Pendolino, the first restaurant from industry veteran Kevin Maxey’s KRM Hospitality, opens for dinner tonight at 4600 Roswell Road.
Maxey, who has nearly 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry (including New York restaurants like Gramercy Tavern and Craft, as well as the Ford Fry Group and Superica locally), has nursed the idea of a neighborhood Italian restaurant for a long time. While researching olive oil varieties, he stumbled across Pendolino’s name (Pendolino is a variety of olive) and stuck it in his back pocket for if he ever opened an Italian restaurant.
Maxey got his start in French restaurants, but developed a penchant for Italian cuisine working for Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern. “A lot of what we were doing there was really inspired by Italy and the simplicity of sort of Italian food,” he says.
Maxey originally envisioned an edgier space, but pivoted to neighborhood Italian after encountering the location in Chastain Park. The space reminded him of a nearby Superica location and how the locals used it — different groups of customers came in blocks, from early dinner all the way to the later-night bar hour. “And so I [thought], we can do the same thing, it’s the exact same neighborhood,” Maxey says. “It’s the same people and it’s the same sort of level of casualness and attention to detail.”
The space, designed by Kirby Caldwell, captures a touch of moodiness through its juxtaposition of materials and colors. Creamy shades of white on the wall and marble floors are bisected by deep purple and sage upholstery and tile and darker mill work, while the windows are framed by a soft, coastal blue.
“We’re not trying to transport you to Italy,” Maxey says. “We want you to stay in Atlanta and Chastain Park. It’s a nod to the Italian way of…
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