Only six months since opening her first Cascade Heights restaurant, Oreatha’s at the Point, chef Deborah VanTrece is back with a second eatery just down the street.
Serenidad, which opened Oct. 7 at 2317 Cascade Road SW, will feature a Latin soul food menu executed by executive chef and partner Whitney Thomas. The menu features “creative twists on classic Latin American dishes and coastal favorites while incorporating local and seasonal ingredients,” according to a press release.
Credit: Rebecca T Bockman
Credit: Rebecca T Bockman
VanTrece said she’d been wanting to do a Latin-inspired restaurant for a while, after spending years traveling through Mexico and countries in Central America, South America and the Caribbean during her career as a flight attendant.
“I wanted to figure out what was missing from this area,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There’s a lot of soul food in the neighborhood, so we wanted to get away from anything that was traditional soul, and we wanted to go beyond what everyone’s idea of what a Mexican restaurant is. Serenidad is a lot of things rolled up into one space.”
VanTrece worked with Thomas, formerly of 5Church and the Wiley Hotel, to design Serenidad’s menu.
“When she moved to Atlanta, I was already a fan,” VanTrece said. “She has a passion for cooking and a knowledge of all types of cuisine, and a hunger to learn more.”
Credit: Josh Swinney
Credit: Josh Swinney
When Thomas came on board, VanTrece already had a rough menu sketched out, but “I just gave her some guidelines and said, ‘You take it from here.’ I wanted to give her space to experiment and use all her knowledge, and then have part ownership of the restaurant on top of that. What she came up with was amazing.”
Dishes include a variety of snacks (elote ribs, meatballs with mole); sandwiches (Cuban, chimi burger with salsa rosada, pickled green tomato, red cabbage slaw and aji amarillo crema ); tacos (smoked chicken, short rib) and main dishes (asado negro beef short rib Tomahawk, smoked Kan Kan pork chop, paella shrimp and grits).
Desserts include horchata panna cotta and apple coulis. The restaurant will also offer a separate weekend brunch menu.
The full bar includes a cocktail list developed by beverage director (and VanTrece’s daughter) Kursten Berry, who also serves as the beverage director for Oretha’s at the Point and is opening her own cocktail lounge, Dulcet, in Cascade Heights in the next few weeks.
The Latin-inspired cocktails, which showcase rum, mezcal, tequila and pisco, “are true to the culture,” VanTrece said. “(Berry) did a lot of work researching.”
For the restaurant space, “we wanted to stay away from a loudly painted restaurant,” VanTrece said. “We wanted just a touch of color, a touch of elegance and serenity.”
The color palette includes earth tones, with pops of brighter colors introduced with the restaurant’s dinnerware and glassware, along with wood and metal accents and tile painted to look like stone.
The space offers seating for about 60 guests, including bar seating, with plans to add outdoor seating with communal tables in the coming weeks.
“It’s meant to be a contemporary place that still gives an upscale feeling, but also a place where you still want to go to have fun,” she said.
In addition to Oreatha’s and Serenidad, which she co-owns with Shea Embry, VanTrece also owns Twisted Soul Cookhouse and Pours in West Midtown and is the author of “The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food with Global Flavors.”
2317 Cascade Road SW, Atlanta. restaurantserenidad.com.
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