Nick Leahy takes local beef from pasture to plate with two Milton dining concepts

Vice Hospitality Group sells the meat, which is G.A.P. certified (indicating the animal was fed an all-vegetarian diet free of animal by-products) and NAE certified (indicating No Antibiotics Ever), at the butcher shop and wholesale to roughly four dozen metro Atlanta restaurants. Smash and Vice Steak Bar are designed around their premium meat products.

“Since we own the cows, the slaughterhouse and the distribution company for it, it makes a lot of sense to leverage all that to new opportunities,” Leahy said, adding that he was unaware of any other burger restaurant or steakhouse in Georgia that owns and processes its own cows, enabling the company to control the product “from the field to the plate.”

“It’s a differentiator,” he said.

Smash, Burgers by Vice is slated to open in mid-March. It will be located at 3100 Heritage Walk, in the space previously occupied by Community Burger and next door to Hyde Brewing.

“We want to have a tight menu that we can execute really well,” Leahy said.

Credit: (Courtesy of Nick Leahy)

Credit: (Courtesy of Nick Leahy)

Appetizers will include fried pickle chips; loaded fries with bacon, pimento cheese fondue, scallions, sour cream and hot sauce; house-made potato chips with blue cheese fondue; and crispy cheese curds with sweet chili sauce.

Burger options include 3-ounce patties made with grass-fed beef, wagyu, chicken or portobello mushrooms. Patrons can build their own burger from a variety of toppings or order a signature creation like the Kimcheese burger that features the patty with fixings of kimchi, smashed cucumbers, white American cheese, chile lime aioli and crushed potato chips.

The restaurant will also offer ripper-style pork bratwurst and wagyu beef hot dogs, both made at North Georgia Meat Co.

Because the hospitality group doesn’t rely on a middleman to get the meat to market, customers can expect much lower prices compared to other restaurants that sell burgers using high-quality beef. A burger with a single grass-fed beef patty will be $6 while one made with wagyu will be $8. Double burgers will be $11 for the grass-fed option and $15 for the wagyu. A triple will also be available.

Sweet treats are all of the frozen variety. They include soft serve vanilla ice cream as well as a monthly flavor, and milkshakes with classic add-ins. Smash will also sell packaged ice cream sandwiches from Richmond, Virginia-based Nightingale brand and Not Fried Chicken ice cream from Life Raft Treats, a brand created by South Carolina pastry chef Cynthia Wong. Wong’s creative sundry that looks like a fried chicken drumstick features waffle ice cream, a chocolate-covered cookie “bone” and a coating of white chocolate and crushed cornflakes.

The restaurant will fill its 16 draft taps with popular regional beers, a few esoteric brews and four to six wines.

A refreshed space by Phase 5 Creative will create what Leahy described as a “fun and whimsical” atmosphere with interior seating for up to 40, a 60-seat covered all-seasons patio, some picnic table seating at the entrance and a family-friendly turf play area in back with games like Jenga Giant and cornhole.

The other meat-centric dining concept, Vice Steak Bar, will be located next to Smash at 3000 Heritage Walk, in a space previously occupied by Aberdeen Steakhouse, which closed in July. Targeting a May opening, Leahy and his partners plan to break from the traditional steakhouse mold with aggressively priced dishes and a casual, family-friendly environment sans white tablecloths.

The menu will consist of a handful of appetizers including oysters, crudos and salads. Signature dishes will include familiar favorites like steak frites with green peppercorn sauce. While entrees are individual portions, an order comes with a trio of side dishes —a rotating potato dish, a seasonal side and a leafy green melange — served family style.

“Everybody gets to share,” Leahy said. “You get the benefit of tasting more things in peak season.”

Desserts, prepared by Leahy, will include a chocolate budino, a cast-iron cookie, classic cheesecake and a seasonal fruit crumble.

“It’s just really good, honest cooking with beautiful ingredients and good meat,” Leahy said.

The restaurant will have a full liquor license, serving wine, beer and classic cocktails.

John Boggs of Phase 5 Creative has also been tapped to give the steakhouse space a makeover. While custom millwork and a hand-hewn bar will remain, cosmetic changes will lighten the interior. One significant structural change —replacing a back wall with a roll-up window — will make the bar accessible from the back patio and enable counter seating during warmer weather. The restaurant also has a 40-seat private dining room.

Leahy said that he and his partners settled on Milton for their latest ventures because “it has a lot of things going for it as far as growth, average income —the kind of market that we are trying to target.” He noted proximity to nearby schools could make Smash attractive to kids and families and that there are “not a ton of options around here for a good steak without going to Little Alley, which does a great job but at a higher price point than us.”

Leahy has been a fixture in the metro Atlanta dining scene for two decades, including owning and operating the now-shuttered Saltyard in Brookwood Hills as well as French restaurants Aix and Tin Tin in west Midtown before reconcepting those as Nick’s Westside in 2020. He has also served as the culinary director for Dash Hospitality Concepts, which operates several Dunwoody eateries, and launched Harvest Hospitality, offering consulting, catering and in-home dinners.