The first thing you notice at Luella is that no one seems to be in a hurry. Not the bartender working the circular marble bar at the center of the lounge. Not the tables lingering over a second bottle of wine. Not the room itself, which pulls you in slowly—table lamps casting everything in warm gold light, deep lipstick-red upholstery, arched mirrors multiplying the candlelight.
That feeling of time slowing down is entirely intentional. “I love a two-and-a-half to three-hour experience. I don’t like to feel rushed,” says Jamey Shirah, CEO of Revival Restaurant Group, which opened Luella at 3717 Roswell Road earlier this year.
“I like the phone to go away, the wine to come out, the conversation to start growing.” Luella is, in the most direct sense, the restaurant Shirah wanted to eat at, and that passion percolates through every corner.
A Familiar Address, Transformed
For longtime Buckhead regulars, the address carries history. The Ivy, a hometown favorite sports bar, occupied the building for approximately 15 years. Closing it to pivot to fine dining was, by Shirah’s own admission, a significant gamble.
“There was a tremendous risk to us,” he says. “Shutting down a 15-year-old sports bar that was known throughout the Southeast and doing a complete 180—turning it into a high-end restaurant in a hyper-competitive market in a hyper-competitive neighborhood.”
Shirah and his brother Benjie, co-founders of Revival Restaurant Group, bet on themselves anyway. In some ways, Luella is the Ivy’s natural evolution. Those who spent their post-collegiate years at the Buckhead sports bar are now choosing to catch up over cocktails and prime cuts—just like Jamey.
The Space
The building is a Roswell Road icon. Since the 1970s, it’s been described as a traditional Buckhead manor, and Shirah wanted to lean into that reputation. The outside was left mostly untouched, but the inside got a major overhaul in what Shirah calls a “cresidential” style: commercially built to withstand the demands of a busy restaurant, but designed to feel like a home. Interior designer Helen Hanovich executed the vision across multiple distinct salons.
The main dining room glows in red and gold, all velvet armchairs and table lamps casting the whole space in warm amber light, arched mirrors lining the walls. A second room is quieter and more intimate; its barrel-vaulted ceiling and hand-painted pastoral wallcovering evoke the feel of a private library, dark bentwood chairs pulled up to white-clothed tables beneath fringed pendant lights in aged gold.
The bar, with its tiered brass and bronze ceiling installation and circular veined marble counter, is a destination in its own right: deep crimson lacquered walls, globe sconces, mirrored panels, the whole room glamorous in a specific, private club kind of way.
“We wanted people to feel like they could be sitting in someone’s living room, or in someone’s dining room,” Shirah says. Mission accomplished, and then some.
What to Order
The room feels like a dinner party in a Buckhead manor, and the menu follows suit, spotlighting Italian steakhouse fare with a Japanese twist.
Overseen by Culinary Director Kyle Biddy and executive chef Stuart Rogers, the menu follows Shirah’s personal ideal of a proper dinner: something fresh to start, something rich in the middle, something from the grill as the main event, something sweet at the end.
The kitchen is confident enough to let good ingredients lead, which means most dishes are more nuanced than their descriptions suggest. That confidence begins at the source. Baby gem lettuce arrives root-intact from a farm outside Rome, Georgia within two days of harvest; strawberries come from Chilton County, Alabama; peaches from Central Georgia.
“The art of being a chef,” Shirah says, “comes from doing as little as you possibly can to manipulate a product, to give it its best representation to the person eating it.”
Start with the Pugliese Burrata, with just the right earthy accoutrements—pistachio pesto, truffle honey, slow-roasted tomatoes on hearth bread—to make each bite sing. The Caesar salad has already developed something of a reputation, and rightfully so. That baby gem delivers extra crunch and a brighter, more assertive flavor than your typical grocery store romaine; the cured lemon in the dressing cuts through the richness with just enough tangy brightness to keep you going back for another forkful.
The Raw/Rolled section is where the Italian-Japanese concept clicks into focus. The Surf and Turf Roll, built around lump crab and asparagus with seared filet and truffle on the outside, reads like a steakhouse app that took a detour through a Japanese kitchen. The Diablo Roll— spicy tuna, mango, and caramelized onion cream cheese inside, togarashi-seared tuna and honey-wasabi sauce outside—keeps things more classic, just with the volume turned up to 11.
The pasta course adds an extra layer of carb-fueled indulgence to the evening. The Wagyu Beef & Black Truffle Ravioli finished with spring onion soubise and bone marrow bordelaise is pasta perfected for the steakhouse crowd. The Hand-Cut Pappardelle—white bolognese, sausage, wild mushroom, truffle cream—is comfort food for the grown-up palate.
Then come the steaks, cooked over a live wood-fire grill—one of only a handful in Atlanta doing so—and the smoke and char it produces are evident in every bite. The Wagyu program is the main event: the 10 oz. Hand-Cut Akaushi Wagyu NY Strip and the Hand-Cut Akaushi Wagyu Filet both come from HeartBrand Beef in Harwood, Texas, one of the few operations in the country raising 100% Japanese Wagyu, brought over before import restrictions closed that door. Luella is, according to Shirah, the only Atlanta restaurant currently carrying their product. The Akaushi flat iron fresh off the wood-fire grill is worth sitting an hour-plus in Friday afternoon traffic.
Desserts, overseen by pastry chef Danielle Embery, are non-negotiable. The Bananas Foster Cheesecake—pistachio banana crumble, spiced ice cream, white chocolate crèmeux—pays homage to its namesake with a tableside drizzle of brown butter caramel, and is surprisingly lighter than expected. The Sticky Toffee Pudding, finished with miso caramel and candied Georgia pecans, is the sleeper hit for anyone who thinks they’re too full for dessert.
The Bar
The cocktail program operates on the same philosophy as the kitchen: don’t overcomplicate what’s already working. “Those classic cocktails exist for a reason. They’re some of the best cocktails ever made,” Shirah says. “You don’t really need to mess with them. You just need to execute them at a very high level.”
The Luella Originals list reflects that approach. The Thirst Trap Cosmo, built with vodka, elderflower, and raspberry-lychee puree, is a classic with a glow-up. The Black Walnut Old Fashioned, made with bourbon, black walnut liqueur, and walnut bitters, matches the old-world vibe. The Girl on Fire— serrano tequila, passionfruit, lime, agave—is the natural next step for the spicy margarita lover.
The Details
Luella’s prices are comparable to Buckhead’s other white-tablecloth steakhouses, which is to say, plan accordingly. The menu has enough range that a lighter visit (a couple of small plates, a pasta, a glass of wine) will be equally satisfying. Service is thoroughly Southern: friendly and attentive without pretense. Reservations are strongly recommended.
Looking ahead, a charity wine dinner benefitting Camp Twin Lakes is in the works for September, with a multi-course format and a notable as-yet-to-be-announced winemaker attached. The building’s upstairs space is being developed into a private supper club. And Revival Restaurant Group is actively hunting its next Buckhead location.
Six or seven months in, Shirah sounds like a man who spent his entire career working toward exactly this. “Fine dining lets you truly dig into people’s passions and their talents and create special opportunities,” he says. “This is truly what I’ve always wanted to do. I guess we finally got here after 15 years.”
Luella, 3717 Roswell Rd. NE, Atlanta, luellaatl.com
