Midtown is getting a Café Lucia.
The breakfast, lunch, and brunch concept will be situated in a 1,300-square-foot corner space of the recently-opened Piedmont House apartment highrise, at 205 12th Street NE.
Husband and wife team David and Brittany Jackson, along with David’s father Gary White, are behind the community-centric restaurant.
Café Lucia Midtown is currently in the permitting process with the City of Atlanta.
Once permits are approved, the concept could open in as early as 30 to 40 days, David Jackson Friday told What Now Atlanta in a telephone interview.
Appealing to the “younger demographic” in the Midtown area, the interior of the Piedmont House Café Lucia will offer a “more traditional modern feel,” according to Jackson.
A wrap-around patio area with “a lot of outdoor seating kind of like the nearby Einstein’s” will offer built-in tables and chairs creating a “lounge-like feel.”
The fresh, never-frozen menu is still being “tweaked” but will offer the restaurant’s classics like Sweet Potatoes Pancakes, Cinnamon French Toast, and Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast, all served with homemade brown sugar butter.
Other breakfast items will be “create-your-own” in an effort to keep everything “real custom.”
For lunch, think Chicken Salad Sandwiches and Turkey BLTs.
“We source our ingredients from local bakeries and delis,” Jackson said. “We’ll only use the freezer for our Highroad ice cream.”
On the libation side of things, Café Lucia will offer mimosas and a bloody mary bar.
Beer will be from local microbreweries like Dry County in Kennesaw, liquor will come from small distilleries, and wine from wineries that you “can’t buy in the grocery store.”
“You won’t find Yellowtail [wine] here.”
Coffee, sourced from a local roaster in South Atlanta at least three times per week, will also be a key component.
“The roaster does not like publicity so I can’t tell you who it is,” Jackson said.
The tentative hours of operations—subject to business volume—will be 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Friday 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday 8 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Each Café Lucia supports a different charity and cause.
The Piedmont House location will help victims of sex trafficking and domestic violence, as well as displaced LGBTQ youth.
“We don’t call people customers, we call them guests because guests come to your house to eat and drink with you. We’re not trying to be a Starbucks where we’re turning and burning. We build relationships.”
A fourth and fifth Café Lucia—the locations can’t be revealed at the moment because of NDAs—will open in 2019.
The second location debuted in Smyrna on December 8, 2017. The original downtown location opened its doors on May 24, 2016.
