Lesa Kastanas and Scott Weaver in front of the spaces that will soon be a restaurant and cocktail bar. Kristen Wile/UP

The owners of Soul Gastrolounge, Andy and Lesa Kastanas, are opening a new restaurant in the Central Avenue space underneath Soul this year. Soul, which will celebrate its 10-year anniversary in April, has earned its staying power as one of the city’s most popular restaurants thanks to its unique vibe of hipness and casual excellence. The new concept, yet to be named, is currently in the buildout stage and will have the uniqueness of Soul but with a completely different vibe. Unlike Soul’s eclectic, international menu, the downstairs spot will focus on French and Greek cuisines.

“It will definitely be small plates, shared plates — what we’ve always been known for and what we think we’re good at,” says Lesa Kastanas. “Where it’s going to diverge, it will be much more dialed in than the Soul menu.”

The two cuisines the new restaurant focuses on won’t be a fusion, Kastanas says, rather foods inspired by the heritage of both countries and ways that the two cuisines have borrowed from one another. Plant-based dishes will also feature heavily on the menu, including vegan options.

“Anybody who has ever been to Soul will tell you that vegetables is not the focus,” Kastanas says with a laugh.

Current executive chef at Soul Jay Pound will be executive chef over both restaurants, which are conveniently in the same building. The new space takes over the former gallery and bar Twenty-Two, as well as the former tattoo shop next door. A rooftop patio will overlook Central Avenue from above the tattoo shop.

The two new spaces will be connected but contrasted in many ways, including in the design. Scott Weaver, who is responsible for Soul’s collected, international-traveler feel, is also working on the aesthetic of the new restaurant. His inspiration comes from Biba, a department store in London during the 1960s and ’70s. Weaver is taking cues from the store owner’s 1970s reinterpretation of glam, with neutral graphic patterns and blacks and golds, and transforming it in his own way.

“It’s going to be more glamorous [than Soul],” Weaver says. “But when I say glamour, it’s important to say that I mean avoiding fussiness. It’s not a fussy kind of glamour, it’s very sleek.”

The bones of the Twenty-Two space will stay mostly in place, with the concrete bar and columns getting a makeover to make the space feel less like a cold gallery, though the walls will still be adorned with a rotating art installation.

The smaller, former tattoo parlor space next door will forgo the neutral graphic look of the main dining restaurant for a dark, black-and-gold design. There will be a limited number of seats, with a curved bar holding five bar stools. Guests will enter through the main dining room and be sat by the same hostess. “Intimate. Dark. Sexy,” is how Weaver describes the space. The windows facing Central Avenue will be darkened, and the tattoo parlor sign might remain, making the space look like an abandoned storefront to passersby.

It’s in this area that Kel Minton, beverage director of the new concept as well as Soul, will spend most of his time. He’ll also oversee the large bar in the former Twenty-Two space, which will have a draft cocktail and beer and wine focus. There will also be a rotation of taps that feature house-made, non-alcoholic options, including sodas and tonics.

Minton is planning an experience unlike any other in town, where guests will have the option to make reservations in advance and have bar staff will reach out them before their visit to have a custom menu created.

“Both spaces are going to be absolutely amazing, but the small bar is going to be an experience in and of itself, where the food’s going to be more tailored to the person and I think the idea of tailoring a cocktail menu to a guest for that evening is something really radical that I haven’t seen pretty much anywhere,” Minton says. “I’m really excited for the challenge, because I’m going to have to come up with 15 new cocktails a day or something like that.”

More details to come on the new space, but we’re expecting something just as unique and out there as Soul was when it opened 10 years ago (and still remains). —Kristen Wile