New city restaurant off to good start
Bolero Brasserie, which replaced Tuscany Restaurant on Bermuda House Lane, opened quietly on April 9.
Despite the soft opening, word got around quickly and Bolero was packed by the end of the week. Tapas offered at lunch and the amuse bouche, essentially hors d’oeuvres offered between lunch and dinner, went over particularly well.
“I am in the kitchen every day,” said owner and head chef, Mr. Roberts. “I do all the ordering and see to appointments between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. I am in there all day through the afternoon and into the night as well, until about 2.30 a.m.
“I think it is normal for a chef owner to be this hands-on. It is certainly important that I am in the kitchen. It annoys me when head chefs spend too much time in the restaurant and not enough in the kitchen.
“So, I do like to be in there as much as possible. Sometimes I get asked to come out and see people, or I will have a drink with someone at the end of the night, but I try to stay in the kitchen until the last drink is gone.”
Mrs. Roberts, who runs the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation in Devonshire, reupholstered all the chairs, and the couple repainted together. There is also artwork on the walls done by local artists that will probably change where possible. Some of it will be for sale, depending on the discretion of the artists.
“The budget was tight so we wanted to create a whole new feeling when you walked into the restaurant,” Mr. Roberts said. “We didn’t want patrons to see Tuscany anymore. It was mostly cosmetic work. We have done nothing structural. We wanted to create the feeling of warmth in a relaxing and calm atmosphere.”
Mr. Roberts especially wanted people to know that the upstairs bathrooms had been revamped.
“Lots of people have asked us about that,” he said. “We have redone the bathrooms, completely. The kitchen has been changed around slightly to fit my menu, and has been completely retiled to clean it up. There was a lot of cleaning that went on. We completely rebuilt the bar. However, we didn’t really do anything structural.”
Although Mrs. Roberts runs her own business, she has been at the restaurant every night to oversee things.
“With the hours I have been working it is difficult to maintain family life,” said Mr. Roberts. “My wife is very understanding and supportive. We have been married for five and half years. To tell you the truth, we are seeing more of each other now, than we did before.”
Mr. Roberts is originally from England. He got his start as a 12-year-old washing dishes in a restaurant, and making coffee for the chefs there.
“I guess that is where I got a taste for it,” he said. “Ever since then this is what I have always wanted to do.”
He graduated from culinary arts school at Tuson College, Preston, Lancashire, England. He worked at the Majestic Hotel in Yorkshire and the Mayfair Intercontinental Hotel in London, before coming to Bermuda in 1992. Here, he worked at the Coral Beach Club, and was head chef at Horizons Cottages, before working at Mediterraneo Ristorante until it closed a few months ago.
Bolero aims to fill the hole created when several of Bermuda’s French restaurants such as Monte Carlo and Le Figaro, closed in the last couple of years.
“I felt there was a niche there for European food,” said Mr. Roberts. “Everyone is going Asian or Indian, but forgetting there is also good food from Europe. It is a brasserie theme, which is a more upscale bistro, but a casual place. We are concentrating a lot on fine dining. We are not sticking to just French; it is more European. We have more scope than that.”
The Roberts aim to provide “good, honest, tasteful food and friendly service” at competitive prices.
“Because we have only just opened, we don’t really have a signature dish yet,” said Mr. Roberts. “It is an extensive menu. There is something on there for everyone.”
Mr. Roberts said he has been inspired by chefs such as Marco Pierre White who was very popular in the 1980s in the UK, and Gordon Ramsey, not only for his excellence but also for his pure drive and culinary passion.
“There have been many, many challenges with opening up the restaurant,” said Mr. Roberts. “Finding good staff who can provide the good service we want was a challenge. We are fortunate enough now to have a very good crew.
“I am very happy with all of them. The chefs work really, really hard back there. They have come through and shown that they can adapt to anything.”
He said they were putting finishing touches on the restaurant almost right up until the moment of opening.
“On Monday morning we were still getting deliveries of artwork and things like that,” he said. “There were glitches that we need to iron out in the kitchen and restaurant, but that is normal. It is the first time the staff have all worked with me and each other. We are all getting to know each other. I like to try and create a family feeling between everyone. It is very important that the staff come in happy. If they are happy, ultimately the customer will leave happy too.”
For people interested in getting a table at Bolero Brasserie, Mr. Roberts urged that they book early. Last weekend things filled up quickly. However, they will accommodate walk-ins. Bolero can be reached at the old Tuscany Restaurant number.
