BarSteak is making its big debut on Palafox Street this Friday. Here's what you can expect

Palafox’s new steakhouse, BarSteak, is gearing up for its first day open to the public at 5 p.m. on Friday at 19 Palafox Place.

The restaurant will eventually be open all-day for breakfast, lunch and dinner serving a variety of finely crafted food in an approachable way, with a touch of big-city ambiance and exciting flavor combinations.

During a string of soft-opening test nights for the kitchen to craft the new menu, bartenders were shaking up concoctions before pumping them into martini glasses, sous-vide steaks flying off the expo line were so tender you could slice them with a table knife and light conversation was drifting across the front tables overlooking bustling Palafox Street.

The restaurant replaces the former Urban Swinery, which was a project of neighboring upscale tapas restaurant Global Grill, and the new BarSteak carries over similar décor with deep wood tones, elegant wine racks and hanging lights.

But the space has some changes in décor made by BarSteak owner Johnny Mascia, such as the brand-new outdoor furniture and black and white prints of a young Marco Pierre White, an iconic British chef and restauranteur who was coined as “the first celebrity chef.”

Mascia has brought menu influences with him from all over the world, with velvety whipped potatoes inspired from Paris, France, that are served as a companion to one of the butcher-cut meats. The starting fixed price point being the 14-ounce ribeye for $56, while the other harder-to-find cuts, such as the tender teres major, marbled Denver, or boneless coulotte steak, which Is a lean cut with a thick layer of fat that comes on only one side, are set at market price.

Regardless of which cut you choose, each dish is intended to be melt-in-your-mouth flavorful from the restaurant’s signature sous-vide style, that starts with placing the steaks in a water bath several hours before the order is placed, then cooking it quickly at an extremely high temperature to give the steak an even cook consistency.

The steaks are also served with a choice of fresh vegetable, such as asparagus, heirloom carrots, broccolini and haircot verts. Mascia also ensures local produce is used when possible, including Palafox Market vendors Lettuce Heads and Lost Boys Mushrooms. He also wanted to invest in his employees through profit sharing, which he hopes will foster a culture where people feel empowered and valued.

The fresh, scratch-made dishes' strong flavor profiles even extend to each plate’s accompaniments, whether it be in the basil pesto and balsamic reduction drizzled around the caprese salad, or the white bean puree as the bed for the seared scallop topped with blackened lemon and pea shoots.

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Aside from the steaks that are in the restaurant’s name, there are also a handful of other enticing entrees to choose from, including a pastrami spiced salmon that is pan-seared and served over buttered cabbage with citrus beurre blanc or the pan seared catch with pecan butter cream.

Although the restaurant came together quickly, Mascia said he was pleased to see how few hiccups the kitchen had, and how much their first customers have enjoyed their inaugural menu.

“We only had two days to do it. They worked really hard, the chef put it all together, and they’ve been putting out amazing food, and we’re just really proud of them,” Mascia said. “It was really heartwarming because the kitchen put great food out.”

While the restaurant will be rolling out its dinner menu first, Mascia intends for the breakfast and lunch menus to follow in the next few weeks.

The menu is intended to nod to Pensacola’s five flags influence, meaning 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.

He is hoping that the restaurant will help contribute to Palafox Street being a Pensacola destination.

“We just want to drive more traffic, in general, to Palafox downtown,” Mascia said.

More updates and information can be found on the BarSteak Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: BarSteak plans Palafox Street grand opening this Friday night