Tag Archives: abacus

Knox-Henderson, Restaurants, The maturing scene

Counting on Abacus: This five-star restaurant is ramping up its cocktails

Abacus' Blackberry Smash is among the acclaimed restaurant's new bar offerings.
Abacus’ Blackberry Smash is among the acclaimed restaurant’s new bar offerings.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, sweet things are already happening behind the bar at Abacus, the five-star fancypants restaurant that has long wowed critics with its Pacific Rim cuisine. The recent addition of bartender-slash-apothecary Lucky Campbell to its staff of able libationists was a sign that the Knox-Henderson landmark was ready to boost its bar program too.

Hint one that change is afoot: The barrel flanking one end of the swanky bar’s bottle stash. Mid-afternoon last Friday, that barrel was filled with Old Fashioneds and presumably destined to age, but by 10 p.m. Campbell was already positing that the bar had sold more Old Fashioneds in one night than in the past two months. By weekend’s end, he said, the barrel was nearly empty.

This is Abacus, people. Wine, Martinis and Champagne cocktails are the rule, right?

But witness the new, Asian-flavored menu (priced from $12-$14), set to roll out today: A deliciously gorgeous Blackberry Smash made with Maker’s Mark bourbon. A Brandy Stinger featuring Tempus Fugit’s top-notch crème de menthe. And preparing to float lava-lamp-style in the extremely dry, Champagne-driven Femme Fatale: pearls of effing Violette.

That’s right: little spheres of lavender-y Creme de Violette, one of Campbell’s lab projects. A jasmine-tea cordial and five-spice tincture are already bubbling in a back room, and even the Martini menu has been primped, with one knockout version offering Islay-Scotch-and-cracked-pepper blue cheese olives, stuffed in-house.

Said bartender Jordan Gantenbein: “I’ve been waiting three years to do this.”

The sensibilities that guide Abacus’ renowned kitchen are seeping into the dimly lit bar.  So it wasn’t surprising to find Chef de Cuisine Daniel Burr himself on a stool late one night, helping the black-clad bar samurai as they brainstormed an Asian-themed Margarita variation and suggesting matcha green tea powder as a component.

There are some real curiosities on the new menu, like the clever Banksy with “spray-paint spices,” a Yuzu Collins with Bing Cherry soda and the “Ninja Rita,” with its foam of Togarashi, a Japanese spice powder.

Abacus is having some fun now. This is a place worth keeping an eye on.

Lucky Campbell
Abacus’ grapefruity Rio Star is one of the standouts on its redone cocktail menu.
Cocktails are everywhere, Fancydranks, Knox-Henderson, People

Even the five-stars get Lucky sometimes: Bartender Campbell now at Abacus

Lucky Campbell: Now making your drank amid some swank (Photo by Sheila Abbott)
Lucky Campbell: Now making your drank amid some swank. (Sheila Abbott)

Don’t look now, but The Man in the Fedora is on the move again. And apparently, so is his fedora. After five months at Uptown’s Standard Pour, Lucky Campbell has taken his crafty talents to The Bar at Abacus, the five-star Kent Rathbun restaurant in Knox-Henderson.

It’s a significant move for the elegant, Pacific-Rim-themed restaurant, which is looking to ramp up its bar program as Dallas cocktail culture continues its rapid maturation beyond hipster bar territory. “We’ve always had a great wine program, but we wanted to give a little more attention to our mixology and cocktails,” says Abacus manager Robert Hall.

It’s also a big step for the gifted, gravelly-voiced Campbell, who’s swapped his trademark fedora for the clean-cut, all-black duds of the Abacus bar corps. Though that might sound a bit like Superman doffing his cape, Campbell was giddy in his third day on the job, riotous hair tamed back into a ponytail as he roamed his posh, dimly lit new surroundings Saturday night like a youthful Steven Seagal.

“I’ve never worked with a kitchen of this caliber,” he says. “It’s good to be around people who understand what you want to do.”

Campbell's latest creative venue is a whole new environment. (Marc Ramirez)
Campbell’s latest creative venue is a whole new environment for the freewheeling bartender. (Marc Ramirez)

Campbell, whose resume includes the Mansion at Turtle Creek, Bolsa and the ill-fated Chesterfield, is now flexing his frenetic, creative energies alongside barmen Jason Long and Jordan Gantenbein, and he hopes to eventually have some influence on Abacus’ evolving drink menu and bottle selection, which typically trends toward martini spins and classic variations.

The kitchen, he says, has a Zen feel to it, a sort of flowing, if regimented, rhythm that the bar staff hope to instill as well. That means more efficient use of space and time. It could also mean barrel-aged cocktails. “Nobody here is waiting for a drink,” Campbell says.

“I miss my boys (at Standard Pour),” he says. “But I am loving the new gig.”

In a place where creativity is nourished, where the pastry chef and other staff are responsible for the gorgeous artwork gracing the walls, you get the sense that Lucky is feeling very lucky indeed.