Former Midtown Gastropub Might Break the Curse at This Highland Avenue Space

Midtown gastropub The Barrelhouse, which closed on 5th Street in June for “summer vacation”, is reopening in the former (some say “cursed”) Cast Iron (Last Word, P’cheen) space on Highland Avenue across from Highland Bakery later this fall. Owner Jim Brooks confirmed the news on Thursday, saying he closed the Midtown location after seven years because the lease was up and it was an opportunity to move deeper into town.

Brooks, a resident of Grant Park for 20 years with a background in urban planning, has watched the corner of Highland Avenue and Sampson Street slowly transform over the last decade.

“There’s so much more foot traffic here now with the BeltLine, Inman Quarter...I love the location and the timing is right for this type of neighborhood hangout,” Brooks says of reopening the Barrelhouse in Old Fourth Ward.

The pub will still carry at least a dozen local beers on draft and serve the “signature” burgers for which the Barrelhouse has become known, in addition to steaks and other bar bites. Classic and barrel-aged cocktails and an “incredible bourbon program” are in the works, along with lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. A late night menu could see the Barrelhouse serving food until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Barrelhouse is planning shared tables inside with a large bar and several TVs as well as a “redesigned and reactivated” patio out front.

“I used to own the Graveyard Tavern [East Atlanta Village]. When we put shared tables in, people came to hang out,” says Brooks. “We want to be the living room for this neighborhood, a great hangout people can walk to.”

Field Day cafe and Everyday market, owned by Rob Bouton of Charleston’s Queen Street Grocery, will open across from the Barrelhouse in early September. The cafe and market are taking over the former Across the Street Mexican restaurant and its adjacent market on Highland Avenue.

701-5 Highland Avenue NE, Atlanta. barrelhouseatl.com.

• Old Fourth Ward’s Cast Iron on Highland Avenue Is Closing [EATL]
• Last Word Has Closed, Will Be Replaced by Evan Cordes’s Cast Iron [EATL]
• Old Fourth Ward’s P’cheen to Shutter [EATL]
• More Details on Cafe-Market Opening on Highland Avenue in September [EATL]