Get the 411 on Atlanta’s dining scene, including restaurant openings and closings, need-to-know industry intel, and upcoming food events to attend, via Rough Draft’s “Quick Bites” news roundup, published every Thursday at 6:30 a.m.
Elise is the new French-Italian restaurant from Chef Craig Richards opening at the Woodruff Arts Center. (Photo by Beth McKibben)
Restaurant Openings
After the franchise location of Mellow Mushroom closed earlier this summer in Decatur, the West Ponce pizzeria will reopen this fall and be company-owned and operated. In addition to a refreshed bar and patio and new to-go window, it appears the Decatur location will also feature some new dishes before Mellow Mushroom begins rolling those out nationwide.
Pho Cue will return to the restaurant scene in Atlanta, taking over the kitchen at Smith’s Olde Bar in Piedmont Heights. Owned by Julian Wissman and Brian Holloway, Pho Cue started as a pop-up melding Vietnamese flavors with Texas-style barbecue (think smoked brisket and pork used in pho, egg rolls, banh mi, and dumplings). Pho Cue operated as a restaurant in Glenwood Park for two years before closing in 2024 and then picking up where the pop-up left off.
A second Atlanta location of critically acclaimed La Mixteca Tamale House opened on Chattahoochee Avenue last week, taking over the former Cafe at Pharr space. Unlike the Piedmont Road location at ghost kitchen Buckhead Eats, the Chattahoochee Avenue location includes seating. The original of La Mixteca Tamale House opened in Suwannee in 2018 and serves a variety of tamales and Oaxacan dishes like tlayudas.
Enso Izakaya, owned by Chef Leo You, is open at Olive & Pine in Avondale Estates. The restaurant serves Japanese noodle dishes, small plates, and yakitori cooked over binchotan charcoal. Check out the menu here.
Miami-based gourmet market and cafe Necessary Purveyor opened yesterday on the ground floor of the Scout Living hotel on the Ponce City Market property. Starting at 7 a.m. daily, expect breakfast and lunch, along with happy hour, a raw bar with seafood towers, and dinner in the evenings.
Restaurant Closures
Longtime Inman Park restaurant Julianna’s Coffee & Crepes permanently closed in July. A sign posted to the front door indicated the closure was due to failure to pay rent. A cozy spot for breakfast and lunch in the neighborhood, Julianna’s endured in Inman Park despite the area’s explosive development, numerous restaurant openings, and steep housing prices spurred on by the arrival of the Beltline over a decade ago. Julianna’s, located on the ground floor of a century-old house, was one block east of Krog Street Market and the Eastside Trail.
Julianna’s owner, Andrew Turoczi, immigrated to the U.S. from Hungary in the 1980s, bringing an old family recipe for Hungarian-style crepes called palacsintas. The recipe paved the way for Turoczi to open Julianna’s in 2013, naming the restaurant after his late mother.
Nearby, vegan restaurant chain Planta, which replaced Watchman’s at Krog Street Market in 2023, also closed in July.
News to Know
It appears Elise (pictured), the new French-Italian restaurant from Chef Craig Richards, is getting closer to its debut at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown. The digital sign at the corner of 15th and Peachtree on the campus recently displayed an “Opening Soon” ad for the restaurant, and teasers featuring the interior are popping up on Instagram.
Elise is one of Rough Draft’s most anticipated restaurants of the year, so we’re watching this opening closely. The restaurant’s name, Elise, nods to Beethoven’s famous piano composition: “Für Elise.” Taking over the former Table 1280 space across from the High Museum on the Woodruff Arts Center campus, Elise will feature a menu melding French and Italian dishes, including the hand-made pastas for which Richards has become known at Lyla Lila.
Over in Virginia-Highland, Chef Myles Moody and sommelier Rachael Pack, the couple behind Kinship Butchery and Sundry, just launched a new four-seat, 12-course tasting menu experience called k|n (kin). Starting in September and only taking place on select weekends each month, the two-hour-plus dinner features 12 courses with wine or non-alcoholic beverage pairings for $325 per person. There’s a catch. Reservations via Resy are currently sold out through the end of 2025. But you can add yourself to the waiting list by setting a “Notify” alert on the reservation platform.
Add to Your Calendar
Peachtree Road Farmers Market will host an ice cream social fundraiser on Saturday to benefit Rescued Crops to Feed Our Neighbors. Two tastings take place at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. inside Child Hall at The Cathedral of St. Philip on Peachtree. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for kids.
On Aug. 13, from 6-8 p.m., MODA (Museum of Design Atlanta) in Midtown will host Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate owners Elaine Read and Matt Weynadt for a talk on the chocolate company’s beginnings, sustainability mission, and how design factors into the business. The event is part of MODA’s current exhibit Bittersweet: The Design of Chocolate. Tickets for the Xocolatl event are $10 for MODA members and $15 for non-members.
Dining and Cooking