A second book that follows a successful first book is possibly the hardest to write since the writer is aware of the inevitable comparison and contrast. Sequel restaurants have a similar difficulty. Typically the entrepreneur honed his or her skills in the first restaurant and uses that hard-fought experience to create a new endeavor that can stand on its own.Chef and restaurant owner Chris Zion opened his second restaurant last December. ONEO Bistro & Wine Bar shares some characteristics with its sister restaurant The Meeting House in Myers Park. Both have a seasonally changing New American menu and a lengthy wine list. Both have attentive service. But ONEO is also a lot of things The Meeting House isn’t. Zion explained, “ONEO is less conservative than The Meeting House. The neighborhood is different. Here some people are just starting families and may have just moved to Charlotte. At ONEO, we try to punch the envelope as far as food goes. The food here is more eclectic.”
Zion, who trained at L’Ecole Cordon Bleu in Paris, still spends most of his time at The Meeting House, while bringing Chef Richard Buchsbaum from The Meeting House to head up the ONEO kitchen. Zion met Buchsbaum while both worked in the kitchen of Marais years ago. Buchsbaum is a seasoned professional with 20 years experience in Paris, New York, and at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. His New Orleans experience is reflected in the brunch menu.
“At Commander’s Palace — in New Orleans in general — brunch is a serious business,” sats Zion. “While at Commander’s Palace, Richard did 1000 covers at brunch.”
On the ONEO brunch menu are sandwiches including a BLT with grilled tuna with wasabi mayonnaise; egg dishes served with side of fruit and cheese and garlic grits; salads; and entrees such as Kobe steak and eggs.
The 55-seat (20 more in the bar area and 40 on the patio) ONEO is warm, comfortable, and located in a new shopping center at the intersection of Rea and Colony Roads. Aston Properties, which manages the shopping center, purposefully signed local entrepreneurs to fill the restaurant spots. Most of these, including ONEO, are independent operations. Hats off to the management company for allowing the locals to shine.
The interior at ONEO looks new, filled with wood, tables, and sweeping windows, most of which overlook a side piazza and the patio area. There’s no bistro patina, faux or otherwise. The front bar area is large and separate. Zion commissioned local artists to paint scenes of cafes, grapes, and wine for the bar area, while the dining room is under the watchful eyes of chefs peering out from two large paintings.
The name ONEO is a shortened anagram for oenology (also enology), the study and the making of wine, and most of the multi-paged menu is devoted to the 280-bottle wine list. Zion designed his dishes to reflect traditional cooking techniques tempered with his passion for pristine ingredients. He experiments with ingredients that add freshness and complexity of flavor. Description of his dishes is ample: braised veal cheeks with foie gras braised in Riesling with fingerling potatoes, glazed carrots, crimini mushrooms, and topped with pan-seared foie gras. Whew. No question about what you’re getting. ONEO’s entree prices range from $18 for a chicken breast to $25 for the Alaskan Halibut.
We started with a warm apple beignet that accompanied a well-composed salad of endive and radicchio with Maytag blue cheese and a smidgen of parma ham. Then came the flavor-infused appetizer, the lobster and crab starter, which set a high standard with its fork-defying vertical take on the plate. The flavors are sensational, achieving the perfect balance of sweet lobster and crab with spry lime, soft avocado with crunchy cucumber. Add to this a truffle vinaigrette and this app is a cut above the ordinary. Not as ambitious on the flavor scale are the crab cakes served with a yellow mole, though they are enticing nevertheless.
Main courses have the Zion thumbprint on them and Buchsbaum executes them well. Slices of the Moroccan spiced lamb tenderloin are precisely cooked and splayed on a bed of spinach dotted with gnocchi and delicately enhanced by a reduction sauce. Another standout dish is the pan-fried North Carolina mountain trout, dusted with almond flour, and served with a shrimp etouffee and crispy shoestring potatoes.
Dessert lovers will applaud the French influences, especially the profiteroles and souffle. Plan ahead to order the Gran Marnier souffle, but even if you decide after your entree, the wait is well worth it as it bears the perfect balance of lightness and weight.
The neighbors are already flocking to ONEO on the weekends: reservations are recommended. Although ONEO is located inside Highway 51, it could easily become a refuge for those who live in far south Charlotte, such as Ballantyne, who are hungering for a chef-driven locally owned restaurant.
Balancing two chef-driven restaurants is a difficult act, and it may be early, but Zion seems to have found his equilibrium. I’d wager ONEO’s diners, awash in the end of the evening glow, would agree with me.
Have a restaurant tip, compliment, complaint? Do you know of a restaurant that has opened, closed, or should be reviewed? Does your restaurant or shop have news, menu changes, new additions to staff or building, upcoming cuisine or wine events? Note: We need events at least 12 days in advance. Fax information to Eaters’ Digest: 704-944-3605, or leave voice mail: 704-522-8334, ext. 136. To contact Tricia via email: tricia.childress@creativeloafing.com
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2004.
