Restaurant, coffee roastery planned for Marietta's Sessions Street

The couples behind Smyrna’s Rev Coffee Roasters and Marietta’s former The Butcher The Baker are seeking a rezoning from the Marietta City Council that will allow them to open a coffee roastery and restaurant on Sessions Street.

Jenn and Nick Bimmerle, who operate Rev Coffee Roasters, own the 1.13-acre property at 397 North Sessions St. Should the city approve the rezoning, they plan to move the coffee roastery from Smyrna to Marietta. The Smyrna property would remain as a coffeeshop while the Sessions Street property would be used for production and warehouse storage.

Located across the street is Sessions Stand, a walk-up only coffee and pastry shop owned and operated by Micah and Katie Pfister, who operated The Butcher The Baker on Marietta Square until it closed last month.

The Pfisters plan to open a restaurant and “community hall” at the Bimmerle’s property across the street. The 75-seat restaurant would offer full-service, fast-casual breakfast and lunch and include a small market selling local goods, house-made breads and charcuterie, as well as coffee from neighboring Rev Coffee Roasters.

Down the road, the restaurant may come to offer dinner service and sell alcohol. The Pfisters are “playing around with different options of how we want to do dinner,” Katie Pfister said, and may host pop-up dinners and establish a monthly supper club.

“Throughout the past year and a half … the restaurant industry has changed a lot,” Katie Pfister told the Marietta Planning Commission Tuesday. “And we are recognizing that, and trying to figure out the best way to make that move forward, and I think part of that for us is keeping it very light, family-friendly and casual.”

Pfister explained that Sessions Stand’s walk-up only format limits them. The property across the street would allow them to operate in all weather and provide much more space for making pastries, breads and more.

The Planning Commission, which advises the City Council on rezonings, voted 5-0 Tuesday to recommend the rezoning be approved.

“We have greatly outgrown a 500-square-foot space (Sessions Stand), and we are just looking to be able to have a little bit more green space, a little elbow room, wiggle room there, where we can better serve people, get people in and out a little bit more,” Pfister added at the meeting.

The property includes two warehouses built in 1920 and renovated in 2019. They formerly housed a wholesale facility for eyewear but have been vacant since 2018. One warehouse would house the coffee roastery, the other the restaurant. A smaller, white building on the property, built in 1950 houses Lulu Belle fitness studio, which would remain there.

The rezoning is required to allow a restaurant. Despite being a mostly residential area, the property is zoned for light industrial use.

Jenn Bimmerle told the City Council at its Wednesday work session that if approved, they hoped to have the operation up and running in six to nine months.

“Seems like a pretty good spot … I think it’d be great for that area,” said Councilman Johnny Walker.

Council members seemed receptive to the project. It will face a public hearing and vote at the Aug. 11 council meeting.