marietta Street. While making no bones about being a “sports bar,” STATS makes a move to elevate the sophistication of the three central tenets of the sports bar culture: entertainment, atmosphere and food.

    The entire space with its dozens of sectioned off rooms and three levels is massive yet flows appropriately; whether crowded or sparsely populated, you don’t feel like the lone spectator in the arena. Jutting out from the lacquered brick walls, countless sports-playing plasmas beam—just enough so you won’t miss a play if you’re making a lap around the bar. And instead of the traditional dorm room–type autographed sports memorabilia and framed newspapers lining the walls, STATS takes a rather minimalist approach, choosing simple vintage sports posters as their décor. The staff scurries about in simple black Adidas warm up suits.

But the most dramatic departure from the traditional sports bar mold is in the kitchen. Yes, the requisite bare-knuckle barbarian favorites are present (nachos, burgers and wings) but the menu goes far deeper than the nostalgic nod to the sports bar culture of men overeating while watching sports.

Dishes like tuna tataki, grilled Thai steak, blackened grouper tacos, barbecue bacon-wrapped shrimp and grits, and Atlantic turbot would normally raise eyebrows on traditional sports bar menus but with Concentrics’ run of upscale successes including One Midtown Kitchen, Two Urban Licks and Trois, you expect these dishes to be pulled off with similar aplomb.
But are gourmet vittles going to motivate the beer-guzzlin’ sports bar purist? Maybe not, but STATS is banking on perhaps the biggest breakthrough in beer technology since the pull tab. Seven special tables and 10 private rooms possess a new state of the art technological advancement in swilling: serve-yourself beer tables. No, that isn’t a typo—you will be able to reserve special tables with two taps built right in the table top that will allow you to fill up as you wish. The amounts are measured and then end up on your tab at the end of the night. No more flagging down your server. No more walks to the bar.

The crowds at STATS have been a mix—usually mirroring the event (or lack of event) going on downtown. And with Atlanta’s never-ending search for identity, it is likely that you will never see the same crowd twice.

So which is the real STATS? Sports bar? Night club? Gourmet restaurant? Actually, it’s a little of all of it. Were it not for the TVs, it could even be a legitimate date-night place. But unless your partner doesn’t have a problem with you gazing over his or her shoulder at basketball scores, there are probably more romantic destinations in town. For all it’s attempting to accomplish, hopefully STATS will be a winning addition to the downtown landscape. SP