Tapas, cocktails, and day parties are back in Buckhead

Musicians get into all sorts of stuff once they're done on the stage, from acting, to philanthropy, to getting back on the stage because they gave all their money to silly charities that help people, and their movies suck. And they also open eateries, like the guy behind Encore Restaurant.

Encore's a sleek modernized lounge owned by a former MCA Records artist/Ray-J songwriter who's now hooking you up with weekend day parties on the front patio and eats in a swank interior featuring skyline photos of ATL, NYC, and Paris, a fish tank housing a nurse shark, and mounted red paint-smeared cowhide, which's presumably followed by red paint-smeared cowgoseek. The full "Southern fusion" menu's coming in two weeks (steaks, seafood, stir-fry...), and they'll have changing-daily entrees like sesame-crusted salmon w/ soba noodles; for now, get small plates like baked butter-lemon pepper wings, flash-fried tilapia bites w/ sweet chili sauce, or a half-dozen jumbo tiger shrimp, whose tiger mothers made sure they finished their biology/ language/ history/ chemistry homework and 10hr xylophone practice first, despite their diminutive size. Get liquidy via bottle service (Moet Rose, Grey Goose, Patron, etc.), beer buckets, frozen Hurricanes/ Pina Coladas, or specialty drinks like the Encoretini (Hennessy, peach schnapps, cran juice, lime) and the Ciroc Coconut/ OJ/ Champagne "Standing Ovation", because what good date doesn't involve the clap?

The grand opening's scheduled for April 30th, but until then they'll be clearing the dining room floor for a daytime throwdown at least once every weekend starting around 3p, at which to eat/ sip/ jam while the rotating DJs spin house, pop, R&B, and soul -- and if having one leads you to charity work, your movies had better not be Ludacris.