Buckhead’s Luella aspires to be your ‘death row meal’ restaurant

Like so many of the 20-somethings who once partied at The Ivy, the building at 3717 Roswell Road has grown up.

Revival Restaurant Group recently opened Luella in the Buckhead space formerly occupied by the Ivy for nearly 15 years. The unique, standalone building on Roswell Road has swapped fraternity tank tops and Fireball shots for a tailored sport coat and a deep wine list. The restaurant’s beautifully remodeled interior is proof of a thoughtful, intentional maturation, even if the shadow of The Ivy still lies beneath the surface.

Luella is an expensive, clubby restaurant that manages to be charmingly self-aware; its owners know the concept doesn’t fit neatly into a specific category, but the vision is clear and it’s executed with conviction. While it is nominally a steakhouse, Luella also serves sushi and pasta. Jamey Shirah, CEO of Revival, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the mixture of cuisines on the menu represents food that might make up his “death row meal.”

Rather than attempting to thread the needle between American, Italian and Japanese cuisines, the restaurant’s theme could instead be characterized as unapologetic indulgence.

One reason Luella works is the service, which is both personable and polished. Shirah said his team evaluated more than 2,500 applicants for hourly jobs at Luella and that each employee advanced through a four-part interview process before they were hired.

On my first visit to Luella, our server dropped a water bottle as he filled my glass at the very beginning of our meal. No water poured on my lap, and the server cleaned up the mess and replaced my soggy menu in no time. No harm, no foul. It was a potentially awkward situation that he handled with aplomb, not allowing the incident to dampen the rest of our experience, literally or figuratively.

Luella’s menu is wide-ranging but heavy on protein. The wagyu beef carpaccio stood out among the small plates selection, the beef very lightly seared and served warm. The rich beef was offset with savory curls of fresh Parmesan, sharp horseradish and bright pickled mustard seeds. In an appetizer of Pugliese burrata, the sweet, slow-roasted tomatoes nearly showed up the incredibly fresh, creamy cheese.

If you thought Luella would play it safe with the sushi in the “Raw/Rolled” section of the menu, think again. The diablo roll is particularly daring, grouping spicy tuna, mango and caramelized onion cream cheese into an unlikely ensemble. The vivid, intense flavors work together on the palate, even if your frontal lobe struggles to comprehend the balance.

Though it’s a major splurge at $98, the cornbread and caviar might be the most engaging appetizer. The key is the astoundingly buttery cornbread, which provides a rich foil to the clean, saline umami of Luella’s lovely caviar. The high-low pairing makes for a fun dish to share on a date; splitting it between more than two people might leave you wishing for more.

The next section of Luella’s menu travels from Japan to Italy, which influences the listing of salads and pastas. There’s a Caesar and a generously sized house salad with a nice, zingy dressing made with charred scallions and benne seeds. Unlike the sushi, the pasta adheres more closely to the traditions of its country of origin. The flavor combinations might not be as original, but they’re no less sharp in the pasta all’Amatriciana, which is full of spice and verve.

I preferred the less-expensive, non-steak entrees at Luella. The bone-in veal chop parm costs less than all but one steak at $60, but it’s gorgeously executed and deeply satisfying. The black cod, a take on the famous and frequently impersonated Nobu entree, tickled every corner of the flavor map in a delightfully light way.

If you insist on ordering steak, the dry-aged, bone-in strip (12 or 14 ounces, depending on the night) had the deepest, richest flavor, and fell in the middle of Luella’s price range at $84. Each of Luella’s steaks is cooked over a wood fire of aged red and white oak, then finished with a lacquer of melted wagyu beef fat enhanced with a secret blend of spices. But all that effort did not quite translate on the plate when it came to unaged cuts like the 8-ounce ribeye spinalis or the 8-ounce wagyu flat iron. When the steak comes at the end of a parade of such intense, indulgent flavors, it must be truly spectacular to stand out.

Shirah described opening Luella as a “coming-of-age moment,” but the new restaurant is much more than just a grown-up version of The Ivy (even if many of the bar patrons seem to be reliving their glory days). Luella is an evolution: a confident, self-assured restaurant that knows its minor imperfections will not deter a crowd.