After a series of soft opening previews, Little Trouble officially opened in the Westside Provisions District on Aug. 5.
The new bar/restaurant concept from the Victory Brands, the team behind Victory Sandwich Bar in Decatur and Inman Park and Paper Plane in Decatur, is a shadowy, neon-lit underground funhouse that connects two small spaces beneath the newly opened Marcel. On the menu, craft cocktails and Asian-inspired bar food, including dumplings, yakitori and ramen noodle bowls.
In other Victory Brands news, Paper Plane recently stopped food service and will close at the end of August to make way for a new concept, yet to be revealed.
I talked with Victory Brands' Caleb Wheelus about all that this afternoon. Here's a bit of our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
I guess you are really busy right now.
Yes, but it’s not as crazy as I thought it was going to be. Now that we have three locations you really start depending on your people.
I saw the Little Trouble space late the other night and I suddenly felt like I was on the "Blade Runner" set. It was cool but a little crazy.
That’s kind of what we were going for. A kind of “Blade Runner” and “Big Trouble" [in Little China] thing. When they first offered us the space it was just the side with the bar in it. But it was so small we didn’t know what we could do with it. We didn’t want to do a Paper Plane rip-off. But we got the other space, and all the neon got introduced, and we just fell in love with the idea.
So the Asian-style menu is meant to fit with that?
Yep. We’re doing Thai beef, crab dumplings, and hot and cold ramen, which is really good, and yakitori, and a couple of steamed buns, and tempura, which is coming out really nicely. We also have these honey and Fresno chili pork rinds that are really good. We wanted some street food flair but at the same time our chef Melissa Allen worked Miso Izakaya so she had that down.
Switching over to the Paper Plane news, can you confirm that you are closing this month?
Absolutely. August 29th is the last day we are open. It was a decision we made. Paper Plane was doing well. But I think we can do a little better with our new concept. Decatur’s got it all. We’re just surrounded by so much other talent we just want to do something to stand out a little more over there.
So you do know what the new concept will be, you’re just not revealing it, yet?
Oh yeah. It will be a mid-September opening. It will be a quick remodel and reconceptualizing the whole thing. We’re not going to be reinventing the wheel or anything. There will be cocktails — and great cocktails. And there will be food.
Rumor is it will be a tiki bar. Will you confirm that?
We put out a little thing to announce the closing of Paper Plane and there were definitely some pretty obvious hints. But that’s all I’m going go say right now, except that we’re doing our annual luau on September 20th, so there’s that.
Little Trouble, 1170 Howell Mill Road N.E., Atlanta, 404-500-4737.
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