Barcelona Westside Ironworks restaurant review - Atlanta, USA

What began as a small wine- and tapas-bar in 1996, albeit one that paid homage to restaurateur Sasa Mahr-Batuz’s years in Spain and Portugal, has grown into a tasty little American East Coast culinary empire with outposts in Georgia, Massachusetts, Washington D.C. area, and Connecticut.

The newest addition to the Barteca Restaurant Group just landed in Atlanta in a former ironworks foundry. Taking his design cues from a Bohemian neighbourhood that includes an artists’ community and farmer’s market, Mahr-Batuz has dreamed up an interior in which mid-century modern meets industrial.

Framed by large steel l-beams, a huge cantilevered flat roof, steel sash windows rescued from a factory in Queens, New York, the room is furnished with early 20th-century northern European furniture, a customized steel wine wall, wall panels made from old Worcestershire sauce barrels, and artwork and photography by Mahr-Batuz and his father.

In the kitchen, executive chef Benjamin Meyer cooks up a storm, ever with an eye to pairing options with the restaurant’s perky wine and spirits list. House specials include a chicken pimientos, and anything cooked a la plancha.

Mahr-Batuz and co-founder Andy Pforzheimer are so bullish about the Barcelona formula they're already all prepped to open two outlets in Nashville in the coming year.