New Downtown Lilburn Restaurant to Open by Early July

1910 Public House, Old Town Lilburn's newest restaurant, is expected to have its grand opening by early July. 

"If all the stars are aligned and everything is perfect, and they don't run into any more structural issues, I'm thinking we could probably do our grand opening the first week of July," said Anthony Tiberia, co-owner of the restaurant along with his wife, Jennifer. He added they plan on having multiple soft openings in late June, after construction is finished.

1910 Public House will be located in the building on Main Street formerly occupied by Blue Rooster Café & Bakery. It will be the first restaurant in downtown since Blue Rooster closed in December 2010.

It'll also be the Tiberias' second eatery after Sprig in Decatur. While the two restaurants will have differences, Tiberia said he chose the Gwinnett city for their second location because it has a similar atmosphere.

"The location just lent itself to be the perfect spot for what we wanted to do. It's very family-oriented," he explained. "It doesn't have the traffic that downtown Decatur has, but we've developed a restaurant strategy that kind of plays into this area."

The Lilburn eatery will be split into two parts: The right side will be the recognizable sit-down restaurant with service and waiters, and the left side will be a less formal market. Complete with a garage door and outdoor seating, the market will be a place where customers can grab a cappuccino and chicken biscuit in the morning, pick up a box lunch during work, and buy packaged potato chips and pimento cheese throughout the day.

The kitchen also will be the main headquarters for their restaurants' pastries.

"We're excited about this because we're getting into some areas that we've never done before," Tiberia said.

As for the restaurant menu, Executive Chef Robert Elliott will be creating different southern comfort foods, as he did with Sprig. The same small farmers and local foods will be used, and while some dishes are going to carry over from Sprig, there will be new recipes since Elliott loves to create new items, Tiberia said.

He also answered how they settled on the new restaurant's name: "We just wanted something that tied the name back to the city," he said. "We talked to neighbors that had been here for years, and 1910 was the year that Lilburn officially became Lilburn." Before that, the city was known as McDanielsville because of the railroad line.

The "Public House" part comes because the eatery isn't going to be "stuffy" like a traditional restaurant. "It's a place where everybody comes and they meet and they eat and they greet, which is exactly how Sprig is," he said. "A guy comes in, he says hi to the guy he plays golf with, and he goes to another table and says hi because his kids are in the Boys Scouts together. Everybody knows everybody, and I sense that here."

And Tiberia wants to support and create that sense of community outside their Main Street establishment, too.

"Like Sprig, at the end of the day, we don't want to be just a shingle selling food. We want to be involved in the city and in the community," he said. He and his wife want to be a part of the new Lilburn Community Garden, the Lilburn Farmers Market, the high schools and the local churches.

See also:

• Sprig Restaurant Owners Eyeing Former Blue Rooster Spot in Old Town Lilburn
• Construction Begins on New Sprig Restaurant in Old Town Lilburn

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