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Legal Sea Foods drops anchor near Aquarium
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Legal Sea Foods drops anchor near Aquarium
A favorite Boston seafood joint is set to fly its sail next to the Georgia Aquarium downtown. Legal Sea Foods will open a 9,000-square-foot restaurant in the first two floors of the Hilton Garden Inn being constructed at 275 Baker St.
The first floor will feature Legal Sea Foods' Oyster/Lobby Bar, while the main restaurant will occupy the second floor.
The hotel and restaurant are scheduled to open next winter, and are part of a $200 million redevelopment of the area near downtown's newest attractions in Centennial Olympic Park.
The deal to bring the Boston staple -- with more than 30 restaurants already established on the Eastern seaboard -- was a joint effort by Legacy Property Group, which is developing the hotel and adjacent retail and restaurant space, the Atlanta Development Authority, which is funding part of the development, and the downtown boosters at Central Atlanta Progress.
Cheri Morris with Morris and Fellows Inc. also worked on the lease.
"We are delighted to welcome Legal Sea Foods to downtown Atlanta," said Mayor Shirley Franklin in a statement.
Legal Sea Foods was founded more than 50 years ago, and has won honors from Bon Appetit and Zagat, whose readers crowned it Boston's "best seafood restaurant."
Atlanta will be Legal Sea Foods' first Georgia location. The restaurant also has outposts in Florida, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Lunch entrees, like Legal's crab cakes, range from $12 to $15, while dinner starts at $15, going up to $40 for Alaskan king crab legs.
Mirko Pasta. Mirko di Giacomantonio, one of the co-founders of Figo Pasta, is creating his own restaurant concept.
A chef raised in the kitchens of his family's native Abruzzo on the central coast of Italy, di Giacomantonio recently opened his first Mirko Pasta at 2 South Main St. in Watkinsville. A second unit will open in Athens in about three months. The units are between 2,600 and 3,200 square feet.
A third eatery is planned for The Sembler Co.'s Town: Brookhaven project in 2009 and di Giacomantonio is looking for more locations in Atlanta.
The restaurant menu will include choices of pasta and sauces.
"I started this dream with Figo," said di Giacomantonio, who is 36. "My plan is just to continue my dream. Pasta is what I love to do, know how to do and what I always do."
Di Giacomantonio started cooking with his grandmother at a young age, and took his first restaurant job at age 15.
When he decided to travel the world, restaurant jobs allowed him to live in Belgium, France, Germany and Romania.
He moved the United States in 1994, and co-founded Figo with Sandro Romagnoli in 2002.
Di Giacomantonio will no longer be involved with Figo, while Romagnoli will remain at the helm of the small chain that has five locations. There is a lawsuit pending between the former partners, Romagnoli confirmed.
Hospitality highway. From Sandy Springs to Dahlonega, a new marketing alliance is pitching Georgia 400 as the "hospitality highway."
The alliance was formed by six tourism and business organizations: the Alpharetta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Roswell Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Cumming/Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce, the Dawsonville Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Dahlonega Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sandy Springs Hospitality & Tourism. The alliance was formed by six tourism and business organizations: the Alpharetta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Roswell Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Cumming/Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce, the Dawsonville Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Dahlonega Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sandy Springs Hospitality & Tourism.
It's funded by grants from the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the agency's Tourism Foundation.
The idea is to combine forces to make the area a leading tourist destination. The marketing pitch includes the idea that you can go from experiencing magnolias to Merlot and moonshine.
Other states have similarly promoted their corridors, like Alabama 90 along the Gulf Coast. Now open. LOLA Belini Bar and Restaurant, Tom Catherall's latest offering, is open in the new Terminus building in Buckhead. Designed by The Johnson Studio, the restaurant already has a busy lunch hour. The lure could be an antipasto bar with fresh pasta made by Chef Martin Burge, with more than 20 items daily.
Allegro, a new Italian restaurant, is open in Midtown at 560 Dutch Valley Road in the Belvedere condo complex. Chef Jose Rego, originally from Angola, was raised in Portugal and received culinary training in the United States. The owner is Alberto Fedeli. The cuisine is central Italian.
Also opening recently is Blackstone Café in Vinings. Adjacent to Blackstone Restaurant at 4686 South Atlanta Road in Smyrna, the lunch-only café features grilled salmon paninis for $8.50 and is adjacent to the upscale restaurant of the same name.
Atlanta Business Chronicle Friday, October 19, 2007 | ||
