Sous vide steaks and dry-aged burgers coming to new downtown Palafox restaurant

*Editor's note: This story has been update to correctly identify the owner.

*A new restaurant has moved into the former Urban Swinery, the specialty sandwich restaurant and wine bar that used to call 19 Palafox Place in downtown Pensacola home.

While the mood lights and wine racks may look familiar, restauranteur Johnny Mascia is hoping to curate a new menu that will highlight expert cooking styles, but approachable food.

“I was in Boston for 20 years, and in New York City for 18,” Mascia said. “What we really want here is approachable, elevated cuisine. It's not frou-frou, there's no linens, right? It's butcher block and approachable food.”

BarSteak, his new breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant slated to open in mid-September, will incorporate dishes inspired by the countries represented in Pensacola’s five flags for modern, multicultural new American cuisine. This means there may be a Spanish tortilla dish with fresh chorizo and cilantro on the breakfast menu, but a French jambon beurre (ham and butter) sandwich on the lunch menu.

Fresh, local produce and baked goods will feature in items like hand-griddled English muffins, mascarpone berry stuffed French toast and tomato pie.

“I would say we’re more of a European-style breakfast, which is what we're going for, revolving around the five flags. So, there will always be some sort of French, Spanish, Southern influence in everything we do,” he said.

Lunch will be filled with classic sandwiches done right, including a BLT made with bacon from acorn-fed wild boars that is known for being extra flavorful, he said.

“The fat content is so massive on this stuff. I literally take a 4-ounce portion, six strips of bacon, and all six strips cook down to about 30% and they all go in the sandwich,” he said. “The flavor … it's like you see Jesus and you don't need to go to church that Sunday. It's that simple.”

The star of the dinner menu will be the varieties of butcher-cut meat, including sous vide steaks and a dry-aged burger bar. Mascia intends for there to be about six steak options that are rotated and served with whipped potatoes, which he first tasted at high-profile restaurant in Paris, France.

“There was one guy in the back, all he did his entire job, all night long, was hand whipping the potatoes to order. Because you can't put all the butter in at once. Otherwise, it'll separate,” he said.

The sous vide style ensures an even temperature across the steak, a nice crust, and the ability to be ready in minutes. Each steak will take a water bath for about four hours before it is ordered, then cooked quickly at an extremely high temperature.

“So, your mid-rare steak is made rare from edge to edge rather than what you get in a steakhouse where you have made rare in the center, so the entire steak flavor profile changes,” he said. “It's literally plated within two or three minutes of receiving the ticket.”

He anticipates the average steak will be priced in the $40 range.

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Alongside the steak, the "bar" in the restaurant's name means its drinks will not disappoint. It will have fine wines and cocktails, with a secret signature martini on deck with special tinctures inspired by Manhattan, Yew York.

The restaurant seating will also expand into an outdoor patio area, which will add about 50 additional seats, with patio specials, like the four-person fishbowl cocktails.

He intends to use the space to host local guest chef pop-ups for special events averaging around 10 courses.

Mascia described the overall restaurant concept as "very cosmopolitan, contemporary, very foodie, very beverage forward.”

He hopes the restaurant will be a regular spot in the downtown Pensacola food scene that comes off as approachable but filled to the brim with culinary excellence.

“Our food is simple, but there are a lot of steps to get it to the plate that way,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Downtown Pensacola restaurant BarSteak debuts in former Urban Swinery