Stella's Fish Cafe and Prestige Oyster Bar

Rating:

In the men's restroom (marked "buoys") at Stella's Fish Cafe in Uptown, there is a large framed photograph of a young man sprawled barebutt across a bathroom floor, clutching a bottle of cheap Champagne. In the background, there's a urinal filled with vomit.

Why is this photograph worth pondering? The man who created the restaurant, Phil Roberts, is one of the smartest and most talented people in the local restaurant business, and bathrooms are his signature. Buca di Beppo's restrooms have retro photographs and a nostalgic Sinatra-era soundtrack, while hot spot Chino Latino has a sexy co-ed sink area divided by peek-a-boo mirrors.

Roberts was hired to create Stella's by the owners of its predecessor, Tonic, whose sometimes rowdy young clientele generated many complaints from neighborhood residents. The city forced Tonic to close because its liquor sales were disproportionately high compared to food sales.

Stella's is designed to attract the same young crowd with a less-rowdy experience. There's more attention to food and less on drinking, but the real emphasis here is on the experience. The great challenge in marketing to this demographic is breaking through the clutter of images and messages that already saturate their universe, and Stella's does it by offering a high-decibel, high-stimulus ambience, with lots of flat-screen televisions tuned to sports, and a dollop of tongue-in-cheek sexual innuendo on the side. (For example, "My mullet's clean. Is yours?").

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