Baltimore’s Atlas Restaurant Group plans to bring another taste of the Mediterranean to Harbor East this spring with a new waterfront venue across from Ouzo Bay.
“Ouzo Beach,” an extension of the Greek restaurant, will be a 120-seat bar and lounge styled to look like the gated courtyard of a Mediterranean villa, complete with palm trees, blue stone details and a 75-foot-long wooden trellis. The new spot, to be located along the promenade across Lancaster Street from Ouzo Bay, will offer the same menu and feature views of the Inner Harbor.
The addition is part of a $1 million remodeling of the 6-year-old restaurant, the flagship in Atlas Restaurant Group’s growing portfolio of fine dining properties in Baltimore, Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C.
Other additions to Ouzo Bay include a DJ booth inside the restaurant, a new speaker system, new floors and the installation of wooden basket light fixtures handmade in Greece. The restaurant’s back bar will also be redesigned and its kitchen will be updated.
Ouzo Bay will be closed through Jan. 9 for the interior renovations. Ouzo Beach is expected to follow in the spring, if permitting proceeds on schedule. The waterfront venue will host live entertainment and offer bar seating for 30 people as well dining/lounge-area seating for 90.
Rita Lymperopoulos, a former operating partner at Della Notte in Little Italy, has been named Ouzo Bay’s general manager as renovations to the restaurant move forward, Atlas also announced Wednesday. In addition to overseeing operations in Baltimore, Lymperopoulos, a native of Peloponnese, Greece, will train staff at new Ouzo Bay locations in Boca Raton, Florida, and Houston, Texas. She previously worked at D.C.’s Kellari Taverna.
In a statement, Atlas Restaurant Group CEO Alex Smith called Lymperopoulos “an expert on Greek cuisine and culture” who is already familiar with the local community.
“With the remodeling of the Ouzo Bay interior, the substantial investment we are making in Ouzo Beach, and the addition of Rita, we have ensured that Ouzo Bay will remain the flagship of Atlas Restaurant Group,” he said.
In addition to Ouzo Bay, the Atlas Restaurant Group owns and operates Azumi, The Bygone, Tagliata, Loch Bar, Italian Disco, Harbor East Delicatessen and The Elk Room in Harbor East. The restaurant group is also preparing to open The Choptank, a seafood restaurant in the south shed of Fells Point’s Broadway Market, this spring.
Smith and his brother, Eric Smith — grandsons of the late H&S Bakery Magnate John Paterakis Sr., who developed much of Harbor East — opened a second Ouzo Bay location in Boca Raton two years ago, and followed up this winter with a second Loch Bar, also in Boca Raton. Construction on new offshoots of the restaurants began in Houston in November.
Baltimore’s Atlas Restaurant Group plans to bring another taste of the Mediterranean to Harbor East this spring with a new waterfront venue across from Ouzo Bay.
“Ouzo Beach,” an extension of the Greek restaurant, will be a 120-seat bar and lounge styled to look like the gated courtyard of a Mediterranean villa, complete with palm trees, blue stone details and a 75-foot-long wooden trellis. The new spot, to be located along the promenade across Lancaster Street from Ouzo Bay, will offer the same menu and feature views of the Inner Harbor.
The addition is part of a $1 million remodeling of the 6-year-old restaurant, the flagship in Atlas Restaurant Group’s growing portfolio of fine dining properties in Baltimore, Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C.
Other additions to Ouzo Bay include a DJ booth inside the restaurant, a new speaker system, new floors and the installation of wooden basket light fixtures handmade in Greece. The restaurant’s back bar will also be redesigned and its kitchen will be updated.
Ouzo Bay will be closed through Jan. 9 for the interior renovations. Ouzo Beach is expected to follow in the spring, if permitting proceeds on schedule. The waterfront venue will host live entertainment and offer bar seating for 30 people as well dining/lounge-area seating for 90.
Rita Lymperopoulos, a former operating partner at Della Notte in Little Italy, has been named Ouzo Bay’s general manager as renovations to the restaurant move forward, Atlas also announced Wednesday. In addition to overseeing operations in Baltimore, Lymperopoulos, a native of Peloponnese, Greece, will train staff at new Ouzo Bay locations in Boca Raton, Florida, and Houston, Texas. She previously worked at D.C.’s Kellari Taverna.
In a statement, Atlas Restaurant Group CEO Alex Smith called Lymperopoulos “an expert on Greek cuisine and culture” who is already familiar with the local community.
“With the remodeling of the Ouzo Bay interior, the substantial investment we are making in Ouzo Beach, and the addition of Rita, we have ensured that Ouzo Bay will remain the flagship of Atlas Restaurant Group,” he said.
In addition to Ouzo Bay, the Atlas Restaurant Group owns and operates Azumi, The Bygone, Tagliata, Loch Bar, Italian Disco, Harbor East Delicatessen and The Elk Room in Harbor East. The restaurant group is also preparing to open The Choptank, a seafood restaurant in the south shed of Fells Point’s Broadway Market, this spring.
Smith and his brother, Eric Smith — grandsons of the late H&S Bakery Magnate John Paterakis Sr., who developed much of Harbor East — opened a second Ouzo Bay location in Boca Raton two years ago, and followed up this winter with a second Loch Bar, also in Boca Raton. Construction on new offshoots of the restaurants began in Houston in November.
