Two Restaurant Openings Bring Beachside Vibes and Food to Dunwoody and Alpharetta

Seafood restaurant Message in a Bottle to opens at Village Dunwoody

Dash Hospitality, the group behind Morty’s Meat and Supply and Barn Booze and Bites, just opened a new restaurant at Village Dunwoody. Message in a Bottle, described as a restaurant serving “superior seafood and sailor spirits,” opened for dinner over the weekend. It’s fashioned after beach restaurants like Shunk Gulley Oyster Bar in Santa Rosa and the Fish House in Pensacola, both in Florida, and Cottage Cafe in Bethany Beach, Delaware. Seating is available in the dining room and on the screened porch.

The menu features raw bar selections, including blue crab louis, shrimp cocktail, and oysters, as well as gumbo, bowls of steamed mussels, and entrees of fried fish, seafood-laden pasta, and Maine lobster pot pie. Look for lighter red wines and seafood-friendly white wines, along with cocktails with a coastal theme in tiki, Caribbean, and rum and tequila drinks. Message in a Bottle is open for dinner, with weekend brunch beginning in December.

Message in a Bottle

Beachside street food restaurant Rina opens at Avalon

Tal Baum (Aziza, Atrium) opens Rina at Avalon. It’s the second location of the Atlanta restaurant known for its mezze, hummus, pita sandwiches, falafel, and kebabs paired with frozen cocktails and boozy milkshakes. Lunch and dinner are available daily, along with the option to order food and drinks via a to-go counter inside and a takeout window outside.

Billed as a “breezy beachside oasis,” Rina is named for Baum’s grandmother, the person she credits for her passion for cooking. She’s also the inspiration behind the design and menu for Rina, with food taking cues from family recipes and childhood favorites Baum enjoyed at beach cafes and street vendors in Tel Aviv. The falafel recipe is based on those served at a falafel and street food stand the family owned during the 1950s.

Baum opened Rina three years ago at the Ford Factory Lofts along the Eastside Beltline trail on Ponce De Leon Avenue in Atlanta. The opening in Alpharetta not only marks an expansion of Rina, but the first restaurant Baum has opened outside the city of Atlanta.

Take a look at the menu for Rina below:

Angie Webb