ATLANTA-BASED THE SELECT BRINGS A BUZZY VIBE TO CHARLESTON’S MEETING STREET
Inspired by Parisian brasserie Le Select, the Select (465 Meeting Street) opens in Charleston on Friday, July 5. Le Select was a popular gathering place in the 1920s for literary greats like Scott Fitzgerald and Earnest Hemingway.
The Select owner Dave Green opened the first iteration of the restaurant in the Sandy Springs neighborhood of Atlanta with a goal to create a space where customers could connect and enjoy the experience of dining out. “Nowadays, we’re all attached to our phones,” says managing partner Jennifer Bresnahan, “We don’t look up. We don’t interact. We don’t have conversations outside the digital world. Dave wanted to create a place where people put their phones down and come in to meet people and enjoy the ambiance — and the food is really well done. It changes seasonally, but it’s not so over the top that you get lost from the people aspect of dining out. Sometimes you go to these great meals, and all you do is talk about the wine and the food in front of you, which is fun from time to time, but you lose that connection with the person you’re dining with.”
The dining room is Art Deco-inspired with warm wood walls, plush green banquettes, glowing chandeliers overhead, and anchored by a large statue named Veronique. In the bar room, flowers cascade from the ceiling, reaching towards the zinc-topped surface — the petals are sure to be features on Instagram feeds soon.
The food at the Select is new American with global influences. Culinary director Julian Parker puts out plates like lobster and shrimp linguini, steak frites, braised short ribs, and roasted chicken with Southern succotash.
Once open, the Select will open Monday through Thursday, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday through Saturday, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Take a tour of the space here before the opening on Friday.
