Seven Lamps’ Drew van Leuvan and Grain’s Billy Streck team up for Tavernpointe

Opening scheduled for the second week in July
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Tavernpointe partners from left: Billy Streck, Drew Van Leuvan, Jeff Newsham, Rob Caswick, and Dave Pazienza

Courtesy of Green Olive Media

The former LPC and La Pietra Cucina space straddling Buckhead and Midtown has turned over yet again. Drew van Leuvan, executive chef and owner of Seven Lamps, and Billy Streck—co-owner of Grain, Cypress Street Pint & Plate, and the upcoming Hampton & Hudson—have taken the reigns to create a neighborhood tavern called Tavernpointe. Restaurateurs Jeff Newsham, Rob Caswick, and Dave Pazienza are also partners in the endeavor.

The team has hired Conor O’Reilly, previously sous chef at Seven Lamps, as chef de cuisine, and come mid-July, will be serving weekday lunch, weekend brunch, and nightly dinner. They’ll balance the usual burgers and tacos with house-made pasta and smoked Peruvian-style meats and are considering making their bread in-house. Located in the Peachtree Pointe building at 1545 Peachtree Street, Tavernpointe will have an industrial feel with wood floors, a custom bar, and a 2,500-square-foot patio. Streck filled us in on the details below.

Tell me about the menus.

Drew designed them in harmony with each other. Lunch is geared toward business and grab-and-go. It scales up from there to be more involved at dinner with bar snacks, appetizers, shared items, entrees, and desserts. Brunch is similar to lunch with the added breakfast selection. We’ll have freshly baked goods for brunch, fresh juices—kiwi, apple, cucumber, and ginger—yogurt, and strawberry Johnny cakes. We’ll have a daily chef’s soup, and heirloom tomato and summer melon salad. The idea is to have a little bit for everybody.

At lunch, we’ll have more sandwiches, like chopped beef brisket and fish tacos. Drew loves his pastas so we’ll have a couple pasta dishes on there, plus a trout or a haddock or something.

For dinner, we’ll have oysters on the half shell. The snacks will be more in depth as well—black mission figs, grilled Georgia shrimp cocktail, meats and cheeses, and shareables like clay pot peas and baked mac ‘n cheese. Drew’s really excited about smoked Peruvian style meats—beef brisket and whole smoked Springer Mountain chicken. We’ll also do a Kansas City steak and grilled duck breast.

Where did you get your inspiration?

During the research phase, Drew turned his focus to common tavern themes from the turn-of-the-century to modern day. It’s basically an inviting, comfortable atmosphere with really good food and drinks. We want to sit in the middle of a neighborhood pub and a high-end restaurant

Drew fell in love with smoking meats South American-style. He loves the fiery chiles, the fresh herbs, and the vinegars he uses to bring out the natural flavors in the fresh meats. It’s just one element that makes this menu so great.

What kind of cocktails will be offered?

Madison Burch (from Seven Lamps) will be the beverage director. We wanted to give her the opportunity to showcase what she does best. We’ll have a great Manhattan, Caipirinhas, Vieux Carre (a mix between a Manhattan and a sazerac), and specialty cocktails using bell peppers, strawberries, and Earl Grey with spirits, homemade syrups, and bitters. We’ll have a couple of cocktails on draft—maybe a bourbon Arnold Palmer or a negroni—and one spirit on draft. We want it to be very approachable.

What beers will be on tap?

We’ll have thirteen taps with Dogfish Head, Bell’s Two Hearted, Founders, Creature Comforts, Allagash, and Three Taverns, with a good range of IPAs, lagers, sours, and stouts.

Madison wants to do a good international program for wine. We’ll probably have fifty to sixty wines with a good selection by the glass.

Home to a number of failed restaurants in recent years, the Tavernpointe space is considered by many to be doomed. Why did you choose this location?

There are a lot of great neighborhoods around there. Plus there’s a lot of businesses near that building. We’ll be focusing a lot on lunch. This is not a late night place. We want to focus on the community. There’s a lot of new construction going on there. There’s WSB, the hospital, Invesco. Everything there in the past has been higher brow or a high price point. We want this to be that neighborhood tavern.

There’s also a great little theater in the building called Synchronicity. It’s a cool little playhouse. It’s small and cozy. We’re going to team up with them a lot to do fun little things—maybe bring in a singer-songwriter and have a dinner or something.

Anything else we should know?

One of the big questions people have is where to park. There’s valet in back of the building during the day and at the far left entrance visible from the road at night.

This is going to be a kid-friendly place. We’ll have craft sodas and ice-cream floats.

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