J’ouvert Caribbean Kitchen and El Gordo will become the next restaurants to open at Uptown Atlanta. J’ouvert Caribbean Kitchen opens on March 20 along Main Street, with Mexican restaurant El Gordo following by the end of March.
Backed by Tasha Cyril, J’ouvert Caribbean Kitchen will be the Atlanta restaurateur’s most personal restaurant to date. Cyril also co-owns Belle & Lily’s Caribbean Brunch House, APT. 4B, and Ms. Icey’s Kitchen and Bar.
The restaurant takes its name from Cyril’s favorite Carnival festival in her native St. Lucia. J’ouvert typically takes place the Monday before Ash Wednesday. The menu also features a few dishes based on family recipes, like the restaurant’s oxtail stew.
Expect a variety of Caribbean street foods and other traditional dishes, including plates of 24-hour marinated and smoked jerk chicken, roti stuffed with curried pumpkin, mushrooms, and cauliflower, and Trinidadian doubles (flatbread sandwich with a curried chickpea filling). Brunch dishes will lean into Caribbean flavors, too, such as the passion fruit and mascarpone pancakes and Calypso chicken and waffles using chicken thighs accompanied by lemongrass honey and pickled vegetables.
As with Cyril’s other restaurants, look for live music throughout the week and drinks infused with ingredients like guava or with base spirits like St. Lucian rum.
Later this month, the owners behind Birria El Gordo will open El Gordo at Uptown Atlanta. The restaurant will serve Mexico City-style street tacos, the family’s popular birria, and dishes like tostadas. Expect tequila cocktails from the bar, a large patio facing Main Street, and live music from mariachi bands and DJs.
J’ouvert Caribbean Kitchen and El Gordo join 26 Thai Kitchen and restaurant incubator Uptown Test Kitchen at the complex. Bene Korean Steakhouse, White Windmill Bakery, and Madre Selva should all open later this summer at Uptown Atlanta.
Located adjacent to the Lindbergh MARTA Station, Uptown Atlanta encompasses 47 acres and comprises offices, retail, and restaurants. The development will eventually include connection points to the BeltLine, PATH400, and South Fork trail as well as community gathering spaces for live entertainment and a park.
Uptown Atlanta is part of a multi-million dollar revamp of the former Lindbergh City Center by Rubenstein Partners.