The team behind Buckhead's celebrated Lucian Books & Wine opened its second concept Tuesday, a 165-seat American brasserie called Sargent that trades the original's hushed, wine-only tasting menu for a full bar, wood-fired mains and a standalone bookstore along the Atlanta BeltLine's Eastside Trail. The 6,000-square-foot restaurant sits inside New City Properties' Fourth Ward Project at 405 N. Angier Ave. NE, at the base of the office towers that house Mailchimp's headquarters and next door to ice cream vendor Big Softie.
According to WhatNow, Sargent is named after American artist John Singer Sargent and is built to combine familiar food, quality ingredients, classic technique, wine, cocktails, books, art and music under one roof, a description the outlet attributes to Atlanta Magazine's reporting on the opening. The restaurant is the second act for Lucian co-owners Katie Barringer and sommelier Jordan Smelt, whose original Buckhead spot was named a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program category in January 2025, according to Modern Luxury.
Barringer's path to Sargent runs through Cover Books, the art and design bookstore she opened in Westside Atlanta in 2015 before launching Lucian in 2021, while Smelt sharpened his hospitality instincts at Atlanta institutions including Holeman & Finch Public House, Restaurant Eugene and Cakes & Ale, per Resy. That earlier bookstore isn't just backstory here: the design, done in partnership with Digs Architecture & Design, features soft green Venetian plaster, dark wood accents, globe lights and a 20-foot-long Belgian antique table in the bookstore area fitted with historic abbey beer-barrel conveyor belt hardware original to Cover Books, as Garden & Gun reported.
A Bigger Room, a Fuller Bar
Where Lucian keeps to an intimate 40-to-50-seat footprint built around a rotating, European-style multi-course tasting menu and a strict no-spirits policy, Sargent scales up considerably. The new brasserie seats around 165 guests across the dining room, includes an 18-seat bar, a private dining room and a covered patio connected directly to the BeltLine, per WhatNow's reporting.
The wine-only rule that defines Lucian doesn't carry over either. Sargent offers a full classic cocktail program developed by Smelt alongside an edited global wine list, a shift the restaurant's team has described as expanding well beyond Lucian's 450-plus bottle, spirits-free format, according to Atlanta Magazine's coverage of the opening. WhatNow notes that about half of Sargent's wine list is priced at $85 or less, giving the restaurant a lower barrier to entry than its Buckhead sibling.
Wood-Fired Classics From a Familiar Kitchen
Executive chef Jason Paolini built the menu and now leads Sargent's kitchen while continuing to oversee the culinary program at Lucian. Paolini brings more than two decades of local dining experience, including stints as chef de cuisine at Restaurant Eugene and as culinary director for Linton Hopkins' Resurgens Hospitality, per Lucian Books and Wine's own team bio.
The menu leans on wood-fired cooking for some dishes and focuses on American flavors, per Eater Atlanta's characterization of the concept as reported by WhatNow. Offerings include a Caesar salad, pasta carbonara, roasted chicken, prime rib, duck, steak tartare, crab cakes, oysters and burgers, giving Atlanta diners what WhatNow describes as another steady destination for American-inspired cuisine, wine and cocktails rather than a special-occasion tasting menu.
Books, Art and a BeltLine Address
Sargent's retail bookstore is physically separated from the dining room and stocks expanded titles spanning visual culture, art, design, food, wine and music, along with rare international magazines like Neptune Papers and Noble Rot, according to Garden & Gun. WhatNow also reports that the space features artwork including murals by local artist Tommy Taylor, alongside books and magazines centered on food, wine, art and music. Diners and bookstore visitors receive two hours of validated garage parking in the deck adjacent to the building, a detail Resy flags as useful given how congested the corridor gets.
Sargent's arrival adds another marquee tenant to a development that WhatNow says also includes the Forth Hotel and 3 Parks Wine, part of New City Properties' roughly $1 billion, 12-acre Fourth Ward Project. The site sits along a stretch of the Eastside Trail where commercial asking rents averaged nearly $63 per square foot as of June, according to prior Hoodline reporting on rising Old Fourth Ward rents driven by employer and retail demand. Sargent's team has said the concept aims to embrace the energy of the BeltLine and the surrounding neighborhood, a framing echoed in Atlanta Magazine's coverage of the opening, positioning the brasserie as a higher-volume, everyday counterpart to Lucian's rarefied Buckhead original.
