On The Rocks Tapas Bar coming to Shelby
By now, most everyone in town has heard of Ivory Bean Coffee House, located at 44 E. Main St. in downtown Shelby. However, the Shelby staple will soon add a restaurant to its repertoire. Ivory Bean Coffee House by day, On The Rocks Tapas Bar by night. The restaurant will be open inside Ivory Bean Thursday through Sunday nights. The Shelby Daily Globe sat down with the women behind the idea to bring the restaurant to Shelby: Angel Gordon, Natalie Lantz, and Staci Booker. Their husbands Matt Gordon, Mike Lantz, and Allen Booker helped bring this idea to life as well.
About a year ago, Booker and Lantz took a road trip to Kentucky due to a death in the family. They were exhausted from traveling all day and decided to stay the night. Of course they had to eat somewhere and both women mentioned having a craving for steak. Luckily, around the corner from their hotel was a café. The café was a coffee shop by day and at night, it transformed into a wine bar/steakhouse. The café’s signature item was a filet that you cook yourself on a lava stone slab. The women fell in love with this unique idea and thought it would be a great addition to Shelby.
Booker and Lantz brought the idea back with them and reached out to Gordon about it. All three of them decided to work together on this project. “The fact that we have all three of us to lean on, with all three of us being our own separate business owners, it really helps take the load off of just one person and gives us unique opportunities,” said Booker. Between all six of the team members and their families, they have a lot of different ideas and experiences. In fact, the name “On The Rocks” came from Booker’s daughter. It’s a play on words because you cook your steak on a “rock” and can order specialty cocktails “on the rocks.”
How it works is that you will order an ahi tuna steak or a beef steak to cook on the lava stone at your table (don’t worry if it sounds scary, there will be video instruction along with staff to help in case you have no desire to cook your own steak). There will also be an array of tapas (shareable appetizers) and side dishes to choose from to have alongside your steak or in place of the steak in the event you do not want one. There will also be a list of specialty cocktails and desserts to choose from as well as a full bar. The food and drink menus are purposely going to be kept limited so that staff can provide the greatest quality and efficiency possible. “We want to make sure that people come here, have a great experience, love the food, and they have great service,” said Lantz. “We just want to provide the same experience that we had because it was an amazing atmosphere,” said Booker.
The women are looking forward to bringing this new and exciting eatery to Shelby because it is unlike any of the other restaurants in town or even Richland County. They are actively encouraging patrons to have a bite to eat or a drink at On The Rocks Tapas Bar and then move on to one of the many other bars and restaurants in Shelby or vice versa. In the future, they hope to work with other area businesses to offer special deals and events based on this idea. They believe this will help bring more people to the area and be something that will benefit all the local restaurants and bars. The women also said that in the future, they hope to work with area farmers to offer dishes made with local meat, produce, dairy, etc.
On The Rocks Tapas Bar is holding a Valentine’s Day event to kick off the new restaurant in Shelby. The event menu includes a white chicken chili starter, your choice of steak with two sauces, a bacon and feta sprout salad, OTR mashed potatoes, a hot fudge lava cake for dessert, and a glass of wine or OTR specialty cocktail. There are limited dates and times for this event so be sure to reserve your spot as soon as possible. You can find out more information about the event on the On The Rocks Tapas Facebook page. This event is somewhat of a “soft opening” for the restaurant and regular hours are to be determined in the future. As Gordon puts it, “It’s not just about cooking a steak, it’s about an experience.”