Last week, we had the grand opening for our newest hospitality concept called The Perlant. The Perlant is a private social club rooted in food and wine, located at Peachtree and West Paces Ferry in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta. Bringing people together around common interests is one of my favorite things to do, and this is another expression of that joy. But first, how did we come up with the concept, and how did we get to this point?
Several years ago, I was introduced to Christian Ries when he was an entrepreneur at the Atlanta Tech Village. After meeting him briefly, we reconnected sometime later when he was trying to figure out what to do next in his career. We kicked around a bunch of ideas and worked on a home maintenance startup for over a year before deciding it wasn’t going to work out. In parallel, we had started Intown Golf Club, which was thriving as a golf-oriented social club in the heart of the financial district in Buckhead. The idea for Intown Golf Club was simple: bring a great group of people together around the love of golf and nurture the community through events, programs, tournaments, and trips.
One day, Christian pinged me and said he had an idea he wanted to pitch. I said, “Great!” He kicked it off by sharing that he’s a Level One Sommelier and, growing up in South Africa, he always loved wine culture. With that shared, he explained his vision for a new social club rooted in wine and hospitality. Excellent, I thought. He went on to share ideas around an amazing community space with a living room for hanging out, a library for co-working, a dining room and patio, and great private dining rooms complete with a 10,000-bottle cellar.
After months of research and customer discovery, we decided to move forward with the idea. We toured a number of old restaurant spaces in Buckhead, all the while knowing that the one we really wanted was immediately next door to Intown Golf Club. However, that space had a signed LOI with a different restaurant concept at the time and was likely to be taken. Thankfully, after months of scouting locations and not having any luck, the space we wanted all along became available once the LOI fell through.
We were off to the races. With the lease in place and the architecture team on board—our friends at Ai3—Christian and the team set out to create a Napa Valley-inspired hospitality experience unlike any other. Now, after 25 months of work, we’re thrilled to share The Perlant with a great group of people who love wine culture in a setting with mid-century modern Napa vibes.
Congrats to Christian and the team for the launch of The Perlant! The next time you’re in Buckhead, stop by for a quick tour.
David Cummings on Startups 