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Restaurants die. Like humans, restaurants have life cycles. Some expire in infancy, others have a long run. Some eateries seem perpetually in a state of adolescence, while others mature and morph into community mainstays. One restaurateur's idea may be premature for the community, or is instantly successful only to spawn a legion of clones, thus splitting the customer base into ever smaller pieces, dooming many. We see a lot of that here in town.
A few restaurants go through a mid-life crisis. Last May, Las Ramblas: A Spanish Café and Bar Barcelona — a restaurant which had garnered critical praise — closed its doors and re-emerged as Sunset Grille: A Shady Place for Sunny People. Same owners, same staff, different name.
Much of the design of the restaurant remains untouched. The cattle skulls still dot the back wall; the open kitchen lines the long bar; cushy woven high-back chairs surround tables. The bill still has Las Ramblas on it. New, however, is the return, of sorts, of Chef Dan Boone. The chef who had opened Las Ramblas (Blake Hartwick) and had his heart in the food of Barcelona had already left the company much earlier. Boone was the opening chef at Mac's Speed Shop, a sibling restaurant. It is his recipes for barbecue at Mac's that have been so successful. Boone's barbecue dishes are now featured on the Sunset menu as well. Barbecue — pulled pork, chicken or beef brisket — doesn't get much better than Boone's.
The menu at Sunset reflects the current culinary swing to common foods, aka food with lower aspirations. Many restaurateurs in Charlotte have gone this route. So in addition to Boone's barbecue, albondigas have been replaced with burgers, and chocolate churros with chocolate bread pudding. Pizzas remain, but tacos and burritos have been added.
Not surprisingly, the food at Sunset is quite good; in fact, the "Backyard America" burger is excellent and the kitchen has no problem sticking to what works. The burger list offers eight variations, including the Spanglish with a fried egg; tuna steak; and a bleu cheese burger. Meaty crab cakes, zipped by a touch of mustard aioli, are sided with the more ambitious blood-orange and fennel slaw. The Sonoma romaine salad with blood-orange vinaigrette, flecked with gorgeous bites of spry goat cheese and roasted beets, is a deal at five bucks (with the entrée-sized priced at $8). Desserts, such as Key Lime pie and chocolate bread pudding, are comfy, too.
Despite the name change, Sunset hasn't fully transmuted. Usually I come away with an impression of a restaurant — a clearly defined identity. Here, I found identity confusion like the comb-over guy in the Porsche Boxster. On Mondays and Tuesdays, Sunset serves 11 items from the Las Ramblas menu, in addition to the regular menu.
It's easy to try to please everyone, but in doing so, you often lose yourself. Nevertheless, Boone's barbecue and burgers are reason enough to ride into Sunset.
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