Business of the Week: ENZO Makes Date Night an Experience

ENZO Steakhouse & Bar at Trilith has been named the top choice for date night in The Citizen’s Choice Awards, and for Chef Andrea Montobbio, the reason goes well beyond what arrives on the plate.

It is about creating a night people remember.

“What makes ENZO a great spot for a date? Oof, we can go through a list,” Montobbio said.

He starts with the room itself — the art, design, lighting, comfortable seating, music, and atmosphere intended to make dinner feel like something special.

“As you walk in, you feel like you are in a beautiful restaurant, just like you can find in Buckhead, you can find New York, you can find in L.A.,” he said.

But the details that Montobbio talks about most are the human ones.

ENZO gives a rose to couples celebrating an anniversary. The flower serves another purpose, too: it quietly lets the staff know there is something worth celebrating at that table.

“The team is encouraged to go to the table and say happy anniversary, and it just makes it even more special,” Montobbio said. “Just recognizing those little moments and make them special. I think that’s the reason why people love come to ENZO.”

The restaurant has also hosted its share of marriage proposals and other milestones.

Montobbio remembers one married couple whose evening inspired him to ask what their song was. The restaurant put it on.

“I think it’s like creating and trying to find those special moments and make them special,” he said.

That philosophy helped ENZO earn the Citizen’s Choice recognition from local voters, who selected the Trilith restaurant as their favorite place for a date night.

The restaurant opened in 2021 under Montobbio, David Gibbs, and a silent partner. Montobbio, who was born and raised in Italy and moved to the United States in 2005 at age 21, describes ENZO as Italian-influenced with “a steakhouse flair.”

There is certainly steak, but Montobbio said the menu was intentionally created with enough variety to appeal to both people sitting across the table.

“We have a lot of seafood on the menu, and we have all dishes that are loved by everyone,” he said. “There is a little bit of everything. So when you go to ENZO, you don’t have to think about, ‘Oh, what am I gonna eat?’ You’re gonna find something on the menu, and you can make everybody happy.”

Among ENZO’s best-known starters is a remarkably simple fried goat cheese served with honey and black pepper.

“It’s like a crowd pleaser,” Montobbio said. “You have the beautiful tangy goat cheese. You have the sweetness. You have the crispy. You have the little peppery flavor. I mean, it’s everything. It’s just an amazing combination.”

He also points diners toward the shrimp toast, featuring jumbo shrimp with lemon and white wine butter sauce, focaccia, and chimichurri, along with menu favorites including meatballs and Caesar salad.

And this reporter will add one personal recommendation: the lamb chops.

They are the kind of dish that, once ordered, makes it difficult to order anything else on the next visit.

ENZO’s location gives couples somewhere to go after dinner, too. Set in the heart of Trilith, the restaurant can become the centerpiece of a larger evening — dinner followed by gelato, a cocktail, or simply a walk through the development.

“I think it’s the overall experience,” Montobbio said. “And then of course, I mean the food is amazing. So that’s a plus, right?”

It is also a restaurant with ambitions beyond Fayette County.

Montobbio said ENZO plans to open a second location in Midtown Atlanta in November, taking a concept that began at Trilith into the city.

But its roots remain here, where Montobbio says the goal from the beginning has been to bring a higher level of hospitality to the south side of metro Atlanta.

“We love hospitality, and we want to share hospitality with everyone,” he said. “We are not service industry. We are in the hospitality industry. We want to make everyone’s day better.”

For reservations or more information, visit ENZO Steakhouse & Bar.