The bar at Ollie Irene features a 140-year-old slab of oak. The new Mountain Brook
restaurant opened this week.

“Gastropub” isn’t a term heard very often in these parts. But the style of cooking — a cross between traditional English bar food and haute cuisine — has taken the foodie world by storm.

Birmingham’s own gastropub, Ollie Irene, opened Wednesday in the former Browdy’s/Pianeta 3 location in Mountain Brook.

Owners Anna Lakovitch and Chris Newsome describe the place as a mix of a British pub and a Southern hunting camp. “It’s a neighborhood place where you can come as you are, but with elevated food,” Newsome said. “We’re trying to do something really timeless.”

Named for Newsome’s grandmother, a sharecropper from south Alabama, Ollie Irene serves Southern and European dishes made with local and regional ingredients. Most of the dishes are small plates designed for sharing, like boudin balls, a house-made pickle plate and mussels. In addition, the menu will have a list of entrees that changes seasonally.

Lemon Ricotta Gnocchi with
crushed broccoli, pine nuts
and Grana Padano, $9

The restaurant’s centerpiece is a long bar built from a 140-year-old slab of oak and pieces of old doors. Besides the planned craft cocktails, a food station behind the bar will allow a chef to make small plates while diners watch, while the larger kitchen in back handles the heavy lifting.

“Chris and I love to eat at the bar when we go out, and we like to try a lot of things,” Lakovitch said.

Newsome, the head chef,  got his start in cooking at 19 at Bottega Cafe on Southside. Since then, he has spent 20 years working in restaurants in Birmingham, Charleston, S.C., Washington, San Francisco, plus New Hampshire and Michigan.

“We’re really good at moving,” Newsome says.

But he and Lakovitch returned to Birmingham a year and a half ago determined to find a spot to open a restaurant. “We we looking for a neighborhood restaurant that would really fit with the neighborhood, wherever we were,” Lakovitch said.

Ollie Irene is located at 2713 Culver Road, Mountain Brook Village, in Mountain Brook [map]. Hours are 4 till 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. (205) 769-6034 or info@ollieirene.com.

Also:

• Ollie Irene blog | Facebook
• Birmingham Weekly restaurant profile of Ollie Irene

Ollie Irene menu

Note: To download menu, click “View on Slideshare” and then click “Download.”

• More Jason Horn at The Messy Epicure

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