Monday, January 7, 2008
News / Restaurants Stella Trattoria to open in February
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Mon, Jan 7, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I recently mentioned the appearance of a sign announcing Stella Neighborhood Trattoria on the new Oakland Park condo building at 563 Memorial Drive in Grant Park. It turns out that the restaurant, which should open some time in February, is a project of the same folks who own Doc Chey's and Osteria 832 in Virginia-Highland. I'm no fan of the former but I like the latter's inexpensive no-frills pasta and pizza. So Grant Central Pizza is going to have some serious competition.
The new restaurant is across from Oakland Cemetery, which, by the way, it has renamed "Oakland Park cemetery" in its advertising, perhaps to make it less funereal. I wrote an article on the cemetery years ago and its original name was the Atlanta Graveyard. Perhaps it was called Oakland Park at some point; I don't know. It certainly functioned like a park in the late 1800s.
Even weirder, I couldn't find a single mention on the website of the condo development itself that it faces the picturesque cemetery — not even in its description of the location. Meanwhile, up the road, Six Feet Under's name giddily exploits the location.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
I hate that condo development. One of the great things about Oakland Cemetery is how from the middle of it, you often can't see the city encroaching in any kind of way except the stacks of the old Cabbagetown factory (now lofts). I love the feeling that you are almost transported back in time. But now those condos tower over the wall, a big ugly block of modern yuk. I can't believe the Grant Park historical folks let it happen.
like
dislike
I see your point about the condo design being inconsistent with the older buildings and houses in the Grant Park area, but I was nonetheless pleased to read that it received the highest LEED rating possible. It's exciting to see high profile green building going on in the city. I'm sure that the mid-century buildings that house Ria's and Six Feet Under were thought to clash with the Victorian-era homes behind them decades ago, but today all of those structures mesh well within the multifaceted character of a vibrant old neighborhood. I love both modern design and density in urban neighborhoods, so I'm biased. It would be a different matter, though, if a condo tower was looming over the zoo or the main park grounds - that would be yuk. I'll echo Cliff's hope that Stella's food quality is more in line with Osteria's than the bland Doc Chey's.
Yeah, my complaint is more from the middle of the cemetery, where I often picnic, than how it looks alongside the other buildings. I also like the jumble of buildings along Memorial, but you can't see Ria's or Six Feet Under or any other buildings on Memorial from inside the cemetery, and I did love that about it. But I guess if it's gotta ruin my picnic at least I should be happy it's doing so in an environmentally friendly way.
Last time we were walking through Oakland Cemetery (following another great tempeh & pancakes breakfast w/ a free side of surly service at Ria's), I started reminiscing about how my family used to have picnics in the Marietta cemetery where my grandparents are buried when I was a kid. It seems kinda creepy to think about dining over the dead, but when I was a kid I was completely unfazed and enjoyed the peaceful setting and pretty scenery - not to mention a game of hide and seek with my brother amongst the headstones. Maybe I've seen too many zombie movies.
I always feel like I'm keeping the dead company, and that cemeteries should be places of joy, a celebration of life. And they are pretty, and less crowded than the city parks.
Well, dining with the dead -- and on images of the dead -- is big fun in Mexico. I sometimes take clients to Oakland. Victorian funereal art is evocative and emotional, if stylized, whereas what you find in contemporary cemeteries is about easy lawn care. In one theory, neo-Jungian, the unconscious is kind of a repository of memory of the dead -- the inbetween place of the living and the dead, like the Greeks' view of the underworld. A cemetery like Oakland thus tends to open the unconscious whereas the typical grassy one with flat markers tends to preserve unconsciousness. And then there's Aristophanes' play, "The Frogs," in which Dinonysos journeys to the underworld and ends up having to judge a contest between the playwrights Aeschylus and Eurpides. Euripides loses but is granted the consolation prize of a dinner with Pluto, lord of the underworld. Maybe you are trying to work out some writerly issue in you visits to Oakland related to a confrontation with the contents of your unconscious. Yeah, thats probably it.
Latest in Omnivore
-
Local restaurants honor the late Warren Bruno
Percentage of sales will be donated in Warren Bruno's honor.
-
Weekend food events, May 25-27: 3B Fest, a patio party, and more
Weekend events for Friday May 25 to Sunday May 27.
-
Waiting on Shaun Doty's chicken at Ansley Mall
It's a game of retail dominoes
- More »
More by Author
-
Knife & Fork prints its best of 2011 list 1
It was a "lean year" for new restaurants, writes Christiane Lauterbach
-
CL (weirdly) lays off Besha Rodell 17
Scott Henry, Chante LaGon, and Curt Holman also laid off
- More »
