Hugh Acheson signs on for food and beverage concepts at new Atlanta hotel

Baker Chris Wilkins of Root Baking Co., also on board
Atlanta chef and cookbook author Hugh Acheson offers a crash course in the art of using a hot-water bath to achieve restaurant-quality results with Sous Vide: Better Home Cooking (Potter, $35.)

Atlanta chef and cookbook author Hugh Acheson offers a crash course in the art of using a hot-water bath to achieve restaurant-quality results with Sous Vide: Better Home Cooking (Potter, $35.)

Two prominent names in Atlanta dining have signed on to bring to life two new hotel food and beverage concepts.

“Top Chef” judge and restaurateur Hugh Acheson and lauded baker Chris Wilkins will bring steakhouse Mount Royal and lounge Spaceman to the Hyatt Centric Buckhead Atlanta hotel, set to open in December at 3301 Lenox Square Pkwy.

Connected to the lobby lounge, Mount Royal will be a Montreal-style steakhouse that “will combine the culinary diversity of Quebec with local products from farmers and artisans in southeast Georgia,” according to a press release. The restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and will also offer room service.

Nicole Lewis and Chris Wilkins (husband and wife) hold some of the products that made at their Root Baking Co. CONTRIBUTED BY CHRIS HUNT

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Spaceman, an indoor-outdoor rooftop lounge located on the hotel’s 15th floor, will feature craft cocktails and a menu of shareable dishes. The dining area’s interior seating will be flanked by two outdoor terraces with lounge seating and yard games.

Both concepts will be led on a day-to-day basis by chef Sam Herndon, former chef de cuisine at Atlanta restaurants Staplehouse and Acheson’s Empire State South.

Acheson, a James Beard Award-winning chef and cookbook author, also owns Five & Ten in Athens. He’s no stranger to hotel dining concepts, having helped open By George in the Candler Hotel and the now-shuttered Achie’s at the Omni Hotel at Battery Atlanta. He also served as a “culinary partner” for Punch Bowl Social, which has a location at Battery Atlanta.

Wilkins, a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist, owns Root Baking Co. and Pizza Jean’s at Ponce City Market with his wife, Nicole. Wilkins is also a baking columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Designed by New York-basked Sawyer & Company, the 218-room Hyatt Centric will also offer event and meeting space and a heated pool with sun deck, among other amenities. The restaurant and bar interior design was done by the Atlanta-based Johnson Studio at Cooper Carry.

The Centric is the latest in a recent string of new Atlanta hotels with high-profile food and beverage concepts, including Epicurean Atlanta, Kimpton Sylvan Hotel, Bellyard Hotel and the forthcoming Thompson Buckhead.

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