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Editor’s Note: This feature was originally a part of the July edition of our LaGrange Living magazine. If you would like to pick up a copy of the LaGrange Living magazine, please visit our office at 115 Broad Suite 101 or if you would like to subscribe to the LaGrange Living magazine, please call us at 706-884-7311

A trip to Atlanta is no longer needed to enjoy a unique dining experience featuring the best meats and seafood.

One of a kind in the region, 404 Celsius in Hogansville brings its signature lava rocks to each table allowing each guest to prepare a USDA Prime steak to perfection. The lava rocks are heated to 404 degrees Celsius, which is 759 degrees Fahrenheit — the optimal temperature for cooking steaks.

“I always had this concept in the back of my mind,” said Jennifer McElroy, who owns the restaurant along with her husband Chad. “Obviously our first venture in, we wanted to do something a lot easier, more mainstream, like a tap room, family bar oriented, with easier food options.”

McElroy said when they came across this location at 100 East Main St., they fell in love with it and decided to take the steps to buy the building.

“We didn’t have any plans to launch this concept till much later on in our venture into the restaurant industry type world,” she explained. “But when we stumbled upon this space, we knew that the space needed something that was much more ornate than what it had been.”

McElroy said this is why they decided on this option and 404 Celsius was developed and formed.

In addition to the highest quality USDA Prime beef that is butchered in-house, she said the restaurant features the highest quality seafood and imports the best lamb from New Zealand. Additionally, seafood is brought in fresh, never frozen, weekly.

She said the meat is wet-aged for 20 to 30 days before it is served. They are working on a dry-age program they are hoping to add for their beef.

“It’s just a totally different level of experience,” she explained.

404 Celsius is a “scratch kitchen” following the principles of farm to table where all sauces, with the exception of ketchup, are made on site. McElroy said they used to even make their own ketchup, but found it difficult to meet the demand for it. Instead, they found a third-party vendor to supply this for the restaurant.

“We make absolutely everything. We render down our own beef fat that we use in various dishes,” she said. They also have their own house seasonings, sauces and dressings.

“I recently had a customer come in and it was the second time dining and he showed me a message that he wrote a review for us and shared it among social media,” McElroy said.

She said the man’s review stated: “It’s very hard for me to go out to any restaurant and dine for steak because I like it cooked a certain way. And I like to prepare it a certain way. And he said, hands down, if you haven’t tried this restaurant, you’re missing out.”

Their burgers are a step above other restaurants. McElroy said all of their trimmings from the USDA Prime cut beef go into them.

“Our burgers are like a number one top seller right now,” she said, noting it is their own blend. This blend for burgers, she said, includes New York strip, rib eye, tenderloin and sirloin trimmings.

She said she and her husband are proud to provide this level of a dining experience.

About the owners

While this is the McElroy’s first restaurant, the couple’s families have roots in the business.

Jennifer McElroy’s roots are Mediterranean based with the influence of Italian and Greek, while her husband Chad has an Irish and Native American influence from his side of the family. Both sides of their families have dabbled in restaurant industries, which helped drive their passion to open 404 Celsius.

“I really just think a hidden passion for so long and the stars kind of aligned with this location,” McElroy said.

And serving large groups of people is nothing new for the couple, as both enjoy entertaining at their home. She said it wouldn’t be unusual to have parties with 100 or more people at their house.

“We have a full on kitchen around our pool in our backyard,” she noted. “We have every single cooking style of equipment. We just love to entertain.”

McElroy said that as part of her professional career she also hosts events for her clientele.

“We write all of our recipes,” she said, noting they do this every week, usually on weekends, to construct different menu items. They do this on their days off from their professional careers that they continue to have full-time jobs in addition to running the restaurant.

While they have pages and pages of recipes in their portfolio, McElroy said they have opted to introduce them slowly.

“We don’t want to have such a vast menu and then we have a lot of food loss,” she explained. “We want to introduce things that people understand what we’re cooking and how we got there to continue to grow it from there.”

404 Celsius features its core menu along with daily specials and rotating menus for events they hold at the restaurant.

McElroy noted that most recently for Cinco de Mayo, they had taco and tequila bars, along with live music to add to the experience.

“We want to continue to grow and be successful and offer great quality,” she said. “We’ve been offered to scale down different qualities of meats and we’ve never once entertained scaling down from Prime. That’s who we are and we’re going to be true to it.”

Weekend brunch at 404

The restaurant offers Saturday and Sunday brunch from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. with its own menu.

A number one seller on those days is the Egg Benz Flight, McElroy said. It features the chef’s special flight, all with hollandaise and perfectly poached eggs.

“We make our homemade hollandaise sauce in the house,” she noted. “I think people really enjoy that.”

Another favorite is their shrimp and smoked cheddar grits that they make to order.

McElroy said they are currently evaluating if brunch should begin earlier, noting they miss some customers who would enjoy it but are already busy with their weekend plans before noon.

“We are reviewing opening up earlier for brunch on both days,” she said. “We haven’t solidified that yet.”

She said they are also considering adding some more Southern favorites, such as biscuits and gravy, to add to the variety on the brunch menu.

While again almost everything is scratch made for brunch like dinner, McElroy has one exception. She has New York bagels flown in fresh weekly for the brunches.

“I work with  a local bakery out of New York and they fly them into me fresh, just baked that morning,” she said, noting nothing compares to them. “We just believe in quality and we understand there’s a cost for the quality, but there’s people out there that are willing to pay for the quality that you offer them because they know what good fine dining experiences are.”

Renovations at 404

The McElroys took the first part of July to complete renovations to the restaurant.

“We had some interior decor that didn’t get finished during the process of us opening,” Jennifer McElroy said. “We kind of took advantage of this slow time of the year with everyone wanting vacation time.”

While the restaurant staff got to enjoy days away from work, she said crews have been busy adding new decor that wasn’t ready in time for last year’s opening.

McElroy said there will be a lot more foliage and new lighting to add in the main dining room areas.

“We had two murals that were custom designed and built for us that we weren’t able to install during our opening process,” she explained. “So the main dining room definitely will have some more dramatic appeal and changes.”

They are adding some more lighting going up around the main bar area, she noted.

“A new twist to just the main dining experience is our outdoor area,” she said. “We are adding a lounge outside on the main deck and we also recently had new foliage planted as well as all organic herbs that our bartenders are going to be able to use for a lot of different higher end mixed cocktails and muddling those herbs and fruits into them.”

This will build on their farm-to-table right on the premises, with the herbs and even some peppers that can go into the dishes they prepare.

As part of the work on the building, a lounge area will soon open as a speakeasy.

McElroy said they are naming it the Stowaway, which is based on the tale of Jonathan Hughes, who was a stowaway riding the rails.

“There’s a whole storyline that goes along with it,” she explained. “There will be commentary and stuff within the speakeasy bar area that is interactive with our patrons. They could read along and understand the story of how the stowaway became who he is.”

McElroy said the area will be really dark and dramatic.

“We’re just excited to have it,” she said. “The entry point of that speakeasy, we’re working with a local carpenter to make it look like a door and a ticket counter where you would check in to go on the railroad. You’ll have to have a coded access that you’ll have to book a reservation and that speakeasy will have limited times.”

The Stowaway won’t have the normal hours of 404 Celsius, but will be part of the business.

“It’ll have a much later night approach to the market,” McElroy said, noting it will be open after midnight and showcase higher end cocktails, signature cocktails and higher end bourbon pours. “We are going to have a membership program that will allow different tiers of access and discounts and kind of exclusivity to tastings and pairings with some of our distributors on unlimited selections of bourbons and whiskeys to the market.”

She said to watch for more about the Stowaway’s opening and how to sign up for the exclusive membership program.

Enjoying 404 Celsius

McElroy said the restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday from 4-10 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday brunch hours from 12:30-3:30 p.m. Reservations are accepted and can be made online at the restaurant’s website, 404celsius.com.

Being located on Main Street brings the one challenge downtown businesses face — parking. While many park nearby on the street, there is an additional field parking lot behind the building.

Take a left off Main Street onto College Street to find the open area.

“Before you get to the train depot, you can turn right onto College Street and turn just past where the steps are to go down into the lower half of the train depot,” she said. “There’s a little playground in that back parking area and they can feel welcome to park up there.”

Additionally, she said there are plenty of handicapped parking options for diners.

For those who need to pick up their meal, McElroy said all of their menu items can be prepared in the kitchen for carryout.

404 Celsius also provides catering service for groups small and large. She noted that this can be an event that her staff provides the service or the food options are delivered for the hosts to serve.

McElroy noted that catering is not limited to the restaurant menu. They can offer any variety of food that fits the occasion and setting of an event.

A map showing the restaurant’s location is available online at 404celsius.com.

For additional information or reservations, call 770-574-4220.