Courtesy of Third & Urban
Courtesy of Third & Urban
The latest in a series of new Westside developments—the Interlock, Star Metals, the Works—Westside Paper (950 West Marietta Street) announced its first four restaurant tenants: Boxcar Betty’s, Glide Pizza, Girl Diver, and Pancake Social. Located across from the King Plow Arts Center and adjacent to Puritan Mill, Westside Paper encompasses 15 acres with a focus on a 1950s warehouse. Developed by Third & Urban and FCP, Westside Paper is a 245,000-square-foot mixed-use project. Here’s what you can expect:
Opening in early summer 2022, Boxcar Betty’s is a casual chicken sandwich restaurant with locations in Charleston, Charlotte, and Chicago. At 2,000 square feet, the first Atlanta location will offer counter service with about 14 seats inside and 16 on the patio.
The menu is simple: chicken sandwiches, tenders, a burger, salad, and sides. Everything is made from scratch using local ingredients when possible. The chicken is antibiotic-, hormone-, and cage-free and brined in a special blend of sugar, salt, and spices for depth of flavor.
“Our menu is very simple and straightforward. We try to do one thing and do it really well,” cofounder Roth Scott says.
The signature sandwich comes with pimento cheese, peach slaw, pickles, and spicy mayo atop fried or grilled chicken or a pimento-stuffed portobello mushroom. The “Chicken Not So Waffle” features bacon jam, maple syrup, pimento cheese, and tomato. Sides include fried pickles, fried pickled green tomatoes, and sweet potato fries.
Despite the name, Boxcar Betty’s is not located in a converted boxcar.
“The original plan was to put it in an area with a lot of trains, but that fell through, and we just liked the alliteration,” Scott explains.
The Westside Paper location, will however, reflect that spirit through the use of reclaimed wood and industrial-style fixtures.
Launched in Irwin Street Market just off the BeltLine’s Eastside Trail, Glide Pizza offers New York-style slices and pies to-go. Opening in summer 2022, the new location at Westside Paper will “still be very to-go-centric,” founder Rob Birdsong says. It will have counter service, approximately eight barstools, and some sort of takeout window, the details of which have yet to be determined.
“There are a lot of offices nearby. I understand the need for people to have accessible food and scurry back to their desks,” Birdsong says.
Though the menu will be similar to Glide’s current offerings, Birdsong says he hopes to add some new pizza toppings and begin offering salad. Glide Westside will also serve beer and wine—something not available at Irwin Street.
The new location will also allow Glide to expand its delivery program, operated by bicycles.
“This is really important to us. We are always looking for exciting neighborhoods, and we see [the Westside] as an opportunity to develop that part of our business,” Birdsong says. “Our pizza holds up really well at home. It’s a good travel pizza.”
Glide will open an additional location inside Inner Voice Brewing in Decatur in early 2022.
Courtesy of Third & Urban
Restaurateur and chef Richard Tang is opening the second location of his Vietnamese restaurant Girl Diver in mid-summer or late fall. Nearly 1,000 square feet larger than the Reynoldstown spot, Girl Diver Westside will have two patios and a second-floor veranda.
The food and drinks will be similar to that of the original—crispy Brussels, fried beef dumplings, pad prik king, shaking beef—but the design and decor will be different.
“I’m super proud of Girl Diver. It’s not your traditional Vietnamese pho house. It’s more than that,” Tang says. “I grew up with a lot of this food—it’s my mom’s recipes.”
On the second floor, the new restaurant will feature a private events space with a bar.
“[The neighborhood] is different. The people are different. The environment is different. My last properties were smaller and a little more boutique-y,” Tang says.
Anne Quatrano (Bacchanalia), Tony Riffel (formerly of Octane Coffee), Dan Jacobson (formerly of Chick-fil-A), and Steven Chan (Tin Drum Asian Kitchen) opened Pancake Social at Ponce City Market in 2019. This all-day breakfast spot serves eggs, waffles, and lunch sandwiches, in addition to pancakes. Come June 2022, Jacobson, Riffel, and Chan—note the loss of Quatrano, who is focusing on her other restaurants—will open a second, slightly smaller location at the front of Westside Paper.
“We love the Westside,” Jacobson says. “It’s always been on our radar through Tony and the original Octane and all the development that’s going on there. Anne has been very successful on the Westside, too.”
The menu at Westside Paper will be very similar to that at Ponce City Market, with the addition of more healthy bowls and lunch items. There will also be extra beverage options, including iced and shaken espresso drinks, such as macchiato, plus mocktails and juices. Brunch cocktails like mimosas and Bloody Marys will remain the same.
“We want to improve the coffee experience. We’ve always had the dream of being a restaurant coffeehouse,” Jacobson says. “So, we’re making the front part of the restaurant feel like a standalone—a brand within the brand.”
The coffeehouse area will have a counter where customers can order pastries and drinks to-go or to be enjoyed at the stools and tall tables. Further in, the dining room will look like that at Ponce City Market with space for 50. Glass garage windows can be rolled up during nice weather to open up the space to the patio.
As for the rumored Pancake Social at Pinewood Forest? Jacobson says the timing wasn’t good, but he’s still looking at other locations around Atlanta.
