The restaurant group behind Decatur eatery White Bull is bringing Amalfi Coast-inspired oyster bar Alici to Atlanta’s Eastside Beltline area next year.
Chef Pasquale “Pat” Pascarella’s Porchetta Group will open Alici in summer 2022 at 931 Monroe Drive in the Midtown Promenade development near Piedmont Park in Midtown. The restaurant will take over the space left vacant when FROGS Cantina closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve always wanted a restaurant on the Beltline and I think a lot of the other areas of the Beltline are overcrowded with restaurants, so we wanted to be somewhere kind of secluded,” Pascarella said in an email. “With the new re-development of the Midtown Promenade complex, we realized we’d be a great fit for the location.”
Alici’s Mediterranean-focused menu will feature seasonal seafood dishes, an extensive selection of oysters and rotating housemade pastas, risottos and socca (a gluten-free Italian chickpea pancake with various accompaniments).
The beverage program will specialize in bubbly wine, white wine and light reds sourced from coastal areas of Italy, as well as classic craft cocktails.
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The dining room will make guests “feel as though they are on an ocean-side terrace in Italy looking at the beautiful Amalfi coast line,” according to a press release, with a woodfire oven visible from the front door and an open oyster bar where guests will be able to watch the plating process of the oysters and crudos. The space will also feature large front windows and a back patio.
Alici, which will offer interior and outside seating for 110 guests, will serve lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.
The kitchen will be led by Pascarella, who opened White Bull, his first local concept in 2018 in Decatur. Italian restaurant Grana debuted in Piedmont Heights in March 2020, and Bastone, a wine-focused mozzarella bar, is set to debut early next year in West Midtown with Alex Bolduc signed on as executive chef and Ryan D’Amico coming over from Grana to serve as general manager.
Pascarella, who previously served as executive chef at West Midtown eatery the Optimist and worked in the kitchens of several Manhattan restaurants, also owned Italian restaurant Bar Sugo in Connecticut.
In addition to Alici, two other seafood-centric concepts are set to open next year on the Beltline. Michael Lennox, the owner of Muchacho and Ladybird Grove and Mess Hall, is set to open Seabird Oyster Bar, and Todd Richards, who owns Lake & Oak BBQ and Soul: Food & Culture will bring the Japanese-inspired Kuro to the area.
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