Chef Jarrett Stieber’s ‘Dream’ Restaurant Finally Opens This Month in Summerhill

Little Bear, the restaurant from Eat Me Speak Me pop-up chef Jarrett Stieber, debuts on Georgia Avenue in Summerhill Wednesday, February 26. The chef posted the opening news to Facebook late Friday afternoon.

“It’s honestly a dream come true and doesn’t even feel real. I’ve wanted to open a restaurant since I started cooking professionally as a 15 year old, and Little Bear itself has been in the works for six and a half years,” Stieber tells Eater Atlanta about finally opening Little Bear. “As I work in the space setting things up, I just look around and can’t believe how lucky I am to have had so many people believe in me, and in this restaurant, and how many badass people have helped build the place.”

The neighborhood restaurant features a menu of approximately 13 shareable dishes, ranging from $7 to $13 broken out into hot, cold, and sweet sections on the menu. Like Eat Me Speak Me, Stieber says the menu changes weekly, as most ingredients are locally sourced and seasonal.

Little Bear, named for Stieber’s Pyrenees mountain dog, Fernando, includes around 30 seats between a row of ten two-top tables set along a banquette, a ten-seat bar, and a front window rail where people can lounge with drinks and snacks.

“We want Little Bear to feel very welcoming and comfortable, like we tried to do with Eat Me Speak Me,” Stieber told Eater in August. “At the core, this place is going to simply be a neighborhood restaurant where people can have a great time.”

General manager and bartender Kate Flowe (Watchman’s Seafood and Spirits, Kimball House, Staplehouse, Octopus Bar) plans to offer natural and bio-dynamic wines by the glass and bottle, classic-inspired and low alcohol cocktails, and a small selection of food-friendly beers and ciders on draft and in bottles and cans. Handshake-sized pours of eau de vies, digestifs, and cordials comprise the after-dinner drinks menu.

Reservations can be requested via email for parties of two to no more than six people. The bar is first come, first served.

Little Bear

Little Bear joins Junior’s Pizza, Woods Chapel Barbecue, Halfway Crooks Beer, and Little Tart Bakeshop and Big Softie in Summerhill. Still to open this year along Georgia Avenue are Maepole, How Crispy Express sandwich counter, Concept, Redacted, Hot Dog Pete’s and Hero Doughnuts, D Boca N Boca, and game bar Press Start.

Former Thai food pop-up Talat Market, owned by chefs Parnass Lim Savang and Rod Lassiter, opens on Ormond Street in the neighborhood this spring.

Open Wednesday - Sunday, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

71 Georgia Avenue, Atlanta. littlebearatl.com.

• Sip Natural Wines and Eau de Vies at This Upcoming Summerhill Restaurant [EATL]
• The Most Anticipated Restaurants Opening in Atlanta, Winter 2020 [EATL]
• A Neighborhood Breakdown of Atlanta Restaurants Planning to Open in 2020 [EATL]