When Fresca Trattoria co-owner Lisa Myers was telling What Now Atlanta about the new Italian concept coming to Stone Mountain, the upcoming restaurant was inundated with packages.
“Oh, this is the espresso machine!” she said about one of the parcels.
Espresso is one of many items that will be served at the Italian eatery that will bring handmade pasta and top-notch wine to Stone Mountain.
Fresca Trattoria will be located at 1227 Rockbridge Road in suite 114, in Rockbridge Village. The Social Life Lounge and Bar was formerly located in the space. Gary Woodward (Wolf of Peachtree Street on Instagram) of JLL helped secure the lease.
Myers co-owns the restaurant with Manny Guerrero, the two bringing years of culinary experience and expertise to Fresca Trattoria. Myers worked at several Buckhead Life Restaurant Group concepts, baked pastries at Chops, and ran a catering company for 17 years. Guerrero was most recently the Executive Catering Chef with Rosendale Events.
“We think about food the same way,” Myers said. “We get where the other is coming from. You need to have the same food vision.”
The menu will include handmade pasta (the process of which customers will be able to view themselves), wood-fired pizzas, and decadent Instagram-worthy desserts. That espresso machine will help create affogato and cappuccinos. Coffee ice cubes will ensure that iced coffee drinks don’t get watered down.
The food options will change seasonally, with even more precision than the four-season calendar most of us are used to. A model popularized by an award-winning cookbook by Joshua McFadden, Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables, breaks down the yearly harvest into six seasons rather than four, a concept that will be appreciated at Fresca Trattoria.
“Sometimes things are at their best for only a month,” Myers said. “We will feature what is at its peak when it’s at its peak.”
Being a good neighbor is also intrinsic to the ethos of Fresca Trattoria. To reduce their carbon footprint and minimize food waste, they are using compostable to-go containers and partnering with Goodr, an Atlanta-based startup that aims to combat food insecurity by coordinating the delivery of a restaurant’s extra food to local organizations and those in need.
“It’s important to me to be a good neighborhood citizen,” Myers said.
Fresca Trattoria brings a total makeover to the space, featuring pops of pistachio green (an aesthetic which will go well with some of the pistachio-forward desserts on the menu), custom-built knotty pine tables and a bar made waterproof with an epoxy finish.
Myers said they are waiting on progress on the liquor license, shortly after which they will be ready to open. She hopes to be up and running well before the holiday season.
They are eager to get this menu out of their system, but Myers said they would love to open another concept down the road – not another Fresca Trattoria necessarily, but another restaurant.
“We have more to say,” she said.
