David Lewis essentially grew up in the kitchen of Bridgetown Grill, the Caribbean restaurant that was situated in the building that is now home to Porter Beer Bar in Little Five Points.
Owned by David’s father, Tony, and Jose “Joe” Lopez, the eatery served up jerk chicken, meat patties and other Caribbean staples from the early 1990s through the early 2000s.
Tony Lewis and Lopez moved on to other ventures, but when the pandemic hit, David, who wanted to move out of working in the television industry, thought it might be time for a reunion.
Credit: Wylie & Rum
Credit: Wylie & Rum
About 18 months ago, he tapped Lopez, who had since moved to Miami, to open a new restaurant in the same culinary spirit as Bridgetown Grill. Tony was resistant at first, but once he saw the food Lopez was turning out in the test kitchen, he came aboard.
“When you spend your formative years eating certain food every day, you fall in love with it,” David Lewis said.
The trio opened Wylie & Rum earlier this month at 45 Moreland Ave. in Reynoldstown.
Lopez, who moved with his family from Cuba to Miami when he was a baby, said many of the popular dishes from the Bridgetown Grill menu make appearances on the Wylie & Rum menu, including jerk chicken and “the very Atlanta” Black and White Soup that brings together Cuban black beans and spicy cheese. Guava BBQ Ribs, another older dish, was brought back “with the same flavors, but more zing,” Lopez said.
Credit: Wylie & Rum
Credit: Wylie & Rum
“We took some of the influences from Bridgetown and reworked them for today’s palette,” he said, with the addition of Caribbean bowls and vegan options like jackfruit.
Lopez said growing up in Miami, with a Cuban family and being raised by a woman with Jamican heritage “was a hodgepodge of different cultures. I was influenced a lot by who I went to school with and what they brough to the cafeteria.”
He said while Cuban and Caribbean flavors figure most prominently on the Wylie & Rum menu, there are also Mexican, Polynesian and even Thai influences, “everywhere the sun shines brightest.” The menu also offers kids options and several desserts, and weekend brunch dishes and hours are set to debut in the coming weeks.
Bar manager Blake Carter, previously of Midtown restaurant Bon Ton, recently started serving more than 30 kinds of rum and classic rum-focused Caribbean cocktails including mojitos, rum and coke, hurricanes, rum punch and mai tais, “stuff you’d see at Trader Vic’s downtown or if you sat down at a bar in St. Croix,” David Lewis said. “We’re not overly tiki, though. We’re more of a beach bar.”
Credit: Wylie & Rum
Credit: Wylie & Rum
The 2,600-square-foot building, previously home to a Western Union, took seven months to renovate. David Lewis said he and Lopez were initially skeptical of the location, but Tony Lewis “had a vision right away of what it could be. He was already building it in his eyes when he first saw it.”
David Lewis, who oversaw the aesthetics of the space, said he “wanted to give it the look and feel of 1950s Cuba,” with an old Ford truck cut in half and used as the counter at the front of the restaurant and weathered paint. Murals from local artists Tommy Bronx and Brian Steely add pops of color.
Wylie & Rum’s opening hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and noon-9 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant will host a grand opening weekend Sept. 15-18 with rum drink specials and a calypso band from 7-9 p.m. Sept. 17.
45 Moreland Ave. SE, Atlanta. wylieandrum.com.
Scroll down to see the full menu for Wylie & Rum:
Credit: Wylie & Rum
Credit: Wylie & Rum
Sign up for the AJC Food and Dining Newsletter
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
