Quick Bites: Gilbert’s to close, Flip Burger opens, and more

Atlanta restaurant news

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  • COLLIN C. CHAPPELLE/CL FILE
  • Flip Burger Boutique opens fourth location in Poncey-Highland



Midtown mainstay Gilbert’s Cafe & Bar (219 10th St.) will shutter tonight after 14 years of service. On December 7, the restaurant will reopen as G’s, a “new American gastropub” offering comfort foods from executive chef Javier Viera. A variety of new offerings and rustic-industrial decor will update the 1,500-square-foot, Piedmont Park-side eatery, which will remain open seven days a week.

Flip Burger Boutique’s fourth location quietly opened at in Poncey-Highland last week, filling the vacancy left when fellow Richard Blais eatery HD1 shuttered in August. Boasting an open-air, rooftop patio, the modern burger concept is bringing a slew of new menu items to the neighborhood - inventive burgers and sides and liquid nitrogen milkshakes - but retains many of the HD1 favorites that were its predecessor’s biggest sellers.

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Chef Will Brown will open a new to-go-and-delivery concept, Will’s Way Creole Kitchen, Tuesday in the Sweet Auburn Historic District at 242 Auburn Ave. Brown says he targeted the area because of its connection to “Atlanta’s affluent black history,” with important neighboring attractions such as the Apex Museum, historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the forthcoming Atlanta Streetcar system. The short-order kitchen will sell traditional Creole dishes such as gumbo and beignets along with the chef’s signature line of spices, rubs, and soup starters.

The Hilton Atlanta’s 30th-floor restaurant, Nikolai’s Roof, is getting an update. The $1 million refresher of the 35-year-old, 7,500-square-foot restaurant will be unveiled in January, along with an updated menu from chef Stephanie Alderete, known for her expertise at blending American and Russian culinary influences.

Bluefin sushi has officially shuttered at 1829 Peachtree Road in Brookwood Hills, Tomorrow’s News Today reports. The anticipated closure of the six-year-old seafood lounge makes way for a new arrival by Octopus Bar chefs Nhan Le and Angus Brown. Lusca, their full-service seafood restaurant and raw bar, will open in the spring.

A new, 19th-century-inspired bar called Establishment recently opened at 3167-B Peachtree Road in Buckhead. Bedecked with gas lanterns and taxidermy, it serves dishes such as Delmonico steak with lodge-style truffle fries along with deconstructed dirty martinis, draft beer, and three DJ nights a week.

Posts on the Imperial’s Facebook page throughout the past week have indicated that the Oakhurst neighborhood pub is only days from opening, merely awaiting final licensing from the city of Decatur to serve patrons. Although it is about a year behind its originally projected debut, the restaurant had a successful test run on Sunday, revealing that everything is ready to go at 726 W. College Ave. once they have the green light.


Rapidly growing Emory Point (1727 Clifton Road) has just announced that yet another restaurant will be joining its roster. Chow Mei Mei, a Thai and Chinese stir-fry concept from the owners of Thai Spice at the Avenue Peachtree City and The Forum, will open in the second quarter of 2014.

The owners of Tin Lizzy’s are opening three new Buckhead restaurants in 2014. In addition to Smokebelly, their Southern barbecue restaurant debuting in March at 128 East Andrews Drive, Atlanta magazine reports that a pair of joint eateries will open in a 10,000-square-foot space at the corner of Peachtree Street and Buckhead Avenue on July 7. The Southern Gentleman, an old South-inspired gastropub, and the comparatively larger Gypsy Kitchen, an exotic fusion restaurant combining influences of Spain, Morocco, India, and Southeast Asia amid Moorish decor.

Tomorrow’s News Today has intel on the successor to Bocado owner Brian Lewis’s recently shuttered Buckhead pizza restaurant, STG Trattoria. Eli Zandman reports that New York-based pizzeria Don Antonio by Starita will soon open its second U.S. location in the ai3-designed space at 102 W. Paces Ferry Road.

Artisan kimchi and Korean barbecue steamed bun producer Simply Seoul Kitchen may be moving to Midtown. Eater Atlanta reveals that owner Hannah Chung has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $15,000 needed to secure space in a “highly anticipated Midtown development.” Until then, Simply Seoul Kitchen products can be found in various local farmers’ markets, Whole Foods Markets, Pine Street Market, and Rainbow Grocery.