Tag: Michael Lennox

When Muchacho first opened along the Atlanta Beltline and Memorial Drive, it became known as a place shaped as much by its surroundings as by its menu. That site, housed in a 100‑year‑old train depot, set the tone for how the brand approaches expansion: start with the bones of a building, then let the space tell the story. The newly opened Muchacho West Midtown follows that same philosophy.

Electric Hospitality founder Michael Lennox is known for his innovative establishments. Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall was one of the first restaurant-bars to fully embrace outdoor space along the BeltLine. Muchacho lures passersby at...

With the BeltLine running right behind it, Michael Lennox knew the concept would need to appeal to a daytime crowd, as well as evening. Called Strangers in Paradise, it transports guests back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, taking them to a resort bar, perhaps somewhere in South Florida. “We thought it’d be fun to play around with the resort drink universe, where people are trying to escape their day-to-day lives. These are juice-forward, colorful drinks,” he says.

Popular BeltLine watering hole Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall launches a new bar-within-the-bar tomorrow. Called Ranger Station, the new cocktail bar is a spinoff of Ladybird, featuring its own food and beverage menus and a unique atmosphere.

Get ready for a new cocktail and raw bar on the BeltLine's Eastside Trail, a new Muchacho in Decatur, a burrito bus, and more.

“The last year has been pretty challenging industry-wide for full-service dining,” Lennox says. “Muchacho has been showing consistent growth for the last couple years. It was bursting at the seams. Golden Eagle was moving in the other direction.”

If you were to cram the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s into a blender, you’d end up with something close to this self-styled “diners club.” Golden Eagle shouldn’t be taken too seriously as a restaurant, but it’s also more than a nostalgia-themed hot spot appealing to millennials’ love of vintage.

Muchacho, one of the two new restaurants from Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall owner Michael Lennox to open in the former H. Harper Station space, brings some solid barbacoa and al pastor tacos to Memorial Drive.

Michael Lennox, founder of the popular BeltLine hangout Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall, will revive the 904 Memorial Drive space as not one, but two restaurants.

In our car-centric city, the Atlanta BeltLine has been a game changer, and restaurant owners know that more than anyone. On Thursday, chef Kevin Rathbun (Kevin Rathbun Steak, Rathbun’s, Krog Bar, and KR Steakbar), Michael Lennox (Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall), and BeltLine designer Ryan Gravel of Perkins Will will lead a discussion about the impact of urban development on restaurant design at a sold-out event called Dining + Design.