Beach Bar Vibes Meet Atlanta’s Industrial Past on the Beltline at Breaker Breaker

“It all started with this unique property and 200-plus-feet of Beltline frontage. It’s long and narrow and the developer couldn’t build townhomes on it. A restaurant made sense,” says Alex Brounstein of opening Breaker Breaker on a skinny slip of land formerly part of the Stein Steel property along the Eastside Beltline.

“I like that people call the Beltline beachfront property, because it’s weirdly our boardwalk and our beachfront,” Brounstein adds.

With a location of their other restaurant Grindhouse Killer Burgers just up the road on Memorial Drive, Brounstein and partner Johnny Farrow latched onto the beachfront comparison in Reynoldstown for this next restaurant. Think of Breaker Breaker as a trailside respite, where people pull up on foot or by bike for drinks and a grouper sandwich or fried fish basket before continuing on their way. Like the beach bars and seafood shacks dotting the Gulf Coast, Farrow says Breaker Breaker offers the same laidback atmosphere of similar places he grew up around in Naples, Florida.

The design by Elizabeth Ingram efficiently maximizes space indoors, with banquette seating running along the walls in the tiny dining room. A bar opens to the outside for a more spacious feel. Warm wood paneling, soft blues, big windows allowing for plenty of natural light, and accents like mid-century pool tiles keep the design casual, clean, and approachable. Most of the seating (all of which is covered) is outside on the 100-seat patio between railings overlooking the Beltline, high-tops and tables, and a counter.

Brounstein and Farrow retained some items from the Stein Steel property to use in the design for Breaker Breaker. The large yellow crane that sits high above the entrance was once used to pick up steel beams and run them up and down the length of the property to manufacture into ceilings joists. Other reclaimed odes to the old steel plant include the front of a semi-truck, a door from one of the Stein Steel delivery vehicles bolted to a wall outside, and a mural of a construction worker pulled from another building on the property and remounted at Breaker Breaker. Partner and real estate developer Merritt Lancaster, who first alerted Brounstein and Farrow to the Stein Steel property, offered up the idea to move a steel canopy from one of the original warehouses to provide shade for the patio.

Breaker Breaker is where Atlanta’s industrial past meets the breezy vibes of the beach — and it works.

A covered rooftop sports bar, possibly called Florida Man, will open in the next few months above the restaurant. As with the rooftop patios at Grindhouse locations across Atlanta, it will be 21+ and feature multiple televisions. There will also be a bridge built between the Beltline and Breaker Breaker and additional bike parking.

“We learned fast over the soft opening weekend that we need way more bike parking, so we’re working on meeting that need,” Brounstein says.

Chef Maximilian Hines, formerly of the Lawrence and founder of supper club Stolen Goods, leads the kitchen at Breaker Breaker. Like the design, food carries a coastal theme. Rather than focus on just the Gulf Coast, Hines channels other eastern ports of call in his dishes, including New Orleans and his upbringing in Maryland. Look for everything from a blackened grouper sandwich and Gulf fish ceviche to a Cajun shrimp boil and fried vegan calamari. The latter is one of Hines’s signature dishes at Breaker Breaker, which sees hearts of palm shaped like rings of calamari and fried enoki mushrooms meant to resemble tentacles. It’s served with a sweet chili sauce.

People can order at the walk-up window on the patio or receive full service in the dining room and bar. For folks popping by for drinks, consider the frozen take on the Mexican dessert mangonada called Mucho Nada with mango vodka, mango puree, chamoy, and a tajin rim or the Lot Lizard spritz with limoncello muddled with basil topped with sparkling wine and soda. Order a banana ice cream sandwich for the road.

Take a look inside (and outside) at Breaker Breaker. Check out the menu here.

Open Wednesday - Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

921 Wylie Street, Atlanta. breakerbreakeratl.com.