The last time I talked with Sean Yeremyan was in April 2020, during the early days of the pandemic.
Yeremyan is the owner of Big Table Restaurants, the company behind Hobnob Neighborhood Tavern and Lazy Llama Cantina. And at that point, he had three restaurants under construction — including Cattle Shed Wine & Steak Bar, a new chef-driven concept he hoped to open later that year in Forsyth’s Halcyon mixed-use development.
Fast-forward to last week, when Yeremyan greeted me at Cattle Shed, which finally opened on May 27. “It’s been rough,” he said. “I essentially doubled the size of the company in the middle of COVID. But opening a restaurant is easy, compared to running a restaurant. Finding staff is a huge problem right now, especially for this kind of concept.”
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Yeremyan noted that he was lucky to hire Atlanta fine dining veteran Colin McGowan as executive chef at Cattle Shed. McGowan worked at Bacchanalia, the Optimist, Kimball House, Foundation Social Eatery, and State Farm Arena, before launching a popular supper club called 14 Seats.
“Here we’re trying to take a little bit of what I was taught, and what I was passionate about in the Atlanta scene, and bring it to the suburbs,” McGowan said. “It was like the original idea I had behind the supper club, so having Sean in line with what I was already trying to do was perfect.”
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
McGowan calls Cattle Shed “a steak concept,” and further qualifies that by explaining that the restaurant is sourcing only Georgia-grown beef and pork from Stone Mountain Cattle Co. in Dublin, and produce from several other Georgia farms, including Ashland, Levity and Tucker.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
The heart of the menu includes a bone-in rib-eye, a New York strip, a filet, and a spinalis steak. But beyond that, it changes daily. The small plates section recently featured a kale Caesar salad, barbecue lamb belly, and grilled octopus. Among the entrees, there were a roasted half chicken with salsa verde, and pan roasted scallops with carrots, fava beans and speck.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Yeremyan had originally thought about opening a wine bar, and that remains a major part of the concept. The 2,500-square-foot contemporary space is centered around a long curving bar in front, and shelves lined with wine bottles are on display among cozy banquettes and tall windows that look out onto the patio.
“We wanted it to be casual chic, so people could come here in shorts, and we’ll let them in,” Yeremyan said. “The only thing we don’t allow is tank tops. We wanted a beautiful ambiance, but in a way that people would feel comfortable. I think this is today’s steak place. It’s not a steakhouse.”
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Michael McNeil, known as Georgia’s only master sommelier, curated the wine list, with some 150 selections that rotate seasonally, and 30 wines by the glass. And general manager Chris Reid, who most recently worked at Crú Food & Wine Bar at Avalon, will be on hand to assist guests.
“We are truly guest focused here,” Reid said. “It’s really about them. And we’re trying to be a tour guide as much as anything else. We want to give them what they’re looking for, even if they may not know what they’re looking for. So we have some fun doing that, as well.”
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
“I told Michael I wanted to win awards with this wine program, and he said, OK,” Yeremyan said. “We just opened, so we don’t have an award, yet, but I’m not going to give up until we get one. I never thought of doing farm-to-table until I met Colin. But with his talent, I could build farm-to-table around the wine concept.”
Asked about the reception to Cattle Shed after one week, Yeremyan answered emphatically, “Amazing.”
“The numbers are there, but most importantly, 98% of the people are happy,” he said. “That’s a big, big success. We have comment cards and online reviews, I’ve been here almost every day, and I’m getting very good feedback. People are buying what we are selling. They understand farm-to-table now, and they appreciate it.”
DINING OUT
4-10 p.m. Mondays-Sundays. Weekday lunch and weekend brunch hours coming soon.
Employees wear masks.
6290 Halcyon Way, Suite 610, Alpharetta. 770-680-2457, cattleshedwinebar.com.
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