February 3- 9, 2005

cityspace

Sawan Reloaded

ROCK THE CASBAH: "You want to chill, you chill," says David Carroll. "You want to dance? So boogie." Photo By: Michael T. Regan

The popular Middle Eastern spot is reborn as Byblos, with a little help from ex-neighbor David Carroll.

by A.D. Amorosi

For 12 years, the onyx-furnished Sawan served only the finest of Middle Eastern delicacies when there was hardly an audience for anything beyond this restaurant.

"The street was dark when we started," laughs Dia Sawan. "After 5, it was nearly a ghost town. No Neil Stein. No Bar Noir. Even after Rouge and Bleu opened down the street, this particular block stayed dark, save for us."

Now that its owner's beloved 18th Street is lit and busy, Sawan is morphing into Byblos thanks to a helping hand from his former neighbor, club veteran David Carroll, who owned Bar Noir until recently.

"It's clubby and dark," says Carroll, Byblos' co-host and entertainment director. "It's futurist too. We're toying with tradition. But it's homey and comfortable. It's going to be much like how Bar Noir started. You want to chill, you chill. You want to dance? So boogie."

The visual change from Sawan to Byblos took nearly eight months of total rip-and-redo. The effect is immediate: Witness the metallic signage fronted by blue lights, the industrial Medi look of deep white love seats, hundreds of recessed light fixtures blotting the new hardwood floors tipped with the zotzed-out traditions of mosaic tile, and stained glass. This is not the nondescript brown rugs and black furniture of Sawan.

European firm Abajour started custom designing the furnishings and overall look of Byblos two years ago. "This really was something I had mapped in great detail, this mix of the new and the old," says Sawan, pointing out partitions made of steel and mahogany as well as the long-standing stained glass archway.

The heavy opera doors with windows curtained to the street and the 12-foot-long vestibule lend immediate privacy to those within. But it's see-through beaded wood with a small handful of mahogany tables and sling-back chairs with white tapestry to the left creates a strange 17th-century look that astounds even Carroll, a onetime antiques dealer.

Two long white settees, facing each other in a low divan conversation pit, are set to the left of the room. Hookahs are set throughout. If you choose to smoke at your table or the bar, someone will rush to your command.

Walls of the same white mosaic tile that makes up the front of Byblos lines the room, itself broken into three levels by short staircases and netted partitions between the bars and the dining area. The lighting is amazing, a mix of cat's-eye slits with a red glow and a white gleam on dimmers as well as recessed halogens. The stools, raised off the floor like the bar, are made of tubular steel with red cushioning. On the right, 60 candlelit arched cubbyholes create a churchlike effect. On another wall, backlit circular bullet holes give the same effect. The new tile-and-metal bathrooms are huge, "big enough for eight people to have sex in without touching the walls," laughs Carroll.

But he would say that. Carroll has always brought the sex to all of his venues.

Though hosted by men — Carroll and Sawan brothers Dia and Michelle — Carroll has brought in his standard klatch of female lovelies including wedding songstress Erika Schiff. While the menu remains steeped in Euro-pean Mediterranean fare (new chef Danny Ahn from Rouge and Continental maintains a modestly priced menu of Medi dishes from appetizers to entrees, as well as filet mignon and caviar specialties like taramasalata), Carroll has focused on creating everything from drink specialties like the Autobahn (Jagermeister and Red Bull) and Van Gogh (fresh mango and vodka) to his usually twisted vision of nightlife. "It'll be punk rock meets Medi-European lounge," says Carroll of the musical selection he'll be curating through DJs and mix tapes.

"He was the first real neighbor to me," Sawan says of Carroll. "I saw him nightly, in action, watching people coming there to see him." Their pairing was cast.

"Bar Noir was my best and biggest baby, the only one that's still intact," says Carroll, giggling about making anew at Byblos "the street's coolest cocktail party from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m."

"I just needed someplace to hang, something new to do."

Byblos, 116 S. 18th St., 215-568-3050.