Downtown restaurants time openings with college students’ mid-August return in mind

     Several restaurants under development downtown are planning to open shortly before mid-August when thousands of college students return to school in
Columbia.

      Travis Tucker, owner of Bleu, said construction on the restaurant should be finished by the end of July.  Bleu, located adjacent to the Tiger Hotel on

, will open and take reservations before school starts in mid-August, but will save a grand opening party for September.                                                

     A few blocks up the street from Bleu, a restaurant, bar and lounge called Room 38 will open in early August. Room 38 is located on the corner of Walnut and

, the basis for the name.

     Owner Billy Giordano, the former general manager of Forge and Vine, said he wanted something simple to go with the contemporary design, “using real clean lines.” “We are definitely doing an upscale restaurant and bar and lounge so we didn’t want the name to be one or the other but a little bit of both,” he said. “I probably went through 100 different names before I decided on this simple one.”

     Tapas (TAH-pahs, not to be confused with TOP-less) are popular throughout
Spain in bars and restaurants. They are, according to the epicurious.com dictionary, appetizers but also can form the basis for an entire meal and can range from simple items such as olives or cubes of ham and cheese to more elaborate preparations like cold omelets, snails in a spicy sauce, stuffed peppers and miniature sandwiches.

     Replacing Village Wine & Cheese on the corner of

is Kim Perry’s Mississippi Fish Shack, previously located in Booneville. Inside the fish shack, Columbians will get a taste of authentic Mississippi catfish, frog legs and traditional southern gumbo when it opens in early July. Originally slated to open June 1, Perry said city compliance issues delayed the original date. Inside the dining area a bar, remaining from its predecessor, Village Wine & Cheese, will receive an old fashioned renovation to transform it into a soda fountain where Perry plans to serve ice cream and banana splits.

     Quinton’s and Tonic, established bars on Ninth Street, will add a roof top patio above their current locations for patrons to gather below the night sky. A city ordinance issue delayed construction on the patio. Work is now underway and expected to be complete by September, said owner Michael McClung.