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Photo by: Stephanie Breijo
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Gone are the days of silver-screen outings at 418 N. 25th St., but Church Hill's East End Theater building can still put on a show. Step through the front doors, just under the new marquee, and you'll even find popcorn. Liberty Public House, the new family friendly restaurant from the team behind The Mill on MacArthur, opened last weekend and it's breathing new life into the former movie-house space.
The building stood empty for 33 years until its recent renovation brought apartments and a 3,300-square-foot restaurant shell to the neighborhood. Before the construction "there were trees growing inside and vines growing outside," says Lindsey Scheer, the restaurant's bar manager. "There's a man who comes by all the time who used to come to church in here — it was a church for a while — and then there are people who come by like, 'I used to pay five cents to see a movie in here!'"
As a nod to the building's heritage, guests can order popcorn as a side to complement everything from their crab cake sandwich to their sirloin steak with garlic compound butter. The restaurant's concept is similar to that of The Mill: family friendly, neighborhood centric and favorable for those with food allergies. "Everything can be substituted, gluten-free, vegan," says Scheer, who also worked at the North Side restaurant. "We're definitely catering to that." That's not to say the menu is the same; Liberty Public House's menu puts its own spin on American classics and even added a larger focus on seafood.
The new Church Hill Spot offers six wines on tap including a sparkling prosecco and rosé, plus eight beers on draft — craft, both local and non. Sidle up to the 12-seat bar for an "accessible but respectable" cocktail, such as the For Whom the Bell Tolls, a spin on a Hemingway daiquiri with grapefruit, Aperol, lime juice and Luxardo, or the herbal old-fashioned. Just beside the bar are high-top tables and TVs, perfect for watching a game — especially considering the restaurant's dual sound system, which means game day will be perfectly audible for fans but won't be intrusive for the guests who just came to enjoy some shrimp and grits, maybe with young ones who'll be kept busy with the restaurant's selection of coloring books and other activities. Exposed Edison bulbs strung from the ceiling give the entire space a warm glow, which is exactly what owners Amy Foxworthy, Chip Zimmerman and Josh Carlton were going for in their new 94-seat space.
It feels like a neighborhood tavern, which is precisely why something like "Liberty Public House" won in last fall's contest to name the restaurant. The owners received nearly 2,000 submissions but loved the appeal of nodding to the neighborhood's history (it is, after all, just around the corner from the site of Patrick Henry's famed "Give Me Liberty" speech), as well as the concept of a public house, or local bar and gathering spot. Thirteen contestants suggested some variation of this — Public House, Liberty, Liberty House — and so the owners placed all 13 in a hat and picked a winner. The woman who won now has a sandwich on the menu, The Zeppelin, named after her dog. They wanted to connect with the community from the get-go, and it appears they've done just that.
"Part of the reason we opened The Mill in North Side was because we were familiar with the neighborhood and what we do could fit well in the family oriented neighborhood that it is," Foxworthy, says. "And honestly, we love to come up [to Church Hill] and eat. Everybody who exists up here does such a great job that it seemed like a community we wanted to be part of."
Liberty Public House is located at 418 N. 25th St. and is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., on Friday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., serving brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
