Acclaimed Miami Chef Santiago Gomez only recently opened his first Atlanta restaurant, Palo Santo, last month. The intimate supper club features a blend of Japanese and Mexican flavors and features a cool rooftop bar on Marietta Street. Upscale Palo Santo has created a buzz since its arrival, and Gomez has already started working on building a new menu for his next venture in the city. This time, he is keeping it more casual.
El Santo Gallo is set up open during the spring of 2023 in the Westside Paper development. And according to Gomez, who spoke to What Now Atlanta in a recent interview, the new restaurant will be a traditional taqueria, where the menu is kept very simple, and the tacos are prepared in the traditional Mexican style. Gomez says guests can expect freshly chopped salsas and handmade corn tortillas, as well as a bar with tequila, mescal, and natural wines.
Gomez will be opening the venture with his business partner, Felipe Rivera, who, alongside Eduardo Rivera, helped debut the chef at Palo Santo.
The venue itself will feature a “modern ambiance,” Gomez said. The new Westside Paper building is a historic 70-year-old property that offers a mix of modern industrial office and retail space on the Atlanta BeltLine. It will be home to many new restaurants and breweries, including El Santo Gallo’s neighbors Elsewhere Brewing and King of Pops bar. The retail is nearly 90% leased, with only one space remaining, according to a recent press release.
“The Westside is the place to be right now,” Gomez said. “All our neighbors are cool concepts. I believe in that area, and it’s a cool space.”
The Westside Paper development is located at 950 West Marietta Street, across from the King Plow Arts Center and adjacent to Puritan Mill. The historic building is under construction by Third & Urban and FCP and includes 245,000 square feet of mixed-use space focused around a 1950s paper warehouse.
According to its website, the project is within walking distance to the core of West Midtown and anticipates opening the first phase in early 2023.
