Battle Born Social to celebrate grand opening Monday in Carson City

Chef David Stern is literally counting the hours until his new restaurant opens its doors in downtown Carson City.

Battle Born Social is now only days away from its curtain call at 318 N. Carson Street, the space formerly occupied by Mystique, Sassafras and B'Sghetti's.

Its official opening, Stern said, is set for Wednesday, May 3 starting at 11 a.m. for lunch.

Stern and his team are putting the finishing touches on decor this weekend in preparation for its grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for Monday, May 1 from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

The private event will be attended by members of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Supervisors, and other community dignitaries.

Stern said he is looking forward to Monday's unveiling preview of what the public will be treated to on Wednesday.

"We're going to be serving tastings from our menu and our signature house cocktails," he said. "We want people to see what we're doing and tell us good, bad or indifferent so we can make our changes."

Stern said it's important for he and his parents, who co-own the restaurant with him, to obtain feedback from the community on how they can make their restaurant better and more appealing to people in the region.

"We want people to come in, see what we're all about and get our story," he said. "We want to get people's opinion. We want people to come in here, look at what we're doing and see if there's anything they would change. We want their opinions on things they're looking for in food, wine and spirits."

Stern said he is going to be asking for a lot of opinions over the first several days, so that changes to the restaurant can be made early.

"There are going to be a lot of changes for the first month at least," he said. "We're hoping for that, because we want to know what is really going to work well here."

For the Sterns, Battle Born Social is a respectful nod to the area they call home. They have set out to create an atmosphere and a menu that are representative of Northern Nevada and Carson City, in particular.

"We are trying to stay true to this area," David Stern said. "We're trying to be minimalistic and rustic. There's a little bit of an industrial feel, but not too much, because that's not quite what Carson and Northern Nevada really are."

Stern and his dad built the wooden table tops in the dining room, he said. The tasting room bar and wine bottle shelving were also constructed from scratch by Stern's father.

"We're trying to keep it simple," he said. "To do things right, you don't have to do it over the top. You just have to do it the right way and do it well."

But Battle Born Social isn't meant to be a testament to Stern's success as a chef. He said this restaurant is for Carson City and the people who live here.

"We are doing this for our guests, not for us," he said. "We're just trying to have fun and hope everyone else does, too."

Stern signed the lease in January following the closure of Mystique, for which he was the executive chef. He took over a space that featured dining areas totaling about 2,000 square feet in size and with seating for around 100 patrons.

Battle Born Social will be partnering with Carson Cigar Bar, Stern said, which shares the ground floor of the building.

"We're going to offer a menu at the Carson Cigar Bar, which will have a tablet used for online ordering," he said.

It's one way Stern said he seeks to emphasize the "social" in the restaurant's namesake.

Another way is through Battle Born Social's interior design, which will house three separate venues. There is the main dining room, he said, that will feature small plate servings and no televisions.

"We want it to be a place to focus on socialization," Stern said. "We want people to socialize with each other, with the bartenders and servers, enjoy the food and cocktails."

Then there is the tasting room, featuring a bar and wine racks. Stern said this part of the operation emphasizes socializing around the education behind locally produced wine, beer and spirits.

"We have a strong focus on local," he said. "We're featuring every local brewery, distillery and winery."

The third venue is the lounge, Stern said, which includes a pool table, two large flat screen televisions and a 90-inch projection screen.

"It's going to have an almost cigar-bar feel without the smoking," he said. "We're trying to appeal to as many walks of life and age groups as we possibly can."

This means opening the restaurant up to a wide range of clientele, Stern said, from business professionals to casual diners.

"We want you to have the attentiveness and the service you would get from a fine dining restaurant, but without the pretentiousness," he said. "We want you to be able to sit in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt next to someone in a three-piece suit and not feel like you're out of place, overdressed or under dressed. We just want you to enjoy company, meet new people and have a good time."

Meals will be served family style, Stern said, on small plates. The lunch and dinner menus will be the same to start with, he said.

Desserts will be served in Mason jars, he said, since they are destructed versions of existing popular desserts.

Battle Born Social will have an in-house smoker, too, so that all of the restaurant's meats can be slow-smoked on the premises.

"We're trying to keep it simple with a little bit of a twist, and slowly go into the things that are a little more advanced for the palate," Stern said. "Our main focus is to stay true to the flavors of Northern Nevada, the Carson Valley and Carson City area. We just want to give the guests what they're looking for."

Beginning Wednesday, Battle Born Social will be open Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Find Battle Born Social on Facebook here for more information about the new restaurant and its offerings.