Fawn, the highly anticipated wine and amaro bar from the team behind The Deer and the Dove and adjoining B-Side café, is set to open March 19.
A venture by husband and wife Terry and Jenn Koval, Fawn is located at 119 East Ponce de Leon Avenue, around the corner from its sister restaurants on Decatur Square.
“First and foremost, this is a wine and amaro bar,” said Terry Koval as he provided an early look at the 35-seat space that was formerly home to Sweet Seed Salad, Poke and Juice Bar and has undergone a complete renovation.
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
“I want the place to feel like a neighborhood haunt,” he said. “A small place where you can hang out with a glass of wine and a book, have a glass with friends, have a couple of small plates or enjoy all the small plates.”
Helming the beverage program is Matt Watkins, also beverage director at The Deer and the Dove.
“Matt is very passionate about amaro and has been with us since day one,” said Koval.
Watkins described the approach to beverages at Fawn as a “terroir-focused program featuring wines from volcanic soils that complement the seafood-focused menu, and amaro-driven cocktails that showcase the vast world of bitter spirits,” like the Flagship of the Fleet made with local Eno Amaro, dry vermouth and yuzu Curaçao, and a four-amari espresso martini.
The drink menu features four dozen amari, including three nonalcoholic versions, and Watkins plans to acquire more.
For his seafood-centric food menu, Koval, who took home the James Beard Award for best chef in the Southeast in 2023, said his aim was to get “the coolest and most interesting ingredients we can get our hands on.” This includes sourcing from small, family-run fisheries like Anchored Shrimp Co. in Brunswick, Bramlett Trout Farms in North Georgia and Sapelo Island Sea Farms clams.
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
The restaurant will also dry-age fish in-house, displaying it during the preserving process in a cabinet visible from the dining room.
Other menu highlights include California uni with sea grapes and trout roe; warm McIntosh oysters; pommes Macaire (a skillet-baked crispy potato cake) with smoked trout; caviar with uni chips; and clam escabeche.
“Our clam escabeche is something you would see in a tinned fish,” Koval said. “We pickled them and garnish with a little garlic chip, Castelvetrano olives and a sea cracker.”
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
Desserts by pastry chef Chris Marconi include amaro bonbons to pair with amaro flights, an orange chocolate tart and an affogato with coffee ice cream.
“Every chef has their own role and yet it’s a very collaborative process,” Koval said.
The “very collaborative process” was evidenced soon afterward when a chef approached Koval to ask, “Hey, we have all this milk we have been blanching garlic in for garlic chips. What if we made ricotta?”
“And now we are going to have ricotta on the menu,” Koval replied.
“I am just trying to find that balance between snacky but yet adventurous,” Koval said.
Eventually he plans add a tasting menu at the chef’s counter that will be available by reservation only.
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Wagoner
Fawn has a European feel to it, with cozy booths and 17 bar seats crafted by Bob Futterman, a local Decatur contractor who has built out other restaurant spaces including Brick Store Pub, Leon’s Full Service and Gene’s (as well as the Koval’s home porch).
“Our ethos is to put our dollars to folks within our community, so it circles back,” Koval said.
Walls are texturized for an Old World feel. Light sticks glimmer between old factory windows from England refurbished with antique glass.
“Every inch of detail is due to Jenn,” Koval said, including a doorknob from Ukraine, a nod to her family’s ancestry, and a painting of a girl holding a dove that hearkens to their first restaurant.
An aborted attempt to expose all of the original brick wall near the bar area of the century-old building turned out to be a happy accident: The two small sections of exposed brick resemble the shape of France and Italy — the two European countries depicted on Fawn’s wine and amaro menu.
“It was supposed to be more than this, but now we have France and a kind of backward Italy,” Koval joked.
Fawn’s operating hours will be 4-11 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays.
119 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur. 404-748-4937, fawnwineamaro.com.
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