The popular seafood and raw bar Six Feet Under Pub & Fish House has two locations in Atlanta, at 437 Memorial Drive S.E. in Grant Park and 685 11th Street in Westside. The Westside location is a comfy, kitschy seafood spot with craft beers on tap with its highly popular rooftop bar with gorgeous vistas of the Atlanta skyline. It boasts a lush plant storefront, but the main curb appeal is their small custom-designed green roof pavilion structure in front of the restaurant where patrons can sit and relax.

But the aesthetics don’t stop there – in fact they just get better when you go upstairs to the roof patio/bar and catch the terrific views of the city from above the green roof.

The charming and casual restaurant offers a wide array of pub style appetizers, salads and entrees, and the upstairs open air rooftop deck is a great place to meet with friends and colleagues. The airy wood deck has a long bar and ample umbrella-covered seating, and the long colorfully planted flower box with shrubs and vines surrounding the deck provides beautiful blooms, and a peek over the edge reveals the pitched greenroof, colorful in various seasons.

Owner Tad Mitchell was intrigued by green roofs, and wanted to create an appealing cool space for his customers while outside. While the green roof provides no insulating benefit to itself as it is not an enclosed space – but it is a barrier between the sun and the restaurant – dramatically cooling the space with its shade, thereby reducing the air conditioner work load. Also, it has completely transformed the curb appeal of the store front.

Designed and installed by Bennett Design & Landscape, and built by Russell Meyer, the J-Drain GRS System from JDR Enterprises was used along with Mr. Natural Liteweight Soil Mix growing media from ItSaul Natural featuring a mixture of Stalite PermaTill® expanded slate and organic compost. This attractive 300 sq.ft. living roof is comprised of several plant varieties, including:

Delosperma cooperi
Delosperma Kelaidis ‘Mesa Verde’
Delosperma ousberg
Sedum angelina
Sedum rupestre ‘Blue Spruce’
Sedum floriferum
Sedum ‘Jellybean’
Sedum makinoi ‘Limelight’
Sedum sexangular
Talinum calycinum

The restaurant is doing its part to reduce their carbon footprint. For example, for the month of May 2012, approximately 17,030 lbs. of food scraps and compostables were diverted from Six Feet Under Pub & Fish House. In addition to the small greenroof, they have taken the following steps towards this goal:

The 45-foot tall Skystream 3.7 Wind Turbine here at their 11th Street Westside location reduces the amount of greenhouse gas and electricity that they use, and helps to feed the power grid. The Skystream qualifies for federal and Georgia clean energy income tax credits. With Atlanta’s average annual wind speeds of about nine mph, the Skystream should generate approximately 200kWh/month of clean electricity.

In addition, Six Feet Under Pub & Fish House: recycles compostables, paper and cardboard as possible; uses and maintains energy-efficient equipment; uses compact fluorescent, linear fluorescent or LED lighting; powers up & powers down; does not use plastic water and soda bottles; uses takeout packaging to include corn starch to-go cups, takeaway utensils made from potato starch and recyclable paperboard takeout containers; and uses only recycled paper.

Six Feet Under’s website says, “Be sure to stop by our rooftop bar at either location for breathtaking views of Atlanta’s skyline… recently named among Travel + Leisure magazine’s Top 30 American Outdoor Bars!”