Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen Now Open on Fayetteville Street

As reported back in November, Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen is the new restaurant concept that took over and extensively renovated the former Posta location in the Downtown Raleigh Marriott (Marriott City Center) on Fayetteville Street.

Executive Chef and General Manager Michael F. Rigot was kind enough to give DTRNews.com a behind the scenes look at construction during November (pictures below) and I’m excited to report that the restaurant and bar is now open and accepting reservations on OpenTable.

: Marriott lobby during Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen construction

: Marriott lobby during Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen construction

: Reclaimed barn doors for the new Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen in Raleigh

: Executive Chef and General Manager Michael Rigot talks about the extensive redesign going into the new restaurant space

: This space in Rye Raleigh will be available for private parties and events, but open as restaurant space otherwise

: Open kitchen concept at Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen

: Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen in Downtown Raleigh

The concept has already featured better than average entertainment and nightly features, including banjo performances every Tuesday through Friday.

Follow along the first month in business for Rye Raleigh online at:
http://www.ryeraleigh.com/ (not yet updated)
http://instagram.com/ryeraleigh
https://twitter.com/ryeraleigh
https://www.facebook.com/RyeRaleigh
https://twitter.com/hashtag/ryeraleigh?f=realtime&src=hash

@ncsulilwolf and @johnniebud will be dining there tonight for the first time for @DTRaleighNews and will be sharing pictures on Instagram and Twitter.

Jan. 12 Update: As expected, Chef Rigot’s new southern menu is off to a great start and we look forward to returning to try more of the items, especially the large assortment of vegetable sides, that we didn’t get to on this first visit. And we may skip appetizers and go for dessert the next time. We thoroughly enjoyed our apps, but the dessert menu looked so tempting we hated not saving room for it. The only miss of our entire experience was service after our food was delivered (drinks ran dry, had to pay cash for our meal as the point of sale system went down) – the service seemed to be under-staffed and flustered, so hoping they iron this out in the first month of business. We will certainly return for a second visit. Pictures from our first meal at Rye are below.

: Entrance to Rye from Marriott lobby

: Lively Rye bar during the Panthers vs. Seahawks game

: Luxe bar seating

: Large fireplace separates bar and first dining room

: Dining rooms, separated by large barn doors

: Water served in mason jars

: Bread with honey butter and pickled vegetables served at seating

: Cocktail menu

: Been menu

: Wine menu

: Southern Belle cocktail with bourbon

: Local farms and providers

: Introductory menu – full menu expected by late January/early February

: Southern Caviar Fried Deviled Eggs

: Fried Green Tomatoes Topped with Pimento Cheese

: Inside of fried deviled eggs

: Greens salad with goat cheese, blueberries and pecans

: Bone-in pork chops with mashed potatoes and green beans

: Desserts

The menu pictured is an introductory menu and the final menu is expected late January, early February. The restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and feature a southern breakfast buffet and nightly entertainment.