Walking into Atlas Tavern’s forthcoming addition, a massive greenhouse space set to open this July, feels like stepping into an enchanted forest. Lush greenery is met with colorful decor and lighting that feels almost surreal. Located in the heart of Buckhead and connected to the indoor dining room in the St. Regis hotel in Atlanta, the space comes from the Johnson Studio at Cooper Carry.
“Atlanta has nothing else like this. It really will transport you somewhere else,” says Anna McGrady Miller, director of interior design at the Johnson Studio at Cooper Carry. “It transitions well from day to night, from tea and mimosas to candlelit dinners.”
The 3,000-square-foot solarium is designed to be a relaxed companion to Atlas Tavern’s indoor side, Atlas Restaurant, which has been in the St. Regis Hotel for five years. The indoor side features a rotating art collection, with pieces by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and other masters cycling in and out. The fine-dining restaurant has been well received, though the bar can often be cramped.
Tavistock Restaurant Collection decided to transform the patio to give guests a little variety. “We started dreaming up ideas, thinking of it as a conservatory, a solarium, or some kind of enclosed greenhouse space,” McGrady Miller says. “We wanted it to be a magical place in which to dine.”
Some of the project’s biggest challenges, which necessitated a two-year construction timeline, included ensuring effective climate control and fabricating the custom steel-and-glass building. The structure features a curved glass roof and window-like walls that open and stack backwards.
An enormous tree towers over the bar. Its opaque, iridescent, coin-shaped leaves are designed to flutter in the slightest breeze. “It comes up out of the middle of the bar. It's not a tree that you would find in nature, but rather in a fantasy,” McGrady Miller explains. While the trees are fabricated, the live flowers, orchids, palms, ivy, and green plants were curated and landscaped by Boxwoods Gardens & Gifts.
The restaurant shares a plaza with other eateries, including Umi and its Tom Dixon–designed bar, Himitsu; King + Duke; and Chops Lobster. “We imagined creating this bar at the end of the plaza as a beacon,” says McGrady Miller. “If you're walking by and see Atlas Tavern, you’re drawn toward it.”
