Winner of Top Chef Middle East + North Africa, Executive Chef Charbel Hayek Prepares to Open BarVera in Downtown Stamford
February 4, 2025, Stamford, CT: The highly anticipated opening of BarVera, an original concept by Top Chef Winner and West Coast Restaurateur Chef Charbel Hayek, is planned for February 13, 2025. Located on Bedford Street in Downtown Stamford, amid a bustling retail, dining, and entertainment district, BarVera is poised to fill a void in the city’s culinary landscape with Chef Hayek’s modern approach to Mediterranean cuisine.
Rooted in hospitality, BarVera is bringing back the lost art of fine dining—not with social pretense or high prices, but rather with quality ingredients, thoughtful service, a sleek and sophisticated dining room, and a menu that does not take liberties or shortcuts with its dishes. Instead, Chef Hayek embraces the simple nuances that embody Italian, French, Middle Eastern, and Lebanese-inspired dishes, preparing them with the best land and sea ingredients and presenting them in a manner that illustrates a fine dining experience.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Chef Hayek fell in love with cooking in his family’s kitchen. He attended the French School of Excellence and honed his skills cooking at the two-Michelin star restaurant Mélisse in Santa Monica, California, under Chef Josiah Citrin. In 1922, Chef Hayek participated in Bravo TV‘s Top Chef in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he won the fifth season of “Top Chef Middle East and North Africa.” Today, Chef Hayek is an award-winning chef and restaurateur whose California restaurants, Ladyhawk in West Hollywood and Laya in Los Angeles, have given Middle Eastern-Mediterranean cuisine a place among the top restaurants in California. Chef Hayek is the author of the cookbook Lemon & Garlic: Middle Eastern Cuisine (2023 Palmetto Publishing).
The BarVera menu is a culinary journey that takes guests on a tour consisting of bright flavors and healthy preparations that allow the ingredients to shine. Menu highlights include house-made za'atar akkawi man'oushe , a Lebanese flatbread made with akkawi cheese and manoushe dough, and muhammara, a spicy roasted red pepper and walnut spread served with fresh pita. Citrus-laced tuna crudo, Spanish white anchovies, grilled octopus, and grilled whole branzino share the stage with their land counterparts, kofta meatballs, braised beef cheeks, shish tawouk (yogurt-marinated grilled chicken), and duck leg confit. Pasta dishes include spicy rigatoni and pistachio pesto orecchiette. A sweet end to a BarVera meal consists of homemade riz bi haleeb (Lebanese rice pudding), Limoncello syrup cake, and a classic Italian Affogato made with vanilla bean ice cream, an espresso bath, topped with brittle.
The beverage program has the same international flare as the menu, including a curated wine list of smaller boutique wines and exceptional grape varietals. Seasonal craft cocktails, premium spirits, and local beer offerings round out the bar menu.
The BarVera space is transporting, elegant, and relaxed, with a vibrant design aesthetic. Dark wood furnishings and ivy green banquette seating are wrapped in original artwork and custom hand-painted murals that take you on a stroll through countryside vineyards and coastal cities along the Mediterranean Sea. BarVera seats 50 inside and 30 on the patio.
Phone: 203-674-1800
BarVera plans to be open 7 days a week, starting with dinner and adding lunch and brunch hours in March.
Follow along on social at @barvera.mediterranean