Art & Antique Bazaar to reopen as “East Atlanta’s nicest restaurant.”
When we think of dining in the East Atlanta Village (EAV), a few words come to mind: bar food, grungy and smokey, to name a few.
Ben Rhoades, owner of MJQ and Bookhouse Pub, is about to change all of that– or, so says he.
“We’re opening a nicer restaurant than anything else in East Atlanta Village,” Rhoades said in an interview Monday.
Nicest in EAV? Don’t set the bar too high for yourself, Rhoades.
Renovating a 7,500-square-foot space on Flat Shoals in EAV, Rhoades and MJQ managers Armando Celentano and Donald Durant, are in the process of transforming the former East Atlanta Art and Antique Bazaar into a “Brooklyn-style” restaurant– the trio filed a building permit with the city last month for a commercial conversion.
So what’s a “Brooklyn-style” restaurant?
“You can order food being cooked outside, at the bar, or from a waiter,” Rhoades said.
Think of it as an informal dining experience, Rhoades explained: you can order from the bar and then eat outside or sit down at a table, order and then move to a lounge or sofa seat.
Does make us wonder how they’ll keep up with tips.
Rumors abound suggested that the EAV restaurant would be part restaurant, part nightclub. Rhoades told What Now Atlanta that the new restaurant will never be a nightclub or even have live music.
“If you put a sports bar on one end of the spectrum and and a nightclub on the other, our current project is closer to the sports bar side,” Rhoades said. “We’re not in the nightclub mood anymore.”
Rhoades hopes to open the restaurant in time for the East Atlanta Strut on September 17, but said it’s unlikely.
“It will be open when it’s open,” Rhoades said.
“Brooklyn-style restaurant”
470 Flat Shoals Avenue SE
Atlanta GA, 30316
