Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
At Osteria Olio, the wildly popular eatery inside the new Rivet House boutique hotel in Athens, Georgia, creatively prepared Italian favorites lure locals as well as hotel guests. Executive Chef JR Bearden, who has worked in culinary-centric cities including Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans, says, “I’ve never seen a restaurant so warmly embraced by a community.” And while the homemade pastas and entrees such as pollo Napoletana bring the crowds, he says the dessert menu has its own shining staple: the chocolate hazelnut semifreddo. House-made hazelnut shortbread is topped with a rich, dark chocolate semifreddo, then a layer of the partially frozen mousse in hazelnut praline. Toasted homemade marshmallow adds subtle flavor, heightened by the aerated dark chocolate on top—the pastry team uses special air-compression containers to give the chocolate a silky texture—and sprinkles of crunchy hazelnut pieces. For an extra indulgence, Bearden suggests pairing the dessert with the grasshopper cocktail, made with crème de menthe, crème de cacao, and heavy cream to “really bring it all together.”
This article appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Southbound.
Advertisement
