By John Schaffner
johnschaffner@reporternewspapers.net
One of Buckhead’s old nightclubs is coming back, members of Neighborhood Planning Unit B were told recently.
The Buckhead Saloon operated in the Buckhead Village before developers began buying up businesses there with plans to replace them with The Streets of Buckhead mixed-use development.
The owners of the Buckhead Saloon say they are opening a new version of the saloon at 3227 Roswell Road, the former site of the old Rio Grande restaurant.
The company has been in business for 24 years, owner Jeffry Scott Bolhous said. It operated in the former Buckhead Village from 1995 to 2005 as a nightclub.
That is where the company started, but it branched out. It operated 10 establishments in other states as Buckhead Saloons and The Lodge Bars.
The new Buckhead Saloon is more of a sports bar, serving 50 percent food and 50 percent alcoholic beverages, Bolhous told the board of Neighborhood Planning Unit B during its July 6 meeting. The new saloon will feature 20 flat-screen TVs and a couple of big-screen TVs.
The Buckhead Saloon is operating at the new location under a temporary license from the city and state. The company’s application for a liquor license was approved unanimously by the board.
In a separate action, Mounir Barhoumi, his wife and daughter appeared before the NPU board seeking approval of a liquor license for a new Mediterranean cuisine restaurant, named La Fouchette, the family plans to open in September at 3133 Piedmont Road, the former location of Café Dupree.
The restaurant plans to serve dishes typical of the south of France and Italy, including “a lot of fish,” he said. The restaurant will only be open for dinner Monday through Saturday and will have valet parking.
It was suggested to Barhoumi that he meet with the Peachtree Park neighborhood behind the restaurant, since the former Café Dupree had generated a lot of noise complaints from that neighborhood.
The third new business license request to come before the board was for the Ritz Carlton—not the hotel, but the Ritz Carlton Residences at 3630 Peachtree Road. The Ritz Carlton Residences plans to have a two-story amenities area for condo owners where residents can get cocktails and be served dinner. The condos will not have a full operating kitchen, only an area for final preparation. The area is not open to the public.
The Ritz Carlton Residences consists of 129 upscale condominium units. Company representative Jonathan McGaven said there are contracts on 19.
Also on the agenda and approved was an application by Michael Sard for a special exception from zoning regulations to reduce the on-site parking requirement at 34 Irby Avenue from 88 spaces to 21 spaces and to allow for off-site parking for 67 spaces within 500 feet of what will become a restaurant and bar.
The 67 spaces contracted for by Sard through a parking company are located on the lower level parking deck for the Whole Foods Market on West Paces Ferry Road.
The 6,600-square-foot building is being converted into a eating and drinking establishment that will derive more than 60 percent of its gross income “from the sale of malt beverages, wine and/or distilled spirits,” according to the application. That size and type of establishment is required to have 88 parking spaces available.
The application was approved unanimously.