Don't miss the Pointe

With over 60 eateries and restaurants in the Downtown Mall area, it’s easy for some places to get lost in the crowd. And when you’re inside a hotel and blocked from view by a forest of urban trees at the far West End of the Mall, it’s especially easy.

“People don’t notice us sitting on the hill,” says Morgan Oliver, the executive chef at The Pointe Restaurant in the Omni Hotel. “I think we’ve been kind of looked over because we’re in a hotel.”

Those logistics have been particularly frustrating for Oliver, who, since taking over the kitchen three years ago, has changed the whole concept of the restaurant and given it a local food and organic focus. For instance, Oliver’s menu includes food from Meadow Creek Dairy, Everona Dairy, Caramont Farms, Carter Mountain Apple Orchard, Polyface Farms, Gearhearts, Bodos Bagels, and the Albermarle Baking Company to name just a few.

Another unique feature of the Pointe is that half the seating inside is in a huge open air atrium, which is particularly nice in the winter when all the outdoor caf© spaces are closed. Of course, they’ve also got an outdoor patio.

Oliver puts a particular emphasis on breakfast, which begins at 6:30am, and features cage-free, hormone free eggs, humane certified organic bacon and sausage, and bagels fresh from bodos. They also have a $9 lunch buffet Monday through Friday, and a Happy Hour from 5pm to 7pm featuring drink specials and cheap, tasty treats like craballs and wings.