Podcast 336 – Saints + Council Plans Second Location at Perimeter – William Pitts and Ian Winslade

Podcast 336 – Saints + Council Plans Second Location at Perimeter – William Pitts and Ian Winslade

Saints + Council founder William Pitts and Culinary Director Ian Winslade stopped by the podcast to share that they’re bringing a second Saints + Council location to Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Georgia. The new spot will run about 8,000 square feet, and it’s set to rise on the mall’s parking lot outparcel right next to Lazy Dog.

In This Episode

• Saints + Council founder William Pitts and Culinary Director Ian Winslade join the podcast to announce the brand’s second location, coming to Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Georgia
• The new Saints + Council will span about 8,000 square feet on the mall’s outparcel next to Lazy Dog, with a targeted opening in May 2027
• William Pitts previously worked as general manager, then CEO, of Café Intermezzo in Dunwoody, the site of his last meal with his father before his father passed away
• Saints + Council offers real paid vacation, 50 percent covered medical, and paid maternity leave for restaurant staff, a rarity in the restaurant industry
• William Pitts’s restaurant group, Spur Hospitality, also owns Cuevacía, an Oaxacan-inspired restaurant already thriving at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta

Why Saints + Council Is Building at Perimeter Mall

If you’ve had brunch at the original Saints + Council in Midtown, you already know why this is exciting. It’s the modern American restaurant known for smoked and braised meats, a massive island bar, and a brunch scene that regularly pulls 400 to 500 guests on a Saturday or Sunday.

Now that same energy is coming to Dunwoody. William and Ian joined me to talk through the new build going up on Perimeter Mall’s parking lot outparcel, right next to Lazy Dog off Ashford Dunwoody Road. It’s a ground-up, freestanding building, the first of its kind for the Saints + Council brand.

The team recently held their groundbreaking ceremony, complete with gold shovels and a prayer led by Casey Ryan. William was clear on the podcast that the ceremony was a celebration, not construction. Permits are still in progress, and he’s targeting a May 2027 opening.

I love seeing this kind of investment land at Perimeter Mall. It’s one more reason people looking at homes for sale in Dunwoody keep circling back to this part of town.

William didn’t need much convincing on the business side either. He told me Dunwoody carries as much office square footage as Buckhead, right up against Midtown numbers for daytime workers, and the heat maps and demographic data all point the same direction. Combine that with the fact that William already lives nearby, and this wasn’t a hard decision for him. It was, in his words, a super easy one.

Why Perimeter Mall Keeps Selling Off Its Parking Lot

Saints + Council isn’t the first restaurant to land on a former slice of Perimeter Mall’s parking lot, and it won’t be the last. Over the last few years, Perimeter has quietly handed off pieces of its massive lot to bring in standalone spots like Lazy Dog, Chick-fil-A, and Buffalo Wild Wings, all built right up against the road instead of tucked behind rows of parked cars.

It’s part of a bigger shift happening at malls across the country. Instead of a sea of asphalt greeting drivers off Ashford Dunwoody Road, mall owners want people walking up to a real storefront, something with a patio and a front door, not a view of a parking lot. Dunwoody has leaned into that shift for years now, trading pavement for places people actually want to be.

Saints + Council fits right into that pattern. It’s another restaurant claiming its own little piece of what used to be pure parking, adding a few more feet of street life to Perimeter Center along the way. Plus, it’s going to be beautiful from what I hear!

What William and Ian Told Us About the New Space

The new Saints + Council will feel familiar if you’ve been to Colony Square, just bigger and more purpose-built. William described big, tall vaults, stack-stone fireplaces, water features, and a covered patio with a telescoping roof designed to feel like an outdoor garden even when it’s closed up.

Ian Winslade joined Spur Hospitality as Culinary Director to help grow both Saints + Council and Cuevacía. He’s got 40-plus years of experience across Atlanta’s top restaurant groups, and he’s leaning into braising, smoking, and slow cooking, along with sourcing more from local farmers for a true farm-to-table experience.

That focus on craft shows up on the menu. Expect steamed mussels in a spicy peppery sauce, braised short rib for dinner, roasted chicken, smoked pork chops, and a lemon miso salmon that Ian says already eats like butter. It’s the kind of menu built for people who want to linger, not just grab a table and go.

Building from scratch also matters to William for a design reason. This is the first freestanding Saints + Council, since both Colony Square and Cuevacía sit inside larger buildings. A standalone site means he and Ian get to control the whole experience, from the patio roofline down to the music playing at the bar, instead of working around someone else’s structure.

The Story Behind the Dutch Baby

Here’s a detail most people don’t know. Before Saints + Council had its name, William’s original idea was a dedicated breakfast concept called Dutch Baby, named for the puffed, oven-baked pancake his father used to cook for him growing up.

That breakfast DNA never left. Even as the concept grew into a full chef-driven restaurant with lunch, dinner, and a serious cocktail program, the Dutch Baby stayed on the menu, and Saturday and Sunday brunch is still one of the busiest, liveliest parts of the week at Colony Square.

The name Saints + Council came later, and it means something specific to William. It’s about good people coming together, spurring each other toward greatness in an industry that can wear people down. That idea shapes more than the vibe. It shapes how the whole company operates.

Why Saints + Council Treats Employees Differently

This is the part of the conversation that stuck with me most. William told me every employee at every level gets real paid vacation, not just time off in theory. Saints + Council covers 50 percent of employees’ medical plans, and offers six weeks of paid maternity leave, benefits you don’t hear about often in restaurants.

William’s reasoning is simple. He’s watched talented people leave the restaurant industry because they couldn’t see a stable life inside it, no path to raising a family, no real time off. So he built Saints + Council to prove it can work differently.

That’s not a small bet. William said it plainly on the podcast, if in ten years all they’ve built is a bunch of pretty restaurants with good food, they’ll have failed at the bigger mission. It’s an ambitious standard to hold yourself to, and I respect that kind of consistency.

He made an interesting point about who actually works in restaurants. William figures if you looked at a hundred people in their forties or fifties, seventy of them worked in a restaurant at some point, and most of them genuinely enjoyed it. What pushed them out wasn’t the work itself, it was not being able to build a stable life around it, no paid maternity leave, no clear path forward. Saints + Council is his attempt to fix that instead of accepting it as just how the industry works.

Why This Location Is Personal for William Pitts

There’s a deeper layer to this expansion, too. The new Saints + Council sits almost directly across the street from Café Intermezzo in Dunwoody, the restaurant where William shared his last meal with his father before his father passed away.

Fourteen years later, at 28, William took a job as Café Intermezzo’s general manager, not realizing at first how much that specific building would come to mean to him. He eventually worked his way up to CEO of the company before leaving to found his own restaurant group, Spur Hospitality.

The new Saints + Council is also just down the street from where William lives now. Between the personal history and the short drive from home, this location means more to him than a typical expansion, and it showed in how he talked about it.

William was born at Northside Hospital, right around the corner from where the new restaurant is going up, so this whole stretch of Ashford Dunwoody Road has quietly bookended a lot of his life.

Two Restaurants In, and Already Thriving

William isn’t testing a new idea with this location. Saints + Council opened at Colony Square on December 10, 2021, and has spent nearly five years building a loyal following in Midtown Atlanta. It’s known for a curated dining style that skips the usual rules, no single assigned server, no rigid seating, no rushing guests out the door. People are free to move between the bar, lounge, and table all night.

Under Spur Hospitality, William also opened Cuevacía, an Oaxacan-inspired concept at Colony Square led by chef de cuisine Aaron Paik. It’s already sitting at a 4.7 out of 5 rating from local diners. The space itself used to be a fast-casual sushi spot before it was transformed into a semi-subterranean, multilevel restaurant with limestone cave-like booths, a 20-page bar list built around 130 mezcals and tequilas, and a from-scratch menu of tlayudas, mole-topped tamales, and slow-cooked beef.

Both restaurants back up what William told me on the podcast. He’s not chasing a trend, he’s building a company with a track record, and Dunwoody is getting the benefit of everything Spur Hospitality has learned running two successful concepts in Midtown.

When Will Saints + Council Open at Perimeter Mall?

Here’s where things stand as of the recording. The groundbreaking ceremony has happened, but William was upfront that actual construction hasn’t started yet. Permits are still in the works, and once those are in hand, he expects to move quickly.

William’s targeting a May 2027 opening. Timelines on ground-up restaurant builds shift, so I’ll keep everyone posted as we get closer, but for now, mark your calendar and start planning that first brunch.

Connect with Saints + Council

If you can’t wait until the Dunwoody location opens, head to the original Saints + Council at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta, or try Cuevacía right around the corner from it. You can find hours, menus, and reservations at saintsandcouncil.com.

As always, thanks to our show sponsors, Dr. Bret Freedman and Village Orthodontics, and our friends at Discover Dunwoody, for supporting this episode and this community.

What Is What’s Up Dunwoody?

What’s Up Dunwoody is a local media platform created by REALTOR® Matt Weber, focused on living in Dunwoody, moving to Dunwoody, and staying connected to the community. It began as a podcast and has grown into social media content, local guides, and two of the largest Dunwoody-focused Facebook groups where residents share recommendations and stay in the loop. Matt has expanded slightly outside of Dunwoody and now covers the entire top end of the Perimeter through his Top End ATL channels.

Matt is a Dunwoody REALTOR® who helps people navigate buying, selling, and moving in the area. Stay in the loop with local updates, listings, and insights by signing up here: whatsupdunwoody.com/email

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