Owner of Aziza, Bellina Alimentari bringing Atrium to Ponce City Market

A rendering of the interior of Atrium at Ponce City Market. / Courtesy of Smith Hanes Studio

A rendering of the interior of Atrium at Ponce City Market. / Courtesy of Smith Hanes Studio

A new concept from the owner of several popular Atlanta restaurants is coming to Ponce City Market.

Restaurateur Tal Baum -- who owns Bellina Alimentari at Ponce City Market as well as Rina on the Eastside Beltline and Aziza and Falafel Nation in West Midtown -- is set to open Atrium this winter in Ponce City Market’s Central Food Hall.

The restaurant and bar will take over the space previously home to Brezza Cucina, which closed in 2020.

Joining Baum on Atrium will be executive culinary director Brandon Hughes and director of operations Josh Riddle.

Serving a “modern American menu with European influence,” according to a press release, Atrium “will feature seasonally driven, vegetable-forward” appetizers, crudo, light pastas and larger entrees.

Designed by Smith Hanes Studio, Atrium will be “eclectic and bright, with thoughtful design elements like bold florals, expansive tropical leaves and focal walls in a palette featuring pinks, greens and golds,” according to the release.

Rina Owner Tal Baum and Executive Chef Brandon Hughes. Photo credit- Mia Yakel.

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The space will feature a lounge separated from the rest of the restaurant and a 1,200 square-foot bar area with hand-painted tile by local artist Charlotte Smith and a mural from Savannah-based artist Kipper Millsap. The 4,000 square-foot main dining room will have large factory windows and floral installations by Atlanta-based floral artist Pinker Times, as well as large pink banquettes.

“I’m thrilled to bring another unique concept to Ponce City Market,” Baum said in a prepared statement. “All of our restaurants at Oliva represent chapters of my life and the various places in which I’ve lived. Rina, Aziza and Falafel Nation symbolize my early life and growing up in Israel; Bellina Alimentari is an ode to my years living in Italy, and Atrium is a manifestation of a current chapter experiencing the evolution of dining in America. We aim for the space to capture a great sense of community while serving as a reprieve for our guests.”

Baum founded Oliva Restaurant Group in 2015 with the opening of Bellina Alimentari at Ponce City Market, and followed with Aziza and Falafel Nation in 2019 and Rina in January 2020.

Atrium will join several other new eateries in Ponce City Market’s Central Food Hall, which is expanding with plans to add six new restaurants and retail shops.

The team behind Chai Pani Restaurant Group will open Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken, which will specialize in all-natural rotisserie chickens rubbed with Piri Piri or Herbs de Provence spice blends from sister company Spicewalla.

Vietvana, which specializes in phở and bánh mì, with rice noodles made in-house daily, will open its third metro Atlanta location inside the food hall.

A major expansion was announced for Ponce City Market in late 2020, with plans to add a four-story office building, additional shopping and dining space surrounding an outdoor courtyard and 400 units of what developer Jamestown described as “hospitality living.”

The existing development includes offices — more than 5,200 people work at Ponce City Market — and residential units in addition to dining and shopping.

Existing Ponce City Market food and beverage concepts include recently-opened Sweetgreen, Bar Vegan, Pizza Jeans and Eleven TLC as well as longer-term tenants like H&F Burger, Farm to Ladle, Marrakesh and Ton Ton.

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