We got a sneak peek at new Raleigh hot spot Jaguar Bolera. Our 10 takeaways
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There are birdcage chandeliers, bowling alleys and a “Top Chef”-created menu at the new Jaguar Bolera, a massive entertainment complex in the Raleigh Iron Works development.
Jaguar Bolera is the latest concept from Robert Thompson, a Denver-based restaurateur who helped popularize the idea of “eatertainment” with his former company Punch Bowl Social, a chain combining games and restaurants.
Raleigh’s Jaguar Bolera is the brand’s first launching point, taking over the largest space in Raleigh Iron Works at 23,000 square feet.
We got a sneak peek at Jaguar Bolera before it opens to the public for the first time on Sunday, May 19. Here are our 10 takeaways.
1. So many games
At the heart of Jaguar Bolera are the games. There are eight lanes for duckpin bowling, the short pin bowling where bowlers get three throws per turn using a softball-sized ball. There are also dart boards, a karaoke booth and foosball. It won’t be ready by opening, but pickleball courts are also in the works.
2. That’s ‘eatertainment’
Thompson fits Jaguar Bolera in the “eatertainment” category, which combines games and a restaurant. Think barcades and brands like Dave & Buster’s and Chuck E. Cheese, but on a different level.
“This is a large space for people to come together and socialize, designed to give people things to do while they’re eating and drinking,” Thompson said during a tour of the space.
Thompson doesn’t cringe, at least visibly, at the mention of Dave & Buster’s or Chuck E. Cheese, but he is quick to draw distinctions.
“You don’t want to eat at them,” Thompson said
3. There’s a ‘Hip Grandma’ aesthetic
Jaguar Bolera will be one of the most visually immersive 20,000-square-foot spaces you can step into. Thompson said the space takes its design cues from a fictional, unnamed 1950s woman — a socialite whose sense of style shows up in vibrant floral wallpaper, a tortoiseshell mirror, railings that emulate hairpins and chandeliers made out of porcelain bowls and birdcages, or which bring to mind strings of pearls.
The booths are vintage tweed, and you’ll find pea green ceilings and jaguar-print walls. One bathroom has wallpaper covered in the faces of highly groomed poodles — a nod to Elvis, a noted Poodle fan.
For millennials, one of the main targets for Jaguar Bolera, the design might bring to mind grandma, but taking those black and white photos and making them full color.
“This is your grandmother when she was cooler than you,” Thompson said.
4. No waitstaff
Jaguar Bolera will be one of the Triangle’s largest counter-service restaurants. There are no servers, only food runners. Diners order and pay at a counter and then get a buzzer, which will connect to a receiver under every table, helping runners deliver orders when they’re ready.
“As long as you put it on your table we’ll get you,” Thompson said. “We certainly didn’t want to call over a loudspeaker, ‘Order 73 is ready.”’
5. A self-pour spot
There are also no bartenders. Drinks are served from three banks of self-pour taps spread around Jaguar Bolera. There are a total of 73 taps, which will pour beer, wines and kegged cocktails.
By now Triangle diners are well-acquainted with self-pour bars, where you wear a microchipped bracelet to connect to your drink tab, then pull the tap yourself. Cocktails, though, are a bit new, and Jaguar Bolera will include options like margaritas, cold brew martinis, Moscow Mules and strawberry Aperol Spritz.
Though service is minimal, so-called “Beverage Ambassadors” will work the banks of taps and answer any drink questions.
Thompson said both food and beverage orders will have an 18 percent service charge in lieu of gratuity.
6. A little ‘Top Chef’ shine
It’s rare when a new chef needs no introduction. Behind Jaguar Bolera’s menu is Denver chef Manny Barella, who is currently competing in season 21 of “Top Chef,” the Bravo cooking competition. Barella is still in the running and competes against Durham chef Savannah Miller, the first Triangle chef to ever appear on the popular series.
Barella was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and moved to the United States 15 years ago at age 24. In 2022 he was a James Beard semifinalist for Emerging Chef, a national award recognizing promising chefs across the country.
Thompson said he wanted Jaguar Bolera’s food to be a fusion of Southern American and Mexican flavors.
“I had one meeting (with Manny), and I said, ‘That’s my guy,’” Thompson said. “He had been nominated for a James Beard at the time, that’s why he was on the radar, but obviously a different prominence on ‘Top Chef.’”
7. A loaded menu (with lots of smoke)
The menu is loaded with small plates and dishes meant to be shared. There’s grilled oysters and pork belly burnt ends, smoked wings, chicharrones, broccolini with green mole, pimento cheese and five different tacos. On the sandwich side you’ll find a smoked burger and a carnitas torta, and large plates include shrimp and grits, spare ribs and a smoked half-chicken.
Barella said the menu is meant for diners who like to sample many different dishes.
“You can go and have a very delicious, say, chicken alfredo and it’s 15 bites of the same flavor,” Barella said. “When my friends and I go out we get a bunch of apps so you don’t have a palate overload, you get to try different textures and flavors. I’m just curious as a chef, I want to try as much as possible.”
But Barella wants to be judged on the restaurant’s brisket. He said he spent six weeks in Texas studying large volume brisket smoking within the state’s legendary barbecue scene.
“I will not rest until the list of best briskets comes out and our name is there,” Barella said. “That is our goal. I want to be among the best here in Raleigh when it comes to the food.”
8. Our Top 5 favorite bites
During a media tour of Jaguar Bolera, the kitchen prepped 10 dishes for photos and tasting: lamb birria taquitos, broccolini with green mole, pimento cheese with salsa macha, beet hummus, smoked brisket tacos, smoked burger, baked mac & cheese, smoked brisket, shrimp and grits, Carlota de Limon. These five were my favorites:
Lamb Birria Taquitos/Flautas: These cigars of rolled and fried tortillas are filled with a rich lamb birria, deeply flavored with cumin and spices. Instead of a trendy quesabirria dish, where cheesy, griddled tacos are dipped in beef consume, Barella said he went further back in the birria history with these taquitos, cooking the consommé down to a thick “ragu” and coating the braised lamb.
Pimento cheese: This is a pepper-forward pimento cheese, where the blackened skins of roasted peppers are left in, dotting the creamy cheese with flecks of charred skin. The salsa macha lends smokiness and a deeper pepper flavor, all served with fried saltines, which Barella said he fell in love with when eating in North Carolina.
Brisket taco: The smoked brisket dish comes as a thick cut of fatty brisket, topped with limey white onions. Barella has big ambitions for the restaurant’s brisket, which he said he’s only been cooking for a little over a year now — and that shows in our under-seasoned and under-smoked bite. But the promise is in the tacos, where the brisket is given a tender dice, the tortilla is given a backbone of griddled cheese and the peppery black pico de gallo packs all the flavor you could need.
Shrimp and Grits: Barella called shrimp and grits one of his favorite dishes from the American South. These will be among the creamiest grits you’ll encounter, given notes of salt and funk from cotija cheese and balanced with sweet shrimp and lime.
Carlota de Limon: Essentially a creamy lime pudding reminiscent of key lime pie, with a soft vanilla cookie at the center. The sweet and sour balance tips towards tartness, which can make the jaw tingle and shiver, in a good way.
9. Because Raleigh
Thompson started opening “eatertainment” concepts in Nashville and Austin in the late ’90s. He said Raleigh’s growth is well beyond Nashville in 1997 and that he was attracted to the Triangle’s mix of tech workers, including mostly millennial and Gen-Z transplants with money to burn. He said he spent two years looking for the right city before selecting Raleigh as the brand’s launch site, saying it was important to get the first one right.
“That (first) market is immersed in the DNA of a concept as it gets its legs and starts to grow,” Thompson said. “There will always be a little bit of Raleigh in this brand.”
A second Jaguar Bolera is already in the works for Atlanta, slated to open in 2025.
10. Premiere includes unlimited games and music
Jaguar Bolera will have a ticketed premiere Saturday, May 18. The event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. and includes unlimited games, including duckpin bowling. The $40 ticket includes a $25 drink credit and passed plates of food. Music will come from Charlotte’s DJ A Minor.
For more information visit jaguarbolera.com
