First look: Urban Flats

(Credit: Carly Felton)

Spacious and clean with lots of windows and white walls, Urban Flats, the new wine bar-meets-pizza shop in Lindbergh City Center, seems to use simplicity as a design element … and it works. The result is a hip restaurant and bar that serves a diverse demographic.

The Scene: With concrete floors, white brick, brown wooden slated ceilings and exposed aluminum piping, Urban Flats capitalizes on the whole loft trend. Three different types of similar low-hanging light fixtures and large, brown leather booths give the restaurant a very New York City-feel, while floor-to-ceiling windows all around the entrance make Urban Flats decidedly Southern.

Large paintings of buildings and cityscapes adorn the walls in a haphazard manner—almost seeming as if someone plastered them up just to fill the space. The bar, on the other hand, is carefully designed with a glassed-in wine cellar as the backboard—and focal point—and wine taps from a cruvet system (which pushes nitrogen through open wine bottles in order to preserve them and allow guests to sample very expensive wines) adding interest at the front.

Beverages: Urban Flats is a restaurant chain (started in Orlando, Fla.) known for two things: their flatbread and their wine, not necessarily in that order. Patrons often come by for happy hour and date-night drinks, attracted by the inexpensive wines, which start at $3.50, and the diverse selection. The eclectic wine list features 27 wines by the glass and over 100 by the bottle, including some from France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Washington, California and Oregon. Wine aficionados may enjoy Wine Down Wednesdays, in which Urban Flats offers endless samples of eight different wines—which may or may not regularly be on the wine list—as well as a food buffet.

Bottled beer is also available, including some lesser-known ones like Pipeline Porter, Left Hand Milk Stout and Rogue Dead Guy. There’s quite a variety of sweet drinks and martinis as well, from the Nutty Coconut (Van Gogh coconut vodka, amaretto liqueur and dark crème de cacao with a dash of cream) to the Pink Flo-rida (Van Gogh Acai blueberry vodka and pink lemonade).

Flats: The menu at Urban Flats is varied enough to satisfy even those who don’t like pizza, with full entrees that include mahi-mahi and polenta, herb-rusted lamb chops with cous cous and margherita pasta, as well as gourmet wraps and “flatwiches,” and salads that go far beyond your basic iceberg, carrots and tomato. The starters, too, are tempting, especially the Urban Spicy Roll—roasted chicken and sweet Italian sausage with jalapeno pepper, red onion, tomato and bacon, wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with four dipping sauces.

However, the main attraction is the flatbreads—essentially individual-sized, rectangular whole-wheat pizza doughs covered in a variety of fresh ingredients. Standouts include the Fig and Proscuitto, with freshly made fig jam, prosciutto, blue cheese, mozzarella and chives, and the Buffalo Chicken, with roasted chicken, blue cheese dressing, smoked gouda, wing sauce and celery hearts. The first has an interesting combination of sweet and spicy, while the second is ideal for hot wing lovers. For the unadventurous, Urban Flats offer the Standby—a traditional pepperoni pizza.

Flat Out: Great for large groups, as well as intimate meals, Urban Flats has the menu, the space and the prices to attract a wide range of followers. The tasty drinks are sure to keep the bar busy and the vast menu covers the bases for garnering patrons for lunch and dinner.