Transformation on 12th Avenue: 12 South Bistro

In the latest issue of the Scene, Carrington Fox

some new restaurants in existing spaces on 12th Avenue in the Gulch and its environs, including

That makes this post a little late to serve as a First Bite, but I'll still share my impressions of the new restaurant, which fills the space at 907 12th Ave. S., formerly a meat-and-three called At the Table.

The dining area has been attractively reworked into a bistro, with lots of dark paint tones and black tablecloths. A small room in the back of the dining room is set back in an alcove with a big screen television that I imagine will be a good place for semiprivate dining or an office luncheon. The large front window allows in good light for somebody my age who needs help reading menus.

The interior transformation is pretty impressive. The new owners have erased just about any evidence of the previous incarnation. Gone is the steam table that served fried chicken and catfish alongside the familiar array of down-home vegetables. The counter where you paid your bill that revealed an open kitchen has been replaced by a full bar stocked with a nice, if unremarkable, selection of beers and spirits. It's certainly not a boutique whiskey bar, but if you'd like a Jack and Coke or a Bacardi and Coke or a Captain Morgan's and Coke, well, you get the picture. It's perfectly serviceable and might be a nice spot to stop by for an after-work cocktail.

About that menu, it is pretty eclectic, with pizzas, panini and other Italian classics alongside some other unusual items like "Caucasian Lamb, Beef or Chicken Tips." (I'll try to resist the joke that the caucasian lamb must come from the white sheep of the family, but I do have to wonder what chicken tips are. Perhaps they are the part of the chicken wing snipped off after you separate the drumette from radius/ulna. Whatever it is, I didn't order it.)

As Carrington reported, the the bistro is owned by brothers Adam and John Payz (also co-owners of New York Pizza on Elliston Place), who hail from Russia. So that may explain the Caucasus reference on the menu. Chef Lassad Mnif, meanwhile, is from France. He trained there and locally at Viking culinary school.